Collections

The Cora Smith photograph album contains approximately 214 photographs documenting the travels and daily life of a woman living in Cornwallville, New York, in the late 1890s.

The Cora Smith photograph album contains approximately 214 photographs documenting the travels and daily life of a woman living in Cornwallville, New York, in the late 1890s.

The album (26 x 22 cm) is a blank page scrapbook with "Cora M. Smith" written in pencil on the fly leaf. Photographs consist primarily of snapshots and cyanotypes, and many of the people represented in this album (including members of the Smith and Olcott families) are identified with captions. Several trips are documented including visits to New York State destinations such as the Catskills, Niagara Falls, and Cambridge as well as Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Virginia.

Images of note include views of the Brooklyn Bridge; an older African American woman captioned "Aunt Caroline, Virginia"; young girls on "Poverty Row"; scenes around Cambridge, New York, and Cornwallville; a wedding party; the Smith family home; “Dr. Carter” preparing to remove a tooth from the mouth of an African American man; a semi-domesticated bear; the 1899 Dewey Land and Naval Parade; and Niagara Falls. Cora Smith appears in photographs on pages 24 and 33. Also present is a note regarding a store display designed by Cora to advertise Payne’s Celery Compound.

The Mugshots collection consists of approximately 100 photographic portraits produced between 1892 and 1920, the vast majority of which are mugshots.

The Mugshots collection consists of approximately 100 photographic portraits produced between 1892 and 1920, the vast majority of which are mugshots. The collection includes real photographic postcards, mounted and unmounted paper prints, and one severely tarnished tintype. Also present are two fingerprint identification cards with handwritten lists containing names of numerous individuals represented in the collection. A small number of photographs appear to be standard studio portraits. Photographs range in size from 6 x 10.5 cm to 11 x 17 cm.

Many of the mugshots have printed and/or handwritten information on their versos, including names, known aliases, nationalities, birth dates/locations, occupations, arrest dates, names of arresting police officers, criminal charges, sentences, prison locations, remarks on physical appearances, and Bertillon measurements. Most of these images were produced in various places in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, with Philadelphia being the most represented location. The mugshots are mainly of white male subjects, though there are also four mugshots of women present. Five African American individuals (four men, one women) are also pictured. A substantial number of mugshots are of individuals from immigrant backgrounds, including Italians, Irish, Austrians, Germans, Poles, Greeks, Jews, etc. Approximately 90 individuals are personally identified in total. Recorded criminal charges include shoplifting, pickpocketing, larceny, burglary, forgery, embezzlement, false pretense, flimflamming, auto theft, horse theft, conspiracy, attempted murder, and murder. Specific police departments and correctional facilities represented include the Pennsylvania Department of State Police, Harrisburg Department of Police, Philadelphia Bureau of Police, Hartford Police Department, Newark Department of Police, Auburn Prison, Sing Sing Prison, City of New York Police Department, City of Boston Police Department, Camden Bureau of Police, Baltimore Police Department, Bureau of Criminal Investigation for the New Jersey Reformatory in Rahway (now East Jersey State Prison), U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, City of Paterson Police Department, Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, Montgomery County Prison (Norristown), Columbus Department of Police, City of Wilkes-Barre Bureau of Police, Trenton Department of Public Safety, New York House of Refuge, and the Reading Department of Police.

• a 1921 mugshot of an Italian man named Peter Erico, who was executed by electric chair on September 25 1922 along with Antonio Puntario after the pair were found guilty of murdering Detective Samuel Lucchino
• a 1909 mugshot of an eighteen year old Jewish man named Albert Steinberg, accused of pickpocketing
• two different mugshots of Irishman John Shelvin (accused of pickpocketing) taken in 1897 and 1906 following arrests in Philadelphia and Baltimore
• a 1920 mugshot of German houseworker Minnie Schissel, charged with theft
• a 1909 mugshot of accused shoplifter Marie Clark
• a 1915 mugshot of an African American man named King Brown, charged with illegal dynamite explosion, assault, and other crimes
• a ca. 1903 mugshot of larceny suspect Edward Stevenson, a "fugitive from Phil. Pa."; handwritten inscriptions on verso include note to address information to Detective E. H. Parker
• a ca. 1906 mugshot of German engineer and fireman Frank Schleiman with identifying details and a $50 reward notice for information on his whereabouts following his escape from Sing Sing Prison on December 9 1906 handwritten on the verso
• a 1908 mugshot of “dishonest servant” Blanche Grisson
• a 1919 mugshot of a Mexican man named Pedro Susman, charged with shoplifting
• two copies of a portrait or mugshot of African American man James Timberlake with identifying details handwritten on verso
• a 1908 mugshot of an Austrian butcher named Herman Haubt, convicted of 2nd degree murder
• an undated mugshot of an African American woman named Pearl Williams, charged with being a dishonest servant
• a 1906 mugshot of bartender Sam Davis (accused of pick pocketing) produced by detective Harry C. White of Harrisburg
• a ca. 1918 mugshot of Oliver Denton Bender taken in Columbus, Ohio, including an attached note that lists twelve of Bender’s known aliases
• a 1900 mugshot of Irishman John Mackey, charged with till tapping; two 1918 mugshots of Italian barbers Nicholas Shieno and Frank Rinaldo, both of whom were charged with flimflamming after being arrested in Scranton, Pennsylvania
• a 1918 mugshot of Jewish printer David Schleimer taken at the New York House of Refuge on Randall’s Island
• a 1917 mugshot of Michael J. Sullivan, charged with murder

The Weld-Grimké family album is a 12.5 x 16 cm bound cartes de visite photograph album with some tintypes and gem tintypes interspersed. The album has a brown leather cover with gilt clasps. The photographs all appear to date from the 1860s to the 1870s but there is no precise date for individual photographs listed. The album has a printed title page that reads "Photographs/Boston/Roberts Brothers." The album is 50 pages with each page containing a single slot for a photograph, though some pages have multiple photographs tucked into the same slot. The photographs are almost all studio portraiture. While some of the individuals in the album have been identified (including Theodore D. Weld) the vast majority are unidentified.

The Weld-Grimké Family Album is a 12.5 x 16 cm bound cartes de visite photograph album with some tintypes and gem tintypes interspersed. The album has a brown leather cover with gilt clasps. The photographs all appear to date from the 1860s to the 1870s but there is no precise date for individual photographs listed. The album has a printed title page that reads "Photographs/Boston/Roberts Brothers." The album is 50 pages with each page containing a single slot for a photograph, though some pages have multiple photographs tucked into the same slot. There are 52 photographs in the album, 46 of which are cartes de visite. There are also 6 tintypes, 2 of which are gem tintypes. The photographs are almost all studio portraiture of individuals ranging from infanthood to old age. One exception to this is a photograph of a satirical drawing of an unidentified individual playing some sort of instrument (loose photograph on page 49). Some of the individuals in the album have been tentatively identified with the majority unidentified. One photograph (on page 24) has been speculated to be a portrait of Charlotte Brown, an African-American servant of the Weld-Grimké family, but this has not been confirmed.

• Theodore Dwight Weld (page 1, page 20)
• William Hamilton (page 4)
• Sarah Weld Hamilton (page 5)
• Angelina G. Hamilton (page 6)
• William Hamilton Jr. (page 7)
• Llewellyn Haskell (page 9)
• Llewellyn Thomas Haskell (page 12)
• Louis Olcott Haskell (page 13)
• Elizabeth "Lizzie" Cram (page 21)
• William James Rolfe (page 22)
• Theodore Weld Parmele (page 27, page 34)
• Elizabeth Smith Miller (page 28)
• Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (page 29)
• George Walker Weld (page 30)
• Gerrit Smith Miller (page 35)
• Ruth C. Bodwell (page 36)
• Rena Louise Twiss (page 45)

• A photograph of a painting of the Empress Eugenie. (page 33)
• A portrait of Rebecca an escaped slave from New Orleans. (page 38)
• A photograph of a painting of Beatrice Cenci. (loose item on page 41)
• A portrait of actor Edwin Booth (page 40) brother of John Wilkes Booth.
• A photograph of a painting of "Little Samuel" based on the etching done by Samuel Cousins. (page 43)

In addition to this finding aid, the Clement Library has created a Photographer Index for the album, containing the names of all the photographers in the order that they appear in the album. This index also records any handwritten inscriptions that were found on the photographs.