Finding Aid for Tyler-Montgomery-Scott Family Album, ca. 1870-1938

Summary

Creator:

Tyler-Montgomery-Scott family

Abstract:

The Tyler-Montgomery-Scott family album chronicles multiple generations of the Tyler, Montgomery, and Scott families of the Philadelphia area from the 1860s through the 1930s. It includes approximately 275 items including studio portrait photographs, informal snapshots, newspaper clippings, postcards, letters, and other ephemera.

Extent:

approximately 275 items in 1 album

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed by Les High, November 2018 and finding aid created by Jakob Dopp, March 2021

Background

Scope and Content:

The Tyler-Montgomery-Scott family album chronicles multiple generations of the Tyler, Montgomery, and Scott families of the Philadelphia area from the 1860s through the 1930s. It includes approximately 275 items including studio portrait photographs, informal snapshots, newspaper clippings, postcards, letters, and other ephemera.

The album (33 x 25.5 cm) is string-bound with grey cloth covers. Most photographs in the album have detailed handwritten captions identifying people, often with their middle or maiden names as well as the location and date. The presentation of the album is not strictly chronological, especially in the latter half. The early generations of Tylers are represented in photographic formats such as cartes-de-visite, tintypes and cabinet cards, while later generations are represented in snapshots and postcards. When the album reaches the mid-twentieth century, it begins to resemble the modern family album with various forms of ephemera (newspaper clippings, drawings, letters, Christmas cards, etc.) supplementing the photographs of family and friends.

The album begins with a portrait of Frederick Tyler, his daughter Sarah Sophia Cowen, granddaughter Kate “Gwen” Cowen Pratt, and great-granddaughter Kate Pratt. George F. and Louisa R. Tyler as well as their children (including Sidney F. and Helen Beach Tyler) are also featured in the initial section of the album, along with many extended family members, friends, nurses, and pets. Among the family friends pictured are painter Frederick Church, writer Bret Harte, Leonor Ruiz de Apodaca y Garcia-Tienza, Gen. William Buel Franklin, patent lawyer and historian Woodbury Lowery, and the Duke and Duchess of Arcos (Jose Ambrosio Brunetti and Virginia Woodbury Lowery Brunetti). Several interior views of rooms in George F. and Louisa R. Tyler’s home on 201 South 15th St. taken in 1896 are also present, including a photograph of the “Children’s play room” that features their granddaughter Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery holding a doll. Hope, her parents Mary W. and Sidney F. Tyler, her husband Robert “Bob” L. Montgomery, and their children Mary, Ives, and Alexander are well-represented in the album.

Of particular interest are a number of photographs in different sections of the album that depict Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Some of these images are formal studio portraits, while others are more candid snapshots of Roosevelt with other people. One snapshot shows the family at play on the grounds of Sagamore Hill in 1897. Two photos taken at the White House including Helen Beach Tyler, daughter of George F. and Louisa R. Tyler and second cousin to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, are labelled “taken by Ted Roosevelt,” possibly referring to President Roosevelt’s son Theodore Roosevelt III. Helen Beach Tyler may be the “Nellie” who was the recipient of a partial letter included in the album which describes conditions at a wartime hospital (most likely in Italy) in 1915. Only the first two pages of this letter are included, and there is no indication of the identity of the writer. Helen Beach Tyler may also have been the principal compiler of this album. Supporting this possibility is the presence of an interior view of a bedroom at 201 South 15th St. (George F. and Louisa R. Tyler’s home) captioned as “Mother’s bedroom,” a signed portrait of Englishman Lytton Sothern captioned “Given to me by Mr. Sothern June 1872. Mr. Edward Sothern & his son Lytton Sothern sat at our table on ‘Oceanic’ my first trip to Europe,” and a portrait of Sara Schott von Schottenstein, Baronin von Prittwitz-Gaffron, bearing the inscription “to her friend Helen Tyler 1880.”

Other items of interest include portraits of Col. August Cleveland Tyler; several portraits of Brig. Gen. Robert Ogden Tyler; a portrait of French pianist Antoine Marmontel captioned “Mr. Marmontel Professor au Conservatoire gave us music lessons in Paris 1873-74”; a group portrait of Helen Beach Tyler, Mary L. Tyler, Alice Seward, Kitty Seward, and Ida Vinton posing with a silhouette of Sidney F. Tyler; photographs of painted portraits of George F. Tyler and Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery; a series of photos taken at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico City, some of which include the Duke and Duchess of Arcos, Woodbury Lowery, and Archibald Lowery; portraits of the Prittwitz-Gaffron family in Germany; photos taken around the world in various locations including Egypt, India, Germany, and Italy; images taken during an exhibition of sculpture by Stella Elkins Tyler (wife of George Frederick Tyler, Jr.), as well as a program from the event; and photos showing the family of Helen Hope and Edgar Scott.

Biographical / Historical:

Frederick Tyler (1795-1880) of Connecticut appears to be the earliest family member represented in this album. One of Frederick’s sons, George Frederick Tyler (1822-1896), relocated to Philadelphia, and successive generations continued to remain in that area. Another son, Robert Ogden Tyler (1831-1874), served with the Union during the Civil War and rose to the rank of brigadier general.

George F. Tyler and his wife Louisa Richmond Blake Tyler (1822-1883) had four children together, including Sidney Frederick Tyler (1850-1935), who would later go on to become President of Fourth Street National Bank in Philadelphia, and Helen Beach Tyler (1859-1944). Sidney married his second wife Ida Amelia Elkins Tyler (1859-1904), a daughter of wealthy businessman William Lukens Elkins (1832-1903), in 1888, four years after the untimely death of his first wife Mary Woodrow Binney Tyler (1856-1884).

Charlotte Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery (1881-1970), known as Hope, was the daughter of Sidney F. and Mary W. Tyler. Hope and her husband Robert Leaming Montgomery (1879-1949) had four children together, including Helen Hope Montgomery (1904-1995). Helen Hope, as she was known, married investment banker and railroad fortune heir Edgar Scott (1899-1995) and went on to establish herself as one of the most prominent socialites and philanthropists of her time. She hosted many lavish parties for the rich and famous at her suburban Philadelphia estate, the Ardrossan Mansion, and was also famously the inspiration for the Katherine Hepburn character in The Philadelphia Story.

Acquisition Information:

Purchased from MacManus, March 1996. F-296 .

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

This album was originally part of the Norris family materials found in the Lamb-Sykes family papers (1680-1947, bulk 1819-1911).

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Photographs shelf.
Armed Forces--Officers.
Domestic space.
Embassy buildings.
Families.
House furnishings.
Interior decoration.
Jumping (Horsemanship)
Paintings--Reproductions.
Pets.
Tourists.
Upper class--United States.

Formats:

Albumen prints.
Business cards.
Cartes de visite.
Clippings.
Correspondence.
Drawings.
Exhibition catalogs.
Gelatin silver prints.
Greeting cards.
Group portraits.
Photograph albums.
Photographic prints.
Photomechanical prints.
Postcards.
Snapshots.
Tintypes.

Names:

Devon Horse Show and Country Fair (Devon, Pa.)
White House (Washington, D.C.)
World’s Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
Brock, Norman Hall, 1890-1969.
Church, Frederic Edwin, 1826-1900.
Cowen, Sarah Sophia, 1820-1887.
Derby, Ethel Roosevelt.
Franklin, William Buel, 1823-1903.
Harte, Bret, 1836-1902.
Longworth, Alice Roosevelt, 1884-1980.
Lowery, Woodbury, 1853-1906.
Marmontel, A. (Antoine), 1816-1898.
Montgomery, Charlotte Ives, 1912-1981.
Montgomery, Hope Binney Tyler, 1881-1970.
Montgomery, Robert Alexander Arnulph, 1911-1997.
Montgomery, Robert Leaming, 1879-1949.
Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946.
Roosevelt, Archibald B. (Archibald Bulloch), 1894-1979.
Roosevelt, Edith Kermit Carow, 1861-1948.
Roosevelt, Kermit, 1889-1943.
Roosevelt, Quentin, 1897-1918.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1887-1944.
Scott, Helen Hope, 1904-1995.
Sinkler, Wharton, 1845-1910.
Sothern, Lytton, 1851-1887.
Tyler, Augustus Cleveland, 1851-1908.
Tyler, Frederick, 1795-1880.
Tyler, George Frederick, 1822-1896.
Tyler, George Frederick, 1883-1947.
Tyler, Henry Blake.
Tyler, Louisa Richmond, 1822-1883.
Tyler, R. O. (Robert Ogden), 1831-1874.
Tyler, Sidney Frederick, 1850-1935.
Tyler, Sophia, 1793-1861.
Tyler, Stella Elkins, 1884-1963.
Von Schottenstein, Sara Schott, 1857-1944.
Tyler, Helen Beach, 1859-1944.

Places:

Germany.
Mexico City (Mexico)
Port Said (Egypt)
Porto Maurizio (Imperia, Italy)
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (Oyster Bay, N.Y.)
Venice (Italy)