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Frederick Gilbert Bourne collection, 1901-1918

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Summary

Creator:
Bourne family and Strassburger family
Abstract:
The Frederick Gilbert Bourne collection is made up of correspondence, photographs, printed items, and ephemera related to Bourne, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company and commodore of the New York Yacht Club, and to his son-in-law, Ralph Strassburger, who served as consul general to Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia in 1913.
Extent:
0.5 linear feet
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Anne Tomlanovich, June 2002; Clements Staff, May 2007; and Meg Hixon, November 2011

Background

Scope and Content:

The Frederick Gilbert Bourne collection is made up of 73 letters, 11 telegrams, 9 photographs, 1 photograph album, 17 invitations and pieces of ephemera, and 22 printed items related to Bourne and to his son-in-law, Ralph Strassburger.

The Correspondence series (84 items) comprises the bulk of the collection, and is arranged by author and recipient. Bourne composed 45 letters to his daughter May and her husband, Ralph Beaver Strassburger, offering financial advice and sharing news of his social and leisure activities near his Long Island home and during his vacations on Jekyll Island, Georgia. These vacations often included hunting trips and yachting excursions. Several letters composed in 1912 and 1913 reflect Strassburger's time as a diplomat in Eastern Europe, with content respecting his father-in-law's efforts to secure him a reassignment following a local cholera outbreak. Bourne commented on the 1912 presidential election and controversial office appointments made by the outgoing Taft administration.

Incoming correspondence to Frederick Gilbert Bourne documents the social lives of his wealthy friends and family members in the early 20th century. Additional correspondence includes personal letters addressed to Ralph and May Strassburger and to Mrs. Emma Bourne from various acquaintances. The telegrams (11) contain messages between members of the Bourne family, most related to travel arrangements.

The Photographs series includes 9 individual photographs and one photograph album. Nine silver gelatin prints and real photo postcards depict Frederick Gilbert Bourne; "The Towers" on Dark Island, New York; and Indian Neck Hall, Bourne's estate in Oakdale, Long Island, New York (including 1 panoramic photo). The photo album, ca. 1904-1914, contains over 100 images of yachts and automobiles, as well as scenes from Jekyll Island, Georgia, and the leisure activities of wealthy Americans (including sailing races).

The Printed Items and Ephemera series includes 6 visiting/calling cards, a menu, 10 invitations, 7 picture postcards, 13 newspaper and magazine clippings, a magazine, and a book. The calling cards and invitations pertain to the activities of Frederick and Emma Bourne; the postcards depict the Bourne's estates and other buildings; and the clippings, magazine, and book concern Frederick Bourne (including yachting articles from The Rider and Driver and The Illustrated Sporting News). One of the calling cards is personally addressed to Bourne by J. Pierpont Morgan. The book is Henry H. Klein's Dynastic America and Those Who Own It (1921). The series also contains a reproduction of a document commending Bourne's lengthy service with the Singer Manufacturing Company (March 7, 1906) and a composite image of Frederick Bourne working in various occupations.

The Media series is comprised of 6 compact discs containing digital images of the Frederick G. Bourne family, the Jekyll Island Club, and Airy Hall Plantation, the South Carolina plantation owned by Robert George Elbert, another of Bourne's sons-in-law. The series also includes a VHS tape with filmed views of Bourne's estates and of Ralph Strassburger's home, transferred from a 28 millimeter reel from 1918.

Biographical / Historical:

Frederick Gilbert Bourne was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 20, 1851, to Reverend George Washington Bourne and his wife, Harriet Gilbert Bourne. He attended public school in New York and began working for the Atlantic Submarine Wrecking Company in 1865. Later, while working at the Mercantile Library of New York, he befriended Alfred Corning Clark, then president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Clark later offered Bourne a job, which he accepted, and he rose within the company, eventually becoming president in 1889. The Bournes maintained estates at Oakdale on Long Island and on Dark Island, New York, and frequently vacationed on Jekyll Island, Georgia. Frederick G. Bourne became commodore of the New York Yacht Club in 1903. He and his wife, Emma Sparks Keeler, had several children. Frederick Gilbert Bourne died on March 9, 1919.

Ralph Beaver Strassburger was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on March 26, 1883, to Jacob Andrew Strassburger and his wife, Mary Jane Beaver. He had two siblings, Elizabeth and Perry. He entered the United States Naval Academy in 1901, where he was a member of the football team. After his graduation, he served onboard the USS West Virginia and other ships. In 1909, he left the navy and worked for the manufacturing company of Babcock & Wilcox. He later held several diplomatic positions, including Consul General and Secretary of Legation to Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia (appointed by President William H. Taft in 1913), and as a secretary in the United States Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. He joined the Navy League following the outbreak of World War I and he entered the U. S. Naval Intelligence Division when the United States formally joined the war.

In his later life, Strassburger maintained an interest in thoroughbred racing and kept a stable at Normandy Farm, his home in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania. He also owned and published the Norristown Herald. He married May Bourne (1881-1975), Frank Gilbert Bourne's daughter, and had one son, Johann Andreas Peter Strassburger (b. 1916). Ralph Beaver Strassburger died in 1959.

Acquisition Information:
1995, 2007. M-3177, M-4573 .
Processing information:

Cataloging funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This collection has been processed according to minimal processing procedures and may be revised, expanded, or updated in the future.

Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in the following series:
  • Series I: Correspondence
  • Series II: Photographs
  • Series III: Printed Items and Ephemera
  • Series IV: Media

The correspondence series is arranged by author and recipient.

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

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown

PREFERRED CITATION:

Frederick Gilbert Bourne Collection, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

Frederick Gilbert Bourne collection, 1901-1918
Total components 20
Last indexed 2025-02-09