This collection consists of 11 typed and printed materials relating to the McDonnell Agency, a matrimonial matchmaking service run by Walter J. McDonnell of Chicago, Illinois, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It includes typed personal advertisements, printed advertisements for the agency, a blank application form, two private lists with selections of women who subscribed to the agency, and two envelopes.
The typed personal advertisements include physical descriptions and financial situations for four women from Pennsylvania, New York, and Michigan. The printed materials include a notice from O. C. Seemiller stating he sold his interest in the Columbian Agency to Walter McDonnell and a statement by McDonnell about his experience and skills, purporting to have introduced "thousands of happy and prosperous married couples." Other items include advertisements and price lists for the "Celebrated Columbian Photographs," "elegant pictures" rather than "the miserable stamp photos used by all other agencies and matrimonial papers." They also advertise free copies of the book, Reading Character from Photographs, sent to subscribing men. "Are you corresponding with a lady you have never seen? You want to know something about her character and disposition? Exchange photos and then study her photography . . . If the lady would make a true and loving wife, this book will say so."
A blank application form for McDonnell's Private Agency is present, requiring the applicant to list their physical description, their income, property or means, use of tobacco and liquor, occupation, nationality, religion, previous marital status, and what kind of correspondents were desired.
Women seeking matches are separated into two different classes depending on net worth. Private List No. 12 contains Class A advertisements of “Ladies Without Means or Property,” while Private List No. 13 contains Class B advertisements of “Ladies With Means or Property.” Each woman provided a short description of their appearance and/or personality traits, as well as abbreviations indicating their faith, nationality, occupation, weight, etc. The agency also includes an abbreviation for whether women would be capable of the duties of a farmer’s wife, or if the woman was a widow. List 13 also includes asterisks to identify women "willing to share the life of a poor man if he proves himself worthy, industrious and temperate." The list also notes that the agency has extensive profiles available "of thousands of ladies of all ages, living everywhere. By allowing us to select, you may get introductions to ladies living nearer your own residence."
Men seeking potential matches would receive a different number of photographs and introductions depending on how much they were willing to pay and what class of women they were requesting from.
There are two envelopes in the collection, one printed return envelope to Walter McDonnell, and the other addressed to Alfred Ames of Machias, Maine, possibly one of the agency's members.
Walter J. McDonnell was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 26, 1863. By 1900 he was listed in the United States Census as a matrimonial agent in Chicago, married to Christine Bange with at least one child, Allyn McDonnell. He died on February 5, 1927, in Chicago.
In 1892 he acquired the Columbian Agency, a matrimonial business, from O. C. Seemiller, and he changed the name to McDonnell's Agency. The agency maintained lists of men and women seeking marriage partners and facilitated their introduction, passing along photographs and descriptions of the members.
