Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Arabella Chapman carte-de-visite albums primarily contain carte-de-visite and tintype photographic portraits of members of the Chapman family, middle-class African Americans from Albany, New York. Also pictured are friends, neighbors, and a few prominent abolitionists and public figures.

The Arabella Chapman carte-de-visite albums (16cm x 13cm) contain 95 carte-de-visite and tintype photographic studio portraits of the family, friends, and associates of Arabella Chapman, along with public figures and role models. The photos were taken from the 1860s to the turn of the century, with the bulk from the 1870s and 1880s. An inscription indicates that "Bella" Chapman received the second album from R. H. Bundy on October 3, 1878. The albums' covers are bound in blue leather, with designs carved in relief and metal clasps.

The first volume has 32 cartes-de-visite and 17 tintypes, including commercially produced photographs of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown. Also included is an autographed carte de visite by New York State Representative and Underground Railroad organizer William Henry Johnson (1833-1918). The second volume has 24 cartes-de-visite and card photographs, as well as 22 tintypes. Each volume has a partially completed index, with some manuscript captions written directly on some mounts and album pages. The sequence of photographs does not correspond to the indices.

Many of the photographs were taken by photographers in Albany, New York, along with a few images taken during visits to Pleasure Island Park; Saratoga, New York; and other locations. Arabella Chapman appears in six photographs taken at different times in her life.

Portraits of Arabella Chapman's immediate and extended family make up the largest portion of the photographs, including repeated photographs of her parents, future husband, siblings, cousins and nieces, daughter, and in-laws. The majority of the remaining images show Chapman's school friends, family friends, and neighbors from Albany. These include William Brent, a hotel waiter born in Washington, D.C.; Jim Goines, a porter; Charlie Butler, the son of a billiard hall owner and also employed as a waiter; and Anna Latour, the Chapmans' next-door neighbor, whose brother William was a waiter. Some portraits show Arabella's female peers, such as Elizabeth Myers, the daughter of Stephen Myers; Anna Bolden, listed both as a student and as a servant in a white household; and Mary Crosby, who with Chapman formed the only recitation team from Wilberforce in Albany's 1868 annual public school exhibition. A photograph pasted into the last page of the second volume shows Arabella's children and their neighbors, the Spragues.

The Boston Mob Pennsylvania Tour and Cross-Country Tour photograph albums contain pictures taken during travels in the Mid-Atlantic States, the northern Midwest, Colorado, and California in the early 1890s. The photographs show city scenes and buildings, natural scenery, and travelers.

The Boston Mob Pennsylvania Tour and Cross-Country Tour photograph albums contain 213 pictures taken during travels in the Mid-Atlantic States, the northern Midwest, Colorado, and California in the early 1890s. Each album is 29cm x 35cm with titles stamped in gold on the front covers. Most photographs are captioned.

The first volume, "Pennsylvania Tour 1891," contains 77 items, comprised of 15.5cm x 20cm prints pasted one to a page and 9cm x 12cm prints pasted three or four to a page. The first 7 pictures and the final picture were taken at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, including views of battlefield monuments and a military cemetery. The photographer also traveled to Luray, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and Richmond, Virginia. A few shots are group portraits of male and female tourists, who posed once in a railroad car by a banner reading "Boston Mob," and many others are images of city streets and natural scenery, including a series taken in and around a natural bridge and Cedar Creek in Virginia. While visiting Washington, D.C., the compiler photographed landmarks such as the Washington Monument, United States Treasury, White House, and State, War, and Navy Building. Ferries, horse-drawn trolleys (running on tracks), trains, bridges, and railroad depots are visible in many photographs. Of note is an aerial photograph of the White House and surrounding buildings taken from the top of the Washington Monument and a group of 5 items showing African American children playing on a street in Luray, Virginia.

The second volume, "Across the Continent 1892," contains 136 photographs (9cm x 12cm each), usually pasted four to a page. Most items are views of buildings and natural scenery in locations such as Niagara Falls; Sioux City, Iowa; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; and Duluth, Minnesota, as well as other towns in Colorado and California. The pictures show donkeys, town and city buildings, a cattle ranch, and rock formations, particularly in the Garden of the Gods; the photographer visited Seattle during a snowy winter. A number of photographs show a smelter in Denver, Colorado. One group of California photographs features orange trees. Other items of note are a "Spirit Picture" of two overlapped city scenes and a shot of Grover Cleveland's inauguration on March 4, 1893.

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia.

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia. Smith College photographs include dorm room interiors, women on campus, and a college basketball game. Connecticut scenes show a Connecticut River ferry, women boating and swimming in Bantam Lake, and St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut. Also depicted are buildings at Hampton Institute in Virginia, a variety of boats and warships, likely on the Chesapeake Bay, winter fishing, "oyster canoes" (skipjacks) and men unloading crabs at the factory. Other Virginia photographs show buildings in pre-restoration Williamsburg and rural life, possibly in the Williamsburg area, with rundown shacks, African Americans, ox-drawn carts, and a group of African American school children. Views from unidentified locales include rural scenes, streams and country roads, beaches, dwellings, family life photos with children in a variety of settings, posed Grecian tableaux, and a studio portrait of a man dressed in Native American clothing holding a la crosse ball and stick. Additional photographs include Jamestown church ruins, Deerfield Memorial Hall with several interior views, 7 photographs of interior rooms in an unidentified house, and canal views, possibly of the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Identified individuals include: Grace Collins Lathrop, Sue Boss, Sue Gardner, Alice Bishop, Fanny Coit, Emma Kelsey, Arthur Eggleston, Percy Eggleston, Henrietta Spear, Nellie Spear, Theodate Pope, Ethel Fiefield, and Mary Lewis.

The album is half bound in burgundy leather and is stored in a three part wrap with green cloth spine