Collections

The Al Parker collection includes three envelopes of photographs, sheet music, and newspaper clippings as well as a scrapbook relating to the professional and personal life of Philadelphia-based photographer and photographic supplies salesman Alfred Parker.

The Al Parker collection includes three envelopes of photographs, sheet music, and newspaper clippings as well as a scrapbook relating to the professional and personal life of Philadelphia-based photographer and photographic supplies salesman Alfred Parker.

Envelope A (photographs): includes unmounted oval portraits of Parker’s children Eda and Ray from the early 1900s; studio portraits of Eda and his wife Alice from the 1910s, two of them from the Philadelphia studio of Gilbert and Bacon; an mounted school class photo (ca. 1890s?)

Envelope B (sheet music): includes three examples of World War I songs from the Eagle Publishing Company of Philadelphia with "music by Geo. L. Robertson and lyrics by Al. Parker."

Envelope C (letters, clippings, etc.): includes a letter appointing Dr. Ray Parker head of plastic surgery at a hospital in Johnstown, PA; a magazine article on “Flood Free Johnstown”; letters and clippings about Dr. Ray Parker; article on World War II factory workers; newspaper article on Theodore Roosevelt urging U.S. entry into World War I; and a note from Christmas 1926 from Parker’s grandson Donald addressed to “Ganco."

Scrapbook: The volume (37 x 28) is cloth-bound and has 66 pages total. Materials are not arranged in any chronological or thematic order and so unrelated items often appear together on the same page.

The album begins with photographs of Parker’s family members while the next few pages focus on scenes from his professional life, including a magazine cover from April 1900 and documentation of his break with Willis & Clements in 1910. Portraits of Parker at every stage of his life appear throughout the scrapbook, though not in any chronological order. The earliest is a tintype from the 1850s that shows him as a young boy with his brothers. Many portraits and casual snapshots of Parker's daughter Eda and son Ray from their early childhood into adulthood are included, while a collection of clippings reflects Parker’s pride in Ray's success as a doctor. His delight in playing the doting grandfather is clear from the drawings Parker made for Eda’s son Donald and in the notes that Donald wrote to Parker using the nickname “Ganco.”

A handful of portraits that were taken by Parker show that he was a capable studio photographer in addition to being a successful promoter of platinum photography products while working for Willis & Clements. Requests for his opinions from Eastman Kodak Company, Photo Era magazine, and the Photographers’ Association of New England testify to his recognized expertise. Numerous portraits of Parker in the company of other well-regarded photographers of the day confirm his acceptance in that professional circle.

Many ephemeral items also help illuminate the arc of Parker's career including programs from his minstrel show days; an advertisement for his Australian window blind company; the initial offer of employment from Willis and Clements; business cards from various stages of his career; and an ad for a new camera shutter he invented. Interspersed amongst these items are letters and photographs from various colleagues and employers along with miscellaneous poems, cartoons, programs, drawings, song lyrics, newspaper clippings, and so on.

The C. Earle Beckwith photograph album contains images of rural living and farming activities, possibly in Michigan.

The C. Earle Beckwith photograph album (17 x 22 cm) contains 18 photographic prints of rural living, possibly in Michigan. Includes two views of a mill; a photograph of two women in a boat; a photograph of a crowded event at a rural residence; a group shot of a brass band; two men and a boy holding farm implements; two images of a railroad track and water tower; and candid photographs of family at home. Also included are several photographs relating to farming activities; one is of a roadside display of vegetables after the harvest.

The album's brown cloth cover has an embossed title "Photographs." The album is inscribed "C. Earle Beckwith, Merry Christmas" and is housed in a light blue box.

The Corning-Southwick photograph album contains cartes-de-visite and tintypes of infants and young children. Several people pictured were members of the Corning and Southwick families.

The Corning-Southwick photograph album (13cm x 9cm) contains 15 cartes-de-visite and 3 tintype photographs, primarily of babies and young children. Many of the children pictured were members of the Martin, Corning, Gardner, and Southwick families. Two lithographs of a young girl putting on a boot and a young boy posing by a basket full of apples are also present. Included is a carte-de-visite showing the wedding of Charles Sherwood and Lavina Warren Stratton (Mr. and Mrs. Tom Thumb). The album has a decorative hard cover and a metal clasp.

The Cross-Country photograph album contains photographs taken in various locations throughout the United States, including travel photographs of scenery and buildings in Washington, Colorado, Louisiana, and Massachusetts, among other states, and family photographs taken in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

The Cross-Country photograph album (26cm x 32cm, 59 pages) contains around 340 photographs taken throughout the United States between 1896 and 1907, including 15 cyanotypes and 10 panoramas. The items represent numerous printing processes in a variety of sizes. Some have captions, often providing information about the place and the date. Several reference the Gill family. The album has the title "Photographs" printed in gold on its front cover and its pages are bound with a thick string.

Many of the photographs are casual group portraits of men, women, children, and family dogs taken outdoors, often in front of large houses and cottages; some of the same individuals are present in multiple pictures. Included are a portrait of an African American woman holding a Caucasian infant (p. 1), two young boys in dress military uniforms with a collection of toy soldiers (p. 3), and a wedding party (p. 46). Some men and women are pictured golfing at Bass Rocks in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Most of the remaining images are views of landscapes, city streets, buildings, and natural scenery in locations such as Spokane, Washington; Tacoma, Washington; Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Pikes Peak, Colorado; New Orleans, Louisiana; Hampton, New Hampshire; Boston, Massachusetts; Gloucester, Massachusetts; Beacon Falls, Connecticut; and Washington, D.C. Included are a small number of commercial photographs of the area around Pikes Peak in Colorado including views by William H. Jackson. City views often feature prominent buildings and other landmarks. Other photographs show the rocky coast of New England, harbors, sailing vessels of various sizes, and large homes. Of note are a group portrait of Spokane Native Americans (p.14); views of the Tacoma waterfront (p.15); the New England coast, with aspects of the Gloucester fishing industry including a view of salted cod laid out to dry (p.24-29); pictures of Victorian home interiors (p. 20, 34, 47, 55, 56); and panoramic landscape views taken near Spokane (p. 47, 48). The album includes one print and a hand-colored collotype of the home of Senator George Turner in Spokane, Washington (inside front cover).

Eliza O. Perkins Burke's letters and papers document the life of a military officer's wife before and during the Civil War, and her friendships with fellow military wives.

Most of these letters are addressed to Eliza Perkins Burke, excepting a handful written to Mary, an invitation to Capt. Perkins to play billiards, and a certificate of merit presented to Edward while he was at St. Louis University. This is a scattered, spotty correspondence, but there are a couple cohering elements. Many of the women writing to Eliza were also married to military men. They had become friends on Sullivan's Island, while their husbands, many of whom were in the 3rd Artillery, were stationed at Fort Moultrie in the 1830s and early 1840s. The Civil War is another theme around which several of these letters cluster, although only one letter is from an actual soldier. The other coherent grouping is a series of six letters from Rosalie Smith, who was trying to obtain a divorce and chafing under the necessity of depending on her sister's husband for financial support.

The letters from fellow military wives show how close the women had become while together on the island, and there is a sense, especially during and after the Civil War, that these friendships were doubly valuable because they reminded the women of better times. Many of the wives did not see each other again after leaving Fort Moultrie, or only enjoyed infrequent visits. Although they only wrote to each other occasionally, they expressed great nostalgia for the time shared on Sullivan's Island. Often a milestone -- birth, death, or wedding -- prompted the letter, and the author often described her children's progress.

Judith Chiffelle, who had probably been on Sullivan's Island with her brother Thomas, was an anomaly. While the rest of the women were married to military men, Judith was single. She taught school in Baltimore and was raising her dead sister's children while their father ran his business in St. Louis. She wrote, "this I know will astonish you. I like to be an independent old maid, I will never marry. I have taken an oath to live single for my dear childrens' sake" (1854 December 17). Two years later her tone is less triumphant: "what a change a few years make in our life -- I struggling along trying to make a living hard work & keeping school " (1857 February 2). She admits that she would "long ago have laid down this weary head" had it not been for the children.

The Civil War era letters include one from Caroline Carson, a southern woman who suffered multiple hardships. Her husband died, "the plantation was sold according to his directions," and then her father's house, where she had stored her possessions, was burned: "Everything I had in the world was burnt up -- Books and pictures, china, glass linen all my little effects which I valued, and hoped someday to get around me again" (1862 February 4). "I hope in this horrid war no thing of the kind will happen to you," she continued. Another letter, from a northern lady, shows the less direct effect the war had on women who were not in the midst of the fighting. Rather than wondering where to live, Annie Eustace pondered what to wear: "in this time of our country's great troubles, we should think of something else, beside dress and party giving . . . I spend very little time and thought about fine dress, and making a show; I have lost all taste for such things (1862 May 6). There is also one letter from Eliza's soldiering nephew David P. Hancock while he was at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York, recovering from a wound and anxious to get back to the field (1862 May 12).

The other clutch of letters is certainly the most intriguing one. Rosalie Smith was living, along with her mother, at her sister Ann Eustace's house in Dixon, Illinois. Rosalie bridled at having to depend on Judge Eustace, whose wealth had been severely reduced by the depression of 1857, but she saw no alternative until her brother Joe returned from Mexico with funds. In response to Eliza's suggestion that she get married, Rosalie wrote, rather obliquely, "this would be a long story and probably uninteresting on paper, but should I ever see you, I will give you some of my reasons for remaining in 'meditation free'" (1859 November 30). By the next year, Rosalie's reasons for resisting her reliance on her brother-in-law had increased: "Judge Eustace's relatives have always annoyed me by reports of our entire dependence on him, making things at times, very disagreeable to all" (1860 October 27). This letter also alludes to a Mr. Sheridan, who was apparently Rosalie's husband, whom she now wished to divorce. She was worried that he would "use every effort to annoy, and keep me bound; money only, will be the great lever by which it can be accomplished." She moved to Chicago with her sister's family, and she happily discovered that "a residence of two years, will grant me a divorce, provided Sheridan does not make application to live with or support me; so on this account too, I am anxious to keep quiet, that he may not know where I am, to molest me" (1860 December 3).

This collection consists of two penmanship copybooks Frederick Fisher, possibly of Easton, Pennsylvania, kept in 1861 and 1863. The volumes contain examples of penmanship exercises, mostly sentences and phrases organized alphabetically by the first letter of the sentence or words. Themes relate to duty and honor, good manners, productivity, geography, education, Andrew Jackson and George Washington, and vanity, among others.

This collection consists of two penmanship copybooks Frederick Fisher, possibly of Easton, Pennsylvania, kept in 1861 and 1863. The volumes contain examples of penmanship exercises, mostly sentences and phrases organized alphabetically by the first letter of the sentence or words. Themes relate to duty and honor, good manners, productivity, geography, education, Andrew Jackson and George Washington, and vanity, among others.

The 1861 copybook was sold by William Maxwell of Easton, Pennsylvania, and features an illustrated front cover showing three female figures, including one with dark skin, seated at a wharf, likely allegories representing industry and commerce. Fisher added pen-and-ink drawings of quills on the front cover and inside front cover.

The 1863 copybook was produced by Kiggins & Kellogg, booksellers and stationers in New York. It has printed covers bearing illustrations of children outside of a public school and a multiplication table.

This collection consists of two penmanship copybooks Frederick Fisher, possibly of Easton, Pennsylvania, kept in 1861 and 1863. The volumes contain examples of penmanship exercises, mostly sentences and phrases organized alphabetically by the first letter of the sentence or words. Themes relate to duty and honor, good manners, productivity, geography, education, Andrew Jackson and George Washington, and vanity, among others.

This collection consists of two penmanship copybooks Frederick Fisher, possibly of Easton, Pennsylvania, kept in 1861 and 1863. The volumes contain examples of penmanship exercises, mostly sentences and phrases organized alphabetically by the first letter of the sentence or words. Themes relate to duty and honor, good manners, productivity, geography, education, Andrew Jackson and George Washington, and vanity, among others.

The 1861 copybook was sold by William Maxwell of Easton, Pennsylvania, and features an illustrated front cover showing three female figures, including one with dark skin, seated at a wharf, likely allegories representing industry and commerce. Fisher added pen-and-ink drawings of quills on the front cover and inside front cover.

The 1863 copybook was produced by Kiggins & Kellogg, booksellers and stationers in New York. It has printed covers bearing illustrations of children outside of a public school and a multiplication table.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. At least one volume was kept by an African American man, Lewis G. Mosebay. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

This album contains gem tintype photographs of men and women of various ages, including young adults and children. One tintype shows a dog sitting on a chair.

This album (8.5cm x 8.5cm) contains 69 tinted gem tintype photographs of men and women of various ages, plus an image of a dog sitting on a chair. Each tintype is placed four to a page, in oval windows about 2.2cm high and 1.7cm across. A few of the people pictured wore accessories such as scarves and hats, and the men, who outnumber the women, appear with facial hair in numerous styles. The album's red leather cover has a raised geometric design on the front and back and previously included a metal clasp.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Maxson collection provides a valuable resource for the study of 19th-century visual culture, commercial advertising, and humor in addition to the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in advertising. American businesses are the predominant focus of the collection, though many international businesses are also represented. While trade cards are by far the most prevalent type of ephemera found in this collection, an extensive array of genres are present including die cut scrapbook pieces, photographs, engravings, maps, serials, and manuscript materials.

The 23 binders that house the Maxson collection were arranged by the collectors themselves. Items are organized somewhat randomly in terms of topical arrangement. While pockets of related materials can be found here and there (for instance, the entirety of Volume 16 contains circus-related items while Volume 11 contains an extensive number of Shaker-related materials), for the most part any given subject may appear in any given volume. In some cases, items are clustered as a result of having been acquired together or due to a documented common provenance. Occasional typed annotations written by the Maxsons help provide additional context for certain items.

The Maxson Collection Subject Index serves as a volume-level subject index for materials found throughout the binders. The subjects indexed here are generally representative of both visual and commercial content. In addition to more general subjects, many names of specific people, places, buildings, events, and organizations that appear in the materials have also been listed. Researchers engaging with this collection should be aware that they will encounter numerous examples of racist caricatures, especially ones depicting African American, Native American, Irish, and Chinese people.