Collections

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography consists of over 120,000 images in a variety of formats including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet photographs, real photo postcards, stereographs, and mounted and unmounted paper prints. The collection is primarily made up of vernacular photographs of everyday life in Michigan taken by both professional and amateur photographers from the 1840s into the mid-twentieth century. In addition to supporting local history research, the collection has resources for the study of specific events and subjects. Included are images related to lumbering, mining, suburbanization; the industrialization of cities; travel and transportation; the impact of the automobile; the rise of middle-class leisure society; fashion and dress; ethnicity and race; the role of fraternal organizations in society; and the participation of photographers in business, domestic, and social life. The collection is only partially open for research.

The subject contents of different photographic format series within the Tinder collection vary, depending in part upon how each format was historically used, and the date range of that format's popularity. For example, cartes de visite and cased images are most often formal studio portraits, while stereographs are likely to be outdoor views. Cabinet photographs are frequently portraits, but often composed with less formality than the cartes de visite and cased images. The postcards and the mounted prints contain very diverse subjects. The photographers' file contains many important and rare images of photographers, their galleries, promotional images, and the activities of photographers in the field. See individual series descriptions in the Contents List below for more specific details.

Included throughout are images by both professional and amateur photographers, although those by professionals are extant in far greater numbers.

The Evans family photograph collection consists of a six-volume set of albums and approximately 60 loose photographs mainly depicting the immediate family of Lucretia Booth Evans of Riverdale, New York. Three of the albums contain baby pictures of Evans and her brothers Mason and Morgan Jr. while the other three albums focus on family life and vacations taken by the family.

The Evans family photograph collection consists of a six-volume set of albums and approximately 60 loose photographs mainly depicting the immediate family of Lucretia Booth Evans. Three of the albums contain baby pictures of Evans and her brothers Mason and Morgan Jr. while the other three albums focus on family life and vacations travel.

Volume One: The Morgan Evans, Jr. Baby Book album (19.75 x 16.5 cm) contains 12 photographs of Morgan Evans Jr. as a young child. There is one photograph with his maternal grandmother, Susan Edwards Booth Robinson. Evans Jr.’s obituary, World War I draft registration certificate and a lock of his hair from when he was 14 months old are also present.

Volume Two: The Mason Robinson Evans Baby Book album (19.75 x 16.5 cm) contains 34 photographs of Mason Evans as a child. A lock of his hair from when he was 18 months old is also present.

Volume Three: The Lucretia Booth Evans Baby Book album (23.5 x 18.5 cm) contains 9 photographs of Lucretia Evans as a baby. Most pages remain blank, and a lock her hair from when she was 16 months old is also present.

Volume Four: The Point o' Woods album (22.25 x 39.5 cm) contains approximately 175 photographs and several negatives stored behind snapshots. This album focuses on summer trips to Point o' Woods on Fire Island, Suffolk County in New York State during the 1930s. Many of the individuals depicted in this album are identified with captions. Images of note include the aftermath of the September 1938 New England Hurricane.

Volume Five: The Lucretia Evans early adulthood album (26.75 x 34.25 cm) contains approximately 170 photographs and several negatives stored behind snapshots. The images include landscapes from the late 1930s and images of Lucretia's final days at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and her time in school as an X-Ray technician.

Volume Six: The Lucretia Evans travel album (22.75 x 31.75 cm) contains approximately 200 photographs, 4 negatives and 35 pieces of printed ephemera representing trips to the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Canada in the 1950s. Inside the front cover is a 50th wedding anniversary clipping of Kitty and Morgan Evans Sr.

There are approximately 60 loose photographs that range from early 20th century cabinet cards of Kitty Evans' family to a large class picture of Lucretia Evans’ X-Ray Technician class.

The Mills family photograph album consists of approximately 200 images and 6 loose photographs documenting a trip to London, Ontario, as well as the daily life of a well-to-do family in Marysville, Michigan.

The Mills family photograph album consists of approximately 200 images and 6 loose photographs documenting a trip to London, Ontario, as well as the daily life of a well-to-do family in Marysville, Michigan.

The album (28 x 38 cm) has leather covers with the stamped initials “HEM” of the compiler Hannah Elizabeth Mills. Contents include photographs of the Marysville “Lower Mill,” residences belonging to Hannah’s brother Myron, numerous portraits of people including Hannah's youngest sister Hally, two photographs of Hally from when she had diphtheria in 1891, “Hal” in a darkroom likely in the Mills family home, people playing tennis, the Mills family cemetery plot, views of a trip to Stag Island, Ontario, an apparently ill person lying on a cot, and several views documenting a trip to what may be a relative’s home in London, Ontario. Also present are images from a winter "In the Lumber Woods, 1891", an excursion to Niagara Falls in 1894, the town of Pinckney, Michigan, following a tornado, and wedding gifts for Mary Margaret Mills and Walter Jasperson Hopkins.

The Weston family World War II photograph albums consist of four volumes containing approximately 374 images as well as one box of ephemera documenting the camp life and leisure time of married couple Lawrence and Elizabeth Weston. Lawrence served in the United States Army in France during World War II while Elizabeth worked as a nurse.

The Weston family World War II photograph albums consist of four volumes containing approximately 374 images as well as one box of ephemera documenting the camp life and leisure time of married couple Lawrence and Elizabeth Weston. Lawrence served in the United States Army in France during World War II while Elizabeth worked as a nurse.

Volume one (27.25 x 16.5 cm) contains approximately 88 snapshots and one holiday card. The album is constructed like a graduated flipbook, with images loaded into plastic sleeves bound with metal pins. Many images have typewritten notes on the back written by Lawrence Weston. The photographs primarily depict Lawrence's time at Fort Dix in 1940 and 1941, showing soldiers at rest and camp life scenes. Also present are photographs taken in Trenton, New Jersey.

Volume two (27.25 x 16.5 cm) contains approximately 98 snapshots and three negatives. The album is constructed in the same flipbook style as volumes one and three. The images chronicle leisure time in France in Reims and Ancerville around 1945. Of note are several pictures of French civilians standing next to men in uniform, images of Lawrence at a plane crash site, and a cardigan knit from a parachute.

Volume three (27.25 x 16.5 cm) contains approximately 96 snapshots. This album is also constructed in the same flipbook style as volumes one and two and continues where the second volume leaves off. The first half of the album contains more images from France leading up to Lawrence Weston’s departure from Le Havre and Camp Lucky Strike in August of 1945 while the latter half concerns his return to the United States with his arrival in Boston Harbor in January of 1946. Several identified images of Elizabeth Weston are present, and some of the inscriptions on these photographs may be in her hand. The album concludes with views of Detroit, Michigan.

Volume four (30.5 x 24.25 cm) contains approximately 92 snapshots that detail Elizabeth Weston's life from her time in nursing school until 1942. Many images feature her siblings and coworkers while a 1942 trip to Canada is also represented. The album is blue with a ship design on the front cover and is spiral bound.

Also present is one box of ephemera containing three card photographs, 10 tickets and identifications cards, three "letters on record" envelopes, a memo book, two Bond Drive advertisements, a pamphlet on Camp Maxey, four event pamphlets, a copy of a Formula for Peace, a map of Fort Dix, seven documents relating to Lawrence's candidacy to Officer's Candidate School, a certificate, two 1920 letters regarding the location of Lawrence's father, Elizabeth's certificate as a registered nurse, a large map of Germany, and four 1945 copies of The Stars and Stripes.