Collections

This photograph album contains pictures taken during the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. The album includes several interior views of the New Jersey educational exhibit in the Liberal Arts Building and exterior views of the exposition's large thematic buildings, individual state pavilions, international cultural exhibits, and statues.

This photograph album (31cm x 23cm) contains 105 pictures taken during the World's Columbian Exposition (World's Fair) in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. The title Views of the World's Fair is stamped in gold on the front cover, along with an image of the Statue of the Republic. A second title, World's Fair Photographs, Including Views of the New Jersey Educational Exhibit, is printed on the first page. With the exception of two larger prints, items are pasted two to a page, above manuscript captions.

The album includes a group of rare interior views of the displays in the Liberal Arts Building. Featured are the New Jersey educational exhibit, the packing of displays after the fair's closure; views of international cultural exhibits; statues, and artifact displays. The majority of the album is comprised of more common exterior views of the exposition's large thematic and individual state pavilions. Many of the main structures, such as the Administration Building, Liberal Arts Building, Electricity Building, and the Palace of Mechanical Arts, are shown from a variety of perspectives, along with smaller structures representing many U.S. states.

Also shown are views of the nautical vessels displayed at the fair including the replica battleship USS Illinois, a replica of Columbus's Santa Maria, a replica Viking ship, and the fair's gondolas and similar smaller boats. Photographs of the Wooded Island and the Midway Plaisance also appear in the album. Of particular note are the pictures of ethnographic displays including Native American shelters and a group of "Dahomey Villagers." A series of photos taken on "Chicago Day," October 9, 1893, shows the crowds that set the world record for outdoor event attendance.

This photograph album contains pictures taken during trips to Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Michigan around the turn of the 20th century. Subjects include Native American homes, dress, and customs; western scenery; and Midwestern waterfronts and steamships.

The Tourist photograph album (15 x 21 cm) contains approximately 245 pictures from around the Southwest and Midwest United States taken by an unknown photographer around the turn of the 20th century. Southwest photographs include mission churches in California and New Mexico, rock formations, cliff dwellings at Canyon de Chelly and Mesa Verde, Balanced Rock in the Garden of the Gods, and a pueblo. Several photographs feature Native Americans, including: women with traditional squash blossom hair styles; a man carrying a small child in a sling on his back; a woman in a shop with baskets, wool and dry goods; a woman seated in front of a loom with partially finished cloth; a man sitting in a white-washed interior with skeins of wool, holding a spindle with a hand carder at his feet. One photograph shows mummified human remains posed next to a bottle of whiskey and skull, indicating likely tomb desecration. Also included are unidentified Southwestern streets, beach scenes, and the storefront of J.M. Archuleta in Colorado. Midwest photos include images of the Palace of Fine Arts (Museum of Science and Industry) in Chicago, Mackinac Island, the Marquette Monument in St. Ignace, Soo Locks, and the Great Lakes steamer North Land, and a lake and cottage. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and the SS Chief Wawatam are also pictured. Many photographs are significantly faded. Some manuscript captions are included.

The album includes two cyanotypes and a postcard with a cartoon satirizing the Brigham Young's polygamy.

The album has a half bound pebbled leather cover and is stored in a three-part wrap with brown cloth spine.

The William A. Lewis photograph collection consists of approximately 1,530 items pertaining to a wide range of visual subjects that are represented across a variety of photographic formats including daguerreotypes, cartes de visite, stereographs (which form the bulk of the collection), and glass plate negatives as well as modern slides, film strips, snapshots, and postcards.

The William A. Lewis photograph collection consists of approximately 1,530 items pertaining to a wide range of visual subjects that are represented across a variety of photographic formats including daguerreotypes, cartes de visite, stereographs (which form the bulk of the collection), and glass plate negatives as well as modern slides, film strips, snapshots, and postcards.

The subject matter of this collection is thematically and chronologically diverse and reflects the broad interests of the collector, with the U.S. Civil War and 19th-century views of American and European cities being particularly well-represented topics. The collection is organized into four main series according to subject matter and is further divided into specific subject groupings within each series. In most cases, multi-item sets have been kept together and placed within the most generally appropriate subject grouping. An extensive number of photographers and publishers are represented throughout the collection including the likes of H. H. Bennett, C. B. Brubaker, John Carbutt, Centennial Photographic Company, B. F. Childs, E. & H. T. Anthony & Company, Alexander Gardner, T. W. Ingersoll, International Stereoscopic View Company, Keystone View Company, William Notman, Timothy O'Sullivan, William Rau, Strohmeyer & Wyman, Underwood & Underwood, and F. G. Weller.

The following list provides a breakdown of every topical subsection of the collection and includes item counts for each grouping:

• Airships (11)
• Bridges (69)
• Civil War I--stereographs (91)
• Civil War II--cartes de visite, Kodachrome slides, negative film strip copies of stereographs held at the Library of Congress, postcards (48)
• Disasters (49)
• Expositions (24)
• Industry & Labor (89)
• Miscellaneous (23)
• Portraits (109)
• Railroads (62)
• Ships (80)
• War (30)

• Alaska (47)
• Arizona (3)
• California (20)
• Colorado (2)
• Dakota (4)
• District of Columbia (50)
• Florida (2)
• Hawaii (1)
• Illinois (17)
• Iowa (2)
• Maine (8)
• Maryland (27)
• Massachusetts (20)
• Michigan (31)
• Missouri (3)
• New Hampshire (10)
• New York (116)
• Ohio (2)
• Oregon (2)
• Pennsylvania (16)
• Tennessee (1)
• Texas (1)
• Vermont (3)
• Utah (3)
• Virginia (6)
• Washington (1)
• West Virginia (1)
• Wisconsin (2)
• Wyoming (2)
• Unidentified locations (35)

• Austria (5)
• Belgium (6)
• Brazil (1)
• Canada (3)
• Cuba (5)
• Czechoslovakia (1)
• Egypt (5)
• England (21)
• France (43)
• Germany (14)
• Greece (1)
• India (2)
• Ireland (4)
• Italy (22)
• Japan (3)
• Mexico (1)
• Miscellaneous (31)
• Monaco (4)
• Netherlands (1)
• Norway (3)
• Palestine (5)
• Panama (41)
• Puerto Rico (3)
• Scotland (10)
• Spain (2)
• Sweden (2)
• Switzerland (9)
• Turkey (1)

• Keystone Alaska and Panama views, set box (1)
• Stereoscope (1)

• Post-WWI Keystone views of German and American zeppelins and one real photo postcard showing pre-WWI aircraft (Series I, Box 1, Airships)
• Numerous views of the Brooklyn Bridge under construction and after completion, and the Niagara Falls suspension bridge (Series I, Box 1, Bridges)
• Views of Civil War battle sites, encampments, and leaders on contemporary mounts as well as numerous reproductions of stereographs showing important battlefield sites and troops (Series I, Boxes 1-2, Civil War)
• Stereographs, real photo postcards, and other images documenting the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, 1871 Chicago Fire, 1889 Johnstown Flood, 1900 Galveston Hurricane, and other calamities (Series I, Box 3, Disasters)
• Images showing scenes from various American and European events, with an emphasis on the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia (Series I, Box 3, Expositions)
• Images showing mills, factories and people engaged in various occupations, including a boxed set of 50 images related Sears, Roebuck operations produced around 1906 (Series I, Box 3, Industry & Labor)
• Hand-colored early groupings of French theatrical tableaux (Series I, Box 3, Miscellaneous)
• Approximately 109 portrait photographs in different formats of various individuals, including William Jennings Bryan; a boxed set of 50 cartes de visite depicting Danish actors and actresses; cartes de visite of Emperor Napoleon III and the Mikado of Japan; and numerous unidentified subjects represented in real photo postcards (1), tintypes (17), framed/cased ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes (13) (Series I, Box 4, Portraits)
• Approximately 62 images of railroads, mostly in the U.S., including photographs from an 1866 expedition to the 100th meridian on the Union Pacific Railroad while under construction (Series I, Box 5, Railroads)
• Approximately 80 images of ships including warships, freighters, riverboats, passenger ships, shipwrecks (including of the USS Maine), and shipyards mostly in the U.S. with the notable exception of a photo of the 1858 launch of the SS Great Eastern, with Isambard Kingdom Brunel possibly in the crowd. Also of interest are 8 photos and postcards showing ships in World War I-era "dazzle" camouflage (Series I, Box 5, Ships)
• A Keystone View Co. series of images related to World War I (Series I, Box 5, Wars)
• A number of images produced by Keystone View Co. and other stereograph purveyors that focus on major cities such as Boston, New York, Paris, Constantinople, and Jerusalem (throughout Series II & Series III)
• Views from geological expeditions to the American frontier in the 1860s and 1870s (Series II, Unidentified Locations)

The World's Columbian Exposition photograph album contains approximately 284 images related to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 held in Chicago, Illinois.

The World's Columbian Exposition photograph album contains approximately 284 images related to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 held in Chicago, Illinois.

The album (29 x 40 cm) has black cloth and leather covers bound by two metal rods. The original covers were replaced in March 2012 by conservator James W. Craven. Most of the album's 70 pages contain 4 photographs per page. Images include photographs of exteriors and interiors of various exhibition buildings, large crowds of people, numerous sculptures and statues, various historic and modern marine vessels, and bird's-eye views of the fair complex. Also of note are several photographs showing attendees in wheelchairs, images of various ethnic group exhibit buildings (including the Japanese Bazaar, Persian Palace, Irish Village, Oahomey Village of Benin, Egyptian Temple of Luksor, Alaskan Indian Village, and NY Iroquois Exhibit), and a group portrait of women sculptors including Helen F. Mears and Jean Pond Miner.