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The C. E. DuBois photograph album contains photographic prints taken in and around Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1870s. Many of the pictures are group portraits and views of building exteriors, including firefighters posed with a hose carriage, and the Hoboken Yacht Club.

Collection Scope and Content Note:

The C. E. DuBois photograph album (27cm x 34cm) contains 42 photographic prints taken in and around Hoboken, New Jersey, circa 1870s. The prints range in size from about 5.5cm x 6.5cm to 21cm x 13cm. Many are framed with hand-drawn, colored borders, sometimes with decorative or floral designs; one border has small drawings of an anchor and United States flag and one has small drawings of firefighters' equipment. Four items' borders include captions: "A Votre Santé" (a group of men sitting around a table with drinks), "H.Y.C." (Hoboken Yacht Club), "Oceana Hose" (horse-drawn firefighters' hose carriage), and "Martha Institute." The album's green cloth cover has a plate with the name "C. E. Dubois" in block letters.

The majority of photographs show individuals or groups of people and building exteriors, including urban residential and commercial buildings. The first seven pictures are studio portraits of unidentified individuals, and the album contains 13 additional photographs of two or more people on a porch and in gardens. Images include two men playing a game of chess on a porch, a group of men relaxing and drinking on the same porch, and a group standing on the dock at the Hoboken Yacht Club. The remaining pictures focus primarily on other subjects. Fifteen are images of homes, commercial buildings, gardens, a gazebo, and a view of the Cranford (New Jersey?) train station, and the Martha Institute of Hoboken. The album contains four views of the Hoboken Yacht Club in which ships' masts are sometimes visible. The final two photographs are related to the "Oceana Hose" firefighting company a picture of a horse-drawn hose carriage and a view of the firehouses for "Oceana" and "Excelsor" alongside a saloon and another business. Firefighters in top hats appear in both of these photographs. Also of note is a photograph of a group of women on a porch viewing a photograph album.

Two logs of the Innocents Abroad Yacht Club, dated 1876 and 1878. The club was composed primarily of bureaucratic clerks who began taking annual boat excursions in 1875. These logs detail the activities and events of the 2nd and 4th annual cruises.

This collection consists of two logs of the Innocents Abroad Yacht Club. These logs are for the second and fourth annual cruises taken by the club, dated 1876 and 1878. The two logs contain a total of 79 pages, 11 photographs, and 1 banquet bill of fare. The journal for the second annual cruise is 68 pages in length, and is written in a bound volume. Enclosed are 11 photographs. The author left space in the text for sketches of various events on the cruise, but those sketches were apparently never drawn. The journal for the fourth annual cruise is contained on 11 loose sheets, and includes a bill of fare dated August 1878.

The activities of the first cruise are more completely detailed. As light winds and unfavorable tides slowed the progress of the ship, some members relieved their boredom with varieties of boisterous behavior. One member had obtained a cannon for the boat from a friend in the Navy Department, and the crew enjoyed firing blanks from it. While onshore in Philadelphia, another member decided to fire a pistol in the streets, attracting the attention of the police. But perhaps the most popular pastime involved the consumption of alcohol. Indeed, the drinking habits of a few of the members were the subject of some controversy. These members were reprimanded by their companions for their rowdy behavior, and they were also accused of drinking more than their fair share of the club's supply of liquor. The author suggests that the cruise is an exercise in debauchery. Soon after, these bacchanalian escapades moderated. By the end of the trip, the "Innocents" had settled down into a routine of fishing and eating.

The fourth annual cruise was a considerably more sedate affair, and the eleven loose sheets that describe it contain discussion of more fishing, eating, and moderate drinking.

Despite the fact that the "Innocents Abroad" was a club devoted to travel, its logs do not really offer a record of the people and places of late 19th century America. Rather, they serve as an illustration of how white-collar middle class clerks and bureaucrats spent their leisure time.