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Seventeen individuals answered the questions printed in J. E. Spears' The Mental Portrait Album... (St. Louis: John L. Boland Book & Stationery Co., [1895]), which has a pictorial cloth cover showing a female figure and flowers. Entries between 1894 and 1895 were filled in by individuals residing in Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas, while the later entries from 1910 to 1972 were written by those residing in Texas. Answers reveal contributors' favorite items, their tastes in music and literature, their opinions on admirable and detestable personality traits in men and women, as well as their beliefs about transportation, great reforms, follies, and wonders of the world.

Seventeen individuals answered the questions printed in J. E. Spears' The Mental Portrait Album. For Recording the Autographic Confessions of Friends and Acquaintances Regarding their Opinions, Tastes, Fancies, Etc. (St. Louis: John L. Boland Book & Stationery Co., [1895]), which has a pictorial cloth cover showing a female figure and flowers. Entries between 1894 and 1895 were filled in by individuals residing in Louisville and Danville, Kentucky; Pleasant Hill, Kansas City, Harrisonville, and Hughesville, Missouri; and Kansas City, Kansas, while the later entries from 1910 to 1972 were written by those residing in Forney and Wichita Falls, Texas. Answers reveal contributors' favorite items, their tastes in music and literature, their opinions on admirable and detestable personality traits in men and women, as well as their beliefs about transportation, great reforms, follies, and wonders of the world. Varying beliefs and prejudices are reflected, including those relating to women's rights, immigration, race (in particular against those of Mexican descent), and politics. Common answers celebrating emerging technologies, inventors, and historical figures, such as Thomas Edison and Robert E. Lee, indicate broader social phenomena.

Contributors noted their favorites of the following categories:

Color, Flower, Book, Animal, Season, Poet or Poetess, Prose Writer, Composer, Character in History, Character in Romance, Scenery, Music, Amusement, Occupation During a Summer's Vacation, and My Pet Hobby.

• My Chief Ambition in Life
• The trait I most admire in a woman
• The trait I most admire in a man
• The trait I most detest in each
• The fault for which I have the most toleration in another person
• That for which I have the least
• The qualifications or accomplishments I most desire in a matrimonial partner
• My idea of perfect happiness
• My idea of real misery
• There is always some one person, or thing, for which we have an attachment exceeding all other endearments in intensity. For me it is for
• Of the various modes of traveling, I prefer
• If privileged to make a journey, the single place or locality I would prefer to visit, above all others would be
• As a traveling companion, I would most highly appreciate
• Shipwrecked on a deserted island, I would most desire
• The greatest wonder of the world, according to my estimation, is
• As an inventor, I think the greatest service towards the world's progress has been rendered by
• Of the many reforms at present under consideration, I most sincerely and particularly advocate
• The greatest folly in the Nineteenth Century, in my opinion, is
• My motto

The Traveling circus photograph album contains approximately 70 photographs plus 6 additional loose images related to traveling performers.

The Traveling circus photograph album contains approximately 70 photographs plus 6 additional loose images related to traveling performers. The album (14.5 x 21 cm) has black paper covers, and some photographs include handwritten captions. Images include group portraits of a dancing group called "Philip's Girls"; performers in costume for a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Mason Bros.; the Mason Bros. band outside of a circus tent; the interior of a tent with folding chairs; a makeshift stage set up in a grocer's storefront; members of "Baylors Comedians"; the exterior of the Waverly Hippodrome labeled, "Empire Players, Lansing Park Theatre, 1917"; and people relaxing at the beach posing with swimwear and automobiles. One loose image (mount 21 x 26 cm) shows a group of six performers in costume including a clown, a devil, a cowboy, and a man in blackface standing in front of a horse-drawn wagon.

The Wisconsin and Minnesota friendship photograph album contains approximately 245 photographs documenting a friend group of young women.

The Wisconsin and Minnesota friendship photograph album contains approximately 245 photographs documenting a friend group of young women.

The album (18 x 29.5 cm) has black cloth covers and black paper pages. Contents generally progress chronologically starting from the 1910s while the friend group appears to be in college before documenting their lives once they get married and start having families. Numerous images have witty captions, likely referencing inside jokes. Photographs primarily consist of individual and group portraits showing the women partaking in various activities including striking comical poses together, attending costume and fraternity parties, holding picnics, and going on various other adventures. Also present are views of the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menominee, Wisconsin, Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Loring Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Halfway through the album begins to document members of the friend group getting married and starting families of their own, with photographs mainly depicting young children, homes, and group vacations including a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. The last few pages also include images of a World War I-era soldier and nurses with facemasks (possibly indicating involvement with treating Spanish influenza victims).

Photographs showing instances of blackface and other racially insensitive costumes are present.