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The Sumner H. Cater collection contains materials related to a University of Illinois student's employment as a stereoview salesman during the summer of 1913.

The Sumner H. Cater collection contains materials related to a University of Illinois student's employment as a stereoview salesman during the summer of 1913.

The collection includes the original salesman case used by Sumner H. Cater which contains 1 stereoviewer, 24 sample stereographs (3 by Keystone View Company and 21 by Underwood & Underwood), and 3 explanation cards that help demonstrate how stereographs work. Photographic content includes 4 foreign views showing "Picking lemons" at an orchard in Sicily, "The Japanese hillside trenches," "A hospitable home in old Ireland," and "Concrete Arches" at the Panama Canal; 4 domestic views showing "A mountain of petrified water" and "'Old Faithful' geyser in action at Yellowstone National Park, the "Famous trotting ostrich 'Oliver W.'" in Jacksonville, Florida, and "Feeding the Chickens" on a New Jersey farm; and 16 views from the Underwood & Underwood "Holy Land" series mainly showing scenes from Jerusalem.

• “Keystone World Tours” by J. Paul Goode, Keystone View Company, Portland, Oregon (1 item)
• “A Pilgrimage Through Palestine,” Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1907 (1 item)
• “The Stereoscope, The Stereograph, Sun-Painting” Sun-Sculpture” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1910 (1 item)
• “The Underwood Travel System,” Underwood & Underwood, New York, 1913 (1 item)
• “Manual of Instruction,” Underwood & Underwood, New York, 1908 (1 item)
• “Old Mother Earth’s Babies,” Keystone View Company, New York 1907 (1 item)
• “Key to 72 Travel-Tour of the World Through Stereoscope” by J. Paul Goode, Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania (1 item)
• “Keystone Cabinets and cases,” Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1905 (1 item)
• Underwood & Underwood stereoview listings (2 items)
• Two editions of "The Underwood Travel System Newsletter" listing totals from completed sales by various salesmen as well as best practices regarding sales strategies, announcements, and new photographic subjects in stock (2 items)
• Two editions of "U.T.S. [Underwood Travel System] Selling Aids" (2 items)
• Unused envelopes addressed to Keystone View Company and Prof. Ira O. Baker (5 items)
• Contract between Sumner H. Cater and Keystone View Company agreeing to terms of employment between June 10th and September 10th 1913 (1 item)
• Unused "Salesman's Weekly Report to Keystone View Company" template forms (3 items)
• Letter from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater dated April 2nd 1913 notifying Cater that a duplicate of his contract with Keystone is attached, insisting that Keystone will assist him in making the “largest amount possible from your vacation work,” and urging him to study the products on offer (1 item)
• Letter from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater dated April 19th 1913 notifying Cater that Keystone had received his "Letter of Credit" and that they were sending stereographs his way, with Panama Canal views emphasized as products he should try especially hard to sell during his pending window of employment (1 item)
• Letters from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater (originally addressed to Princeton, Illinois, but remarked for general delivery in Garrison, Iowa) dated June 16th and 17th 1913 notifying Cater that records indicate they have not yet heard from him despite his window of employment having officially begun while also positing to Cater that this summer will prove to be the "best season that Keystone college men have ever known," before listing off names of other salesmen alongside how many hours they have worked and how many orders they have successfully procured (2 items)
• Letter from Underwood & Underwood to Sumner H. Cater dated June 14th 1913 and addressed to Benton, Iowa, notifying Cater that the Benton area has been reserved for himself and "Mr. Hey" and encouraging him to work thoroughly in such a large area (1 item)
• Letter from Underwood & Underwood to Sumner H. Cater dated June 16th 1913 and addressed to Garrison, Iowa, notifying Cater that they have sent him an outfit and a "Canvass and Delivery Instruction" booklet (1 item)
• Letter from the treasurer of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Y.M.C.A. to Sumner H. Cater indicating that while he made a subscription payment of $2.00 the previous fall there was still a remaining unpaid balance of $1.50 (1 item)

The William L. Culbertson, Jr., scrapbook consists of one volume containing numerous newspaper clippings, documents, photographs, hand-drawn maps and illustrations, correspondence, and various ephemeral items related to the career of US Navy officer CDR William Linn Culbertson, Jr., between 1905 and 1918.

The William L. Culbertson, Jr., scrapbook consists of one volume containing numerous newspaper clippings, documents, photographs, hand-drawn maps and illustrations, correspondence, and various ephemeral items related to the career of US Navy officer CDR William Linn Culbertson, Jr., between 1905 and 1918.

The volume (25.5 x 19 cm) has 146 pages and is bound in red marbled paper covers. The covers and spine are in poor condition. Inside of the front cover there is a loose diplomatic passport for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France, from August 1916 that contains personal descriptive information as well as a photographic ID portrait. The scrapbook begins with newspaper clippings from ca. 1905 and subsequent materials proceed in chronological order for the most part. Numerous items collected during Culbertson, Jr.’s time abroad contain text in foreign languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, German, Arabic, and Greek.

• Hand-drawn portrait of a man playing cards and smoking a pipe (between pgs. 2 & 3)
• Clipping related to court martial of Iowan midshipman Charles M. James for alleged involvement in hazing (pg. 5)
• Photomechanical image of the U.S.S. Missouri (pg.7)
• 1906 New York herald clipping with full page illustrated article titled "At Sea with the Naval Cadets Annual Cruise of the Boys to Learn Practical Seamanship" (pg. 9)
• An order from Lt. CDR Cleland Davis of the U.S.S. Missouri dated May 24, 1906 instructing Culbertson, Jr., to "take charge of the remains of J. J. Molloy, fireman 1st class" who died from asphyxiation while ashore in New York City (pg. 11)
• A letter received March 27, 1906 while the U.S.S. Missouri was in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, regarding Culbertson, Jr.'s request to be assigned to a torpedo boat that will "make the trip to the Asiatic Station" (pg. 17)
• Ca. 1906 clipping regarding Culbertson, Sr.'s real estate dealings (pg. 19)
• Typescript copies of the "Plan for the Occupation of St. Marc, Hayti" dated February 1916 (between pgs. 30 & 31)
• Program for the "Memorial Service in memory of the Culbertsons, of 'Culbertson's row' and their descendants who served in the War of the American Revolution" held at Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church, Franklin County, Pennsylvania on September 15, 1907 (pg. 37)
• Pamphlet detailing "Facilities for American Seamen on shore leave in Rio de Janeiro, January, 1908" which includes a map of Rio's commercial district (pg. 41)
• Clippings of an article regarding Surgeon General Presley M. Rixley's opinion that medical officers be placed in command of hospital ships (pg. 44) and a satirical cartoon titled "When the Navy puts doctors in command of the hospital ships" (pg. 45)
• A humorous mock notice issued to Culbertson, Jr., in September 1908 while aboard the U.S.S. South Dakota sent by "Neptune Rex" and undersigned by "Secretary to his Majesty Davy Jones" (pg. 52)
• A manuscript map detailing features of American Samoa (pg. 53)
• Clippings of three cartoons from a series titled "Trials of a First Baby" (pgs. 54-57)
• Letter from oiler J. J. Murphy dated May 23, 1907, requesting permission to purchase his discharge from the U.S. Navy in order to return home to Ireland following the deaths of two brothers; obituary clipping attached (between pgs. 68 & 69)
• Manuscript item in Japanese (pg. 73)
• New York herald clipping giving Culbertson, Jr.'s account of what he saw in the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica (pg. 76)
• Manuscript map detailing the valley of the Artibonite River in Haiti, likely ca. 1915/1916 (between pgs. 86 & 87)
• Manuscript map detailing prospective plan of attack on St. Marc, Haiti, relative to the U.S.S. Des Moines, likely ca. 1916 (pg. 99)
• Passport for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the American Consulate in Alexandria, Egypt, on December 31, 1915 (pg. 115)
• Clipping of a humorous joke anecdote about a woman from San Francisco who contacted her deceased husband "John" with help from a spiritualist medium only to find he was much happier being dead than he ever was living with her (pg. 118)
• Memorandum dated October 13, 1915, regarding damages to the U.S.S. Brutus and U.S.S. Des Moines (pg. 129)
• Two French travel permits for Culbertson, Jr., issued by the Departement des Alpes-Maritimes in 1916 (pgs. 136 & 137)
• Numerous playbills, tickets, receipts, stamps, business cards (including cards for foreign naval officers), schedules, menus, advertisements, event invitations, social club notices, and other ephemeral items collected at various ports of call including Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Shanghai, Yokohama, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, New York City, Alexandria, Cyprus, Naples, etc. (passim)
• Numerous clippings related to World War I (passim)