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Collection

William A. Comstock Papers, 1899-1949

14 linear feet — 2 oversize folders

Alpena, Michigan, businessman, University of Michigan regent and Democratic governor of Michigan, 1933-1934; correspondence, diaries, business papers, and other items, concerning Democratic party affairs, state and national elections, real estate and financial transactions, and photographs.

The William A. Comstock papers document activities of a businessman/promoter and a Democratic Party functionary. Although the collection dates from 1902 to 1949, the bulk of the papers date from 1919 to 1932, the period of Comstock's primary business involvements. The collection has been arranged into five series: Correspondence, Other Papers and Records, Business Record Books, Diaries, and Photographs.

Collection

Twichell Family papers, 1831-1975 (majority within 1844-1975)

3.5 linear feet — 1 oversize folder

Hamburg, Livingston County, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, family. Correspondence, newspaper clippings and photographs of the Lohmiller, Twichell, and Hollister families.

The papers of the Twichell family document three generations of the extended Twichell families. It includes extensive correspondence files, reminiscences of life on turn-of-the-century Michigan farm and of student life the University of Michigan, files relating to the family businesses including boardinghouses in Ann Arbor, and photographs of family members, towns in Michigan, and University of Michigan students. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence, Alphabetical Files, Photographs, and Sound Recordings.

Collection

Tourist photograph album, 1880s-1900s

1 volume

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.

Collection

Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs, 1890-1896

1 volume

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia.

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia. Smith College photographs include dorm room interiors, women on campus, and a college basketball game. Connecticut scenes show a Connecticut River ferry, women boating and swimming in Bantam Lake, and St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut. Also depicted are buildings at Hampton Institute in Virginia, a variety of boats and warships, likely on the Chesapeake Bay, winter fishing, "oyster canoes" (skipjacks) and men unloading crabs at the factory. Other Virginia photographs show buildings in pre-restoration Williamsburg and rural life, possibly in the Williamsburg area, with rundown shacks, African Americans, ox-drawn carts, and a group of African American school children. Views from unidentified locales include rural scenes, streams and country roads, beaches, dwellings, family life photos with children in a variety of settings, posed Grecian tableaux, and a studio portrait of a man dressed in Native American clothing holding a la crosse ball and stick. Additional photographs include Jamestown church ruins, Deerfield Memorial Hall with several interior views, 7 photographs of interior rooms in an unidentified house, and canal views, possibly of the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Identified individuals include: Grace Collins Lathrop, Sue Boss, Sue Gardner, Alice Bishop, Fanny Coit, Emma Kelsey, Arthur Eggleston, Percy Eggleston, Henrietta Spear, Nellie Spear, Theodate Pope, Ethel Fiefield, and Mary Lewis.

The album is half bound in burgundy leather and is stored in a three part wrap with green cloth spine

Collection

Olga and Jesse Smith collection, 1898-1924 (majority within 1909-1914)

72 items

The Olga and Jesse Smith collection is made up of photographs, correspondence, and other materials revolving around this couple's work at the Ironwood and Ponca Schools for Native Americans, in South Dakota and Oklahoma, respectively.

The Olga and Jesse Smith collection is made up of photographs, correspondence, and other materials revolving around this couple's work at the Ironwood and Ponca Schools for Native Americans, in South Dakota and Oklahoma, respectively. The largest portion of the collection dates during their time at Ironwood School, 1909-1912, and the Ponca School, 1912-1914.

The centerpiece of the Smith collection is a photograph album, apparently kept by Olga Smith. Consisting of 304 mounted snapshots, this album is divided roughly into two parts: photos from South Dakota and photos from Oklahoma. The first images were taken in and around the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Their subjects include the Ironwood and Upper Cut Meat Day Schools, portraits of school children and other male and female members of the Lakota tribe, Native Americans in tribal costumes and on horseback, an excursion to the Badlands, and other subjects. Photographs taken in Oklahoma include views of the Ponca School and its school children, and other portraits.

This photograph album is valuable in its entirety, and for many of its outstanding individual images. Some of the most impressive photographs are casual portraits of Native Americans, snapshots of a Catholic "Indian Funeral," views of school buildings and grounds, and Native American rituals and encampments. The album also provides insight into what the Smiths deemed important enough to photograph and retain.

The collection also contains 39 loose photographs and images, including tintypes, real photo postcards, picture postcards, a cyanotype, studio portraits, and other miscellaneous photographs. These include family photographs, portraits of Native Americans (some in full regalia), Ponca and Ironwood schools and schoolchildren, images of Native American women cooking out-of-doors, a Rosebud Reservation hotel, a cemetery at the St. Francis Mission, and a several commercial picture postcards of locations on reservations in Oklahoma and North Dakota. See the Additional Descriptive Data for a more thorough list of subjects and names represented in the photograph album and loose photographs.

A small group of 10 letters accompanies the Smith collection. These include six letters and postcards from Olga to her parents and sister at Anderson and Graysville, Indiana, 1909-1910. Two of Olga's letters provide extensive details on life in Cut Meat on the Rosebud Reservation in February 1909. These letters describe the surrounding area, the school, the responsibilities of the Smiths' students, interactions with Native Americans, language barriers, the daily routine, and carriage and train travel. One of these two letters was printed in an Indiana newspaper. In the remaining four letters, Olga provides further insight into life on the reservation, pleads with her parents to visit, and offers advice on how to smuggle a child onboard a train without paying their fare. Smiths' daughter Mildred wrote a letter to her grandparents, in which she discusses her pets and expresses hope that they will come to visit (dated June 1909). Finally, two 1912 letters from Ironwood students to Jesse Smith in January 1912 discuss their chores and school attendance, and a single telegram to Jesse Smith in October 1914 regards his transfer to "Kiowa Schools," Oklahoma, to serve as supervising principal.

A selection of miscellaneous materials completes the Olga and Jesse Smith collection. Six of these nine items relate to the Smiths' school administration and their own efforts to learn and retain Sioux names and vocabulary. These include pages of typed names, titled "Indian Names That is Good for the Soul and Body," and "Sioux Indian Words from Memory"; two pages hung in the Ironwood school by Olga Smith, which list the female students cleaning and sewing responsibilities for two weeks; and a 55-page typed list of Native American names (possibly students). This last item contains approximately 1,450 names. Other miscellaneous materials include a commencement program for Olga Byrkett's graduation, 1898; a card with a hand-drawn teepee and tent which advertises a Progressive Dinner Party given by the Mission Ladies at Colony, Oklahoma, December 1916; and a Grand Secretary's Certificate for Jesse W. Smith, Master Mason, Ponca, Lodge No. 83, December 1924.

Collection

Northern Michigan Photograph Collection, ca. 1906-1940s

77 photographs

The Northern Michigan photograph collection contains an assortment of 43 photographic postcards, 28 mounted photographs, and 6 unmounted photographs showing people and scenes related to logging camp operations in northern Michigan, street views most likely from the town of Trenary, and road construction between Rapid River and Masonville.

The Northern Michigan photograph collection contains an assortment of 43 photographic postcards, 28 mounted photographs, and 6 unmounted photographs showing people and scenes related to logging camp operations in northern Michigan, street views most likely from the town of Trenary, and road construction between Rapid River and Masonville.

Per Albert Peterson (1886-1968), grandfather of collection donor Anne Peterson, is identified in two photographs. It is unclear whether members of the Peterson family took any of these photographs themselves. According to occasional annotations (many of which are not contemporary to when the photographs were taken), members of the “Johnson” family, including Oscar Johnson, John Johnson, and Manny Johnson, are the most frequently represented individuals. One group portrait of loggers is captioned “Wessling Johnson Camp” while another is captioned “Harry Schmit Camp 14.” Several postcards are addressed to an Eva Bannister located in Winters, Michigan, and a Henry Roos of Rapid River and Blaney, Michigan.

Depictions of logging camp operations include several group portraits that illustrate the size of a typical early 20th-century logging camp. A few images also highlight the cookhouse and social side of camp life, while there is also one photograph that shows the first motorized tractor used in log transport in the region. Other images show aspects of town and domestic life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula from approximately 1908 to 1920. There are group portraits of railroad workers, ice cutters, maple sap gatherers, a baseball team; family members at home or being pulled in dog sleighs; and scenes of town life including a parade that appears to involve individuals dressed in blackface, an early movie theater, a fire engine, and a train crossing. One group portrait appears to have been taken around the 1940s.

A sequence of 13 photographic postcards provides a detailed overview of the stages of rural road construction in the early 1920s including views of trains unloading material onto conveyors, narrow-gauge gravel trains delivering materials to the work site, work crews and horse-drawn graders contouring the surface, and steamrollers compressing the roadbed. The postcards include brief annotations typewritten on the front of the cards.

Collection

Noble Strong Elderkin Family Album, 1890-1910

approximately 305 items (photographs, photomechanical prints, ephemera) in 1 album

The Noble Strong Elderkin family album consists of approximately 305 photographs, photomechanical prints, and assorted ephemera relating to the family of Congregational minister Noble Strong Elderkin.

The Noble Strong Elderkin family album consists of approximately 305 photographs, photomechanical prints, and assorted ephemera relating to the family of Congregational minister Noble Strong Elderkin. The album (32 x 29 cm) has a green cloth binding. Items of interest include photographs of family homes and churches in Boulder (Colorado), Las Vegas (New Mexico), Cragsmoor (New York), New Haven (Connecticut), and Ogden (Utah); gatherings on Paw Paw Lake, Michigan; a group of Chi Phi members posed in Atlanta, Georgia, for the congress of 1900; Pearl Street in Boulder during 1901; gambling houses on 25th Street in Ogden; and views of Taos, New Mexico. Several large format photographs show school groups, including the interior of the West Division Street Kindergarten; a group of schoolchildren with teachers posed outside a school building; and teachers leading schoolchildren in outdoor activities outside of a school in "Forestville."

Photomechanical prints show tourist attractions and scenic views in Great Britain and Belgium. Ephemeral items include newspaper clippings, some of which pertain to Tiwa Pueblo Indians at Taos; a program from the San Geronimo Feast and Taos Carnival, 1902; and a booklet of souvenir photographs from Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Subjects identified in photographs include: Gustav Lubeck, Albert Hunt, Eline Lubeck Elderkin, Frieda Washington, Elvira Lubeck, Charles McCoy, George Elderkin, Laura Leburg, Dr. Edward F. Williams, Bryant Harroun, Oscar Maurer, Lucius Porter, Eleanor Booth, Marian Booth, Tom Horn, Bernard Devoto, Alice Gunnell, Howard C. Riis, Judith Elderkin, Noble Elderkin, Jr., Louise Pierce, Georgiana Rogers, Leana Elderkin, Frank K. Sanders, Rebecca Holdstock, Amy Ford, Marjorie Richardson, Ruth Sinclar.

Collection

Mildred Drury photograph album, ca. 1910

1 volume

The Mildred Drury photograph album contains 175 photographs of young men and women taken while traveling throughout Europe and the United States ca. 1910.

The Mildred Drury photograph album contains 175 photographs of young men and women taken while traveling throughout Europe and the United States ca. 1910. The images consist primarily of informal snapshots of family, friends, and travel. There are no captions or notations beyond an inscription on the front inside cover which reads, "Mildred W Drury."

The first pages of the album include photographs taken in New York City. On a few of these pages, Columbia University's Low Memorial Library can be seen. On page 15, a woman sculpting a bust and a sculptor's studio are shown. The next few pages show various views from the grounds of Château de Versailles. In particular, Hameau de la Reine can be seen in the background on page 20. Also taken in France, photographs on pages 68 through 70 show views from the Eiffel Tower. On page 21 are photographs of Ely Cathedral. The next series of photographs were likely taken in the Netherlands. Images show canals, canal boats, towpaths, and traditional dress and architecture of the region. Following, are five pages of the Alps, traveling through the mountains, and hotels. Photographs on pages 48 through 52 were taken in Italy and show Amalfi, Amalfi Drive (Strada Statale 163), Piazza San Marco, gondolas, and women doing laundry. The last portion of the album includes photographs likely taken in the United States. These photographs show family gatherings, snowshoeing, golfing, and canoeing.

The album is 20.25 x 14.75 cm with green cloth covers.

Collection

Midwest Family Photograph Album, 1900s-1920s

approximately 275 photographs in 1 volume

The Midwest family photograph album contains approximately 275 photographs related to the life and family of an unidentified World War I serviceman likely from Indiana.

The Midwest family photograph album contains approximately 275 photographs related to the life and family of an unidentified World War I serviceman likely from Indiana. The album (26 x 18.5 cm) has black cloth covers with "Photographs" embossed in gold on the front. Images of interest include views related to an unidentified high school including classrooms, the basketball team, young women sewing in a classroom, the sophmore quartet, physics class, and a band at practice; views of soldiers in uniform shown beside army tents and barracks; the Waters Concert Band from Elkhart, Indiana; a woman holding a House of David flag; and many posed group and individual portraits, mostly taken on a farm or in other rural areas. One portrait photograph shows a young woman holding a camera bearing the caption on the verso: Mabel Devor. Several photographs show a man in a naval uniform aboard a ship, including a group portrait of a naval crew. A picture postcard of a young man's studio portrait is addressed to Mabel Devor, Salamonia, Indiana.

Collection

Mark A. Anderson Collection of Post-Mortem Photography, 1840s-1970s (majority within 1840s-1920s)

approximately 1064 items

The Mark A. Anderson collection of post-mortem photography contains approximately 1068 items including photographs, ephemeral items, documents, manuscripts, printed items, and realia pertaining to the visual history of death and bereavement between the 1840s and the 1970s. Photographs make up the bulk of the collection.

The Mark A. Anderson collection of post-mortem photography contains approximately 1068 photographs, ephemeral items, documents, manuscripts, printed items, and realia pertaining to the visual history of death and bereavement between the 1840s and the 1970s. Photographs make up the bulk of the collection. Mr. Anderson assembled this collection from dealers, antique shops, and individuals. His motivation stemmed from a desire to document and to provide historical perspective on various end-of-life practices which, in the 20th century, fell into taboo and disfavor.

The majority portion of the photographic items in the collection are neither dated, nor attributed, although approximate dates can often be determined by when particular photographic formats were in use (see timeline at www.graphicatlas.org.). Consequently, the materials have been organized first to accommodate their sizes, formats, and preservation needs, and second to reflect major subject themes present, though scattered, throughout the entire collection. These non-mutually exclusive subjects are as follows:

  • Post-mortem portraits
  • Post-mortem scenes
  • Funeral tableaux
  • Funerals and funeral processions
  • Floral arrangements and displays
  • Memorial cards and sentimental imagery
  • Cemeteries and monuments
  • Funeral industry
  • Mourning attire
  • Unnatural death

The first three subjects - post-mortem portraits, scenes, and funeral tableaux - all depict the recently deceased, and so fall into the narrowest definition of a post-mortem photograph. Their distinction into three separate subjects is a partly arbitrary decision, made to break up what would otherwise be a large and unwieldy grouping of photos, but also to roughly shape the order of the collection (post-mortem portraits without décor tended to date earlier chronologically than broader, beautifying scenes).

Post-mortem portraits:

The post-mortem portrait photographs, comprising 251 items in the collection, depict the bodies of dead family members and friends. These images show the deceased, sometimes posed with living family members, and for the most part do not include elements of a larger scene, such as floral arrangements, banners, or other décor.

These portraits include the earliest photographic images in the collection, including 28 cased daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. 78 cabinet card photographs date from the late 1860s to around the turn of the century. Among many notable cabinet cards are two images of Frances Radke, taken and retouched by R. C. Houser, showing her image before and after Houser's post-capture work (3.1 and 3.2). Also of note is a framed crayon enlargement of infant Adelaide Banks by photographer/artist Edward Stuart Tray (26) and a post-mortem carte de visite of an unidentified African American infant taken by photographer S. P. Davis of Danielsonville, Connecticut (4.282u).

Post-mortem scenes:

The post-mortem scene photographs, numbering 155 items in total, are similar to the portraits described above, except that they show the deceased as part of a larger environment, whether in a private home, a funeral home, or out-of-doors. Most of these views are mounted photographic prints from the 1880s to the early decades of the 20th century, frequently centering on the corpse, lying in a casket or coffin, amidst an abundance of floral arrangements, banners or flags, family members or friends, and/or personal belongings. Their caskets are often lined with white cloth.

Many of these images have unique qualities; several examples illustrate the variety of postmortem scenes in the collection. Six photographs by W. Jakubowski and Co. and Jos. Ziawinski, of Detroit, Michigan, include five wedding photographs (of the bride and groom, bridesmaids, and family members) and one post-mortem scene of the wife. She appears to have died within a short time following the marriage; the funeral home scene image contains one of the wedding photographs and a banner marked "Dearest Wife" (18.5-18.10). One mounted photograph depicts a dog, laid on linen, in a homemade casket (14:17). The collection also contains examples of different persons on display in the same funeral home/parlor (e.g. 18.1-18.4). A set of two cabinet card photos of a child in a buggy is accompanied by one of the buggy's metal lanterns (23.1-23.3). Also of note is a photogravure of the 1888 painting "Requiescat" by British artist Briton Rivière showing a dog seated next to its deceased owner (25.2).

Funeral tableaux:

The collection's 35 funeral tableaux photographs show the deceased in an open casket or coffin, typically in front of a church or homestead, with a posed assembly of funeral attendees or mourners. They often show a large group of family and friends, and so are frequently large format prints. Group portraits of this sort were occasionally framed and displayed in the home. Most of the examples in this collection are large prints (many of them mounted), with smaller examples, including a real photo postcard, two snapshots, and one cabinet card. Particular items of note include a framed tableau on the steps of the Church of The Descent of The Holy Ghost in Detroit by Thomas Hoffman (27), a photomontage image of a nun's funeral (28), two tableaux scenes by F. A. Drukteinis taken outside of the same church in Detroit during different seasons and involving the same family (20.12 and 20.15), and three related tableaux scenes (two mounted and one unmounted) involving a presumably Hungarian family that were taken outside of what appears to be a Catholic church in Cleveland, Ohio, during three different funerals (20.16a-20.16c).

Funerals and funeral processions:

The 70 items depicting or pertaining to funeral gatherings show various aspects of the movement of the deceased from the home or funeral home to the cemetery and funeral and burial ceremonies. This group is comprised of real photo postcards (22 items), snapshots (13 items), and a variety of other formats. Examples include an albumen print depicting the Plymouth Church decorated for Henry Ward Beecher's funeral in 1887, and snapshot and postcard photographs of a burial at sea.

Floral arrangements and displays:

Additional documentation of funeral decoration may be found in the collection's 176 still life portraits of floral arrangements and other decorations. A portion of the floral display photographs include pre- or post-mortem photos of the deceased either incorporated into the display or added to the image after printing. One particularly fine example is a large format photograph of a floral arrangement for the funeral of Joshua Turner Mulls; the display included a cabinet card photo of Mr. Mulls and a modified enlargement of the cabinet card. Accompanying the floral arrangement photograph is the cabinet card depicted in the display, with artist's instructions for coloring the enlargement (22.1-22.2).

Memorial cards and sentimental imagery:

The collection includes 105 memorial cards and ephemeral items bearing sentimental imagery. Memorial cards were created as tributes, often displaying birth dates, death dates, and other information about the deceased. Many of these cards include border designs and some bear photographs of the departed. Black-fronted memorial cards gained popularity from 1880 to 1905. Of many interesting examples, the collection includes two examples of memorial cards which haven't yet been personalized (4.306-4.307) and two reflecting World War I-related deaths (4.316 and 4.317). Materials with sentimental imagery include items such as a photograph of an illustration entitled "Momma is in Heaven," a memorial book dedicated to Olive C. Partridge in 1897, and other items.

Note: an advertisement for the Memorial Card Company of Philadelphia is located in the 'Funeral Industry' section of the collection (14.35).

Cemeteries and monuments:

61 photographs, printed items, and realia explicitly pertain to cemeteries, burial markers, or monuments. Some of the cemeteries and monuments are identified, such as the Garfield Memorial at Lakeview Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio (4.1-4.3). The collection includes examples of cemetery-related realia, including an ovular, porcelain headstone photograph (pre-mortem) of the deceased.

Note: cemeteries may be seen as background for many photographs throughout the collection.

The funeral industry:

The Mark A. Anderson collection of post-mortem photography holds a diverse selection of photographs, ephemera, and printed materials related to the business aspects of death, dying, and bereavement. This group contains around 153 items overall, including receipts (1896-1956); various types of advertising materials (including an undertaker's advertising card, a cabinet photograph of the Arbenz & Co. storefront advertising undertaking as a service, fans from a church and the A. C. Cheney funeral home, a thermometer, and other items); and 118 coffin sales photographs (illustrating a massive selection of different casket models offered by the Boyertown Burial Casket Company of Pennsylvania).

Two photograph albums, that of Clarence E. Mapes' furniture store and funeral home and that of the Algoe-Gundry Company funeral home, provide visual documentation of a rural and an urban funeral home (respectively) in Michigan in the first half of the 20th century:

The photo album and scrapbook of Clarence E. Mapes' furniture store and funeral home in Durand, Michigan, dating from ca. 1903-1930, contains interior and exterior photographs of the furniture and undertaker portions of the shop. The album includes photographs of casket showroom display mechanisms; an example of a "burglar proof" metallic vault; a posed photo of the embalmer standing over a man on the embalming table; images of carriage and motorized hearses; business-related newspaper clippings; and various family and vacation photographs. Several prints, dated August 1903, appear to depict the aftermath of the Wallace Brothers Circus train wreck on the Grand Trunk railroad at Durand. Among these photographs are carriage hearses, a horse-drawn cart carrying ten or more oblong boxes (for transportation and perhaps burial of victims of the wreck), a man standing in an alleyway near three stacked boxes, and a large group of persons standing in a largely unearthed section of a cemetery. The Mapes album is accompanied by a C. E. Mapes Furniture advertising fly-swatter.

The Algoe-Gundry Company album dates from ca. 1924 to 1960 and contains (almost exclusively) 8"x10" photographs of this Flint, Michigan, funeral business. The album includes images of the exterior and interior of Algoe-Gundry buildings, hearses, ambulances, and billboard advertisements.

One album was produced ca. 1939 by the Central Metallic Casket Co. of Chicago, Illinois. Titled "Caskets of Character," the album contains images of patented (or soon to be patented) casket designs as well as a printed cross-sectional view detailing the company's "Leak-Proof" Separate Inner Sealer.

Also of interest is funeral director's license granted by the Michigan State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to Vincent J. George of Fowler, Michigan, in 1938. (25.1)

Mourning attire:

In America, mourning attire tended to follow trends set in Europe. The bereaved wore mourning clothing according to current fashion trends and societal expectations. Mourning clothing styles, often dark-colored and somber, depended on how close the mourner was to the deceased and local societal expectations. Seventeen portrait photographs show men and women wearing mourning attire without the deceased present. This group includes cabinet cards, a 1/9 plate ambrotype of an adult woman, two tintypes, and one carte-de-visite.

Note: persons wearing mourning attire may also be found scattered throughout the other sections of the Mark A. Anderson collection. While most are concentrated in the funeral photographs, mourners are also present in postmortem portraits, postmortem scenes, and cemetery photos.

Unnatural death:

43 photographs (mostly snapshots) depict "unnatural deaths," deaths not caused by age or naturally occurring disease, such as suicides, accidents, murders, and war. The larger portions of the snapshots are mid-20th century police photographs of crime or accident scenes.

Nine Indiana State Police photographs show a train-automobile accident; a group of eight unmarked photos depict the body of woman, apparently violently murdered, at the location of her death and in a morgue; 14 are of a man struck down, beneath a train; two are of a rifle suicide; and the others are of varying accidents. One World War I-era real photo postcard appears to show a man who was shot dead in a foxhole. A stereoscopic card by photographer B. W. Kilburn shows the burial of Filipino soldiers after the Battle of Malolos, Philippine Islands [ca. 1899].

Note: The photograph album/scrapbook of the Clarence E. Mapes furniture and undertakers shop contains several photographs of what appear to be the aftermath of the Wallace Brothers Circus train wreck, Durand, Michigan 1903 (see above description in the 'Funeral Industry' section of this scope and content note).