Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Admiral William Mead photograph album contains approximately 250 photographs related to the family and career of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Whitman Mead.

The Admiral William Mead photograph album contains approximately 250 photographs related to the family and career of U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William Whitman Mead.

The album (35.5 x 29 cm) has pebbled covers with partial leather bindings and "Photographs" stamped on the front cover and contains around 250 photographs of various sizes and formats, including collodion, gelatin silver, platinum, silver platinum and albumen prints, cyanotypes, and snapshots. The spine and edges show considerable wear. The photographs chronicle three periods in Admiral Mead's naval career: his time as lighthouse inspector in the Great Lakes, and his assignments as commandant of the Newport, Rhode Island naval base and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Additionally, there is at least one photograph towards the front of the album from the Lomaland School in San Diego as well as a series of others mostly located towards the back of the album that were taken in an unidentified tropical location (possibly Florida).

Some of the album’s captions, primarily in beginning and the lighthouse section, appear to have been first added when it was originally assembled and many are partially erased. The majority of captions, however, were contributed at a later date by Admiral Mead’s niece, Annie Adelia Mead Ferguson. Annie appears to have come into possession of the album at some point and added her own annotations identifying people and places she recognized in the photographs. She also added a handwritten note to the inside of the album’s front cover in 1970 indicating that the album had once “belonged to William Whitman Mead” before explaining that she captioned certain images herself and speculating on which of her children might want to inherit the album. It is unclear who originally took many of the photographs, though there are indications that Annie's mother Unadilla Gazlay Mead may have contributed some material. One photograph on pg. 32 shows Unadilla and her husband Omar C. Mead, Admiral Mead’s brother, posing together on a dock in either Portsmouth or Newport while the former can be seen holding a camera in her hands, while on pg. 44 there is a self-portrait taken in a mirror of a woman with a camera that appears to be Unadilla.

The album provides extensive documentation of lighthouses along the shores of Lakes Superior and Huron in the mid-1890s, as well as views from Great Lakes locations such as Duluth, Copper Harbor, and the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Specific lighthouses represented include Seul Choix Light, Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, Sand Island Lighthouse, Huron Island Lighthouse, Isle Royale Light, an abandoned lighthouse on Isle Royale, a pair of unidentified lighthouses possibly located in the Keweenaw Peninsula, Windmill Point, a lighthouse in St. Clair Flats, Gull Rock, Stannard’s Rock, Rock Harbor Light, and other unidentified structures. Images related to Admiral Mead’s time at the Newport naval base include portraits of Mead both in and out of uniform, portraits of family members such as Julia Mead, a collotype postcard of Trinity Church, and various buildings and street scenes. Images related to Admiral Mead’s time at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard include views of the Commandant’s house, “The Admiral’s Yacht,” and portraits of various individuals including John W. Yerkes, Elizabeth O. Yerkes, Amelia R. Yerkes, Annie Meade Matthews, Omar C. Mead, and Annie Adelia Meade as a young child. Of particular interest are a number of candid shots of locations and participants in the Portsmouth peace talks that ended the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 (including several photographs of three unidentified Japanese men described as “servants” in one caption) that are present on pgs. 30, 36, 37, and 39. While most of the ships that appear in the album are unidentified, identified vessels include the passenger steamer North Land on pg. 16 and the lighthouse tender Marigold on pg. 23. Other individuals identified by caption include Robert A. Watts (Admiral Mead’s brother-in-law) and Margaret A. Watts (Admiral Mead’s mother-in-law). Also present are three outdoor portraits of unidentified African American men and women on pg. 21 captioned “Those good ole’ days!!” and “Same good ole days!” as well as a cyanotype of an unidentified African American girl on pg. 48.

The Augustus J. J. Thibaudeau family photograph album contains approximately 308 photographs and 4 manuscript items related to the family and friends of Augustus J. J. Thibaudeau, a prominent lawyer based in Niagara Falls, New York, and a representative of the Photo-Pictorialist movement in photography.

The Augustus J. J. Thibaudeau family photograph album contains approximately 308 photographs and 4 manuscript items related to the family and friends of Augustus J. J. Thibaudeau, a prominent lawyer based in Niagara Falls, New York, and a representative of the Photo-Pictorialist movement in photography.

The album (26 x 31 cm) has black cloth covers with “Snap Shots” embossed in silver on the front. The 4 loose manuscript items are contained in a Mylar enclosure at the beginning of the album and include two letters from Marie Thibaudeau written to her mother and father while abroad in England in 1923; a booklet made of faux-bark paper containing a watercolor illustration and poem about fishing titled “Stower’s Fish”; and a hand-written recipe booklet containing 18 recipes for various dishes.

Around 111 loose photographs of various sizes and formats are also contained in a Mylar enclosure and mostly include individual and group portraits (both indoors and outdoors), natural landscape views, and images of homes. A small percentage of these photographs have captions on their versos, including some that identify subjects. Of the loose photographs, images of interest include a group portrait of young women at Wellesley College in 1918 during their freshman year; portraits of Marie Thibaudeau, including several showing her posing with her beloved dog Sam-Sam; snapshots taken during a trip to Rome in 1932; and numerous images showing exterior views of houses as well as swimming, fishing, boating, and other outdoor activities taking place near the Thibaudeau family cottage on the Georgian Bay in Ontario.

Approximately 197 photographs are pasted into the album proper. A number of these photographs are partially unglued and in some cases writing on their versos is accessible. The album has many photographs showing waterfront summer vacation scenes from what appears to be different trips to the family cottage over a span of several years; some of these images in the front end of the album have inscriptions on their versos which indicate those photographs were taken in August 1910 by “D.B.” Other images of note include a picture showing a group of young women in a large sleigh with the verso caption reading “Marie Thibaudeau ΖΣΕ Jan, 24, 1912”; a pair of photographs showing siblings Kenneth Fraser Allan and Dorothy Elizabeth Allan when aged 3 and 6 respectively; two group portraits of young men in military uniforms standing in formation; photographs taken at Wellesley College showing buildings, students, campus scenes, large group activities, and a commencement ceremony; two photographs of a biplane mid-flight; and a series of interior views of an unidentified home that appears to have a menorah above the fireplace.

The David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography consists of over 100,000 images in a variety of formats including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet photographs, real photo postcards, stereographs, and mounted and unmounted paper prints. The collection is primarily made up of vernacular photographs of everyday life in Michigan taken by both professional and amateur photographers from the 1840s into the mid-twentieth century. In addition to supporting local history research, the collection has resources for the study of specific events and subjects. Included are images related to lumbering, mining, suburbanization; the industrialization of cities; travel and transportation; the impact of the automobile; the rise of middle-class leisure society; fashion and dress; ethnicity and race; the role of fraternal organizations in society; and the participation of photographers in business, domestic, and social life. The collection is only partially open for research.

The subject contents of different photographic format series within the Tinder collection vary, depending in part upon how each format was historically used, and the date range of that format's popularity. For example, cartes de visite and cased images are most often formal studio portraits, while stereographs are likely to be outdoor views. Cabinet photographs are frequently portraits, but often composed with less formality than the cartes de visite and cased images. The postcards and the mounted prints contain very diverse subjects. The photographers' file contains many important and rare images of photographers, their galleries, promotional images, and the activities of photographers in the field. See individual series descriptions in the Contents List below for more specific details.

Included throughout are images by both professional and amateur photographers, although those by professionals are extant in far greater numbers.

The Electric railway engineer photograph album consists of approximately 235 photographs and 1 booklet documenting the professional and personal life of an unidentified railway engineer specializing in electric rail line infrastructure.

The Electric railway engineer photograph album consists of approximately 235 photographs and 1 booklet documenting the professional and personal life of an unidentified railway engineer specializing in electric rail line infrastructure.

The album (25.5 x 30.5 cm) has dark green cloth covers with “Photographs” stamped on the front cover. All of the album pages are loose and fairly brittle, but the images are in generally good condition.

The first page contains sixteen signatures from participants in the 30th reunion of the Union College class of 1885. Subsequent photographs include several views of Union College campus, aspects of student life (including dorm room interiors and a group of portraits showing crossdressing men captioned “Minstrels"), and formal portraits of members of the Kappa Alpha Society in the mid-1880s, presumably including some of the attendees at the reunion whose signatures are represented.

The unidentified presumed compiler of the album can be seen in several photographs. He appears to have been an engineer specializing in infrastructure projects for electric-powered rail systems and was active in the early stages of when railroads in the United States were moving towards electrification. Many of the smaller circular photographs found throughout in the album were likely produced by a Kodak No. 2 camera, while larger format prints and cyanotypes are also present.

Contents are arranged chronologically starting with the compiler's student days before focusing on various professional assignments and elements of his personal life. During the ten years following his graduation from Union College the compiler apparently participated in several railroad development projects, mainly in what would become Washington State but also in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Idaho. Photographs from this period of his life include views of survey camps along the Columbia River and other regional waterways, interior and exterior views of the compiler’s home in Tacoma, portraits of his growing family, and snapshots of Klickitat people (including a group portrait of three women picking hops). By 1896 the compiler and his family appear to have moved back east, settling in New Rochelle, New York. Photographs from this period include documentation of projects on intercity lines on Staten Island and other nearby boroughs, a project in upstate New York, and numerous images of friends and family. The Albany and Hudson Railway and Power Company’s new electric train line to various towns between Hudson and Albany required establishing power sources along the route. As a small group of photographs in this album show, this necessitated constructing a dam at Stuyvesant Falls on the Kinderhook Creek which would provide electric power to the rail line and various local businesses. The final pages of the album document the construction of Hudson Park Dock in New Rochelle as well as leisure activities such as the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup auto races and a naval review in Oyster Bay.

A total of 18 loose photographs are included towards the back of the album. Images include a group portrait of Union College students from the 1880s, a studio portrait of a young woman and infant taken in the mid-1890s in Tacoma, and a double exposure of a woman standing next to an automobile in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1918. Also present is a printed pamphlet replete with numerous halftone reproduction images titled “Letter from Mayor Clarke to the Voters of New Rochelle with Pictures of Improvements Under His Administration” which highlights several civic infrastructure projects (including the Hudson Park Dock) undertaken during the tenure of mayor Henry Clarke.

The European vacation photograph album contains 74 photographs taken throughout Europe ca. 1910. A majority of the photos show various rooms and interior views of an apartment in Rome. Other specific locations include Oxford (England), Subiaco (Italy), Canterbury (England), Füssen (Germany), Weesen (Switzerland), and Glarus (Switzerland).

The European vacation photograph album contains 74 photographs taken throughout Europe ca. 1910. A majority of the photos show various rooms and interior views of an apartment in Rome. Other specific locations include Oxford (England), Subiaco (Italy), Canterbury (England), Fussen (Germany), Weesen (Switzerland), and Glarus (Switzerland).

The first 50 photos housed in the album consist primarily of interior views of the apartment. Handwritten notes provide general descriptions of the view (e.g. "looking from salon through little room where the books are into the salottino"). One specific piece of furniture mentioned is a credenza; which, according to the note, came from the British Embassy. Also included are images of a garden terrace (covered in snow), rooftop cityscape views of Rome, and three individuals (man, woman, and maid). The woman, likely the creator of the album, is referred to as Mable and the maid as Livie. In addition, there is one photo of the Holywell Ford House at Magdalen College, Oxford.

The remaining 24 photos are loose and housed in an envelope. These images show scenes of traveling and sightseeing throughout Europe. Specific sites include the House of Agnes in Canterbury, Sacro Speco in Subiaco, and downtown views of Weesen and Füssen. Of particular note is a photo of a pile of empty fiaschi. The handwritten notation on the back reads "This is our pile of empty wine flasks. I don't belong to the WCTU."

The album is 20.5 x 15 cm with black cloth covers.

The Family and travel photograph album contains approximately 120 commercial and amateur photographs primarily showing a couple and their two young children.

The Family and travel photograph album contains approximately 120 commercial and amateur photographs primarily showing a couple and their two young children.

The album (18.5 x 28 cm) features photographs of the unidentified couple and an their children at home, visiting friends, and on trips to the shore. Also included are photographs of stately homes and several childrens' parties, with one group of children holding hoops and sticks. Commercial photographs include a view of Washington, D.C. from the Capitol dome; the U.S. Capitol building; the Statue of Liberty; the former Treasury building on Wall Street in New York City; the Brooklyn Bridge; Carpenters' Hall; the S.S. Teutonic; and a nearly completed Philadelphia City Hall.

The Galveston, Texas photograph album contains 33 photographs, the majority of which depict Galveston, Texas ca. 1908.

The Galveston, Texas photograph album contains 33 photographs, the majority of which depict Galveston, Texas ca. 1908. Included are cyanotypes, albumen prints, and postcard photo prints. Photographs consist of a railroad crossing tower, railroad station, trestle bridge, freight and passenger steamers, downtown street views, family photographs, grandstands, earth embankments, buildings under construction, and Galveston's seawall and grade raising project. Amusement/water parks shown include Electric Park (Galveston, Texas), Chutes Park (Galveston, Texas), and Lake Cliff Park (Dallas, Texas).

The album is 19 x 14.5 cm with brown paper covers. A cyanotype of an unidentified building is pasted to the front cover.

The Gloversville, New York photograph album contains 100 photographs taken in Gloversville, New York, and the surrounding area ca. 1905.

The Gloversville, New York photograph album contains 100 photographs taken in Gloversville, New York, and the surrounding area ca. 1905. The first portion of the album consists of natural landscape and scenic cyanotypes. Also included are photographs of a flood, street-railroad cars, city street views, a photographer's studio, children, a farm, dogs, a drugstore, and a soda fountain. The last few pages of the album contain 60 small portraits.

The album is 20 x 14.5 cm with black cloth covers.

The Greenwood family Christmas album, 1891 (13.25 x 23.5 cm) is a paper album containing 6 cyanotype photograph views of James and Marcellus Greenwoods' homes in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and two portraits.

The Greenwood family Christmas album, 1891 (13.25 x 23.5 cm) contains 6 cyanotypes in an album of cream textured paper, bound with a turquoise ribbon. "Christmas 1891." is written on the cover in blue ink.

The first page states "Dear Louise, Please accept this reminder of our family, with much love from Uncle James and Aunt Thankful."

The first photograph is a view of James and Thankful Greenwood's home in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The second photograph is an interior view of the same house.

The third and fourth photographs are views of the interior and exterior of the home of Marcellus Greenwood.

The fifth cyanotype is of James Greenwood in front of a yeast cart.

The last image is of six children with play guns. Marcellus' young children George and Frederick Greenwood are present.

The Grenfell, Saskatchewan snapshot album (22.25 x 15.25 cm) contains 26 unidentified snapshot photographs and 1 index sheet. The contents are of landscapes, First Nations people and their campsites, village buildings, livestock, townspeople, and a locomotive.

The Grenfell, Saskatchewan snapshot album (22.25 x 15.25 cm) contains 26 snapshots and 1 index sheet. The title printed on the front cover reads "Scenes by the Way." The contents are of landscapes, First Nations people and their campsites, village buildings, livestock, townspeople, and a locomotive. A note written on the inside front cover indicates that this was a Christmas gift to a cousin, and a note below this includes information about the Grenfell railroad station. An index of captions is loose in an envelope within the album. The identified subjects in the album are referred to by their first names.