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

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 Tyler-Montgomery-Scott family album chronicles multiple generations of the Tyler, Montgomery, and Scott families of the Philadelphia area from the 1860s through the 1930s. It includes approximately 275 items including studio portrait photographs, informal snapshots, newspaper clippings, postcards, letters, and other ephemera.

The Tyler-Montgomery-Scott family album chronicles multiple generations of the Tyler, Montgomery, and Scott families of the Philadelphia area from the 1860s through the 1930s. It includes approximately 275 items including studio portrait photographs, informal snapshots, newspaper clippings, postcards, letters, and other ephemera.

The album (33 x 25.5 cm) is string-bound with grey cloth covers. Most photographs in the album have detailed handwritten captions identifying people, often with their middle or maiden names as well as the location and date. The presentation of the album is not strictly chronological, especially in the latter half. The early generations of Tylers are represented in photographic formats such as cartes-de-visite, tintypes and cabinet cards, while later generations are represented in snapshots and postcards. When the album reaches the mid-twentieth century, it begins to resemble the modern family album with various forms of ephemera (newspaper clippings, drawings, letters, Christmas cards, etc.) supplementing the photographs of family and friends.

The album begins with a portrait of Frederick Tyler, his daughter Sarah Sophia Cowen, granddaughter Kate “Gwen” Cowen Pratt, and great-granddaughter Kate Pratt. George F. and Louisa R. Tyler as well as their children (including Sidney F. and Helen Beach Tyler) are also featured in the initial section of the album, along with many extended family members, friends, nurses, and pets. Among the family friends pictured are painter Frederick Church, writer Bret Harte, Leonor Ruiz de Apodaca y Garcia-Tienza, Gen. William Buel Franklin, patent lawyer and historian Woodbury Lowery, and the Duke and Duchess of Arcos (Jose Ambrosio Brunetti and Virginia Woodbury Lowery Brunetti). Several interior views of rooms in George F. and Louisa R. Tyler’s home on 201 South 15th St. taken in 1896 are also present, including a photograph of the “Children’s play room” that features their granddaughter Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery holding a doll. Hope, her parents Mary W. and Sidney F. Tyler, her husband Robert “Bob” L. Montgomery, and their children Mary, Ives, and Alexander are well-represented in the album.

Of particular interest are a number of photographs in different sections of the album that depict Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Some of these images are formal studio portraits, while others are more candid snapshots of Roosevelt with other people. One snapshot shows the family at play on the grounds of Sagamore Hill in 1897. Two photos taken at the White House including Helen Beach Tyler, daughter of George F. and Louisa R. Tyler and second cousin to Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, are labelled “taken by Ted Roosevelt,” possibly referring to President Roosevelt’s son Theodore Roosevelt III. Helen Beach Tyler may be the “Nellie” who was the recipient of a partial letter included in the album which describes conditions at a wartime hospital (most likely in Italy) in 1915. Only the first two pages of this letter are included, and there is no indication of the identity of the writer. Helen Beach Tyler may also have been the principal compiler of this album. Supporting this possibility is the presence of an interior view of a bedroom at 201 South 15th St. (George F. and Louisa R. Tyler’s home) captioned as “Mother’s bedroom,” a signed portrait of Englishman Lytton Sothern captioned “Given to me by Mr. Sothern June 1872. Mr. Edward Sothern & his son Lytton Sothern sat at our table on ‘Oceanic’ my first trip to Europe,” and a portrait of Sara Schott von Schottenstein, Baronin von Prittwitz-Gaffron, bearing the inscription “to her friend Helen Tyler 1880.”

Other items of interest include portraits of Col. August Cleveland Tyler; several portraits of Brig. Gen. Robert Ogden Tyler; a portrait of French pianist Antoine Marmontel captioned “Mr. Marmontel Professor au Conservatoire gave us music lessons in Paris 1873-74”; a group portrait of Helen Beach Tyler, Mary L. Tyler, Alice Seward, Kitty Seward, and Ida Vinton posing with a silhouette of Sidney F. Tyler; photographs of painted portraits of George F. Tyler and Hope Binney Tyler Montgomery; a series of photos taken at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico City, some of which include the Duke and Duchess of Arcos, Woodbury Lowery, and Archibald Lowery; portraits of the Prittwitz-Gaffron family in Germany; photos taken around the world in various locations including Egypt, India, Germany, and Italy; images taken during an exhibition of sculpture by Stella Elkins Tyler (wife of George Frederick Tyler, Jr.), as well as a program from the event; and photos showing the family of Helen Hope and Edgar Scott.

The Parrish family photograph album contains 110 photographs assembled by the Parrish family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, including images of family and friends, political figures, celebrities, and popular illustrations as well as photographs related to Union efforts to educate freed slaves during the Civil War in the Port Royal Experiment.

The album (15.5 x 24 cm) has embossed brown leather covers and two metal clasps. 63 loose photographs are stored in Mylar sleeves and many appear to have been separated from the album over time. In some cases, it is possible to match loose images with a specific page slot through pairing inscriptions on the photograph with annotations present in the album. However, many loose images do not contain any identifying information, so it is unclear where some may have been located within the album or if they were ever associated with the album in the first place. It is possible that a small portion of the loose images were never originally included in the album since there are more photographs present in the collection than there are available photo slots in the album. At least two portraits from the 1890s do not appear to have belonged to the original family collection.

Compilation of the album may have first begun in the 1860s, but it was most likely completed during in the 1870s with photographs that the Parrish family had acquired over time. Sarah H. Parrish, née Wilson (1836-1892), the wife of Joseph Parrish’s grandson John Cox Parrish (1836-1921), may have been one of the primary creators of the album. She and John had a daughter named Caroline L. Parrish (1863-1915), who may be the “Carrie” whose name is written on the back of some of the photographs. Overall, there appear to be three different styles of handwriting present in the album. Captions for several of the album’s portraits were made in pencil in a flowing cursive while other names appear in a more juvenile-looking cursive hand, and a distinctive third hand also appears sporadically. The two cursive hands may well have been Sarah’s and Carrie’s as mother and daughter worked on the album together in the mid to late-1870s, with an occasional contribution (the third hand) possibly made by one of Carrie’s three younger brothers. One other detail supports this hypothesis: a portrait labelled “Fred” with “Mrs. Parrish, with love of Fred” inscribed on the verso. The individual photographed here was most likely Sarah’s cousin, Frederick Cleveland Homes (1844-1915). Additionally, the portrait on the page next to Fred’s portrait is of a young child identified as “Charlie Homes,” and it is likely that this is Fred’s son Charles Ives Homes (1872-1939).

Parrish family members are well represented in this album, while other unidentified family members may also be portrayed in some of the loose photographs without captions. Likely family friends or acquaintances of the Parrishes whose portraits are present include George and Catherine Truman, James and Lucretia Mott, the Rev. Richard Newton, and Phillip Brooks, all of whom were active in the same abolitionist organizations as the Parrishes. The album also contains many images of admired religious, political, and cultural figures, including Quaker heroes George Fox and Elizabeth Fry; Civil War leaders Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant; George and Martha Washington; social reformers Dorothea Dix and Anna E. Dickinson; actor Edwin Booth; and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. A number of these images are photographic reproductions of painted, engraved, or lithographic portraits. Also present are four hand-colored photographs of Dutch women in traditional dress as well as photographic reproductions of popular sentimental genre scenes such as “The Unconvanience of Single Life.”

Of particular note are a series of photographs related to the Port Royal Experiment, an ambitious effort to provide education for freed slaves following the capture of islands off the coast of South Carolina by Union troops in 1861. Relief committees in the North raised money and sent volunteers to set up schools and other institutions. Among the most successful was the Penn School, established by Laura Matilda Towne with support from the Philadelphia Freedmen’s organization in which the Parrish family was actively involved. People and places are identified with ink captions on the photographs themselves in a hand that differs from other inscriptions in the album. Towne may possibly have compiled these images herself and sent them to supporters back home. This series of photographs includes seven images of Beaufort, South Carolina, (four of which were produced by Sam A. Cooley, photographer to the Tenth Army Corps) captioned “Beaufort Soldiers’ Chapel and Reading Room,” “Path to the river of Smith’s Plantation,” “Beaufort House / Where we Stopped, showing the Beaufort Hotel and nextdoor office of the Adams Express Company,” “Soldiers’ Graves,” “Gen. Saxton’s Headquarters,” “Father French’s House,” and “Our House.” Three cartes de visite produced by Hubbard & Mix show instructors Towne, Ellen Murray, and Harriet Murray respectively posing with freed black children. The photograph with Ellen Murray bears inscriptions identifying her students as “Peg Aiken” and “Little Gracie Chapin (one of Miss Murray’s brightest pupils).” A fourth Hubbard & Mix image captioned “I’m a freeman” shows an African-American man dressed in clothing made from rags and includes an album page inscription that reads: “Young Roslin says, ‘Now I’m free, I go to bed/ when I please I’se gits up/ when I please. In olden times/ I’se help gits de breakfast/ but no’se time to eats it myself/ Ha-ha-I’se happy boy now.” Also present are three cartes de visite produced by photographers based in Nashville, Tennessee, including one portrait by T. M. Schleier of an African-American woman with two children (one of whom has a much lighter complexion than the other) with the recto caption “Lights & Shadows of Southern Life” and verso caption “Aunt Martha and children/ Slaves/ Nashville, Tenn.,” as well as two other images by Morse’s Gallery of the Cumberland that show the same young African-American boy looking sad “Before the Proclamation” and then grinning broadly “After the Proclamation.”