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

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.

The Midwest family travel album contains approximately 150 photographs showing travel and leisure activities in Virginia, New York, Vermont, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Georgia that were likely compiled by a friend or relative of lumber executive and one-time mayor of Manistee, Michigan, Charles J. Canfield.

The Midwest family travel album contains approximately 150 photographs showing travel and leisure activities in New York, Vermont, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Georgia that were likely compiled by a friend or relative of lumber executive and one-time mayor of Manistee, Michigan, Charles J. Canfield.

The album (26 x 35 cm) has a black cloth binding. Photographs of interest taken in Vermont and New York include rural views, country roads, a woman bicycling, and a group relaxing beside the Batten Kill River in Eagleville, New York. Images from Sioux City, Iowa, include views of public buildings, a golf tournament between Sioux City and Le Mars, a football game between Sioux City and Council Bluffs, an interior view of a woman working at a desk, a high school group on stage in blackface, a shooting expedition, and group portraits of young people at the Sioux City High School and in costume at a "hobo party." Michigan-related photographs include views of Charles Canfield's cottage in Onekama, Michigan, Canfield's yacht "Uvira," views of forests in Manistee, and a lumber camp scene captioned "Camp 4 near Luther, Mich." Photographs from unidentified locations include views of a sawmill, flum, and lumber camp, several home interiors, mountains, and giant trees likely indicative of the West Coast. Two photographs also show a canoe with a Native American family on a lake in Northern Minnesota.

The Nathan Smilie Tupper Lake Adirondacks photograph album (13 x 20.75 cm) is a snapshot album with 37 photographs of the Adirondacks region of New York and groups of men boating, camping, and hunting. The album includes many night photographs taken with a flash. This album belonged to Dr. Nathan Smilie of Philadelphia.

The Nathan Smilie Tupper Lake Adirondacks photograph album (13 x 20.75 cm) is a 32 page album with 37 snapshots of the Adirondacks, groups of men, hunting, campsites, and cottages. Throughout the album are night photographs of deer taken with a flash.

Of note on the first page is a picture of Smilie and his guide, Jim Eccles, in a small boat entitled "Madawaska Sept 2-1901/Flash Light Outfit. 'The Oregon.'" Inside the boat is the equipment used to take flash photographs.

The New Bedford photograph albums consist of 155 cyanotype photographs contained in two albums that show scenes from New Bedford, Massachusetts and surrounding areas during the 1890s.

The New Bedford photograph albums consist of 155 cyanotype photographs contained in two albums that show scenes from New Bedford, Massachusetts and surrounding areas during the 1890s.

Volume 1 (18 x 25.5 cm) has a pebbled red leather cover and contains 101 cyanotypes, while Volume 2 (18.5 x 23.5) has a beige cloth cover with "Kodak Views" embroidered on the front and contains 54 cyanotypes. Both volumes are in fair condition. Together, these albums provide a wide-ranging, informal, town-and-country portrait of New Bedford in the last decade of the 19th-century. Most locations are unidentified, but they include city streets, commercial buildings, residential neighborhoods, churches, farms, woodland paths, Civil War fortifications, bridges, waterfront scenes, and views of the local shoreline. Also present are several bird's-eye views, two photographs of artwork, and pictures of ships of various kinds. Particular attention is given to the classic whaling vessels that still resided at New Bedford's harbor at the time these albums were produced. The booming textile industry of the time, on the other hand, is hardly represented: a solitary image shows a mill with a smokestack and workers’ housing. A few captions are included in Volume 2 as well as on the backs of some photographs, but for the most part the things and places pictured are not identified.

Although there is no official attribution to a photographer in either album, several of the exact same images appear in the souvenir booklet of the New Bedford Semi-Centennial and Industrial Exhibition (1897) and are credited to “R. R. Topham.” Robert R. Topham was a longtime New Bedford resident who at the time these albums were produced worked as a clerk in the city assessor's office.

The New Bedford whaling albums contain approximately 175 photographs in 4 albums pertaining to the whaling industry in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The New Bedford whaling albums contain approximately 175 photographs in 4 albums pertaining to the whaling industry in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Of the four albums, three were likely compiled by photographer Joseph Sisson Martin while the fourth was published by New Bedford bookseller H. S. Hutchinson & Co. All four albums (30.5 x 26.5 cm) are leather bound and show considerable wear. The Hutchinson album has some flaking of the leather cover. There are some loose pages, but in general the albums remain intact.

In 1903, H. S. Hutchinson & Co. commissioned the album Cutting In a Whale (Volume 1), which documents the processing of a sperm whale carcass in graphic detail. The 25 gelatin silver images document various stages of the process, including the whale being carved up while alongside a ship and various pieces being hoisted onboard for rendering into whale oil and other commercial products. The original photographs were taken by photographer and accomplished travel writer Marian Shaw Smith, who herself was married to a whaling ship captain. Smith rode along on the bark California as it sailed to the western Pacific Ocean and then procuded the images that went into Cutting In a Whale, developing and printing her roll film while at sea. Each photo is accompanied by a detailed caption.

The other three albums in the collection (Volumes 2-4) were produced by New Bedford photographer Joseph Sisson Martin in the 1910s. Martin primarily photographed whaling ships and associated craftsmen who worked around the wharves, creating a nostalgic tribute to a disappearing industry. Two of these albums also contain many earlier pictures that were taken by other photographers dating back to as early as 1868 and reproduced by Martin. Although specific photographers were not identified or credited by Martin, a number of photographs can be traced to earlier works by Joseph G. Tirrell, a major chronicler of New Bedford's whaling industry. Several of Martin's selections from Tirrell's body of work differ slightly from the Tirrell images held by the New Bedford Public Library. The third Martin album (Volume 4) may possibly contain mostly his own work. The majority of the images in this album are from 1905-1918, and each photograph is dated and captioned in a more detailed manner than the other two Martin albums. Throughout all three of the Martin albums, there are occasional checks or crosses in red pencil present in the right-hand margins. It is not clear when these markings were made or what they signify, though they may possibly represent a selection of photos that were intended to be used for some other purpose. Additionally, in the first Martin album (Volume 2) there are seven photographs of engravings of whale chases, while there are also two photographs (one in Volume 2 and another in Volume 4) of the half-sized model whaler Lagoda located in the Old Dartmouth Historical Society (now kept at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.)

• A.E. Wayland (Volume 4)
• A.R. Tucker (Volumes 2, 3, and 4)
• Alice Knowles (Volume 4)
• Andrew Hicks (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Bertha (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Canton (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Catalpa (Volume 3)
• Charles W. Morgan (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Commodore Morris (Volume 3)
• Daisy (Volume 4)
• Desdemona (Volume 3)
• E.B. Conwell (Volume 4)
• Eliza Adams (Volumes 3 and 4)
• Evelyn (Volume 4)
• Falcon (Volume 3)
• Francis Barstow (Volume 3)
• Golden City (Volume 2)
• Greyhound (Volumes 3 and 4)
• Harry Smith (Volume 2)
• Horatio (Volume 4)
• James Arnold (Volume 3)
• Josephine (Volumes 2, 3, and 4)
• Josephus (Volume 3)
• Kathleen (Volume 2)
• Laconia (Volume 3)
• Lagoda (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Leonora (Volume 2)
• Massachusetts (Volume 3)
• Morning Star (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Niger (Volume 3)
• Pedro Varela (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Platina (Volumes 2 and 4)
• Progress (Volume 2)
• Rousseau (Volume 3)
• Sullivan (Volume 2)
• Sunbeam (Volumes 2, 3, and 4)
• Swallow (Volume 3)
• Tamerlane (Volume 3)
• Viola (Volume 4)
• Wanderer (Volumes 2 and 4)
• William Graber (Volume 4)

The New England family travel photograph album contains approximately 600 photographs that document the domestic life and foreign travels of an unidentified husband and wife couple from suburban Boston during the first decade of the 20th-century.

The New England family travel photograph album contains approximately 600 photographs that document the domestic life and foreign travels of an unidentified husband and wife couple from suburban Boston during the first decade of the 20th-century. The album (28.5 x 36 cm) has pebbled black leather covers with “Photographs” stamped in gold on the front. By and large, images are presented chronologically and many have extensive captions which mainly identify the locations pictured as well as certain individuals. It appears that many image captions were cut and pasted from white paper and added on top of pre-existing faded captions that had been written directly on the album pages. Some images that show people of African descent have subtly derogatory captions. Photographs showcasing the family’s domestic life include pictures of annual spring blooms in their backyard; friends and family; various domestic activities including interacting with pet cats; and regional outings such as visits to Mt. Washington, Point of Pines nature park in Revere, Massachusetts, and poet John Greenleaf Whittier's birthplace in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

In the summer of 1905, the couple travelled to Montreal and up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City and beyond, resulting in the production of nearly ten pages of photographic highlights (pgs. 7-16). Later that summer, they also took photographs while vacationing in the Lake Sebago region of Maine with friends whom they later visited in Providence, Rhode Island (pgs. 16-20, 22). A visit to New Orleans, Louisiana, and Beauvoir, Mississippi, in December of 1906 is also documented (pgs. 30-37). In 1907 the couple undertook a period of extensive international travel beginning with a trip to England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, and France (pgs. 38-57). A second visit to Quebec in September 1907 is briefly represented (pgs. 57-58), while a series of pictures from a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, in April 1908 are also included (pgs. 59-62). Photographs related to two separate tours of the Caribbean and Central/South America in July and August of 1908 and March of 1909 make up a substantial portion of the album (pgs. 63-103); images from the first tour mainly include scenes from Caribbean islands such as St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Kitts, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, and Barbados as well as British Guiana, while images from the second trip include scenes from Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Panama, Venezuela, Trinidad, Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Also present are several commercially-produced photographs, including a number of panoramic views, showing scenes from Mexico (pgs. 104-111). The majority of images taken during the couple’s travels consist of typical sightseeing photographs showing important cultural landmarks and historic buildings as well as street scenes, methods of transportation, and local people and industries. Throughout the album there are also numerous photographs taken aboard various transport vessels mid-voyage.

A few noteworthy historical events are minimally represented by photographs in this album, such as the January 15 1905 Washington Street Baptist Church fire in Lynn, Massachusetts (pgs. 2 & 3); the Quebec Bridge a few weeks after its collapse on August 29 1907 (pg. 57); the Great Chelsea Fire of 1908 (pg. 59); Panama Canal construction in 1909 (pgs. 87-89); long distance views of the site of the village of St. Pierre, Martinique, which was decimated by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelée on May 8 1902 (pg. 80); and the wreck of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor (pg. 179). Individuals identified by captions throughout the album include Dr. Robert L. Bartlett (pgs. 4 & 89); “Miss Morse” (pg. 5); Stanley and Donald Clauss of Providence, Rhode Island (pgs. 17, 19 & 22); Hattie English, Lizzie English, “Mrs. Boynton,” and “Miss Lord” (pg. 19); Samuel Pickard (pg. 20); Jessie Pauline Whitney (pg. 21); "Mr. Little" (pgs. 19 & 22); William Rhodes (pg. 26); Maud Burdett (pgs. 38 & 58); George C. Hardin (pg. 74); Dr. Selah Merrill, American Consul in British Guiana (pg. 80); "Mrs. Parker" (pg. 85); and Hermann Ahrensburg (pg. 91). Other images of interest include a couple of photographs showing United States cavalrymen at camp in Lakeville, Massachusetts (pg. 2); a multiple exposure photograph showing the wife and other women (pg. 22); four photos showing a group of women that appear to be associated with a possible Masonic organization with the acronym “O.E.O.T.” (pg. 23); two photos of local boys diving in St. Lucia (pg. 72); a picture of a school for natives in St. Thomas where students were supposedly fined 10 cents a day for being absent (pg. 82); photos from Kingston, Jamaica, showing women working on a railroad and men operating a hand-made sugar mill (pg. 86); a group portrait of a baseball team in Venezuela (pg. 92); photos of the natural asphalt deposit Pitch Lake in Trinidad (pgs. 94 & 95); and photographs showing people with Brownie box cameras (pgs. 82 & 103).

The New Jersey and New York City Region photograph album (18.5 x 26 cm) contains 45 photographs of landmarks and city and countryside views of the New York City Region.

New Jersey and New York City Region photograph album (18.5 x 26 cm) contains 45 photographs of landmarks and city and countryside views of the New York City Region. Included are 8 views of the Palisade rock formations near Weehawken, New Jersey, one view including sculptor Karl Bitter's clifftop studio. Other nature views include the Delaware River, South River, Newark Bay, and Mountain Lakes, N.J. City views are mainly of Newark, N.J. streets and buildings, and New York City attractions including Herald Square, the Washington Arch, Trinity Church, Broadway and the Hippodrome. Additional photographs show the boardwalk at Ocean Grove, and pavilion at Asbury Park on the Jersey Shore, an elevated streetcar at Bay Ridge, N.Y., battery at Fort Griswold, Ct., a train on the Lackawanna railroad bridge in East Orange, N.J., and interiors of the Essex County court room and Newark Public Library in Newark, N.J. Photographs include typed captions; paper label inside front album cover: F.H. Tucker, Artistic and Commercial Photographer.

The album has alligator-print cloth covers. Stored in a three-part wrapper with green cloth spine.

The New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Vermont photograph album (18.5 x 26 cm) contains 70 photographics of parks, monuments, bridges, river scenes, lighthouses, waterfalls, and steamboats, in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont.

The New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Vermont photograph album (18.5 x 26 cm) contains 70 photographics of parks, monuments, bridges, river scenes, lighthouses, waterfalls, and steamboats, in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont. Images of ships include photographs of the steamboats Naugatuck, Hendrick Hudson, and Robert Fulton, as well as the prison ship Success. The few city scenes present include two views of the State Capitol in Albany (one with election banners for the 1908 presidential election, the second with election banner for 1912 gubernatorial election), and views from the river of Tarrytown, N.Y., St. Johnsbury, Vt., and the New York City skyline. Also included are multiple views of Ethan Allen Park and Battery Park in Burlington, Vermont. Photographs include typed captions; paper label inside from cover: F.H. Tucker, Artistic and Commercial Photographer.

The album has a black pebbled leather cover which has been partially disbound. Stored in a three-part wrapper with green cloth spine.

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.

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.