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

This photograph album contains formal portraits of men and women, many of which were taken in Massachusetts around the late 19th century.

The Massachusetts family album (15cm x 12cm) has 39 carte-de-visite and 3 tintype portraits of men and women. The photographs are formal studio portraits attributed to photographers in locations such as Boston, Massachusetts; Salem, Massachusetts; and Romeo, Michigan. Many of the photographs depict young men or women, and one photograph shows a couple. The tintypes have some hand-coloring. The album has a decorative red and black stamped leather cover with a metal clasp.

The Meadville (Pa.) and Scandia (Kan.) photograph album contains cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and other photographs of men, women, and children taken in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Scandia, Kansas, in the late 19th century. Pictures of the National Monument to the Forefathers and a grave marker are included, as is a remembrance card for Nancy Anderson.

The Meadville (Pa.) and Scandia (Kan.) photograph album (27cm x 22cm) contains 38 items, including 26 cabinet cards, 8 cartes-de-visite, 1 tintype, and 3 additional photographic prints. The volume's purple-padded covers are bound in cloth, and it has a large metal clasp. A metallic plate shaped as the word "Album" was once affixed to the front cover and is now laid into the volume.

Most of the photographs are studio portraits of individual men, women, and children taken in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and Scandia, Kansas, in the late 19th century; the children pictured are infants and toddlers. Occasionally, the subjects are shown with a drum, a book, a dog, and one man posed on the sill of an artificial window. Two items laid into the volume are outdoor portraits of adults standing in front of a house, with a windmill visible to the side. A piece of tissue paper affixed to one of the cabinet cards has printed line drawings of a girl's face and flowers. The remaining items are a photograph of the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts; a photograph of a headstone for members of the Smock family; and a black card dedicated to the remembrance of Nancy Anderson (1818-1889), with a brief poem and other details printed in gold.

The New England Criminals tintype album contains mug shot portraits of thieves, burglars, and other criminals or suspected criminals. Most of the individuals pictured were white males of varying ages, but the album also includes photographs of women and an African American man.

This album (15cm x 12cm) contains 47 tintype portraits of criminals or criminal suspects, mostly white males of varying ages. Pictures of one African American man, horse thief Frank Fields, and four women, mostly thieves, are also included; two of the women were photographed with other unidentified women. All but two of the subjects are identified by their name, alias, and/or the nature of their alleged crime; two photographs appear in the album twice. Most of the individuals were accused of theft (often of horses) and burglary, but others were arrested for shoplifting, pickpocketing, adultery, polygamy, and being a "confidence man." The album's green covers have a gold floral design, and the album is closed with a metal clasp.

This album contains photographs of local residents, buildings, and natural scenery taken in the Congo region of Africa, around 1887. Africans and white missionaries posed singly and in groups. Landscape views, village scenes, images of vegetation and rock formations also appear.

This album (43cm x 32, 61 pages) contains 269 photographs of local residents, buildings, and natural scenery, possibly at an American Baptist mission in the Congo region, circa 1887. Three to eight items are pasted onto each page, and captions are written directly into the album where photographs are missing. The three-quarter-bound volume's covers are black and gray.

The photographs are roughly organized by topic. Pages 1-23 are comprised of individual and group portraits of Africans and of white missionaries. Many are identified by name. Of particular interest are posed ethnographic photographic studies of native men, women, and children shown in traditional African and western dress. Many if not most images appear to have been staged by the photographer. Among those may be of native inhabitants appearing as manacled slaves or prisoners; a mock execution, people with primitive weapons; mock combat with bow, spear, and shield; the wearing of ceremonial masks, families with children, and a young man with a large snake around his neck. "Mr. Clark" is identified in group photos as is "Dr. Flemming," a black woman, who is occasionally pictured with the missionaries. "Mr. Lewis" appears with a camera and tripod and may be the photographer for this album. "Mr. Roger Casement," future British consul to Portuguese West Africa and Irish Nationalist, is identified in one photograph and appears in at least one other. A set of four photographs depicts two African boys using a camera obscura on a stand to produce drawings of each other. The images on pages 23-31 include village scenes, rustic buildings including a church, post office, and photographer's booth. A man posed with the decapitated head of a hippopotamus appears on page 23.

Pages 32-48 concentrate on details of trees, fruits, and other vegetation, and pages 49-60 pertain to rock formations and rivers. These items include views of rocks with unidentified carved inscriptions, of caves, and of sailing and steam ships in a harbor. A small river steamer, theHenry Reed , a canoe, and a shipwreck are also pictured. The final item, located on page 61, is a photograph of William Shakespeare's supposed birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.