Search

Back to top

Search Constraints

Start Over You searched for: Formats Postcards. Remove constraint Formats: Postcards.
Number of results to display per page
View results as:

Search Results

Collection

Ella St. John Whallon collection, 1863-1923 (majority within 1863-1874, 1903)

63 items

This collection contains Ella St. John Whallon's personal correspondence, including letters from friends and family members in Michigan and love letters from her husband, James M. Whallon of Dowagiac, Michigan. The collection also has letters to Lizzie Wittle of Columbia, Pennsylvania, from Edward E. Seifred, a member of the United States Army's 18th Infantry Regiment who served in the Philippines during the early twentieth century. Other items include financial documents, tintype photographs, a commemorative ribbon, and a leather postcard.

This collection (63 items) contains Ella St. John Whallon's personal correspondence, including letters from friends and family members in Michigan, as well as love letters from her husband, James M. Whallon of Dowagiac, Michigan. The collection also has letters to Lizzie Wittle of Columbia, Pennsylvania, from Edward E. Seifred, a member of the United States Army's 18th Infantry Regiment who served in the Philippines, and another correspondent, dated between 1903 and 1909. Other items include financial documents, tintype photographs, a commemorative ribbon, and a leather postcard.

The Correspondence series (58 items) contains correspondence related to Ella St. John Whallon and Lizzie Wittle. During the final years of the Civil War, Philena Hood of Saline, Michigan, wrote to Ella St. John about her experiences in school; one of her letters encloses a small piece of fabric (October 16, 1864). Several of Ella's cousins wrote to her during the late 1860s, mostly about family news from Clinton and Lansing, Michigan. One cousin, Wallace J. Hunt, commented on his experiences while serving with the Union Army in Winchester, Virginia; his letter of January 31, 1865, encloses a tintype photograph.

From 1871-1874, James M. Whallon wrote 27 letters and postcards to Ella St. John, pertaining to his life in Dowagiac, Michigan, his feelings for Ella, and their anticipated marriage. After their wedding, he sometimes wrote brief postcards while traveling. In 1872, Ella wrote 1 letter to James and received 2 letters from her mother. In August 1876, a relative wrote to Ella about his experiences at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. She received a postcard from her brother Frank in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1917, and a partial letter from a friend in 1923.

The second group of correspondence is comprised of 5 letters to Lizzie Wittle of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Edward E. Seifred wrote 3 letters while serving with Company I of the United States Army's 18th Infantry Regiment in Manila, Philippines, in 1903 and 1904. He discussed his feelings for Wittle, proposed marriage, and reflected on his life as a soldier. In 1909, she received 2 letters from "Andrew," who explained his decision to delay marriage until achieving financial security and reported on a couple who had eloped in York, Pennsylvania. Undated items include a leather postcard addressed to Lizzie Wittle with an ink drawing of a bulldog on the back.

Five receipts are integrated with the correspondence, including documentation of wages paid to James M. Whallon during his Civil War service (October 24, 1863) and 4 receipts for Samuel St. John's contributions to a church building (1869-1872).

The Photographs series (3 items) contains a tintype portrait of Ella St. John Whallon, a tintype portrait of Samuel St. John, and a carte-de-visite portrait of Ella St. John Whallon.

Ephemera items include a poem that Philena Hood wrote for Ella St. John, with a pencil drawing of a bird on the back, and a ribbon from the 11th Michigan Cavalry Regiment's 1889 reunion in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Collection

Emily Howland papers, 1849-1974 (majority within 1850s-1920s)

3.5 linear feet

This collection consists of letters, documents, writings, bound volumes, printed materials, original art, photographs, ephemera, and other materials related to the life and study of Emily Howland of Sherwood, New York, between 1849 and 1974. Howland worked to advance abolition, African American education, and women's rights and suffrage, and her papers reflect these varied reform movements and her long-standing relationships with leaders in the causes. She was especially active in Freedmen's relief and education in Virginia during and following the Civil War. Her work centering in Northumberland County, Virginia, is documented in the collection, as well as her domestic life in Sherwood following her return there in the late 1860s.

This collection consists of letters, documents, writings, bound volumes, printed materials, original art, photographs, ephemera, and other materials related to the life and study of Emily Howland of Sherwood, New York, between 1849 and 1974. Howland worked to advance abolition, African American education, and women's rights and suffrage, and her papers reflect these varied reform movements and her long-standing relationships with leaders in the causes. She was especially active in Freedmen's relief and education in Virginia during and following the Civil War, and her work centering in Northumberland County, Virginia, is documented in the collection, as well as her domestic life in Sherwood following her return there in the late 1860s.

The Correspondence Series contains letters written to and from Emily Howland from 1849 until her death in 1929, touching on topics like antislavery, African American education, women's rights and suffrage, pacifism, among other social reforms and personal matters. Several items were written to other correspondents within Howland's social circles that were possibly shared with her or others researching her life at a later date. These letters reflect the Howland family's broader social reform networks, including several items written in the 1850s and 1860s to or from David Wright, an Auburn, New York, attorney active in the antislavery and temperance causes, as well as Eliza Wright Osborne, a suffragist, in the late 1890s.

Some of the correspondence from the 1840s and 1850s reflects the Howland family's involvement in antislavery efforts. Circular letters from the New York State Vigilance Committee (March 10, 1849) and the "Provisional Committee, for the Promotion of Education among the Colored People, in such of the Slave States as are, or may be accessible" (October 18, 1849) are present in the series. Hiram Wilson wrote a letter from St. Catharines, Canada, to Susan Marriott, a woman involved in gathering clothing for enslaved people fleeing across the border (October 30, 1851). He noted that Emily Howland alerted him to Marriott's "deep interest" in the work preparing the shipment, indicating Howland's interest in the effort. Similarly, W. O. Dawson wrote to Slocum Howland on November 16, 1853, discussing the travels of William Darsey, a man fleeing from slavery to Canada, and support offered by abolitionists. "He said you told him to have me write you as to his safe arrival at our house," Dawson wrote, confirming the Howland family was active in efforts to assist escape attempts. One writer asked Howland to check in on Catharine M. White, a former resident of the Colored Orphan Asylum, to determine if she was in financial straits, revealing how Howland operated within abolition and benevolence networks (October 26, 1858).

Correspondence in the collection documents Emily Howland's long career supporting education. Several letters between 1857 and 1859 relate to her first foray in teaching, as she taught in the school previously operated by Myrtilla Miner in Washington, D.C. Letters include one dated July 3, 1857, written by Miner noting her failing health and coordinating with Howland for the upcoming school year. A letter Howland wrote while on her initial trip to D.C. is also included, in which she described her voyage to Philadelphia, meeting with Samuel J. May who had promised to raise funds for the school, and picking up a young formerly enslaved girl named Virginia Ayer who was going to attend Miner's school (September 25, 1857). In another early letter home (November 7, 1857), Howland described the climate, flora, teaching 30 students, social visits, and viewing the "Greek Slave" in the art gallery. By February 26, 1858, she was also teaching an evening school and upwards of 40 students in the day school. In May 1858, Howland related a visit she took to the homes of some of her students and speaking with an older enslaved woman. A ca. May 1858 document in the Writings Series, "A visit to Aunt Nella," written by Margaret McAnulty, one of Howland's students, further describes this visit. The final letter written during Howland's tenure at the Miner school is dated March 27, 1859, and reports Myrtilla Miner's return, abrupt dismissal of the teachers, and Howland's hope that one of her students, Susie, might return to New York with her, "the idea of a chance for education overcomes her dread." She noted visiting the student's mother.

Emily Howland was active in contraband camps, Freedmen's relief programs, and African American school efforts during and after the Civil War, and her correspondence reflects these interests. A letter of recommendation written by F. W. Seward endorses Howland's desire to "go to the front to aid in taking care of the wounded," noting how she "has labored very diligently and effectively in the Contraband Camps in this vicinity for the past three years" (May 14, 1864). Letters like the one by Walter L. Clift, a lawyer in Savannah, Georgia, on July 23, 1867, speak directly to struggles experienced by Black Southerners during Reconstruction, commenting on efforts to collect "small claims against their employers who take advantage of their inability to keep accounts to defraud them of their wages" and their political sensibilities and registering to vote.

Howland was instrumental in purchasing land and raising funds for the construction of a school in Heathsville, Virginia, in 1867 and her correspondence reflects her ongoing investment in the project, through discussions of financial issues, building upkeep, and land transfers. On July 13, 1867, L. Edwin Dudley wrote from the Union Republican Congressional Executive Committee office in Washington, D.C., offering support for raising funds for the completion of the school and noting his endorsement of woman suffrage. A detailed letter from F. E. Dow documents the construction of the Howland Chapel School in Northumberland County, Virginia (August 25, 1867), noting African American residents' efforts in the construction and securing government funds. The correspondence also documents the transfer of land ownership from Howland to African American residents in Heathsville and Howland's reasoning to do so as "a great check on the wicked wills of the old slaveocracy, who let no whit of a chance to oppress escape them" (January 16, 1870). On April 17, 1876, Howland wrote while in Heathsville overseeing repairs to the school and managing land sales, including one to a man she "put the screws on" to press him to be more industrious and build a house on the land in order to secure the sale. Other letters indicate ongoing relationships with the Black community in the area, including two letters from Thamsen Taliaferro written when she was 22 years old indicating she was a teacher preparing to leave Heathsville to undertake other educational efforts in Manassas, possibly attending the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth with Howland's financial support (January 6 and 17, 1895). At least two letters were also written by Sidney Taliaferro Boyer (1854-1927), who was taught by Howland and was active in the Heathsville region (August 4, 1903), and Howland references her elsewhere in her correspondence. Several letters between Howland and Anna M. Stanton, who taught at Heathsville, are also present.

Howland frequently corresponded with others involved in contraband relief efforts and African American education, including Cornelia Hancock, who moved to South Carolina in 1866 to work alongside newly emancipated enslaved people and founded the Laing School for Negroes in Mount Pleasant. Letters between Howland and Hancock in the collection span from 1865 to at least 1884, beginning just as Hancock was preparing to begin her post-war labors. In one dated December 20, 1865, Hancock bristled at Philadelphian Quakers' failure to recognize Howland and other women's efforts in the South. Hancock's frustrations with the Society of Friends continued through the month as she tried to prepare a trip south, lamenting on December 31st that "Their extreme timidity seems to rest in a fear that their teachers will not have a feather bed to lie on and hotel fare for diet." She wrote requesting Howland's financial assistance to secure her transportation to South Carolina, "and I know too thee is not fastidious about where the work is done so it is getting done." Putnam directly linked Howland's support as essential to bringing her to the Laing School and reflected on their shared sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness at the close of the Civil War. She enclosed a manuscript map of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, region and worked with Howland to secure funds to purchase property on Cat Island to transfer to African American residents (January 14, 1869). She continued to write to Emily and Slocum Howland about land purchases and financial matters relating to her efforts in South Carolina, African American residents working in the area, and the strain the labor placed on her health.

Howland also stayed in regular contact with Caroline F. Putnam who founded the Holley School in Lottsburg, Virginia. She noted a festival endorsing "care and vigilance for the protection of the hitherto enslaved" (April 17, 1871) and reflected on their early ventures ([November 12, 1906?]). Howland wrote frankly to Putnam regarding their shared interests in education and other matters, including financial inducements to encourage African American voters to decline liquor licenses in Heathsville, Virginia (March 20, 1898), the Spanish-American War (February 8, 1899), and Putnam's ongoing work in Virginia (January 14, 1901).

Two letters written by Sallie Holley, a close colleague and partner of Putnam, are in the collection, written in October 1867 while she visited Howland in Sherwood, New York, after the passing of Howland's mother. They touch on the waning of abolitionist sentiment, teaching, Charles Sumner's wife, and Howland's comments about her "Virginia life" and the need for land ownership by the formerly enslaved. One letter from Howland includes a later annotation that it may have been addressed to Holley, but the attribution is unverified (March 11, 1866). A letter written on March 7, 1893, concerning Sally Holley's will acknowledges some of the tension that could arise in the work, as her will allowed Putnam's continued use of the school but not its ownership.

Howland maintained a long-lasting friendship with Harriet Tubman, and several letters in the collection relate to Tubman, including correspondence arranging for her to speak at the National Association of Colored Women's convention in Washington, D.C., in 1896 by figures like Victoria Matthews who was helping to organize the convention (July 8, 1896). These items were not addressed to Howland, instead principally directed to Eliza Wright Osborne, so their presence among her papers is suggestive of them being forwarded to Howland, possibly to aid in working to secure Tubman's presence. Other letters reference discussions of reprinting biographies of Tubman and working to record her oral histories, including by figures like Franklin Benjamin Sanford. While these letters tend to focus on the events and projects, descriptions of Tubman emerge, such as having a limited "ability to speak in public" (July 1, 1896), or that "She is difficult to understand, unless one is familiar with the negro talk; but she can tell her experiences very graphically, and she seems to have a very good memory" (July 4, 1896), or that she would "want her books for Washington" (July 5, 1896).

Others reference Tubman visiting with Howland and include anecdotes about her experiences, such as having surgery and tending to an impoverished widow (September 5, 1897), or her tendency not to eat until after noon on Fridays, "the hour when the Lord descended from the cross" (November 24, 1899; June 22, 1900), or wondering whether Tubman would include the Manassas Industrial School in her will (June 14 and 20, 1900). Howland recounted one encounter with an African American man who claimed to be fleeing from lynching threats in North Carolina and was directed to her by Tubman, which turned out to be a scam, underlining the depth of the two women's relationship and how Tubman's reputation was wielded for unintended purposes (October 21, 1905).

Howland wrote twice to Eliza Wright Osborne (January 11 and 28, 1897) referencing her displeasure with a meeting and financial decisions for the nascent Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes, as well as her scathing displeasure with the fundraising efforts of John J. Smallwood for the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute. She noted her enlistment of Booker T. Washington and William Lloyd Garrison in her opposition, hinting at the complicated politics and interpersonal conflicts present in such efforts. Garrison wrote to her on November 5, 1896, about his work to publish warnings in newspapers, to expose "him by voice & pen for two years" as a "phenomenal liar, forger & sneak" and to work with Booker T. Washington to spread awareness.

Into the twentieth century, Howland continued to financially support educational institutions, including those focused on Black education such as the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute for Colored Youth in Kowaliga, Alabama; Selma University in Selma, Alabama; the Piney Woods Country Life School for Training Colored Boys and Girls in Christianity, Character, and Service in Braxton, Mississippi; the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in Manassas, Virginia; and the Tuskegee Institute, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Oswald Garrison Villard wrote to Howland on June 18, 1907, with a detailed report of the Manassas Industrial School, its teachers and administrators, plans for construction, and the need for contributions. Other letters reference the building of Howland Hall (December 17, 1910) and the secession of leadership following Oswald Garrison Villard's resignation (November 1 and November 22, 1912). Laurence C. Jones, principal of Piney Woods Country Life School, wrote a letter of thanks for Howland's interest in the institution and described the hardships African American communities were experiencing in Braxton, Mississippi. Howland also was heavily involved in the Sherwood Select School of Sherwood, New York, and letters in the collection reveal her planning, financial support, and frustrations with the school.

Howland also provided financial support for individuals' educational pursuits, and letters of thanks for her generosity (see August 11, 1903) or correspondence describing specific cases (August 6, 1903) are present in the collection. Howland's letter of January 11, 1897, illustrates how she worked her interpersonal networks towards her causes. She wrote to her colleague Mrs. Osborne, about a former African American student from Auburn, New York, Mary Williams, whom she had secured a teaching position for at the Manassas Industrial School and was now in need of someone to fund her salary. Howland noted Williams visiting her and following up on his request for Osborne's support, which is also in the collection (December 7, 1896).

Howland was heavily involved in efforts to secure women's suffrage in New York State, and letters relating to the New York State Woman Suffrage Association are included as well as those detailing efforts to advance women's suffrage during the New York State Constitutional Convention. Correspondence touches on meetings and conventions, distribution of materials, planning events and campaigns, financial concerns, and political outcomes, among other topics. Letters to Howland from various politicians indicate she was writing to them concerning their positions relating to suffrage. In a letter dated November 8, 1917, to her niece Isabel, Howland wrote about celebrating the successful vote for women's suffrage in New York, including getting their photograph taken at the Headquarters, a copy of which is present in the Photographs Series of this collection.

Howland corresponded with those working to advance women's suffrage in other states and at the national level. Her letters include those relating to Wimodaughsis, the National Council of Women of the United States, the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, among others. A November 9, 1893, telegram from Fred E. Smith from Greely, Colorado, announces it to be "the 1st State in the Union to extend Equal Suffrage to Woman," and a letter from her cousin J. H. Allen of Canon City, Colorado, answered questions Howland posed about the impact of women's suffrage in the state (November 4, 1897). Howland also reacted to the 1911 referendum in California that extended suffrage to women (October 21, 1911).

In the course of her work to advance women's suffrage, Howland amassed correspondence with many involved in the effort. The collection includes five letters from Susan B. Anthony, remarking on the tension between women's suffrage and enfranchising formerly enslaved men (February 29, 1892); the New York State Constitutional Convention (December 27, 1893); distribution of The History of Woman Suffrage, including to African American institutes and libraries (November 4, 1895); travel arrangements (April 2, 1899); and directions for sending mail (May 15, 1899). A postcard sent to Howland in August 1903 was addressed to her, care of Susan B. Anthony, suggesting how the two visited and travelled together on occasion. Other correspondents include figures like Harriet B. Laidlaw, Eliza Wright Osborne, Alice Stone Blackwell, Mariana W. Chapman, Harriet May Mills, Anna Howard Shaw, among others.

Several items reflect international efforts, including a manuscript circular letter originally written by Marie Goegg of the Association Internationale Des Femmes, dated March 1870. A June 8, 1889, letter written from Alice Stone Blackwell of the Woman's Journal to Hannah Howland refers to the upcoming Woman's Rights Congress in Paris and their openness to receiving a report on the proceedings. Anna Howard Shaw wrote to Howland on December 4, 1907, about European meetings and getting "in touch with some of the old suffragists again," and wrote from Triberg, Germany, on July 19, 1908, commenting on her international trip, her speech in London, and plans for future events in England. An undated letter from the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage in London, England, notes their willingness to send Howland notice of their meetings. Other letters indicate Howland was tracking international news, like her letter dated March 28, 1898, where she noted, "progress since the time of Roman splendor & vileness is not so great as some shallow good folks may flatter themselves, with our lynchings & prisons & the condition of Cuba & Armenia the world is not in sight of the millennium & will not be soon." She elsewhere reflected on the "Philippine question" (May 25, 1902) and the suffering caused by the First World War (November 1, 1914).

Howland met and corresponded with Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, a noted reformer from India who advocated for the rights of women, widows, and orphans, who visited the United States from 1886 to 1888. Howland wrote of meeting Ramabai and Dr. Rachel Bodley of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania on August 23, 1886, calling it a "red letter day in my calendar." Howland described Ramabai and their conversation, noting a discussion about religion and missionaries, women in India, opposition to English rule, and some references to Anandibai Joshee. Howland also wrote about introducing Ramabai to Harriet Tubman, and Ramabai inquired after Tubman and sent her regards in subsequent correspondence (December 20, 1886; October 31, 1889). Letters between Ramabai and Howland continue through 1895 and touch on women's rights publications, speaking engagements, introductions to Howland's networks, fundraising, plans for visits, and the school Ramabai ran in India. Ramabai also wrote of the death of Rachel Bodley and confusion about financial affairs, including an order under Howland's name for twenty-four copies of her book The High Caste Hindu Woman (July 27, 1888). She requested at least twice for Howland to write to her about her work with African American causes. In her letter dated January 10, 1890, Howland obliged, describing her personal history, being raised in an abolitionist house and a "station on the Underground Railroad," feeling the constraints of the "bonds of custom" of Quaker tenets, and her entry into teaching at the Miner school. Several pages are missing from her autobiographical letter.

In addition to state and national affairs, Howland appears to have stayed apprised of local politics as well. A letter from the Superintendent of the Board of Education in Auburn, New York, wrote to her on December 19, 1883, in regards to whether women could vote at school meetings. Howland's political activities are also represented in her correspondence, such as her work with the Sherwood Equal Rights Association and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club.

The lines between Howland's work with Freedmen's relief, Black education, and woman's suffrage sometimes blurred, with her letters on behalf of race-based projects written on suffrage letterhead, or correspondence with those she likely met while working on Freedmen's affairs, such as with James Inglish Ferree, touching on women's rights (June 5, 1882). On April 5, 1903, Howland wrote to Caroline Putnam about a trip she was taking in company with Susan B. Anthony to the Tuskegee Normal School and Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute. A letter dated February 28, 1913, from the president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, Harriet Taylor Upton, asserts that "the Washington people have decided wisely in regard to the colored question," and in a letter dated May 2, 1913, Howland wrote of Anna Howard Shaw and how "she is blamed because there is no more organizing done in the South but since Southern women will exclude colored women she is not in it."

Howland remained in communication with Margaret Jones Burleigh, an abolitionist and reformer who taught Howland for a period in her youth. Burleigh connected Howland with Edward Strange, a British immigrant who had been incarcerated and whose reform Burleigh took a particular interest in. Letters in the collection reflect on their partnership in this issue, Strange's housing and eventual stay with Howland, his health, care, and diet as he lived with tuberculosis, his thoughts on religion and his personal changes, broader interest in his case, concerns for his spiritual state, and his eventual death in March 1872. Howland referred to Strange in childlike terms and admitted to a sense of motherly affection inspired by him (March 15, 1872), and compared her grief to "some bereft mothers to whom I have listened who never knew when to stop talking of the departed" (April 11, 1872). Additional items relating to Edward Strange can be found in the Documents Series (a document penned by Strange authorizing Howland to tend to his personal property), in the Writing Series (Howland's retrospective of her full encounter dated April 3, 1872), and in her Diary.

Later in her life, Emily Howland became more active in pacifist efforts. Alfred H. Love, president of the Universal Peace Union, wrote to Howland on July 8, 1909, to discuss the organization's business and publications and seek her continued support. Five undated postcards from the American Relief Administration reflect her involvement with the program during World War I, seemingly for food packages, and in a letter to Caroline F. Putnam on November 1, 1914, she lamented the consequences of World War I, including her belief in the "crime against animals" by using horses in battle.

Miscellaneous correspondence with family members and friends from the Sherwood, New York, region document Howland's everyday life. Some letters suggest her family's broader interests or awareness of what would intrigue her, such as her nephew Herbert Howland describing his visit to Jamaica, Mexico, and South America, commenting on race and armed conflicts (January 21, 1903). Howland corresponded with friends over decades, and in her later years she reflected on aging and historical memory. For example, she wrote on March 17, 1914, "I find that I must keep out of the Past, as it makes the Present so poor, and summons a yearning feeling to follow."

The Documents Series spans from 1840 to 1928, the earliest being a manuscript copy of the rules for the Nine Partners Boarding School. Other materials reflect Howland's work supporting African American education. Three items relate to Myrtilla Miner's school in Washington, D.C.: a "List of scholars during April 1858," a bill of lading for apples and butter sent to Howland while teaching there, and "Questions in history prepared & written by Mrs. Seward.... When teaching Miss Miner's school in 1858 & 9." A copy of the 1869 "Deed of Bargain & Sale" that transferred ownership of the property in Northumberland County, Virginia, from Emily Howland to Benjamin and Beverly Taliaferro, Robert Walker, and Maurice Moore is also present, with the condition that "a school shall be established and maintained thereon, wherein no person shall be excluded on account of race, color or sex."

One document signed by Edward Strange on December 11, 1871, empowers Howland to dispose of his property upon his death.

The following items (in the Documents Series) relate to women's suffrage:
  • A typescript of resolutions passed by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club opposing the refusal to allow women to vote for school commissioners in New York, ca. 1892
  • "Signers of the Anti Suffrage Petition from Aurora," ca. 1890s
  • A typed notice announcing that The Woman's Journal was "no longer the official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association," ca. 1912
  • A tally of Auburn, New York, votes for and against the 1915 suffrage referendum
  • An undated copy of legal articles concerning voting in public school meetings
  • An undated, blank form for a constitution for a branch of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage
  • An undated typed copy of the "Plan to be Submitted to the State Committee" regarding organizing for an upcoming vote on a suffrage amendment
  • An undated delegation certificate for John T. Hughes
  • A blank subscription form for the National Society for Women's Suffrage
  • A New York State Woman Suffrage Party pledge in support of women's suffrage
  • An undated "Twenty-Five Greatest Women Guessing Contest of New York State Suffrage Association" entry form filled out by Emily Howland

Other items pertain to the Political Equality Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Emily Howland High School in Aurora, New York.

The Writings Series includes miscellaneous written works, such as essays, poems, drafts, speeches, and obituaries. Several of the poems are political in nature, including one reflecting on women's political positions. A poem written by W. Darwin Wooden in June 1856, consists of acrostics for Charles Sumner and Stephen A. Douglass, focusing on their political positions relative to slavery, and another undated poem by A. H. Reynolds of Auburn, New York, is entitled "Tribute to Susan B. Anthony." Others are more sentimental in nature, but at least one undated poem was copied on a fragment of a letter from Harriet May Mills, providing insight into the intermingling of Howland's literary and political worlds.

Other items in the series reflect Howland's longstanding interest in suffrage. Howland wrote a draft for a speech to the Political Equality Club of Cayuga County ca. 1897 about women voting in school meetings. Typed lyrics to the song "Help Us Win the Vote" by Deborah Knox Livingston are noted as being sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." A copy of Howland's October 26, 1915, letter to the editor of the Advertiser Journal refuting an anti-suffrage address is also present, as is an undated draft of an article for the Advertiser relating to suffrage. Undated draft notes in Howland's hand for a letter to George Allen Davis, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeal for his support to strike the word "male" from the New York constitution.

Materials documenting Howland's efforts with educational projects are also well represented in the series. Margaret McAnulty, an African American student at Myrtilla Miner's school, wrote an essay ca. May 1858, "A visit to Aunt Nella," describing a trip Emily Howard took with students to visit their families and an older enslaved woman. This corresponds to a May 23, 1858, letter written by Howland in the Correspondence Series. Two other sheets of draft notes reflect on the history of Myrtilla Miner's school near Washington, D.C., one written on the back of a partially printed circular sent in March 1868 by Jerusha M. Skinner to former patrons of the School for Colored Deaf, Dumb and Blind Children.

Two copies of a circular appealing for financial support of the Holley School appear in Howland's hand, ca. March 23, 1901, with notes about Mr. Chadwick plagiarizing her writing. An undated essay entitled "The Story in Brief" regarding the Holley School in Lottsburg, Virginia, was possibly written by Sarah Thomas Miller.

Another undated piece provides personal opinions about higher education for African Americans and that "we must discriminate and choose the proper education for the individual."

Typescript copies include a piece entitled "A Virginia School" from the February 1899 Friends' Intelligencer regarding the history of the Heathsville school. Typescripts detailing Cornelia Hancock's work during and after the Civil War are also present, along with an envelope annotated by Howland, "A letter from Cornelia Hancock and a M.S. account of her life in the army at various places and times beginning at Gettysburg." It is unclear whether the typescripts are the contents Howland refers to or were added to the envelope at a later date. The series also contains typed and manuscript notes for commencement addresses by Emily Howland and others for the Sherwood Select School in the 1920s.

Several items in the series relate to Howland's pacifist beliefs. Between 1919 and 1924, Howland copied three of her reports for the Women's Christian Temperance Union concerning peace. These sentiments are further echoed in a ca. 1919 draft responding to anti-suffrage sentiments and advocating pacifism which was written by Howland on miscellaneous scrap paper, including letters from the First Congregational Church in Little Rock and the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a brochure of the closing exercises of Centreville Industrial Institute, and a circular for the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Another undated draft responds to a piece in Harper's Weekly about foreign policy and war, and is written on the verso of printed New York Woman Suffrage Association notices. Two other drafts relate to pacifism, one a resolution deploring "the present belligerent attitude of nations, & the spirit of conquest wh. everywhere prevails" and the other reflecting on how patriotism does not require "a jealous dislike of other nations & peoples." An undated draft of pacifist resolutions opposing "the present belligerent attitude of nations" is also present.

Howland wrote a 23-page retrospective, recounting her experiences with Edward Strange, a British man who had been formerly incarcerated and who spent six months ill with tuberculosis at her house, dated April 3, 1872. She described how they met, his stay with her, and the progression of his disease. She also noted the tumultuous emotions his stay caused, calling it a "whirlpool of feeling - a confusion as great as the mystery he was to me. Mystery then, mystery now and ever!"

Obituaries for Lisette M. Worden, Sarah Thomas Miller, C. de B. Mills, William Howland, and Elizabeth Jacobs are included.

The Bound Volumes Series consists of four items. The first is a handmade blank book wrapped in stenciled wallpaper, inscribed by Emily Howland, "My 1st day school book when a little girl." It includes copies of religious texts and answers to Biblical questions. One page appears to bear the name "Sidney Taliaferos," but additional research is needed to verify whether this was written by Sidney Taliaferro Boyer.

The second volume is a commonplace book kept by Emily Howland's brother, William Howland, ca. 1850s-1860s, in which he compiled quotations and proverbs and pasted in various newspaper clippings relating to recipes, remedies, legal subjects, poems, and miscellaneous topics like whining. Subjects relate to the law, politics and society, education, morality, and more. Some content is suggestive of abolitionist circles, such as quotations from the North Star and Gerrit Smith.

The third volume is Emily Howland's diary dating from January 1, 1871, to March 11, 1873, opening with Howland travelling away from home, likely in Heathsville, Virginia, and in discussion with Theodore Dow about partnering together with the school (January 11, 1871; January 31, 1871). Several entries include quotations written in dialect and Howland noted her reaction to "their strangely inspiring songs" (February 2, 1871), suggesting she was meeting with African American residents, and she recorded visiting the schoolhouse. By March 9, Howland had returned to Sherwood, and her diary entries reflect on the weather, family and social visits, local news, and her emotional state.

The diary skips from August 14, 1871, to March 27, 1872, beginning again with a brief reflection about her sadness over the death of Edward Strange ("Teddy") beginning to lift. The diary records her housekeeping tasks, attending religious services and Sunday School, reading, visits and correspondence, and remembrances of Strange and adjusting to his absence. Her entries reflect displeasure with the demands of domestic labor and a troubled emotional state. Howland expressed some dissatisfaction with the limited recognition she received for her efforts, "A good many times I've been omitted where it seemed to me I belonged, or I've had to see others reap where I had sown. How keenly H Greeley must felt this. One is not anxious to be conspicuous but one likes recognition of ones good intentions or one's services or places" (December 10, 1872).

Some content in the diary reflects Howland's ongoing interest in racial affairs, women's rights, and benevolence. At least two entries reference Native Americans (May 1, 1872; June 6, 1872), and others note making donations to Freedmen's groups (October 18, 1872; January 23, 1873), attending a festival for the Orphan Asylum (August 2, 1872), and reading material such as the Woman's Journal (January 27, 1873) and Eminent Women (July 22, 1872). Throughout the diary Howland made several mentions of Colonel Charles W. Folsom, Sidney (possibly Sidney Taliaferro Boyer), and Caroline Putnam.

The fourth volume is a minute book for the Quaker Picnic Association of Sherwood for 1894-1904. "Resolutions of Respect and Condolence, on the death of Hannah L. Howland" are laid into the volume. The volume documents meeting attendance, committees, discussions, and votes relating to the planning of the Sherwood picnics, in addition to accounts of the picnics themselves. William and Hannah Howland were especially active in the association, and several other members of the family also appear in the minutes.

The Printed Materials Series contains the following pamphlets, brochures, and programs:

  • A Short Account of William Terry, A member of the Masonic Society… (Poughkeepsie, 1820)
  • The Annual Catalogue of the Teachers and Pupils of the Poplar Ridge Seminary (Auburn, 1845)
  • Three copies of Emily Howland, New York State Report for 1891, Presented at the Nineteenth Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women, by Emily Ward Howland, Vice President (Syracuse, 1892). All three have "Ward" crossed out of Howland's name, and one bears a stamp, "From the Papers of Miss Emily Howland Presented 1934."
  • The Twenty-fifth Annual Convention of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association… January 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1893. (s.l., [1893])
  • Report of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. 25th Annual Convention (Syracuse, [1893]). Includes names of Emily Howland and Lydia S. M[ains?] on the front cover with the note "Moravia raised $14.30 for Miss Shaw's Meeting June 8." A newspaper clipping about a Political Equality Club meeting and a manuscript list of officers and committees, with Emily Howland as the president, are pasted into the front of the volume.
  • Addresses of His Excellency, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, and Booker T. Washington, Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee Alabama, Delivered at Carnegie Hall. (New York.) Home Missionary Meeting, March 3, '94, Under the Auspices of the Presbyterian Church, of America. (s.l., [1894])
  • Report of the Annual Meeting of the Ramabai Association Held March 18, 1896 (Boston, 1896)
  • The Fortnightly… Programme, 1897-'98 (s.l., [1897])
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton To her life-long friend and co-worker Susan B. Anthony on her eightieth birthday (s.l., 1900.
  • Annual Reports, October 1st 1901. Supplement to the Junior Republic Citizen (Freeville, [1902])
  • Mary Jane Howland Taber, "Friends Here and Hereaway Continued," in Old Darthmouth Historical Sketches. No. 12. Inscribed "Mr. Herbert Howland With best wishes for a pleasant Christmas & Happy New Year from the author." (s.l., 1905)
  • Ida Husted Harper, History of the Movement for Woman Suffrage in the United States (New York, 1907)
  • Two copies of The Forty-First Annual Convention of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., [1909])
  • Sanitary Laws and Regulations In and For the Town of Scipio, Cayuga County, N.Y. ([Auburn, New York], 1909)
  • The Forty-Third Annual Convention of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., [1911])
  • Two copies of Lucy Jacobs, A Historical Sketch of Sherwood Select School, 1871-1911 (s.l., [1911]). One with a stamp on the front cover, "From the Papers of Miss Emily Howland Presented April 1934."
  • The American Ramabai Association Report of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, March 28, 1916 (Boston, 1916)
  • The Westonian: A Monthly Magazine for Friends 21.1 (January 1916). With Emily Howland's name added in manuscript on the cover along with the note, "A Quaker Schoolmistress p. 9."
  • A Brief History of Laing School, Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Covering Sixty Years of Service, 1866-1926. Together with a Picture of its Founder, Cornelia Hancock… (s.l., [1926])
  • Joseph Tallcot, The Acorn. Designed to Promote Oral Instruction and Moral Influence in Common Schools Vol.1, No. 3 (Skaneateles, n.d.)
  • A. F. Beard, Samples and Examples. By A. F. Beard, Corresponding Secretary of the American Missionary Association (s.l., n.d.), with a focus on the Kowalgia School in Alabama.
  • The Charleston Exchange for Woman's Work Cookbook, (Charleston, n.d.)
  • Charles F. Dole, G. S. Dickerman, and Roger F. Etz, Little Journeys to Piney Woods School (s.l., n.d.)
  • Constitution of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., n.d.)

A number of broadsides, circulars, and fliers are also in the series relating to topics such as Freedmen's Relief, Reconstruction, women's suffrage, the Political Equality Club, temperance, African American educational institutions, pacifism, and more. These include two "Votes for Women" broadsides featuring maps of the United States color-coded to identify suffrage status, as well as instructions on how to fill out ballots regarding suffrage questions. Oversize materials include two printed broadsides advertising lectures by Harriet May Mills, President of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, and one printed broadside advertising a lecture by Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds, who "lived and voted in Colorado for many years and is fairly conversant with the working of suffrage in the hands of woman. She is not one of the window smashing kind, but is noted for her intelligent and womanly methods."

The series also includes newspapers and periodicals. Full papers include editions of the Ulster County Gazette (a later reproduction of the January 4, 1800 edition), with content relating to the death of George Washington; the New-York Weekly Tribune (November 17, 1849); the National Anti-Slavery Standard (August 12, 1852); two volumes of the Evening Auburnian with articles concerning the death of James Garfield (September 20, 1881 and September 24, 1881); the Woman's Tribune (January 13, 1894); The National Bulletin (April 1892); The Peacemaker (October 1902 and April 1905); and Young People (September 23, 1933). Single sheets from an unnamed paper from 1876 reported on the "Soul Stirring Speech" of Col. R. G. Ingersoll to "the Boys in Blue" in Indianapolis about the Democratic Party, and a single sheet from the Advertiser-Journal of April 18, 1918 reports on the passage of prohibition in Auburn, New York, and women's influence in the vote.

Student periodicals include a copy of the Tuskegee Institute's The Student (February 1897); a copy of the The Industrial Student (November 1926) with an article about Emily Howland and her support of the Southern Industrial Institute in Camp Hill, Alabama; two volumes of The Intermountain Institute News (January 1928 and April 1932); and two volumes of The Pine Torch from 1940 relating to the Piney Woods School in Mississippi.

Various newspaper clippings dating between 1894 and 1965 primarily focus on local, state, and national suffragist activities, the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, profiles of Emily Howland and other women's rights activists, and reports on anti-suffrage news and opinions. Several relate to the Sherwood Select School, including a memorial for Hepisbeth C. Hussey (ca. 1908), the Tuskegee Institute, and other topics. A number of the clippings include notations of the newspaper name and date in Emily Howland's hand.

The collection contains several books including educational material, a sammelband (composite volume of multiple publications) of anti-slavery, farming, and temperance almanacs, the six-volume set of History of Woman Suffrage (inscribed by Susan B. Anthony to Isabel Howland), a Bible, and a copy of Harriet: The Moses of Her People (1901). Please see the list in the Additional Descriptive Data section for more information.

The Postcards Series consists of 76 blank postcards produced by companies and photographers like Fred Harvey, Detroit Publishing Company, Karl E. Moon & Co., among others, featuring imagery relating to Native Americans residing in the Southwestern United States, particularly New Mexico and Arizona. One postcard from the sequence can be found in the correspondence series with a postmark of August 6, 1932, suggesting the postcards were likely produced in the 1920s and 1930s. Images include artistic renderings, color printed photographs of portraits of individuals and families, scenes of everyday life and labor, artistic and cultural productions like woven blankets and pottery, buildings and pueblos, and dances and other gatherings. The bulk of the postcards represent individuals from the Hopi tribe, but other tribes and nations include the Dakota, Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, Hualapai, and Havasupai.

Two additional blank picture postcards are also included, one depicting the Sherwood Select School and the other for "Oklahoma Women Want Votes for Women. Let the People Rule Women are People," showing a woman standing at a desk.

The Photographs Series includes cartes-de-visite, tintypes, cabinet cards, a real photo postcard, a cyanotype, photographs, and reproductions, ranging in date from 1863 to the mid-twentieth century. They feature portraits of Emily Howland, women's rights activists, African American schoolrooms and students, and residences and Quaker meeting houses related to the Howland family, among others subjects. Portraits depict individuals such as Emily Howland, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ward Beecher, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, and Anna E. Dickinson, as well as an unidentified man seated in a wheelchair, possibly Edward Strange, a formerly incarcerated man who died of tuberculosis in Howland's home in 1872. Photos of Emily Howland include three of her in regalia, relating to her receiving her honorary doctorate in 1926 and her centennial birthday, and other photos depict her from young adulthood through older age. There is a reproduction of a photo of Emily with her father Slocum Howland, and an original snapshot of her seated with the "Brown children" in 1921. There is also one photo of an unidentified African American man standing before Howland Hall in Statesboro, Georgia.

Group photos are also present in this series. One group portrait is of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's 1891 delegates, with Susan B. Anthony, Anna Shaw, and Emily Howland present, among others. One photo shows thirteen women, a child, and a man inside a Cayuga County suffrage office, decorated with pro-suffrage posters, American flags, and Cayuga County Political Equality Club flags. Emily Howland captioned it: "Nov. 7, 1917 - 'The Morning After' - the victory of Nov. 6," commemorating the passage of woman suffrage in New York State. It may have previously been part of a scrapbook, as it is affixed to a sheet bearing a clipping from the November 11, 1917, Post-Standard newspaper from Syracuse, New York, for "Suffrage Party Leaders and Advocates."

Photographs in the collection reflect Howland's longstanding interest in African American education. Two photos depict the Holley School at Lottsburg, Virginia. One, a reproduction of an 1893 photograph of the interior of the Holley School, is accompanied by a note likely written by Isabel Howland describing a visit to the establishment with Emily Howland. It shows a Christmas tree, bookshelves, portraits, flags, and several African American students. The other is a class photo from 1907 with several rows of students and their teacher(s), with a pencil inscription on the back reading "Miss Putnam's school." A reproduction of a photo taken in 1897 depicts Howland posing in front of a machine, noted on the back as one she "presented . . . to the iron-workers" at the Tuskegee Institute, while another reproduction of a photo taken in 1908 shows a group of people, possibly African American students and residents, standing outside of the "Howland School & Buildings" in Avalon, Virginia. A reproduction of a photo of Emily Howland, two white women, and an African American man and woman is labeled "Principal of Kowaliga School, 1913." A reproduction of a photograph of Emily Howland shows her seated in a chair while wearing a floral crown and two African American girls seated on the floor on either side of her. A pencil note written by a relative identifies it as a photo taken during a visit to Manassas, describing a program in Howland's honor. One mid-twentieth-century photo of a group of African American men, women, and children gathered in a cemetery was identified by the dealer as "likely Heathsville, Virginia" but requires further research to confirm.

Other photos primarily document places. Some of these appear to have been taken or reproduced in relation to Florence W. Hazzard's research on Emily Howland and include materials depicting the interior and exterior of Howland family residences and the Sherwood Select School. Two card photographs, dated 1912 and 1914 respectively, relate to Quaker Meeting Houses. They bear inscriptions on the verso by Emily Howland describing how she attended meeting in one for forty years and how her parents were married in the other. Another card photograph is of the exterior of "Leonard Searing's former house," again with an inscription by Howland with information about individuals captured in the photo.

The Original Art Series consists of five items. An unattributed artist drew three pencil sketches on March 23, 1891, of the exterior of the Holley School at Lottsburg, Virginia, Sallie Holley's residence, and a "Virginia log cabin" with individuals, possibly of African American descent, outside the front door. An unattributed and undated watercolor painting of the "Old Hicksite Meeting House West of Scipioville" is also included, as well as a manuscript map of the western United States with pen and ink and pencil drawings on the verso of buffalo, John Brown, a murderer at the gallows, two bearded men wearing hats, and a box addressed to F. D. Kohler.

The Ephemera Series contains business cards, notices related to the Association for the Advancement of Women and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, several invitations for Howland during her stay in London during the 1899 International Congress of Women, and a sheet of paper that was previously used to wrap a biscuit "From the Queen's table spread . . . to refresh the members of the Council who went to see her by invitation" during the Congress. A disbound portrait of Slocum Howland and a clipped portrait of Anna Howard Shaw are also present. The series includes a handheld fan encouraging New York voters to vote in favor of woman suffrage in 1917. It features a poem on one side (The rose is red / The violet's blue / We want to vote / As well as you!) and a statement to "Keep Cool and Raise A Breeze for Suffrage!" on the other. An undated bookplate for S. Clayton Sumner and a small remembrance of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are also present.

The Research Materials Series includes approximately one linear foot of items relating to the historical study of Emily Howland, principally by historians Florence Woolsey Hazzard, Charles V. Groat, and Phebe King from the 1940s to 1970s. The series contains correspondence to Hazzard and Groat relating to their research, drafts of historical writings and biographical sketches on Howland, research bundles on various topics from Howland's life, photocopies and typescripts of original sources, and miscellaneous notecards and citations.

Collection

Evans family photograph collection, ca. 1895-1960

6 volumes and approximately 60 loose photographs

The Evans family photograph collection consists of a six-volume set of albums and approximately 60 loose photographs mainly depicting the immediate family of Lucretia Booth Evans of Riverdale, New York. Three of the albums contain baby pictures of Evans and her brothers Mason and Morgan Jr. while the other three albums focus on family life and vacations taken by the family.

The Evans family photograph collection consists of a six-volume set of albums and approximately 60 loose photographs mainly depicting the immediate family of Lucretia Booth Evans. Three of the albums contain baby pictures of Evans and her brothers Mason and Morgan Jr. while the other three albums focus on family life and vacations travel.

Volume One: The Morgan Evans, Jr. Baby Book album (19.75 x 16.5 cm) contains 12 photographs of Morgan Evans Jr. as a young child. There is one photograph with his maternal grandmother, Susan Edwards Booth Robinson. Evans Jr.’s obituary, World War I draft registration certificate and a lock of his hair from when he was 14 months old are also present.

Volume Two: The Mason Robinson Evans Baby Book album (19.75 x 16.5 cm) contains 34 photographs of Mason Evans as a child. A lock of his hair from when he was 18 months old is also present.

Volume Three: The Lucretia Booth Evans Baby Book album (23.5 x 18.5 cm) contains 9 photographs of Lucretia Evans as a baby. Most pages remain blank, and a lock her hair from when she was 16 months old is also present.

Volume Four: The Point o' Woods album (22.25 x 39.5 cm) contains approximately 175 photographs and several negatives stored behind snapshots. This album focuses on summer trips to Point o' Woods on Fire Island, Suffolk County in New York State during the 1930s. Many of the individuals depicted in this album are identified with captions. Images of note include the aftermath of the September 1938 New England Hurricane.

Volume Five: The Lucretia Evans early adulthood album (26.75 x 34.25 cm) contains approximately 170 photographs and several negatives stored behind snapshots. The images include landscapes from the late 1930s and images of Lucretia's final days at the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and her time in school as an X-Ray technician.

Volume Six: The Lucretia Evans travel album (22.75 x 31.75 cm) contains approximately 200 photographs, 4 negatives and 35 pieces of printed ephemera representing trips to the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Canada in the 1950s. Inside the front cover is a 50th wedding anniversary clipping of Kitty and Morgan Evans Sr.

There are approximately 60 loose photographs that range from early 20th century cabinet cards of Kitty Evans' family to a large class picture of Lucretia Evans’ X-Ray Technician class.

Collection

Evelyn and Jan Thompson letters, 1930-1936

0.5 linear feet

Online
This collection is made up of letters that Evelyn and Jan Thompson wrote to their parents in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1930-1936. The bulk of the correspondence consists of Evelyn's letters about her education in Paris, France, and at Bryn Mawr College, and about her life and editorial work in Washington, D.C. Evelyn's sister Jan wrote 4 illustrated letters from Bermuda in the fall of 1935.

This collection is made up of letters that Evelyn and Jan Thompson wrote to their family in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1930-1936. Evelyn's letters comprise the bulk of the collection. From September 1930-July 1931, she described her travels in England, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and discussed her life in Paris, France, where she attended school. Evelyn also wrote about her experiences at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, from November 1931-May 1935, and about her daily life in Washington, D.C., from November 1935-May 1936. While in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., Evelyn shared news of her studies, her social activities, and her work for the United States Department of Agriculture. She mentioned her intent to marry David Riesman, and some of her later correspondence contains brief references to politics, communism, and current events. Evelyn also wrote while traveling in New England and Arizona; her letter of July 8, 1935, encloses several small snapshot photographs of buildings in Rouen, France.

Jan Thompson wrote 4 letters while visiting Bermuda in the fall of 1935. She described many aspects of her travels, including a meal featuring "strange slabs of meat. hippopotamus or elephant probably" (September 20, [1935]). Her letters include ink sketches of bathers on beaches, Bermuda scenery, horse-drawn carriages, and a woman attempting to remove a large spider from a window curtain. Additional correspondence from Jan to her parents is scattered throughout the collection. The Thompson letters include postcards, official correspondence from Bryn Mawr officials, and telegrams.

Collection

Everett C. Cogswell postcards, October 3, 1918-November 22, 1918

2 digital files (2.66 MB)

Online
Papers of a soldier who served as a cook in the 310th Engineer Regiment, Company B during the American intervention in North Russia, 1918-1920.

This collection contains digital reproductions; the original papers and/or photographs are owned by the donor. The digital items in this collection were digitized from originals by the individual donors before being received by the Bentley Historical Library. Preservation copies of these files with their original file names and CD-ROM file structures intact have been submitted to Deep Blue. Access copies of these digital files can be viewed by clicking on the links next to the individual folders in the Content List below.

In this finding aid, the files have been arranged into one series, Postcards. Within this series, files are listed numerically according to the file arrangement they were given by the donor. The files in this collection are in JPG format.

Files include three digitized postcards sent by Cogswell while he was serving in Russia. All three postcards feature maritime scenes of Archangel. The messages on the postcard are dated October 3, October 7, and November 22, 1918.

Collection

Finding Aid for Tyler-Montgomery-Scott Family Album, ca. 1870-1938

approximately 275 items in 1 album

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.

Collection

Florence Romaine collection, 1822-1985 (majority within 1843-1907)

0.75 linear feet

The Florence Romaine collection is comprised of correspondence, documents, genealogies, photographs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings related to the Brossard, Draper, and Smith families throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and to the acting career of Florence Smith Romaine.

The Florence Romaine collection (1 linear foot) is comprised of correspondence, documents, genealogies, photographs, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings related to the Brossard, Draper, and Smith families throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and to the acting career of Florence Smith Romaine.

The Correspondence series (59 items) contains personal letters between members of the Brossard, Draper, and Smith families; many are written in French. Most of the material is dated from 1843-1907; the collection also includes 3 early letters to members of the Brossard family, as well as postcards that Florence Smith Romaine wrote to Grace Maxwell from 1962-1963. The series includes letters to Claude Ferdinand de Brossard from various correspondents; to Ferdinand de Brossard and Jenny de Brossard Draper from their mother, Elizabeth de Brossard; to Elizabeth Brossard from her sister-in-law, Julie de Brossard; to Jenny de Brossard Draper from Seth Enos Smith; and to Florence Smith Romaine from her mother, Jenny Draper Smith, and grandmother, Jenny de Brossard Draper. Other items include 6 letters to C. C. Randall.

The Writings series consists of 3 items by Florence Smith Romaine: a rumination on night written around 1905, a play entitled "The Silver Bell of Hat-Shep-Sut's Cat," and Whistling Bill, a children's book published in 1937.

Documents are divided into three subseries: Legal Documents (7 items), Business Documents (3 items), and Awards and Diplomas (2 items). Legal documents include birth certificates, marriage certificates, and passports related to Claude and Elisabeth Brossard and their descendants, as well as a copy of Florence Smith Romaine's will. Business documents are related to Brossard family accounts. The award and diploma concern Jenny Draper's academic achievements at the Chegaray Institute and a Brossard family member's receipt of the Fleur de Lys.

The Photographs series has two subseries: Photograph Album and Loose Photographs. The photograph album (26 pages) contains 104 cartes-de-visite and tintype studio portraits, including portraits of members of the Brossard, Draper, and Smith families. Two pages from a photograph album of the Romaine family are housed separately. Loose photographs (32 items), including 2 cased items (one housed in the Graphics Division), mostly show Florence Romaine in theatrical costumes; several photographs show members of the Smith and Draper families.

Two Scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, programs, notes, and other items regarding Florence Romaine's acting career, as well as articles, children's stories, and puzzles that she wrote for The Christian Science Monitor in 1924 and 1925. The Newspaper Clippings (3 items) concern the career of Worthington L. Romaine and the deaths of Seth and Seth E. Smith.

Genealogies and Family Histories consist of a pamphlet about the descendants of Henry and Elizabeth Smith, including Seth Enos Smith and Florence Smith Romaine; manuscript and typed notes pertaining to the Draper and Stull families and to the life of Florence Romaine; and pages from Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper's 1892 genealogy The Drapers in America.

Miscellaneous Items and Fragments (17 items) include notes and poetry (in French), 2 invitations, a copy of a recommendation letter for Father Marie-Joseph de Geramb to the governor of Cairo, and a promotional pamphlet for "Florence May Smith."

Collection

Frank C. Gates papers, 1871-2000 (majority within 1907-1955)

6.4 linear feet (in 9 boxes)

Frank C. Gates was a professor of botany at the University of the Philippines, 1912-1915. He later taught botany and biology at the University of Michigan Biological Station and Kansas State College. His collection includes personal and biographical material, including a biography written by his son, David M. Gates; personal and professional correspondence; journals; academic and research material, such as birding and botany notebooks as well as descriptions and drafts of writings pertaining to Philippine vegetation and travels in the Philippines; and photographic material, including lantern slides, photographs, and photograph albums.

The Frank C. Gates papers are dated from 1871-2010 and include biographical and personal material, such as a biographical monograph authored by his son, David M. Gates; personal and professional correspondence; journals; publications; research notebooks; postcards, photographs, photographic negatives, photograph albums, and lantern slides. In addition to documenting Gates's time spent teaching botany at the University of the Philippines and exploring the vegetation of the Philippines Islands (1912-1915), this collection also documents his personal and professional life, service in World War I, and research interests and efforts.

Collection

Frank D. Jonas letters, 1918-1919

0.25 linear feet

This collection contains around 80 letters that Sergeant Frank D. Jonas wrote to his parents and siblings in Brooklyn, New York, while serving with Company B of the 326th Tank Corps during World War I. Jonas described his training at Camp Upton, New York, and at Camp Colt and Camp Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, between February and September 1918, and discussed his experiences in England and in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, between October 1918 and April 1919. The collection also includes letters that Jonas received from other soldiers, as well as letters Jonas's brothers Robert and Richard wrote about their experiences in the military.

This collection contains around 80 letters that Sergeant Frank D. Jonas wrote to his parents and siblings in Brooklyn, New York, while serving with the Company B of the 326th Tank Corps at Camp Upton, New York; at Camp Colt and Camp Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania; and in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, during World War I. The collection also includes letters that Jonas received from other soldiers and letters by Jonas's brothers Robert and Richard.

The bulk of the Correspondence series is comprised of letters from Frank D. Jonas to his parents and siblings, usually addressed to his mother. While in training at Fort Slocum and Camp Upton, New York, in early 1918, he described his clothing, equipment, daily routine, and other soldiers. In late March 1918, Jonas transferred to the newly established Camp Colt near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of Company B of the 326th Tank Corps and, later, a signal sergeant. In his letters to his family, Jonas mentioned training exercises such as hikes, drilling, and signaling classes; he also encouraged his brother Richard ("Dick") to enlist. After arriving in Europe around October 1918, Jonas wrote a letter about his transatlantic journey; he later commented on his surroundings and on soldiers' accommodations in France.

After the war, Jonas served in Bourg and St. Laurent, France, where he discussed the possibility of returning home. Two of his letters contain enclosures: a newspaper clipping with photographs of French tanks and wounded Canadian soldiers (September 19, 1918) and photographic negatives of a soldier in uniform (May 23, 1918). Several of Jonas's letters are written on YMCA or Tank Corps stationery, and he also sent his family a Christmas card, and received a postcard depicting a group of soldiers.

Jonas received 2 letters from Sergeant Edward A. Fargo, Jr., who served in Germany in 1919; 1 letter from a marine serving at Paris Island, South Carolina; and 1 letter from Sergeant Harry E. Wildner. His brothers Richard ("Dick") and Robert ("Bob") also wrote several letters about their own experiences in the military.

The Tank Drill Regulations series contains one 3-page document outlining the procedures and signals during tank units' drill exercises.

Collection

Frank Murphy papers, 1908-1949

166 microfilms — 24 linear feet (in 28 boxes) — 7 oversize volumes — 2 oversize folders — 474 MB (online) — 18 digital video files (online)

Online
Michigan-born lawyer, judge, politician and diplomat, served as Detroit Recorder's Court Judge, Mayor of Detroit, Governor General of the Philippines, Governor of Michigan, U. S. Attorney General and U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Papers include extensive correspondence, subject files, Supreme court case files, scrapbooks, photographs, newsreels and audio recordings, and other material.

The Frank Murphy Collection documents in detail the life and career of one of Michigan's most distinguished public servants. Through correspondence, subject files, scrapbooks, visual materials, and other documentation, the collection traces Murphy's life from his years as Detroit judge, later Mayor, to his service in the Philippines, his tenure as governor, his stint as U.S. Attorney General, and culminating in his final years as U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

The Frank Murphy Collection consists of eight series: Correspondence, Other Papers, Supreme Court Case Files, Speech File, Speech Material, Miscellaneous, Visual Material, and Newsclippings/Scrapbooks.