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This scrapbook contains materials relating to the Bell Theatre, likely located in Springfield, Oregon, around the 1910s. The theatre presented motion pictures, vaudeville acts, comedy acts, contests and lectures, and other events. The items in the scrapbook include programs, tickets, advertisements, newspaper clippings about the theatre, and other printed ephemera.

The Bell Theatre advertised themselves as having "all the latest motion pictures and vaudeville," and appeared to have been managed by Wallace Potter at the time of the items' creation. Some newspaper clippings reference a legal case of the city vs. Potter, who appears to have been arrested for operating his theatre contrary to an ordinance (passed over the mayor's veto) requiring moving picture shows to pay a license fee.

One newspaper article discussed an uptick in cocaine usage, calling it a "snow" habit. Some advertised events included minstrel shows/comedy acts and "prize baby" contests.

The Boston to St. Louis travel diary recounts an arduous month-long journey between the two cities made by rail, steamboat, and stagecoach in the fall of 1837.

The Boston to St. Louis travel diary recounts an arduous month-long journey between the two cities made by rail, steamboat, and stagecoach in the fall of 1837. The anonymous author, a staunchly religious man, refused to travel on Sundays and attended Sunday religious services at Presbyterian churches throughout his travels, which took him through northern New York, down the Erie Canal, across lower Michigan and northern Illinois, and finally down the Mississippi River to St. Louis. The diarist wrote daily entries about frequent delays, bad weather, his route, the scenery, and various traveling companions, many of whom he knew. Though the initial leg from Boston to Rochester, New York, proceeded without difficulty, he became stranded in Cleveland and was frequently held back by poor, muddy roads as he proceeded by stagecoach from Detroit to Chicago. He finally reached St. Louis on November 28 and concluded the journal on November 30, a lonely and homesick Thanksgiving. Though the author's daily entries fully chronicle the hardships of travel in the early 19th century, they also provide interesting anecdotes and commentary, including encounters with wild animals along the road, and news of the murder of abolitionist minister Elijah Parish Lovejoy, which the diarist first heard about in Chicago, but also later in Alton, Illinois, where the murder made "abolitionism…more than ever the topic of conversation" (November 25). The final two pages of the volume consist of a table of distances, fares, and expenses incurred throughout the trip.

This 82 x 43 x 36 cm wooden document trunk, dating from around 1765, includes a hand-wrought iron lock, reinforcement bands, corner tips, and fancy handles. Its interior is grooved for the placement of three removable wooden panels, one of which is present. Contemporary manuscript lettering on the interior left side of the lid reads "Commissariat / on His Majs: Acct / from Mr Oswald" and on the right "Papers / for the Germn: Army / May 1766 / accounts – [A?] & B."

This 82 x 43 x 36 cm wooden document trunk, dating from around 1765, includes a hand-wrought iron lock, reinforcement bands, corner tips, and fancy handles. Its interior is grooved for the placement of three removable wooden panels, one of which is present. Contemporary manuscript lettering on the interior left side of the lid reads "Commissariat / on His Majs: Acct / from Mr Oswald" and on the right "Papers / for the Germn: Army / May 1766 / accounts – [A?] & B."

A January 9, 1861, note by Philadelphia lawyer Henry J. Williams indicates that the trunk was seized by the French as a prize during the American Revolution, and that his father Jonathan Williams brought it to the United States when returning from his service as acting U.S. Consul at Nantes. Mid-twentieth-century paper tags indicate that the trunk was one of three from the estate of Henry J. Williams' son-in-law Alexander Biddle, discovered after the death of Biddle's son Lynford Biddle in 1941, and sold by Parke-Bernet Galleries in 1943.

This photograph album contains 10 albumen prints related to the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

This souvenir photograph album (12cm x 18cm), which contains 10 albumen prints, is bound in blue pebbled book-cloth and has the title "Album Photographs[,] Bunker Hill Monument" stamped in gold on its cover. The first 2 pictures show the Bunker Hill Monument (a stone obelisk) and the statue of Colonel William Prescott, respectively. The remaining 8 photographs are aerial views of Charlestown and the surrounding area taken from the monument, showing residences, industrial buildings, the Charlestown Navy Yard, and the Charles and Mystic Rivers. Sailing ships are visible in many of the aerial views. The album belonged to Lucia K. Hathaway, who inscribed her name on its first page on November 15, 1884.

The California and Western Tour photograph album contains commercial and amateur photographs of scenes in Yosemite National Park, Yellowstone National Park, California, New Mexico, and other locales. The volume includes a group of photographs taken at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893.

This album (23cm x 30cm) contains 67 commercial and amateur prints of scenes in various locales, particularly in the western United States. The album is bound in red pebbled leather with small gold trim. Many of the photographs are commercial prints as large as 19cm x 24cm, with captions and negative numbers. Manuscript captions accompany some of the items, often with information about the size of natural features shown. Pictures of rock formations, waterfalls, rivers and lakes, and geysers are most common, along with shots of architectural landmarks and groups of tourists. Prominent photograph locations include Yosemite National Park (9 items), Garden of the Gods (4 items), New Mexico (3 items), the Columbia River (3 items), and Yellowstone National Park (20 items). The album has 2 pictures of Niagara Falls, one of which was taken in winter.

Though the album focuses on natural scenery, several photographs show various types of buildings, such as missions in California and New Mexico, hotels in California, the Lick observatory, a group of buildings at the Shasta Springs retreat, a railroad dining car interior, and the exterior of a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, California. Scenes of horse-drawn carriages fording the Fire Hole River in Yellowstone National Park and passing through a tunnel cut into the trunk of a large tree in Yosemite National Park are present, as are other group photographs. One shows "Miss E. P. Gould" riding a horse, and another shows a group of men fishing on Yellowstone Lake. An 1888 portrait of John C. Frémont, his wife Jessie, and their daughter shows them standing in front of the "Fremont tree" in Redwood Grove. A final group of photographs consists of pictures of various buildings constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

The California travel photograph album (17.5 x 14 cm) contains twelve gelatin silver print views of various travel destinations in California in 1898.

The California travel photograph album (17.5 x 14 cm) contains twelve gelatin silver print photographs of various travel destinations in California in 1898. Captions are written below each photograph.

An anonymous United States Army sergeant wrote these 3 letters (18 pages) to his mother while serving at Camp Hancock, Georgia, between August and December 1917. "Herb," a member of Company D, 103rd Engineer Regiment, reported on his regiment's work laying pipes and about several aspects of military life.

An anonymous United States Army sergeant wrote these 3 letters (18 pages) to his mother while serving at Camp Hancock, Georgia, between August and December 1917. "Herb," a member of Company D, 103rd Engineer Regiment, reported on his regiment's work laying pipes and on several aspects of military life.

In each of his letters, "Herb" encouraged his mother not to worry about him, and he took pride in his work with the military and in his continuing advancement through the ranks; he was expecting a commission as lieutenant. He also mentioned some of his regiment's duties, which included laying pipes for newly constructed buildings at Camp Hancock and building temporary bridges for other units on bivouac assignments. Herb described other aspects of camp life, such as the comings and goings of other soldiers and his leisure activities, which included trips to nearby Augusta and football games. In two of his letters, he discussed the reorganization of the army's cavalry and artillery units, and in one letter, he mentioned English and French guest officers' instruction in trench warfare (November 11, 1917).

The Camp Lin-E-Kin photograph album (16 x 24 cm) contains 36 photographs of people and activities at a girls' camp in Maine.

The Camp Lin-E-Kin photograph album (16 x 24 cm) contains 36 photographs of people and activities at a girls' camp in Maine. Images depict varied activities: hiking, boating, dancing, and calisthenics. Of interest are numerous photographs of girls wearing costumes and a group wearing swimming outfits, an image of a cabin interior with girls writing letters and knitting, and two photographs of girls holding cameras. An envelope with 10 additional photographs is laid in the album.

The album has a black cloth cover tied with string; housed in a grey board wrap with blue cloth spine.

The Caribbean photograph album contains photographs of towns, scenery, and people in Jamaica, Saint Vincent, Barbados, and Trinidad.

This photograph album (19cm x 26cm) contains 77 photographs of towns, scenery, and people throughout the Caribbean. Most pictures are 14cm x 22cm, though a few are 10cm x 15cm, and many have lengthy captions with additional information about locales pictured; many are numbered. Captions include information about hotel rates, population figures, vegetation, geographic features, and local customs. The photographs show Jamaica (43 items), Barbados (13 items), Trinidad (12 items), local residents (4 items), Saint Vincent (3 items), and other scenes (2 items). The album has many views of city streets and towns taken from street level and from higher vantage points, as well as views of rivers in Saint Vincent and Jamaica and of Carlisle Bay, Barbados. Structures such as sugar plantation windmills, railroad stations, hotels, markets, a prison, and churches are visible in many pictures, as are residents and, less often, tourists. A group of 4 photographs at the end of the album show East Indian women who worked in Trinidad, and 3 photographs show members of the West Indian Regiment and its band, including 1 picture of the band playing in a gazebo. Harbor views show Royal Navy ships and other vessels. The album's covers have a hard cloth covering, and the pages are bound together with rope. One loose page has been removed from the volume.

This incomplete 312-page manuscript catechism contains a series of questions and answers about religious faith, including the doctrine of predestination, the creation of the world, Jesus Christ, and the form and contents of prayer. A marginal note by a different 18th or 19th century hand suggests that this is "perhaps the writing of N Chauncey Hatfield or Samuel Wh[illegible]."

This incomplete 312-page manuscript catechism contains a series of questions and answers about religious faith, including the doctrine of predestination, the creation of the world, Jesus Christ, and the form and contents of prayer. A marginal note by a different 18th- or 19th-century hand suggests that this is "perhaps the writing of N Chauncey Hatfield or Samuel Wh[illegible]."

The manuscript begins with a discussion of heaven and hell, and proceeds through additional topics, often accompanied by scriptural references. Each subject is part of a continuing question-and-answer process, often based on a previous answer, and many themes recur frequently. Several brief proverbs appear on the final page.