Rare Books
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1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
The Singleton Collection is organized into four discrete yet interrelated units. The first consists of 79 photographs by Mathew Brady (1823-1896) and Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) of scenes of the Civil War taken between 1861 and 1865. Included are group portraits of generals with their staffs, important wartime sites and activities, and photographs of paintings depicting various skirmishes. While the photographs were taken by Brady and Gardner during the war, the images were printed around 1885 by John Taylor and marketed by the firm of Taylor & Huntington. These photographer-entrepreneurs hoped to capitalize on twenty-fifth anniversary war reunions and commemorations by reissuing the once-familiar views. On the verso of each image is a partial list of the photographs sold by Taylor & Huntington for 75 cents a piece. The second grouping of photographs depicts two views of Abraham Lincoln and portraits of the Lincoln conspirators and their execution. These were also taken by Brady and Gardner during the war and, as with the first group, printed and issued around 1885 by Taylor & Huntington. Of particular rarity are the fourteen photographs of the Lincoln assassination conspirators including portraits of David Herold, George Atzerodt, Edward Spangler, two views of Lewis Payne, two views of Michael O'Laughlin, and an unidentified conspirator. Additionally, there is a complete set of three images depicting the execution of Mrs. Surratt and the conspirators taken by Alexander Gardner on July 7, 1865, as well as three of the five known images documenting the execution of Captain Wirz, the notorious Keeper of Andersonville Prison. Eighty-three cabinet portraits of Confederate Generals and other Southern leaders by George S. Cook (1819-1902) comprise the third section of the collection. Cook was a friend and former employee of Matthew Brady, and he provided E.& H.T. Anthony Co. with portraits from the South, including the first portrait of Colonel Robert Anderson. These portraits may come from sources other than Cook as he purchased competing photographers negatives, issuing them on his mounts. These portraits were taken in the 1860s but printed between 1880 and 1890 when Cook operated his Richmond, Virginia studio at 913 East Main Street. The last grouping of photographs contains 210 images by William H. Tipton (1850-1929), the self-described "Battlefield Photographer." The imperial-sized photographs depict the numerous monuments erected on the Gettysburg battlefield to honor the soldiers who fought and died in this decisive battle. The photographs date from the 1880s. The Singleton Collection constitutes of one of the most complete historic archives of the Gettysburg monuments.
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Manuscripts
The Clark family correspondence accumulated by Mrs. Clark and her side of the family. Also included is a genealogical chart and a family history written in 1942 by Julia Lincoln Ray Andrews. The bulk of the collection consists of Lincoln Clark's letters to his wife written during his many absences riding circuit in Alabama, trips back east, their two year separation between 1846 and 1848, his stay in Washington in 1852-1853, and his business travels in the 1850s and 1860s. The letters discuss Lincoln Clark's professional and political career; Mrs. Clark's work at home and involvement in charities, their religious feelings, their children's upbringing and education, the fate of their slaves; financial troubles, especially in the wake of the 1857 panic, the Civil War, the U.S. Sanitary Commission, etc. Also included are five letters written between 1854 and 1861 by Frederick Clark and his wife Charlotte, Lincoln Clark's former slaves who immigrated to Liberia in 1856. Also included is correspondence of Mrs. Clark's parents and grandparents, her sisters Dorothy Williams Smith Holbrook, Rachel Bardwell Smith Holbrook, and Catharine Amelia Smith Jones, a cousin Caroline W. Porter, and her daughters. William Williams's letter written in 1758 to his then sweetheart Dorothy Ashley dicusses the proper relationship of faith and reason; a long letter of Feb. 1, 1800, describes, in great detail, the passage by the Massachusetts legislature of the Act Providing for Public Worship of God, which Williams had sponsored. The 1816 letter from a cousin, Sarah T. Williams Newton, wife of Edward Augustus Newton (1785-1862) from Calcutta discusses Christian missionaries in India and Indian society. The letters from Julia Annah Clark Ray describe her studies at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn.
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Rare Books
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