Manuscripts

Photographs of extended family

Description: Carte-de-visite portrait of E.W. Benson; portrait of A.C. Benson; film negative of portrait of Captain White Benson (possible ancestor?) and two photographs of the family of Janet Esdaile Woods, 1945-1946.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: Approximately 1870s-1946
Call number: mssEsdaile
Creator: Esdaile, Katharine Ada (1881-1950)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased by the Huntington Library in 1962. The collection was initially accessioned into the Huntington Art Reference Library in 1962. Sometime afterwards, the printed books and pamphlets were removed, separately catalogued, and shelved with the main body of the Art Reference Books, and the photographs were removed to the Photo Study Collection. In 2005, the Art Reference Library collection was merged into the main collection of the Huntington Library and the decision was made to re-integrate the printed material and photographs of the Esdaile collection into the papers.

Miscellaneous correspondence from extended family members

Manuscripts

Consists of: (a) Aunts (2 pieces). Undated (b) McDowall, Hilda (cousin?) (5 pieces), undated (c) Cousins (12 pieces), 1907-1950 (d) Nephews and nieces (8 pieces), 1934-1949 and undated (e) Grandchildren (5 pieces), 1947-1949 and undated (f) Miscellaneous (6 pieces), 1945, 1950 and undated

mssEsdaile

Image not available

Beecher family photograph collection

Visual Materials

A collection of five photographs of various Beecher family members in five different photographic formats: ambrotype, albumen print, carte-de-visite, cabinet photograph, and a hand-colored salted paper print. A portrait of Lyman Beecher produced by Mathew Brady in 1856 is a combination of watercolor, ink, and pencil added to the surface of a salted paper print. There are two variants of a Beecher family group portrait taken in 1859 depicting Lyman Beecher and nine of his adult children; one is a large albumen print and the other an ambrotype. Also included are an autographed cabinet photograph of an older Harriet Beecher Stowe; and a hand-colored Augustus Morand print based on a miniature of a young Eunice White (Bullard) Beecher, author and wife of Henry Ward Beecher. This carte-de-visite portrait is within a Bullard family album containing 45 additional cartes-de-visite and cabinet photographs. Only a few portraits in the album are identified, including some cousins of Eunice Bullard.

photCL 688

Image not available

Correspondence from Esdaile extended family and friends

Manuscripts

This collection contains the papers of English art historian Katharine Ada Esdaile (1881-1950), with the bulk of the materials relating to her research and writings on British monumental sculpture, sculptors, and church monuments from the medieval period to 19th century. Material types include personal writings, diaries, correspondence, business papers, family papers and photographs, research files and research notebooks, and miscellaneous published and unpublished materials. Notably the collection includes more than 600 chiefly pre-World War II visitor booklets and pamphlets produced locally by British churches and approximately 3500 photographs taken or collected by Esdaile of sculpture, often funerary monuments in English churches, ranging from large churches like Westminster Abbey to small rural parishes. This collection provides a resource for viewpoints on monumental sculpture in the early 20th century (for instance as represented in book reviews by Esdaile) and for information about Esdaile's experience as a woman art historian in the early 20th century. Given the broadness of Esdaile's scope, from medieval to 19th century British monumental sculpture, the collection is less useful for specific information about monuments or sculptors. In addition, many of Esdaile's attributions in her notes appear to have been based primarily on her own instincts and do not have citations. Many of Esdaile's notes are handwritten on small scraps of paper or are fragments, sometimes making the information difficult to parse. The collection is chiefly Esdaile's files, but the dates on some items (such as post-1950 booklets) indicate the collection was added to and used after her death, presumably by her son Edmund Esdaile, who also made notes on items in the collection and appears to have done the preliminary organization of the papers after Esdaile's death.

mssEsdaile

Image not available

Photographs of Edmund, Eleanor, Martin Esdaile

Manuscripts

A 1928 studio portrait of Martin and Edmund Esdaile as boys; an undated studio portrait of Edmund as a boy; a 1915 photograph of Eleanor and Edmund; a 1937 studio portrait of Edmund; a 1937 snapshot of a sports game; and two photographs of Martin Esdaile as a young man and a postcard from him.

mssEsdaile

Image not available

Ada Benson

Manuscripts

25 July 1879 letter from Julia Arnold to her teacher Ada Benson (later Mrs. Andrew McDowell) and typescript preface by Esdaile about Ada Benson.

mssEsdaile

Image not available

Hamlin family collection of photographs

Visual Materials

45 portrait photographs of Hamlin and Besse family members, cousins, and friends, most unidentified. Most of the portraits are carte-de-visite size with photographers' studio stamps from Sterling, Illinois, and elsewhere in Illinois, Iowa, and the United States. Ten of the cartes-de-visite depict popular genre scenes and paintings. Some items depict or were owned by Frank G. Besse and Eva May Besse.

photCL 523

Photographs of extended family

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Miscellaneous correspondence from extended family members

Beecher family photograph collection

Correspondence from Esdaile extended family and friends

Photographs of Edmund, Eleanor, Martin Esdaile

Ada Benson

Hamlin family collection of photographs