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

The Smith family travel photograph albums consist of two volumes containing photographs, chromolithographs, die-cut scrapbook pieces, and pressed flower designs accumulated during a trip to Europe, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine.

The Smith family travel photograph albums consist of two volumes containing photographs, chromolithographs, die-cut scrapbook pieces, and pressed flower designs accumulated during a trip to Europe, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine.

The albums chronicle the journey of siblings “J. M. Smith" and “M. H. Smith.” Each album bears the name of its respective owner on the front cover. The Smiths left New York City on May 20th 1874 on the Cunard Line Steamer Abyssinia, before disembarking in Queenstown, Ireland, on May 29th. After spending time in Ireland, England, and Scotland they visited several locations in mainland Europe including Paris, Switzerland, southern Germany, Brussels, the Netherlands, Italy, Prussia, and Austria. After exploring Europe, the Smiths ventured to the Middle East where they toured Egypt, Christian holy sites in Palestine (present-day Israel), Turkey, and Syria. They subsequently traveled back through Italy and France before boarding the steamer Bothnia in Liverpool and returning to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Volume one (25 x 19.5 cm) has purple covers with “J. M. Smith” stamped in gold on the front and contains 47 photographs, 19 printed items, 1 drawing, and numerous dried pressed vegetation arrangements. Several images found in this album are also found in volume two including commercial photographic reproductions of engraved portraits, Italian Renaissance artwork, and other 19th century paintings. A handwritten itinerary outlining the course of the trip can be found inside the front cover and suggests the albums were finished being compiled by August 20th 1875. Items of interest include several portraits of various individuals including Julia Anderson, Jinnie Miller, Lula Miller, Nannie Anderson, and Reverend Christopher Newman Hall; numerous dried floral compositions; a pen and ink drawing of the “arms & crest of ‘Darsie’”; a photograph of two leaning towers in Bologna; a printed memorial card for Elizabeth Maria Thompson, founder of the British Syrian Schools Mission in Beirut and Damascus; and an image of blind children likely from one of Thompson’s schools.

Volume two (25 x 19.5 cm) has purple covers with "M. H. Smith" stamped in gold on the front and contains 64 photographs, 70 printed items, and numerous dried pressed vegetation arrangements. A handwritten itinerary outlining the course of the trip that is nearly identical to one found at the beginning of volume one is located inside the front cover. Items of interest include a photograph of a painting of Queen Victoria’s family; die-cut scrapbook pieces depicting different manner of dress in nations including the United States, China, and Italy; and numerous photographs and photographic reproductions of portraits of European royalty, rulers, and people wearing traditional ethnic clothing (mainly Swiss, Germans, Italians, and Greeks). Also of note are pressed vegetation and flower designs including moss samples spelling out “Italy” and “Egypt”; photographic and lithographic portraits of Prussian leaders Wilhelm I, Crown Prince Frederick William, Prince Carl, and Otto von Bismarck; a collection of materials from Marie Antoinette’s prison cell along with flowers from around Paris; a photograph of a female professor at the University of Bologna, Italy who was said to be too beautiful to be seen teaching (also found in volume two); a lengthy description of religious sites in Jaffa, Palestine; a reward of merit in Arabic given to M. H. Smith by an Arab guide (also found in volume two); and photographs of the King and Queen of Greece. Numerous photographs have been colored by hand.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Disabled Hats is a humorous handwritten and illustrated booklet related to a fictional organization dedicated to the protection of various styles of hats.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Disabled Hats is a humorous handwritten and illustrated booklet related to a fictional organization dedicated to the protection of various styles of hats.

The volume (11 x 7 cm) is a small notebook with a sticker on the front cover of an American top hat. Inside of the front cover the name and originating date of the society are presented. The following pages display a declaration from the society’s “board” before delving into 60 watercolor and ink illustrations of different types of hats, each of which is provided a name. The inside of the back cover contains lists of the society's “board members” and “inspectors.” Also of note is an illustration of a firefighting wagon.

This handmade account book contains financial accounts for the Stephentown (N.Y.) school district library, including fines imposed on individuals for late returns of books, as well as damages. This volume was repurposed later by William Wallace Elliot as a penmanship exercise book.

This handmade account book contains financial accounts of the Stephentown (N.Y.) school district library, including fines imposed on individuals for late returns of books, as well as damages. This volume was repurposed at a later date by William Wallace Elliot as a penmanship exercise book.

The final page is a "Register of damages to books." The cover is made from a scrap of a paper ream wrapper. Sections used by William for penmanship exercise feature repeated phrases and quoted passages.

Stephen Williams kept this copybook in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, possibly in the 1840s. The volume includes penmanship practice, moral maxims, names of presidents and more.

Stephen Williams kept this copybook in Uxbridge, Massachusetts possibly in the 1840s. The volume includes penmanship practice, moral maxims, names of presidents like Andrew Jackson, and more.

The printed blankbook "Sold wholesale and retail by B. CRANSTON & Co. Printers, Publishers, and Booksellers" of Providence, [Rhode Island], features a man hunting in the snow with a dog on the cover. The back cover features two illustrations: one of a bird standing in a tree over a dead bird on the ground, and one of a fox standing over a dead bird. Between the two is the quote, "All may not be our enemies whom we fancy to be so. Harbor no enmity against your companions."

The Stinchfield family papers contain the correspondence, business records, financial and legal documents, photographs, and genealogical papers of the Stinchfield family, founders of a successful lumber business in Michigan in the mid-19th century. The collection also includes materials related to social and family events in Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, through the mid-20th century.

The Stinchfield family papers consist of the correspondence, business records, financial and legal documents, photographs, and genealogical papers of Jacob W. Stinchfield, his wife Maria Hammond Stinchfield, and their descendants. The collection's correspondence and documents are organized by generation, reflecting their original order. The earliest items in the collection (Generation I series) include real estate transactions involving Jacob Stinchfield of Lincoln, Maine, dating from 1837. Beginning in the 1860s, after the family’s move to Michigan, the records include correspondence, accounts, and other financial records relating to the lumber business, begun by Jacob and continued by his son Charles Stinchfield. The materials provide information respecting the management of men in lumber camps, logging in winter weather conditions, methods of transportation, the challenges of rafting logs downriver, and other lumber business operations in volatile market conditions. Jacob and Charles Stinchfield’s partner, and frequent correspondent, was David Whitney, Jr., a wealthy Detroit businessman.

The Stinchfields expanded their company to include railroads (to facilitate their logging operations) and mineral mines. Many documents in the Generation II series, including manuscript and printed maps, concern land development in Michigan, where the family owned a farm in Bloomfield Hills, and in the West, especially Wyoming. The family traveled extensively and corresponded about their experiences in Europe, Asia, and the western United States. The Civil War is represented with small but significant holdings -- among them, a September 21, 1864, note written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln, requesting a fair hearing for a furlough (probably for George Stinchfield), and a February 14, 1863, letter from Vice President Hannibal Hamlin to Jacob W. Stinchfield, assuring him that George McClellan would not be ordered back to the command of the army.

The collection's twentieth-century materials (Generation III and Generation IV series) consist largely of the personal correspondence of Jacob Stinchfield’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The life of Charles Stinchfield, Jr., is well documented, from his schooling at St. John’s Military Institute in Manlius, N.Y., and a brief time at Cornell University, through his roles in the family business, his marriage, and the raising of his three children. Interactions between Charles Stinchfield, Jr., and his father, Charles Stinchfield, a demanding and energetic businessman, are also well represented in the collection. The materials reveal relationships between family members and their servants, and spiritualists' attempts to contact Charles Stinchfield III, who died of appendicitis in 1933 at the age of 15. Later papers provide descriptions of the social life of a wealthy family in the early and mid-20th century, at their residence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and at their country home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The Genealogy series, compiled largely by Diane Stinchfield Klingenstein, contains extensive background research on family members, copies of Ira and George Stinchfield’s Civil War records, transcriptions of letters written by Charles Stinchfield on a journey west in 1871 (not otherwise represented in the collection), and a typewritten draft of Diane Klingenstein’s family history, "One bough from a branch of the tree: a Stinchfield variation."

In addition to materials organized by generation, the collection includes photographs, scrapbooks, pastels, realia, and books. Many of the photographs are individual and group portraits (both studio and candid) from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The images include many exterior views of the land and buildings of the family’s country home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (Stonycroft Farm, ca. 1910), and of the Stinchfield residence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (ca. 1940s). Early 20th-century lumber camps and railroads in Oregon and mining camps in Nevada are represented in photographs and photograph albums. The collection contains photos from trips to Japan (ca. 1907), the American West, and Europe. The collection's scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, invitations, and photographs, mainly concerning the life of Diane Klingenstein in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, during the 1930s and 1940s.

The Stinchfield family papers contain three pastel portraits of unknown subjects. The Realia series includes a bone ring likely made by George Stinchfield when he was a prisoner on Belle Isle, Virginia; a ring bearing Ira Stinchfield's name and regiment, in case he died during the Civil War; hospital identification and five baby pins for Diane W. Stinchfield (1925); a variety of additional Stinchfield family jewelry; and several wooden, crotched rafting pins, apparently from Saginaw, Michigan.

The Books series includes a copy of The Pictorial Bible, given to Charles and Mary from Father Fish, June 12, 1879, and a selection of 9 additional publications, which are cataloged individually. A comprehensive list of these books may be found by searching the University's online catalog for "Klingenstein."

The Strickland family photograph album contains approximately 124 photographs related to the Strickland family of Ontario, Canada.

The Strickland family photograph album contains approximately 124 photographs related to the Strickland family of Ontario, Canada.

The album is disbound and photographs are mounted on eight loose 35 x 43 cm board pages. The original sequence of the pages is unclear and several images appear more than once. Most photographs are studio portraits of individuals, group portraits taken in front of buildings, or scenic views. At least one of the studio portraits is the work of Montreal photographer William Notman. Several images appear to be half-images taken from stereographs.

Images of interest include views of the homes of Catharine Parr Traill and Col. Samuel Strickland on Lake Katchewanooka, Col. Strickland with his family and Traill holding a child, a Native American family beside a lake, a canoeing party and canoe portaging, a view of the front of “Westove” (Traill’s home after 1860) next to Christ Church, possible portraits of Traill as well as Susanna and John Moodie, a party on the front lawn of Col. Strickland’s property engaged in bird hunting and croquet, the grounds of the University of Toronto, and the musical group the Montreal Bell Ringers. Also of note are multiple portraits of children ranging from toddlers to adolescents as well as views of five unidentified buildings likely located in Lakefield, staged images of lumber camps, and an unidentified dam and bridge on a river.