Call Number:

00.039

Repository:

Drexel University: Archives and Special Collections

Extent:

4.0 volumes

Language:

English

Date:

1894

Creator:

Paul, James W., Jr.

Form:

Scrapbooks

Abstract:

George W. Childs (1829-1894) was a publisher, newspaper editor, and philanthropist in Philadelphia. As a young bookseller he founded Childs and Peterson Publishers in Philadelphia and in 1864, purchased the Philadelphia Public Ledger with the help of longtime friend Anthony J. Drexel. His new management transformed the small newspaper into one of the most influential and widely circulated in the country. He is especially known for his philanthropic activities, including the commission of monuments to famous writers such as John Milton and Edgar Allen Poe, as well as donations to Fairmount Park, the Typographical Society, and the Zoological Society in Philadelphia. He was a very good friend of President Grant, as well as other senators and congressmen of his day. He was instrumental in encouraging A.J. Drexel to establish a school for the education of men and women, and he served on the Drexel Institute's board of trustees from the school's founding until his death.

This collection is made up of 4 volumes of scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings surrounding the death, funeral, and will of George W. Childs, as well as many commemorative biographical articles that ran in the weeks following his death. There are two sets of two volumes each. The sets are nearly identical, containing essentially the same articles, but arranged differently. “Volume I of the Obituary Notices of Geo W. Childs” contains clippings primarily from New York newspapers, including the New York Times, Press, Daily News, Evening Telegram, Recorder and Herald. This volume also features clippings from newspapers in Philadelphia, including the Inquirer, Bulletin, and Telegraph. Volume II features similar clippings from more distant cities, including Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chicago, Richmond, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Boston, San Francisco, London, Berlin, and Paris. The scrapbooks were donated to the library of the Drexel Institute by James Paul, Jr., the husband of A.J. Drexel’s daughter, Frances Katherine. Paul was a close friend of the Childs family and was one of the executors of Childs’ will, and may be responsible for the assembly of the scrapbooks.