Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1529

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.33 linear feet (1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Kate anniversary scrapbook, 1875-1894, Ms. Coll. 0000, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Date:

1875-1894 (inclusive)

Form:

Scrapbooks

Abstract:

Catherine Clendinning "Kate" Gillespie was the wife of Reverend Robert Gillespie, an Irish Protestant missionary who served in India. This scrapbook was presented to Kate by her husband on their seventh wedding anniversary in 1875.

Catherine Clendinning "Kate" Watters was born in 1847 to Reverend Thomas Watters (1812-1892) and Elizabeth Marshall Clendinning (1815-1901) in Newtownards, Down, Northern Ireland. She married the Reverend Robert Gillespie (1844-1900) on September 29, 1868. She and Gillespie had 8 children: Samuel (1869-1928); Winifred "Winnie" (1870-); Elizabeth Anne Clendinning "Lily;" Thomas Watters "Tom" (1878-1952); Chauncey Marshall (1879-1952); Edith Maud "Edie" (1880-); Gracie Violet (1884-1936); and Donald Stanley (1889-1950). Robert Gillespie served as a Protestant missionary in Ahmedabad, India. It is here where Kate died on July 2, 1895.

Source: Ancestry Library, 2023. https://www.ancestry.com/.

This scrapbook, embossed with "Kate" on the cover, was presented to Kate Gillespie by her husband, Rev. Robert Gillespie, on September 29, 1875, their seventh wedding anniversary. This scrapbook contains dozens of stickers, appliques, die-cuts, short poems, paintings, photographs of India, stamps, Christmas and New Year's cards, pressed leaves, original drawings, autographs of acquaintances and a newspaper clipping of her father, Rev. Thomas Watters's obituary. A few of the original items found on the pages include unfinished original drawings that Kate had begun to paint but did not finish, and a poem regarding her seventh wedding anniversary. Also found amongst the pages was a letter to Kate from her son Tom. This brief letter dated, April 10, 1882 was written from the School for the Sons of Missionaries, located in Blackheath, London. Tom thanked his mother for the stamps and wrote he was starting to play cricket and had not written to his sister Lily in some time.

Also included within the scrapbook are several dozen scenes from the Afghan and Boer campaigns that appear to have been printed serially from an unidentified source.

This scrapbook is extremely fragile and most pages have become detached. Researchers should handle the scrapbook with care.