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Truman-Underhill Photograph Collection
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Truman and Underhill families were Pennsylvania Quaker families with close ties to Swarthmore College and involved in social concerns. Best known is George Truman (1798-1877), Quaker merchant, dentist, and doctor and a recognized minister who visited Indians in the American West and former Quaker settlements in the West Indies.
Benjamin Mott Underhill (1863-1930) and his wife, Georgia Cook Myers Underhill (1877-1926) attended Swarthmore College. Benjamin Underhill graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1895 and from 1908 until his death was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He was active in the Delaware County Institute of Science and in Providence Friends Meeting in Media, Pennsylvania. His maternal grandfather was George Truman (1798-1877).
The Truman family is related to two of the organizers of the First Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, Jane Hunt (1812-1899), and Mary Ann M'Clintock (1800-1884). Jane Clothier Master Hunt, wife of Richard P. Hunt, was the sister of Catharine Hickman Master Truman (wife of George Truman). Mary Ann M'Clintock's daughter, also named Mary Ann M'Clintock (1822-1880), married one of George Truman's sons, James Truman (1826-1914). On July 9, 1848, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann M'Clintock gathered together with Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Martha Wright, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Hunt home in Waterloo, N.Y. On that day, they conceived of the idea of the Seneca Falls Convention "for protest and discussion" on the issue of Women's Rights.
See the Truman-Underhill family tree at http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/truman_underhill/truman_underhill_tree.htm.
This collection consists of pictures removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151. It includes six albums (principally cartes de visite, snapshots, and cabinet cards) and three folders, one containing 24 hollow-cut bust silhouettes (created 1800-1850?), and two folders of miscellaneous photographs. 16 dagguereotypes and ambrotypes have been removed to the cased photograph collection PA 107.
The photographs are arranged in boxes according to photograph type.
Removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151.
Removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151. Volumes IV and V of the George Truman Papers, RG 151, contain several original photographs in addition to copies of photos available elsewhere in the collection.
16 dagguereotypes and ambrotypes have been removed to the cased photograph collection PA 107.
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- Jissel Becerra Reyes
- Finding Aid Date
- 2/8/19
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is available for research use.
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Note that the bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available in our Digital Library. Explore this collection online.
- Use Restrictions
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Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
Photograph album belonging to Benjamin Mott Underhill, who took most of the pictures. Snapshots of Benjamin Mott Underhill (1863-1930), George Truman Underhill (b. 1859) and other members of the Underhill family in the Philadelphia area and Southern New Jersey.
Of special interest: an early parade; the Atlantic City boardwalk and attractions; San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake; boats, steamships, submarines.
Portrait album.
Of special interest: portraits of James and Lucretia Mott, Gulielma and William Penn, Benjamin West, Joseph John Gurney and Elizabeth Gurney Fry.
Portrait album. Of special interest: photograph of several paintings, including "Washington and Lincoln. (Apotheosis.)" by J. A. Arthur (1865); portrait of soldier with both arms amputated; portrait of Alexei Alexandrovich, Grand Duke of Russia, 1850-1908.
Portrait album. Of special interest: portraits of Jane C. Hunt, James and Lucretia Mott, Isaac T. Hopper, Benjamin West, Franklin B. Gowan, David Sands, Elizabeth and Elias Hicks, George Fox White; drawing of Swarthmoor Hall in Ulverston England.
Portrait album belonging to George Truman (1798-1877). Probably assembled by photographer Fredrick Gutekunst, in Philadelphia, from copies and negatives of photographs taken in other places at other times.
Of special interest: portrait of Fredrick Gutekunst with camera; Richard P. and Jane C. Hunt; portrait of young man in traditional Japanese garb.
George Truman, Sarah P. Truman [Underhill], 'Old Charlotte' [African American woman], Benjamin Underhill, George Fox, Benjamin Master, Mary Master, Truman children.
Physical LocationStored with PA 107.
Hollowcut, one folder. One dated 1819, but others cut after 1830. Some appear to be from the Peale Museum. (See also Album 1 silhouette of George and Catharine Truman by Auguste Edouart, 1843.)