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Walter A. Powell letters to William P. Frank
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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. 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
Walter A. Powell, formerly a Judge of the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, was a Delaware historian who wrote A History of Delaware (1928) and The Pilgrims and Their Religious, Intellectual and Civic Life (1923).
The Christopher Publishing House, Boston. Flyer forA History of Delaware, 1928.
Delaware journalist William P. Frank, widely known as Bill Frank, was a newspaper columnist and radio commentator for over 65 years. Bill Frank was also a Delaware historian, a Judaic scholar, a Shakespearean actor, and social activist. Though born in New York City in 1905, Frank grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. He died in Wilmington on August 21, 1989.
"William P. Frank Scholarship." http://www.degridiron.org/scholarship.html (accessed March 2, 2011).
Delaware historian Walter A. Powell wrote these four letters ranging in dates from 1928 to 1978 to Wilmington News Journal columnist William P. (Bill) Frank in response to Frank's inquiries about articles, pamphlets, or books written by Powell.
In the four letters Powell responded to requests for information or copies of his published work. Powell complimented Frank on his columns or commented on Frank’s printed work related to Delaware’s history, particularly Frank’s Delaware Sketches . Powell also thanked Frank for his compliments on Powell's own book, A History of Delaware . The letters suggest that a mutual respect existed between these two Delaware historians.
These letters were originally laid in Bill Frank’s copy of Since Coming to America written by Ebba Victoria Krebs, which is cataloged with imprints in Special Collections. Accompanying the letters is one of Mrs. Henrik Krebs's visiting cards, a prospectus for Walter Powell’s A History of Delaware , and a five-page paper titled "Henrik Johannes Krebs." The Krebs paper bears autograph notes on the verso of several pages and seems to be information toward a speech related to Krebs. The last paragraphs mention the Krebs school in Newport, Delaware, which was donated by Henrik Krebs to the community in 1926. The final sentence reads: "The principal of the junior high school, who will introduce you, is Mr. Michael Simmons," suggesting that a speech or presentation was being prepared.
The letters are arranged chronologically.
- Box 7, F0184: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0098 manuscript boxes
Removals from purchased book, November 2010.
Processed and encoded by Anita Wellner, March 2011. Further encoded by George Apodaca, March 2015.
People
- Powell, Walter A. (Walter Anderson), 1855-1948
- Powell, Walter A. (Walter Anderson), 1855-1948--Correspondence
- Frank, Bill, 1905-1989--Correspondence
- Krebs, Ebba Victoria, 1849-
- Frank, Bill, 1905-1989
Subject
Place
Occupation
- Publisher
- University of Delaware Library Special Collections
- Finding Aid Author
- University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/
Collection Inventory
Powell requested that Frank not write about his pamphlet, "Annals of a village in Kent County, Delaware: about the middle of the Nineteenth Century" (1934).
Physical Description1 item (1 p.)
Powell wrote this thank-you note for Frank's "gracious" treatment of his "Annals."
Physical Description1 item (1 p.) with envelope
Powell thanked Frank for sending a copy of
Delaware Sketches (1934), which he read. He mentioned particularly the sketch on Patty Cannon. Physical Description1 item (1 p.)
Powell wrote this thank-you for Frank's kinds words about Powell's
A History of Delaware and welcomed a visit from Frank. He also mentioned that he had loaned the manuscript, about which Frank had inquired, to Francis A. Cooch of Newark. Physical Description1 item (1 p.) with envelope
This visiting card with Mrs. Krebs's name and address may have come with the book in which it was laid.
Physical Description1 item (1 p.)
This prospectus was distributed by The Christopher Publishing House of Boston.
Physical Description1 item (2 p.)
This photocopy of a typed paper provided biographical information related to Henrik Johannes Krebs and bears autograph notes written on the verso of some of the pages. The paper appears to be background information toward a speech, possibly by Bill Frank since it was laid in a book from his library.
Physical Description1 item (5 p.)