The Cambridge Black History Project in collaboration with the Cambridge Public Library invites you to come out and try your hand at editing and creating Wikipedia pagesrelated to Cambridge Black History!
When: Wednesday, February 25th from 5:30pm-8:30pm Where: Central Square Branch of the Cambridge Public Library (45 Pearl Street).
This event is free but registration is required. Please click HERE for more information and to register for the event. Once at the registration page click the blue “Begin Registration” button.
Barbara Ward Armstrong, a Cantabrigian and innovative artist whose life-sized African-inspired multi-textured fabric sculptures, called “soft sculptures,” redefined 20th century artforms.
All levels of experience are welcome! Join in on the fun and excitement of looking up information on Black Cantabrigians and beyond as we move to create Wikipedia pages that will highlight some local individuals. We will be adding to information on existing pages, creating new pages, finding reliable sources for others to use, and copyediting and formatting pages. The Central Square Branch offers resources from its Archives and Special Collections as well as its Black Voices Collections.
We are looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday, February 25 from 5:30pm – 8:30pm.
Access information:
The library’s accessible entrance is available from Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza
Public transit: the library located 1 block from the Central MBTA Red Line station
Street parking (metered) is available near the library.
Garage parking (paid) is available in the Green Street Garage.
65 Langdon St photographed by Christopher Hail on March 9, 1985
The Colonial Revival apartment building at 65 Langdon Street was constructed in 1907 as designed by Boston-based architectural firm Newhall & Blevins for owners Stearns & Moore. Lawyer Harry N. Stearns was active in Cambridge politics and a member of the Massachusetts militia. He and his wife Edith Baker Winslow had three children, one of whom was Elizabeth Winslow Stearns. Elizabeth went on to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and co-founded Cambridge Camera and Marine in Harvard Square with her partner, Lois M. Bowen. Bowen was a Cambridge photographer and entrepreneur and in 2002 her photograph collection was donated to the Cambridge Historical Commission.
65 Langdon St photographed by Christopher Hail on September 11, 1983
Newhall & Blevins, a partnership of architects Louis C. Newhall (1869–1925) and Albert H. Blevins (1874–1946), designed many notable buildings such as the Inman Square Fire Station (1912) and Cambridge Savings Bank Building (1923) but were only active for four years before they took on the Langdon St project. The apartment building was of wood frame construction and finished in stucco with many interesting features that can still be seen today. The brick chimneys are topped with intricate brick design and terracotta tiles. The entrance is recessed behind a projecting three-sided porch with wooden arches. The second story has applied “balconies” with 1/2 balusters. The door itself is oak with leaded glass, and a wrought iron lantern hangs above.
Detail of entryway at 65 Langdon St photographed by CHC staff
While the building was under construction, it was advertised as containing 12 suites, each with three or four rooms and a bath. Many modern amenities, such as steam heat, fireplace, electric lights, and janitor services, were to be included, with rents at $30-40 per month.
We have recently processed a collection that was donated in October, and its finding aid is now available on ArchivesSpace. Currently, the Historical Commission is offering limited research assistance. Please see our main webpage for the most up-to-date information.
The Gooch Family Photographs (P029) contains 49 glass plate negatives that we have digitized so that the collection is available from the safety of your home. The items are available for viewing on our Flickr page here. If you would like to research this or any other collection, please email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov.
The Gooch Family Photographs comprises images related to 11 Fayerweather Street in Cambridge; Harvard University buildings; Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown, Massachusetts; and non-Cambridge locations. The collection was donated by the wife of a photographer who bought and sold photography related items on Ebay and specialty photographic sites. While cleaning out her basement, she found the boxes and explained that “thought the negatives might be important to the history of an area.”
11 Fayerweather Street, front facade, ca. 1900.
Initially the content of the glass plates were unidentified, but through research the CHC staff has determined that the images are likely connected to the Gooch family, who were lived at 11 Fayerweather Street (no. 3 Fayerweather at the time of their residency). The negatives include images of family members, but the names of individuals have not yet been determined.
The Gooch Family
The story of the Gooch family in Cambridge starts with Nathan Gooding Gooch (1835-1919), a descendant of the colonial settler John Gooch. In the 1850s bachelor Nathan Gooch boarded with John Bridge Dana at 3 Fayerweather Street (renumbered 11 Fayerweather by 1930). Dana (1800-1888) worked for the Charles River Bank and later became a Harvard steward. His daughter, Ellen Coolidge Dana, married Nathan Gooch on June 14, 1860. Both generations lived in the house, presumably with the house divided by the partition shown on a 1900 remodel plan.
Woman and dog on front porch of 11 Fayerweather Street during winter, undated. The woman may be Ellen Coolidge Dana, who married Nathan Gooch
Nathan Gooch initially worked as a bookkeeper for W.T. Richardson near Harvard Square and became a lumber dealer in Brighton in 1857. Nathan worked with his brother at their lumber firm, J.G. & N.G. Gooch; he also became a coal dealer on Kilby Street in Boston in 1865. During the Civil War he served in the Massachusetts 12th Company from November 12, 1863, to August 15, 1864. Nathan Gooch was also a Cambridge City Council member from 1865-1866 and a deacon of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church, a position he occupied until 1908. In 1906 he worked for Cox Bros. & Co., anthracite coal dealers in Boston.
A man holding a toddler next to a dog at 11 Fayerweather Street, undated. This could be Nathan Gooch and his granddaughter Margaret.
Nathan and Ellen Gooch had two children, William D. Gooch and Ellen M. Gooch. The family moved to Watertown in 1900 to a house that was once part of the Adams estate. Built in 1900, 35 Adams (or Fairlawn) Avenue was designed by F. Bryant & Co. It would continue to be the family’s home until the 1930s.
Aerial view taken from the Oakley Country Club showing Shattuck Avenue in Watertown before Adams Avenue was laid out.
The Gooch family also owned a summer residence in Marblehead on Marblehead Neck (sometimes called Nanepashment). Their first summer home was at the corner of Harbor and Harvard streets (formerly Spring Street). In 1892 Nathan Gooch had the house moved 25 feet. He later sold the property to Maria M. Stone and in 1901 moved the family to Ocean Avenue (likely located is now 372 Ocean Avenue). His brother, Johnson G. Gooch, also had a summer place in Marblehead on Atlantic Avenue.
A child holding a doll in a field with a man behind in the middle-ground. Beyond is the sea. The man may be William D. Gooch and the toddler his daughter, Margaret. This location could be in Marblehead. The image is undated.
The Gooch’s daughter, Ellen, married G.F. Rouillard, and they had sons Robert G. and Clarence D. Their son, William, worked as a bookkeeper before becoming an auditor for a drug and chemical company. He owned a motorboat named Dixie and continued to summer in Marblehead for a few years after his father’s passing in 1916. At some point William married Mary A. Pearce, and they had two children, Dana Appleton Gooch (1897-1972) and Margaret Caroline Gooch. Dana worked as an office clerk but was unemployed by World War I; his subsequent occupations are unknown. He was married in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1934 and died in Florida on March 6, 1972.
A woman holding a baby on the porch steps of 11 Fayerweather Street. The woman is possibly Mary A. Pearce Gooch, William’s wife, and the baby may be Margaret or Dana.
Margaret Caroline Gooch (1891-1988), William’s daughter, is likely present in this collection since one of the original glass plate boxes was labeled with her name. While employed as a teacher, she married Eugene Judson Barney on December 10, 1917. Eugene was a refrigerator electrical engineer from Dayton, Ohio, and by 1920 they had moved back to his hometown. According to census records, they lived at 12 Seminary Avenue in 1920; 1438 Catalpa Drive in 1930; and 1827 Harvard Boulevard in 1940. Eugene and Margaret were the parents of Edward Barney.
Dana Gooch with a dog in a sandbox in Marblehead, ca. fall 1900. According to the Marblehead Messenger, Dana caught his finger in a bicycle spool on September 3, 1900, and had to get it sewn and bandaged; the bandage is visible on his left hand.
11 Fayerweather Street
Side entrance of 11 Fayerweather Street facing the road. A dog is on the pathway and three children sit on the front stairs. 5 Fayerweather is visible beyond. At the time of this image, ca. 1900, the houses were numbered 5 Fayerweather and 3 Fayerweather.
In 1850, 3 Fayerweather Street was built as a 2½ story house for John B. Dana. After the Dana and Gooch families moved, the house was purchased by Mrs. Archibald Howe (Arria Sargeant Dixwell) in 1900. Mr. Howe (1848-1916), a lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives, ran for Vice-President in 1900 on the “National Party” ticket. His cousin Lois Lilley Howe (1864-1964), a pioneering female architect, remodeled 3 Fayerweather Street that year. The new design removed the interior partition (mentioned above), extended the house by four feet, and added three dormers to the front façade. It is likely that Lois Howe was the photographer of image G-2161: it is strikingly similar to photographs she took on April 30, 1900. (For a lot more information on Howe, get in touch with the Historical Commission.) The house was renovated by Lois’s architectural firm, Howe, Manning & Almy, in 1916. (No. 3 was renumbered 11 some time between 1916 and 1930.) The house was later owned by Louise McLennan, who altered it again, in 1939.
The collection includes images of beaches, fields, and mountain landscapes, possibly at Marblehead Neck and in New York state. There are also photographs of Harvard’s Memorial Hall, the Washington Elm, and the Old Cambridge Baptist Church after the fire of 1897.
This month we finished re-processing and writing an updated finding aid for the McCarthy Family Collection. You can now read the new finding aid here! To get an overview of what is available, read on!
Lowell Police vs. Cambridge Police baseball club game at Lake View, Lowell. Aug 13, 1895. Cambridge won 12 to 8
This collection documents a longstanding and active family in Cambridge and various local organizations spanning a period of nearly 150 years. The members of the McCarthy family were longtime residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first generation to live in Cambridge was Maurice McCarthy. An Irish immigrant born in County Cork, Ireland, Maurice became a U.S. citizen in 1860. A year later, in 1861 he purchased land in East Cambridge at 6 Lechmere Place. He and his wife, Mary Hurley McCarthy, had two children, Ellen McCarthy and Jeremiah H. McCarthy.
Invitation to Jeremiah and Julia’s 25th anniversary celebration. 1934.
Jeremiah was born in 1857 and married Julia Theresa Lane on November 24, 1900. Julia was also an Irish immigrant, but she moved to 29 Warren Street in East Cambridge when she was just 8 months old. As a child, Julia attended the Thorndike Grammar School where she learned the Duntonian System of penmanship created by Alvin R. Dunton, an overseer of penmanship studies in Boston schools. Many of her penmanship books are available for viewing in this collection. There are also many of her personal papers, including correspondence, memorabilia, and vital records, as well as photographs.
Julia Theresa Lane’s penmanship book. She graduated from the Thorndike Grammar School at the age of 13 in 1880.
Between 1900 and 1905 Jeremiah and Julia moved into a house at 134 Otis Street, where the McCarthy family resided until 1993. Jeremiah, sometimes known as “Jerry,” worked for 39 years as a patrolman out of the East Cambridge police station and he retired a year before his death in 1926. Julia lived until 1963 and she was noted for being the oldest East Cambridge resident and oldest graduate of the Thorndike School.
Julia Theresa (Lane) McCarthy, 1928. Likely in her yard at 134 Otis Street.
The couple had three sons, Gerald F., John L., and Justin H. McCarthy. They and their children were active members in the Catholic community in Cambridge. This collection has many of their papers relating to the East Cambridge Catholic Club and the Sacred Heart Church.
Page 30 from Justin McCarthy’s photo album containing a clipping about Gerald “Jerry” becoming a Cambridge cop. Ca. 1930s
Gerald F. McCarthy was born on January 25, 1902 and sometimes referred to as “Jerry” like his father. He worked for the Cambridge Police Department, the Metropolitan Police Department, and finally for the Massachusetts State Police as a lieutenant. He also served in WWII from October 30, 1942 to May 10, 1946. Content accumulated about the Cambridge Police force offer some insight into what he and his family deemed important about that subject.
Front page of The Elm¸ a publication of Cambridge Council, Knights of Columbus. 1933.
John Lane McCarthy was born on February 15, 1904 and attended Harvard Dental School. He had an office in Central Square and was also employed as one of Cambridge’s school system dentists. In 1934 he married Margaret Loretta Roche in Woburn. He then served in WWII as a lieutenant in the Naval Reserve in 1939 and he began his active duty as a lieutenant commander of the Dental Corps in June 1943. He was also affiliated with the Bainbridge Naval Hospital Training Center in Maryland and the U.S.S. War Hawk that participated in the Pacific Theater. John was also a member of the Cambridge Elks Lodge, the Knights of Columbus, the Guild of St. Apollonia, and the Agnes Holy Name Society. Our collection has printed materials and other records relating to these groups and other subject matter.
Front cover and page 25 from Justin McCarthy’s photo album. Shown: 134 Otis Street, Justin, Jeremiah, John Lane, Gerald, and Julia McCarthy. Ca. 1920s
Justin H. McCarthy was born in 1906 and worked as a marine electrician at the Boston Navy Yard as well as Western Electric. While serving for the Navy, he embarked on trips to Bermuda. There are many photographs taken during his trips to Bermuda as well as his experiences in the Navy. He retained many of his holiday cards, which provide additional information about his extended family and friends. He also compiled a photo album that we digitized for preservation purposes. It is available for viewing on our Flickr page, here:
Beyond these central family members, the collection includes nearly 300 photographs of McCarthy family members and friends (1890s-1980s), over 250 photographs of unidentified people and places, 10 tintypes, and 1 drawing.
The Commission has recently finished processing a small image collection titled the Lewis Family Collection. This collection chronicles a portion of the longstanding and prolific Lewis family of Cambridge, Mass. and it is part of a much larger set of subject records available concerning the Lewis family. Other records include the Lewis family and Lewisville segments of African American files in CHC people files. However, these other textual files mainly pertain to the family’s 19th century contributions and its efforts in various African American movements, including the Cambridge Liberian Emigrant Association. We highly recommend you visit us to see these incredibly rich records!
The Lewis Family Collection is unique because it is solely visual documentation and it covers a period of about 20 years (1900-1920) that is not often represented in historical accounts of the Lewis family. It also is a product of a larger effort conducted by the CHC primarily in 1980-1982 called the Cambridge Photo History Project. The Project was intended to bring together photographs of Cambridge taken before 1945. For this collection, the donor brought in five scrapbooks, which were photographed page-by-page and then returned to her. The CHC retained the surrogates and transformed them into negatives and copy prints so that the content of the scrapbook would be available to you.
“Dad.” George W. Lewis Jr. ca. 1900-1920s
Within the collection are three generations of the Lewis family, immediate relatives, and close friends. The first generation shown is Nancy and George Washington Lewis (Jr.) George Washington Lewis (Jr.) was born in Cambridge in 1848 and he worked as a steward for the Harvard Porcellian Club for over 45 years and he replaced his father’s position in 1876.
“Ma.” Nancy E. Lewis, ca. 1900-1920s
On October 11, 1872 George married Nancy E. Poole who was born ca. 1852 in Columbia, South Carolina. They had five children, Elizabeth E. Lewis, Jerome Theodore Lewis, Walter E. Lewis, George Colman Lewis, and Ethel A. Lewis. By 1897 the family purchased 47 Parker Street and were noted for hosting amateur theatrical productions and housing black Harvard undergraduates.
“A.M. Harvard. 1917”
“[top left] Julia Harris, [Gordon David] Dave Houston, [top right] Bob Morris, [bottom left] Ida Morris, [bottom right] Tony Harris”, ca. 1900-1920sThese images exemplify some of the African American youth that would congregate at the Parker Street residence. Gordon David (Dave) Houston is the resident of “Houston’s Den” mentioned in this collection. He was born in Cambridge on May 6, 1880 and attended the Cambridge High and Latin School. In 1900 he graduated from the high school, the same year as Anthony Harris– it is possible that they knew each other through sports. In 1904 he graduated from Harvard College cum laude and pursued an academic career as an English professor. He led English departments at Tuskegee Institute, Howard University, Dunbar High school, and Douglas High School. On August 20, 1907 he married Dora Mayo Lawrence and they had two daughters, Dorothy Maude and Ethel Augusta.
Anthony (Tony) Harris went to Sunday School at Christ Church in 1900– likely connecting him to Ethel Lewis. That same year he graduated from the Cambridge Manual Training School for Boys (CMTS) after attending and graduating from the Washington grammar school in 1895. During his time at CMTS, Anthony– or more popularly addressed as Tony– was known for his skills at football. He later coached football at CMTS until ca. 1906. The 1908 City Directory cites Anthony as a waiter boarding at 73 Howard Street.
The others in this image have speculative biographical histories available in the collection’s finding aid.
Along with hosting social gatherings for friends, Nancy and George had five children. The image on the left shows “Bessie” Lewis with her probable bridesmaids in 1910, the year she married Maurice Jefferson Brooks, who is in the right-side image. Bessie’s given name was Elizabeth Estelle Lewis but she went by various nicknames including Bessie, Birdie, Bess, and Aunt Lizzie. She was born in November 1880. After her family moved to Cambridge, she worked as a bookkeeper. She married Maurice (1879-1913), a porter from Washington D.C. living in Boston, on October 20, 1910. They had one son, Jerome Theodore Lewis, named after Elizabeth’s brother. When Maurice died in 1913, she moved back in with her parents.
“E.A. Lewis”
George and Nancy’s other daughter was Ethel A. Lewis who was born in October 1878. According to articles in the Cambridge Chronicle, she attended Sunday School at Christ Church and partook in the Girls’ Friendly Society in Cambridge– two organizations that connect her to other individuals in this collection. In the 1900 Census she is cited as working as a stenographer. She has been cited as graduating from Bryant & Stratton Commercial College ca. 1903 and by 1905 as working as a teacher for Simmons College, although no records of confirmation have been found. Nonetheless, a book was published by the Colored Citizens of Greater Boston and the Garrison Centenary Committee of the Suffrage League of Boston and Vicinity due to her efforts as stenographer. The book, The Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of William Lloyd Garrison was published in 1906 and it is available free as an online Google Book! Ethel moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1906 to become a schoolteacher. She boarded at various residents including 1409 McCulloh St in 1920 and 1935 Druid Hill Ave in 1930 while being employed as a teacher and stenographer.
“G.C. Lewis”, ca. 1900-1920s
One of their sons, George Colman Lewis, was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1875. By the 1890s he was a member of the Cambridge Social Union Debating Club and in 1892 he graduated from the Manual Training School. He also partook in the Riverside Cycle Club, an exclusively black club in Cambridge. At various points throughout his life George C. worked as a railroad worker but he attempted a career change ca. 1900 when he embarked on becoming a tailor at 29 Boylston Street. He soon returned to the railroad industry and became a porter. He died on August 19, 1906 at the Mt. Auburn Hospital of heart disease when he was 31 years old. He is here depicted at 4 Wellington Ave (now Somerville).
“Ma Lewis, Pa Lewis, Nellie Sorrell, Anthony Harris, Benzina Reese, Henry Robbins, Ethel Lewis, Jerome Lewis”, ca. 1900-1920s
The Lewis’s eldest son, Jerome Theodore Lewis, was born on November 21, 1872. When the family moved to Cambridge, he worked as a laborer for Ford Motors at 400 Brookline Street. He also married Margaret A. Lewis. Another son, Walter E. Lewis was born in November 1876 and died August 23, 1880. Little is known about him.
Benzina Reese was Nancy Lewis’s niece. Born in October 1873 in South Carolina, Benzina came to Cambridge by 1900. The 1900 Census lists her as working as an office girl. In 1902 she married Frederick Sandford Gray– making her also the Mrs. Gray of this collection. At some point they moved to 10 Chestnut Street in Plymouth, MA, where Frederick worked as a chef. They had three children: Herman F., Helen E. and Leslie R. Gray. Herman is also present in this collection as a baby.
Anthony (Tony) Harris went to Sunday School at Christ Church in 1900– likely connecting him to Ethel Lewis. That same year he graduated from the Cambridge Manual Training School for Boys (CMTS) after attending and graduating from the Washington grammar school in 1895. During his time at CMTS, Anthony– or more popularly addressed as Tony– was known for his skills at football. He later coached football at CMTS until ca. 1906. The 1908 City Directory cites Anthony as a waiter boarding at 73 Howard Street. The biographies of Nellie Sorrell and Henry Robbins are currently unknown.
“(upper left) Pa Lewis, (upper middle) Kate, Sue [Harris], (bottom middle) Washington Elm, (bottom right): Andrew”, ca. 1900-1920sThere are so many others present in this collection we could only give a quick taste of what you can come see. We’ve also digitized a sampling of images for our Flickr page. Check them out here
To learn more about what is available in the Lewis Family Collection, our newly edited finding aid will be available here soon!
We have recently added three new collection finding aids and five old but newly updated finding aids to our website. Check out the list below, and email us at chcarchives@cambridgema.gov to research any of these collections.
New!
Scully Family Collection
This collection relates to two generations of the Scully family, beginning with Daniel Scully, a Cambridge cooper who emigrated from Ireland in 1872. He married another Irish immigrant in Cambridge, Mary Tackney, who worked as a waitress. They had 8 children and the collection heavily focuses on two of their sons, James and George. Topics include service in WWII, the St. Mary Church of Annunciation in Cambridgeport, Irish heritage, U.S. citizenship, and Norumbega Park in Auburndale, Mass. The records in the collection were created between 1872-1970 and consist of official documents, commemorative pins, photographic materials, a newspaper, and large objects.
Noteworthy items include a water-front port pass, a cooper’s mallet, and a grappling hook that connect Daniel Scully to the Goepper Bros. Co. and the Revere Sugar Refinery, two companies with locations in Cambridge. There is also an encased tintype and photographs that display the family’s residence on Spring Street. Find out more about the collection and the background history of the family here.
Daniel Scully’s cooper’s mallet and grappling hook. Image from our Flickr album, photograph by John Dalterio.
Watson Funeral Home Collection
The Watson Funeral Home Collection consists of photographs, certificates, clippings and ephemera related to the Watson Funeral Home, a 20th century business in Cambridge that was once on Magazine Street. The funeral home was run by Charles Burnett Watson and the collection holds content about his conversion of the Greek Revival house into his business. Other items include his Old Farmer’s Almanac, newspaper clippings about the house, and matchbook advertisements. Click here to learn more about Watson’s biography and read the collection’s inventory.
Carter’s Ink Collection
This collection contains ephemera relating to the Carter’s Ink Company that was collected by John Hinkel, a “labeled master inks” collector from Missouri. The Carter’s Ink Company was a nationally-prominent manufacturer of inks and office supplies. The bulk of this collection consists of advertisements, internal corporate documents, and external publications. The independently produced advertisements range from cardstock illustrations, postcards, bottle-shaped adverts, a calendar, and a dictionary. The corporate documents have information pertinent to general workers, including employee rules, as well as the official company newsletter.
To get a taste of what is present in this collection, some of the items have been digitized and uploaded to our Flickr. Click here to view the album.
Carter’s Ink Advertisement Card. Image from our flickr.
Updated or Digitized Collections:
Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection:
Vellucci was once mayor of Cambridge and this collection reflects a public relations project from 1976. Images are now digitized and available for viewing on our Flickr page here. Click here to read the original post highlighting this collection.
Rindge Technical School
We have uploaded two albums to our Flickr page concerning the school. The Rindge Technical School Collection album contains digitized images selected from Box 1 of the collection. This box holds sports photographs from 1912-1922. Click here to see players from the football, crew, hockey, track, swimming, and baseball teams. If you would like to learn more about the entire collection, click here.
The other album, Rindge Technical School Construction – 1932 includes a selection of large-print negatives that reflect the school demolition and construction project conducted in 1932-1933. The new building was designed by architect Ralph Harrington Doane and built by the George A. Fuller Company. These negatives and others have been printed and bound in “Rindge Technical School, started Feb. 2 1932, completed Jan. 12 1933” by George A. Fuller Co. The book is available for viewing in the CHC Library. Click here to view the album.
Cambridge Objects Collection – new objects and new photographs on Flickr
Additional images of objects from the Cambridge Objects Collection have been uploaded to the Flickr album. This is an artificial collection of objects relating to various aspects of Cambridge history. Click here to check them out and click here to read the finding aid!
An Ashton Valve Company pressure gauge, ca. 1923-1924
Rindge Technical School Bowl and Mug
Curtis Mellen Photograph Collection
This collection has recently been reorganized and an updated finding aid has been published here. The collection consists of photographs of the family as well as interior and exterior views of the family’s homes in Cambridge. The Mellens were a very prominent family in Cambridge, and their soap business, Curtis Davis & Co., became the American branch of Lever Brothers, the largest soap manufacturer in the world at the time. To see what is available in the collection, we uploaded select images to a Flickr album here.
Harry Havelock Hanson Collection
Recently, we created the Handsome Harry Hanson StoryMap. It tells the story of occasional Cambridge resident Harry Havelock Hanson in a walking tour format. This StoryMap allows you to follow an online map and images around Harvard Square as though you were actually there. Follow the tour to learn about the exciting exploits of Harry Havelock Hanson, as recorded in his calendar entries between 1891 and 1919. Click here to check it out!
This collection is primarily composed of the daily pocket diaries of Harry Havelock Hanson, occasional Cambridge resident and career railway man. It also contains some personal papers belonging to Hanson and his family. The finding aid for the collection is available here.
In relation to yesterday’s #ModernMonday posting on Woodrow Wilson Court (click here for that Instagram post), today we are highlighting the former Asa Morse Estate at 81 Magazine Street. Asa Porter Morse (1818-1906), the son of Daniel and Sarah Morse (first cousins), moved to Boston in 1840 and began business life as a bookkeeper in the house of Hayward & Morse, who were involved with West India trade. After accumulating enough capital to start a business for himself, Morse continued working in commerce and trade and moved to Cambridge in 1845. He served as a member of the Cambridge School Board, as an alderman, and as a state senator in 1879-1880.
Morse became involved with developing sections of Cambridgeport near his home. In 1861, he built a large Italianate-style mansion with a central tower on Magazine Street, which was lined with large homes and churches frequented by some of the city’s elite.
Asa and his wife Dorcas Louisa Short (1822-1864) lived at home with their three children. Upon Asa’s death in 1906, the house passed to his daughters Velma and Mary, who lived at home. Velma, the last living Morse, died in 1934 and the direct Morse line ended.
The 17-room mansion on Magazine Street, with its massive rooms, frescoed ceilings, crystal chandeliers, oak furnishings and paneling sat empty. In 1935, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that neighborhood boys were breaking in and removing items from the water heater to the slate roof. Outside, the garden with its once prim walks and flower beds became an overgrown tangle of vegetation, obscuring the once proud estate. The house was razed in 1940 and the lot was redeveloped into Woodrow Wilson Court years later.
Photographs taken of the interior by Charles Darling in the 1930s show the interior before it succumbed to vandals and the elements. The images were digitized by Historic New England.
**
A major event in Morse’s life – and one that has often been omitted from his biographies – is his relationship with Anna Van Houten, a woman around 30 years old, who arrived in Boston from Spokane, Washington. Her life story is unclear, but it seems she grew up in South Carolina and San Francisco, and was married to a Mr. Van Houten, whom she divorced in 1889.
Van Houten and Morse met, and after a brief courtship, Morse proposed to Van Houten in 1891, buying her a $500 engagement ring and wedding dress. In 1892, however, Morse suddenly ended their engagement, claiming that Van Houten had concealed her earlier divorce. Van Houten sued Morse for $60,000 in damages for “breach of promise.” In 1893 she won her case and was awarded $40,000.
Headline from the Boston Daily Globe, October 5, 1893
Later that year, however, Morse appealed, citing other reasons for breaking off the engagement. According to Morse, Van Houten had hidden her African-American ancestry from him. Van Houten denied this and presented photographs of her family in court to prove her white ancestry. Morse’s attorney contended that evidence showed that both Van Houten’s parents were black and that Van Houten was at least one-eighth black, and therefore that she had deceived Morse in the presentation of her lineage.
Boston Daily Globe, November 19, 1893
The appeal was heavily reported and sensationalized in newspapers, and November 1894, the original verdict was overruled by the court. Van Houten returned to Spokane, and Morse died in 1906. The overruling would have a wide-ranging effect on future cases, however, in particular Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)*.
As this blog post only briefly covers this story, feel free to make a research appointment with us to find out more information on the trial.
*Miletsky, Zebulon V., “City of amalgamation: race, marriage, class and color in Boston, 1890-1930/” (2008). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 – February 2014. 931. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/931. 171-172.
We have recently processed four small collections from our holdings and are currently working on updating their accompanying finding aids. Scroll down for sample images and descriptions from these collections. They include: the Hurley Family Photograph Collection, the Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection, the Harry Bagan Photograph Collection, and the Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection.
Hurley Family Photograph Collection
This collection consists of copy prints and original photographs donated by Virginia Hurley in 1994. Virginia lived at 5 Ellsworth Park in Cambridge and she was an active participant in city politics. As the secretary of the Gold Star Wives of America Inc., she helped protect widows from increased property taxes after the deaths of their husbands. For a period, she worked for the City of Boston as a secretary for Judge David Nelson and then for the Elder Affairs office. She later passed away in 2011.
The photographs in this collection are of the Hurley family’s ancestry, including the Moran, Graves, Welsh and Ward families. The images comprise of group and individual portraits of family members ranging from the late 1880s to the 1920s.
Joseph C. Moran Sr. posing in full Colonial militia attire for the 150th Anniversary of Washington taking command under ‘The Elm.’ Photographer unknown.
While some of the people in the photographs are unidentified, we do know that the Morans were an East Cambridge family of glass workers who were employed by the New England Glassworks company until 1888. Interestingly, on the other side of the Hurley ancestry, David Gregory Welch was known as Peter McGurr during the Civil War.
Portrait photograph of David Gregory Walsh. Photographer unknown.
Additionally, there is an outlying photograph of Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the Cambridge Parade after WWI. He was a French general and he served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the war.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the Cambridge Parade. Photographer unknown.
Benedict Daniels Photograph Collection
This collection contains scrapbook pages donated by Helen Benedict Daniels in 1980. Helen was a member of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor (Y.P.S.C.E.) and a volunteer for the Red Cross. After she received her degree in natural history from Radcliffe College, she married and moved to Orange, New Jersey. The scrapbook was created by her sister Miriam Benedict, who was a nurse in Cambridge during the 1920s.
A page from the Benedict Daniels scrapbook. Photographer unknown.
Miriam probably worked for the East Cambridge Health Center, which directed attention towards programs that taught young mothers how to care for their newborn children. The unidentified people in the photographs were probably affiliated with the center.
A page from the Benedict Daniels scrapbook. Photographer unknown.
Harry Bagan Photograph Collection
This collection includes three photographs with Harry Bagan, a Cambridge police officer. The collection was donated by Maria Sousa in October 1995; little information has been found on Sousa.
Photograph of Harry and Helen Bagan. Photographer unknown.
Harry Bagan was married to Helen Bagan, who is showcased in one of the photographs. They were known to be close to the Roosevelt family. He was also a prominent member of the Fat Men’s Club in Cambridge. The Fat Men’s Club was a widespread trend that began around 1910 which celebrated physical girth and required a weight qualification of over 190 pounds.
1951 Fat Men’s Club Outing at Silver Lake, Thompson’s Grove, Wilmington, Mass. Photographer unknown.
Alfred E. Vellucci Snapshot Collection
Included in this collection are mounted photographs conveying a “day in the life” of Cambridge Mayor Vellucci. He became a Cambridge School Committee member in 1951 and by 1955 he began his 34-year position on the City Council. This snapshot collection comes from 1976 and it displays Vellucci’s daily activities, such as conducting desk work, holding meetings, drinking coffee, and attending city council meetings. Vellucci later retired from public office in 1991. The collection was donated by Juliet Turner from the City Hall’s Finance Department in 2011.
Images forthcoming.
The finding aids for these collections will soon be made available online. Please check back soon to access them. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to process collections and make them available for research!
Most of these photograph collections were donated in the 1980s but we are always accepting personal donations and family memorabilia related to Cambridge, Mass. We encourage you to contact the Cambridge Historical Commission if you have items you wish to offer. Please contact egonzalez@cambridgema.gov with any inquiries about the process.
To view the above collections, please make a research appointment at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. Our research hours are: Monday: 4:00-7:00 pm | Tuesday: 2:00-4:00 pm | Wednesday – Thursday: 10-12 and 2-4 pm.
The Historical Commission recently accepted a donation of eight photographs depicting members of three Cambridge families in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The photographs were donated by a descendant of these families. Scroll down to read snapshots of these people and their connections to 19th century Cambridge industries.
Coleman Family: Police and Coal
This family collection’s story begins with a tintype of John Coleman, likely from the 1850s.
John Coleman, ca. 1850s.
Coleman was born in Birmingham, England, in 1827. Around 1847, he and his wife Elizabeth Harper Whitehouse immigrated to the U.S. and settled in Cambridge, where John became a well-known policeman. In 1878, John and his son Walter started a coal and wood business at the corner of Broadway and Sixth Street in Cambridge; in 1881 son James also became part of the firm. After John’s death in 1883, Walter and James took over the firm, naming it Coleman Brothers. Their company did business at 428 Massachusetts Avenue until a merger with the Massachusetts Wharf Coal Company in 1923.
A (barely visible) newspaper image of the Coleman Brothers coal factory, Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge Chronicle, July 22, 1893. https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/
Cutting Family: Firemen and Markets
John Coleman’s daughter, Fannie Coleman, married Charles H. Cutting. Charles was born in Boston but, like Fannie, grew up in Cambridge.
Fanny Coleman Cutting, n.d.
Charles H. Cutting, n.d.
The Cuttings had four children: Elizabeth Swanton, Henry Arthur, Herbert Harper, and Ida May. Sadly, Fannie died from complications of childbirth in 1889.
The Cutting children, 1889
Charles Cutting’s occupation was originally listed as an iron molder, but he was later listed as a fish dealer and eventually owned his own provisions store at 885 Main Street (now on Mass Ave near Harvard Square). Charles may have taken over ownership of this store from E.A. Burroughs, proprietor of The Old Rockport Market, selling fish, oysters, and canned goods.
The Cutting family outside of their store at 885 Main Street, n.d.
Charles would also serve as a volunteer fireman with the Cambridge Fire Department for 37 years, retiring in 1915.
The Cutting family inside their store, n.d.
The three eldest Cutting children seem to have helped with the family store, especially son Henry, who later took over running the store after Charles died in 1920. Henry also worked for the Cambridge Fire Department at River Street from 1920-1942.
Henry Cutting, n.d.
Kemp and Nowell Family: Soap
Charles Cutting’s daughter Elizabeth Cutting married Bowman Nowell, the son of Lucy Ann Kemp and Charles Nowell. Lucy Ann was the daughter of Lysander Kemp, owner of a Cambridge soap manufacturing company and brother-in-law to Curtis Davis of the Curtis Davis Company (a large soap manufacturer that was later bought by Lever Brothers).
Lysander’s original company, which manufactured laundry soap, was Kemp & Sargent, later Lysander Kemp & Sons.
To see these photographs or to learn more about any of the industries mentioned here, make a research appointment with us at histcomm@cambridgema.gov. If you are interested in donating photographs or materials on your Cambridge ancestors, please feel free to contact Emily, egonzalez@cambridgema.gov.
The Cambridge Historical Commission has a rich collection of both family photographs and historical materials on Cambridge business and industry, and we are always excited to add more to the collection.
In this post, our archives assistant Meta shares highlights and images from the recently processed and digitized Ella Jepson Nylander Photograph Collection. This collection is open for research at the CHC.
This collection consists of photographs found in a trunk that belonged to Ella Jepson Nylander. Mrs. Nylander was born Rozella Josephine Jepson in New Sweden, Maine in 1883 to Swedish immigrants Mons and Elna Jepson. Ella and her husband Olof Conrad Nylander lived within the closely-knit Swedish-American community in Cambridge for many years, and a number of the photographs in this collection were taken by photographers in Cambridge and across the water in Boston. Members of the Nylander and related families are represented in the images, in addition to friends and fellow church-goers of the Swedish Baptist Church located at the corner of Washington and Columbia streets.
Portrait of Anna Nyman (left) and Ella Jepson Nylander (right), c. 1890-1905.
Cambridge began seeing a rise in Swedish immigrants during the late-nineteenth century, and by 1905 the population had reached 1,645. Many Swedes were employed in trades and as craftsmen, but quite a few members of the younger generation began working in a more professional capacity. The Swedish and Swedish-American community in Cambridge was a close-knit and religious group during this time, and many of their activities centered on their religion.
Portrait of Olof Conrad Nylander (left) and Otto H. Anderson (right), c. 1900-1910.
Ella Jepson married Olof Conrad Nylander in Cambridge, Massachusetts on May 30, 1908, and the ceremony was performed by Reverend C. (Carl) E. Johnson, the couple’s first pastor in Cambridge. Reverend Johnson became the pastor for this congregation in 1899. During his time in Cambridge, Reverend Johnson performed wedding ceremonies for various friends of the Nylanders and was very active in organizing church social events.
Portrait of Reverend Carl E. Johnson, c. 1900.
By 1902, the Swedish Baptist congregation in Cambridge had expanded to over 100 members and began taking bids to create a new church. Many members of the congregation were said to be poor or working class immigrants, and the surrounding community of Cambridge was encouraged to aid in fund contributions to the new church. Construction began in late 1902, and during this time the congregation worshiped in the YMCA building. The cornerstone for the new church was laid on March 8, 1903 and dedicated the following May in 1904. As it stands today, the building at 77 Columbia Street is a substantial improvement to its predecessor and embodies the spirit of community and fellowship of the Swedish community in Cambridge.
Swedish Baptist Church at 77 Columbia Street, Cambridge, c. 1903-1915.
Woods, Robert A. and Albert J. Kennedy, The Zone of Emergence: Observations of the Lower Middle and Upper Working Class Communities of Boston, 1905-1914. Abridged and Edited with a Preface by Sam Bass Warner, Jr., 70-74, Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press, 1962.
