COLLECTION GUIDES

ca. 1840-1946

Guide to the Photograph Collection


Collection Summary

Abstract

This collection contains photographs of the related Saltonstall, Brooks, and Lewis families, taken between ca. 1840 and 1946. It includes family portraits, travel photographs, and family snapshots, as well as Eleanor "Nora" Saltonstall's work with the Red Cross in France during World War I, among many other subjects.

Biographical Sketch

Peter Chardon Brooks (1831-1920), the son of Gorham Brooks (1795-1855) and Ellen (Shepherd) (1809-1884), was born at Watertown (now Belmont), Mass., 8 May 1831. He prepared for college under Samuel Eliot and was admitted to Harvard in Aug. 1848, graduating in 1852. He devoted himself largely to agriculture, forestry, and art, and was a trustee for valuable estates. He also traveled extensively. He lived for many years on Arlington Street in Boston, then on Bay State Road. The family had a large summer estate, "Point of Rocks," at West Medford. Peter Chardon Brooks married Sarah Lawrence (1845-1915), daughter of Amos Adams Lawrence (1814-1886) and Sarah Elizabeth (Appleton) Lawrence (1822-1891). Sarah Lawrence Brooks was an amateur and prolific photographer. She had six siblings: Marianne Appleton Lawrence (1843-1882); Amory Appleton Lawrence (b. 1848); William Lawrence (1850-1941), who was elected a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Massachusetts in 1893; Susan Mason Lawrence (b. 1852); Hetty Sullivan Lawrence (1855-1931); and Harriet Dexter Lawrence (b. 1858). Sarah Lawrence and Peter Chardon Brooks had two children: Eleanor (b. 1867) and Lawrence (b. 1868).

Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall (1867-1961) was the daughter of Sarah Lawrence (1845-1915) and Peter Chardon Brooks. She married, in 1891, Richard Middlecott Saltonstall (1859-1922), son of Leverett Saltonstall (1825-1895) and Rose Smith (Lee) Saltonstall, and also a descendant of Sir Richard Saltonstall (1586-1661). The couple had four children: Leverett (1892-1979), Eleanor "Nora" (1894-1919), Muriel Gurdon (1896-1990) and Richard (1897-1979). Leverett Saltonstall served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1923-1927, as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1929-1937, as governor of Massachusetts from 1939-1945, and as U.S. senator from Massachusetts from 1945-1967. His sister, Eleanor "Nora" Saltonstall, served overseas with the Red Cross for about a year during World War I. Upon her return, she traveled through the western U.S. on an auto camping trip, during which she contracted typhoid fever and died in late July 1919.

Muriel Gurdon Saltonstall Lewis (1896-1990), the third child of Eleanor (Brooks) and Richard Middlecott Saltonstall (1859-1922), was an avid horsewoman and yachtswoman. She married, in 1926, George Lewis (1887-1952), a graduate of Harvard and also an avid horseman. They made their home in Sherborn, Mass. The couple had two children: Eleanor Saltonstall (b. 1928) and George (b. 1931). Eleanor Saltonstall Lewis married Levin H. Campbell (b. 1927).

Collection Description

The Saltonstall-Brooks-Lewis family photographs contains 3,676 photographs in 5 boxes, 2 oversize boxes, and 37 volumes. The collection dates from between ca. 1840 and 1945 and consists mostly of formal portrait and informal snapshot photographs of various members of the Saltonstall, Brooks, and Lewis families.

Seven boxes contain loose photographs dating from ca. 1840-1938 and consisting mostly of portraits of various members of the Saltonstall, Brooks, and Lewis families. Subjects of the portraits include Lawrence Brooks, Sarah Lawrence Brooks, George Lewis, Muriel Gurdon Saltonstall Lewis, Eleanor "Nora" Saltonstall, Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall, and Richard Middlecott Saltonstall, among many others. There are also a number of loose views depicting the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Brooks family estate in West Medford, Mass., and Boston, Mass., among many other places. Many of these photographs were taken by Sarah Lawrence Brooks. Additionally, there are also several photographs of artwork, ships, and automobiles.

Thirty-seven volumes of photograph albums, dating from ca. 1850-1935, mostly contain formal portraits and informal snapshot of various members of the Saltonstall, Brooks, Lawrence, and Lewis families. There are also a number of volumes of photographs taken by Sarah Lawrence Brooks of views of family homes in West Medford, Groton, and Wareham, Mass., as well as portraits she took of family members. Additionally, the volumes also contain photographs depicting Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall's service with the Red Cross in France in World War I; Muriel Gurdon Saltonstall Lewis's wedding to George Lewis in 1926; the family life and U.S. travels of the Richard Middlecott Saltonstall family; Lawrence Brooks's travels abroad and in the western U.S. (including photographs taken by novelist Owen Wister); and the dedication of the Founder's Monument in Watertown, Mass. in 1935, among other subjects.

This collection includes tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet cards, stereographs, and other paper-based photographs. There are also a number of glass-based photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, opaque glass photographs, and lantern slides), all of which are stored apart from this collection by format (see the Photograph List for details). The daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and opaque glass photographs depict members of the Brooks, Lawrence, and Saltonstall families, among others. The lantern slides depict views of Eleanor Brooks Saltonstall's gardens in Chestnut Hill, Mass., ca. 1933.

Studio photographers represented in this collection include photographers James Wallace Black, Augustus Marshall, James Notman, John Adams Whipple, and Allen & Rowell, all of Boston, Mass.; George Kendall Warren of Boston, Mass.; and the Keystone View Company, among many others. Amateur photographers represented in the collection include Charlotte Allen, Lawrence Brooks, Sarah Lawrence Brooks, Margaret Coe Cunningham, and Owen Wister.

Acquisition Information

The Saltonstall-Brooks-Lewis family photographs were removed from the Saltonstall-Brooks-Lewis family papers (Ms. N-368). The collection was deposited at the Massachusetts Historical Society by Eleanor Campbell in Feb. 1993 and given to the Society in Sep. 2000.

Processing Note

Fifty-eight loose photographs and one photograph album (Vol. 43) were found stored apart from the collection in May 2004 and were added to the collection and finding aid. The loose photographs that were added at this time are identified by the addition of a letter after their call number (example: Photo. #33.191c).

Detailed Description of the Collection

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I. Loose photographs

Close I. Loose photographs

II. Photographs in albums

This series contains 36 volumes of photographs.

The albums are arranged by the order of their original numbers.

Close II. Photographs in albums

Preferred Citation

Saltonstall-Brooks-Lewis family photographs, Photo. Coll. 33, Massachusetts Historical Society Photo Archives.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Persons:

Black, James Wallace, 1825-1896, photographer.
Brooks family--Homes and haunts--Massachusetts--Photographs.
Brooks family--Photographs.
Brooks, Peter Chardon, 1831-1920--Photographs.
Brooks, Sarah Lawrence, 1845-1915, photographer.
Brooks, Sarah Lawrence, 1845-1915--Photographs.
Lawrence family--Homes and haunts--Massachusetts--Photographs.
Lawrence family--Photographs.
Lewis family--Photographs.
Lewis, Muriel Gurdon Saltonstall, 1896-1990--Photographs.
Marshall, Augustus, photographer.
Notman, James, 1849-1932, photographer.
Saltonstall, Eleanor, 1894-1919--Photographs.
Saltonstall, Eleanor Brooks, 1867-1961--Photographs.
Saltonstall family--Photographs.
Saltonstall, Leverett, 1892-1979--Photographs.
Saltonstall, Richard M. (Richard Middlecott), 1859-1922--Photographs.
Whipple, John Adams, 1822-1891, photographer.
Wister, Owen, 1860-1938, photographer.

Subjects:

Boston (Mass.)--Photographs.
Chestnut Hill (Mass.)--Photographs.
Gardens--Massachusetts--Chestnut Hill--Photographs.
Voyages and travels--Photographs.
West (U.S.)--Photographs.
Women and war--Photographs.
Women photographers.
World's Columbian Exposition (1893: Chicago, Ill.)--Photographs.
World War, 1914-1918--Civilian relief--Photographs.
World War, 1914-1918--Hospitals--Photographs.
World War, 1914-1918--Participation, Female--Photographs.
World War, 1914-1918--War work--Red Cross--Photographs.
World War, 1914-1918--Women--France--Photographs.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Thirty-four postcard albums were removed from this collection and stored with the MHS postcard collections (Saltonstall-Brooks-Lewis family postcards).

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