COLLECTION GUIDES

1891-ca. 1901

Guide to the Photograph Collection


Collection Summary

Abstract

This collection consists of seven volumes of photographs, encompassing the years 1891-1901, taken and collected by Abigail Adams Homans and her mother, Frances Crowninshield Adams. Most of the photographs depict members of the Adams family, the Adams family home and grounds in Quincy, Mass., and family activities at the Glades Club in Scituate, Mass.

Biographical Sketch

Frances Crowninshield Adams was born in Boston on 15 October 1839 to George Caspar and Harriet Sears Crowninshield. She married John Quincy Adams (1833-1894) on 29 April 1861 and was the mother of his six children, including Abigail Adams Homans (1879-1974). She died on 16 May 1911.

Abigail Adams Homans was born on 6 September 1879 in Quincy, Mass. to John Quincy Adams (1833-1894) and Frances Crowninshield Adams (1839-1911). On 10 June 1907, she married Boston lawyer Robert Homans (1873-1934). Homans was the niece of Henry Adams (1838-1918), Brooks Adams (1848-1927), and Charles Francis Adams (1835-1915), and wrote a memoir detailing their influence on her early life, Education by Uncles (Houghton Mifflin, 1966). She died in February 1974.

Collection Description

The Adams-Homans family photographs contain seven bound albums, covering the years 1891-1901. The earliest three albums, covering 1891-1894, appear to have been taken and collected by Abigail Adams Homans. The later four albums, covering 1893-1901, were taken and collected by her mother, Frances Crowninshield Adams. All of the photographs were taken by Adams and Homans with an early Kodak snapshot camera, and the images mostly depict members of the Adams family and their circle. Many were taken at the summer resort that the Adams family frequented, the Glades Club in Scituate, Massachusetts, and show their subjects sailing, riding horses, or playing on the club grounds or shore.

Acquisition Information

The Adams-Homans family photographs were given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Susan Homans Elias in July 2001.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Expand all

I. Abigail Adams Homans albums, 1891-1894

Arranged chronologically.

Close I. Abigail Adams Homans albums, 1891-1894

II. Frances Crowninshield Adams albums, 1893-ca. 1901

Arranged chronologically.

Close II. Frances Crowninshield Adams albums, 1893-ca. 1901

Preferred Citation

Adams-Homans family photographs, Photo. Coll. 41, 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:

Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915--Photographs.
Adams family--Homes and haunts--Massachusetts--Quincy--Photographs.
Adams family--Photographs.
Adams, Frances Crowninshield, 1839-1911--Photographs.
Adams, George Caspar, 1863-1900--Photographs.
Adams, John Quincy, 1833-1894--Photographs.
Homans, Abigail Adams, 1879-1974, photographer.
Homans, Abigail Adams, 1879-1974--Photographs.
Perkins, Louisa Catherine Adams, b. 1871--Photographs.

Organizations:

Glades Club (Scituate, Mass.)--Photographs.

Subjects:

Horsemanship--Photographs.
Photograph albums.
Sailing--Photographs.
Women photographers.

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