Charles B. Doron "Views of Swarthmore" photographs

Charles Bedell Doron (1860-1938) was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Swarthmore College in the Class of 1881. After graduation, Doron worked in manufacturing and later became an osteopathic physician in Maine.

Doron sold his "Swarthmore and Vicinity" series directly and through the Friends Book Association in Philadelphia. It was advertised in an insert in The Swarthmore Phoenix, the college monthly periodical which began publication in December 1881, just two months after the disasterous fire which gutted the main building (now known as Parrish Hall).

Amateur photography was very popular with students and faculty, resulting in a College Camera Club in the 1880s. Interestingly, Doron's photographic equipment, stored near the college's museum room (in the main building) before his graduation the previous spring, was initially blamed as the source of the fire. The actual cause has never been confirmed, but is now believed to be due to a gas leak.

The original photographs were 5" x 8" albumen prints mounted on 9" x 11" cardboard, "a very nice size for framing."

The Swarthmore and Vicinity series included: the train station; the Benjamin West House; the homes of Thomas S. Foulke, Arthur Beardsley, and Edward H. Magill; Parrish Hall front and back; views from the top of the college building looking in four directions; Swarthmore Friends Meeting House; several views of the College Barn; College study room before the fire; ruins of the college building after the fire; view at the lower dam.