Photograph Albums, 1840 - 1940

[The collection description and container list are based on Lucy Fisher West, The Papers of M. Carey Thomas in the Bryn Mawr College Archives. Reel Guide and Index to the Microfilm Collection. Research Publications, Inc., 1982.]

The six albums are part of the Carrie Chapman Catt Papers at Bryn Mawr College. They contain approximately 815 photographs and a very limited amount of printed matter, mostly newspaper clippings, related to the history of international woman’s suffrage. The photographs cover the period from ca. 1840 to ca. 1940, with the majority dating from the last years of the nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The photograph albums were originally bound in black leather covers. The albums were dismantled in early 2000 but the album covers were retained. Each album is in an individual box. Pages are grouped in threes and fours to facilitate handling and location of subjects. Original page order was maintained.

The albums measure approximately eleven by fifteen inches. The photographs themselves are varied and irregular in size, ranging from approximately two by three inches to roughly ten by fourteen inches. Although most of the photographs are remarkably well preserved, a very few have tears along the margin and some are slightly faded. Legends (presumably written by Catt or under her direction) accompany all of the images; some appear in white ink on the black mounting paper and others in black ink handwritten directly on the photographs. The first two albums are devoted to themes in the history of suffrage; the last four follow a geographic organization.

All of the images are available as part of Triptych, a digital initiative of Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges.