Skip to main content

Brooks family photographs

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-PA-129

Scope and Contents

This collection contains loose photgraphs, albums, and photos of family groups, among others.

Dates

  • 1790 - 1992

Creator

Limitations on Accessing the Collection

This collection is available for research use.

Copyright and Rights Information

Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce items in this collection beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0/.

Biographical / Historical

Morgan Brooks (1861-1947) and Frona Marie (Brooks) Brooks (1861-1947) are central figures in the Brooks Family collection. They descended from the Brooks, Butler, and Buck families of New England.

Frona's grandfather, Charles Buck (1798-1863), married Sophronia Herrick (1803-1841) in 1825. The couple had three children, Charles W. Buck (1833-1933), a Unitarian minister; Robert Herrick Buck (birth name Jedidiah), who invested in Colorado gold mines; and Charlotte Frances Buck, (1828-1907). In 1852 Charlotte married Boston attorney Benjamin Franklin Brooks, and the couple had four children: Frona Marie Brooks, the only child to marry, Arthur, Esther Clara Herrick Brooks, M.D., and Franklin Herrick Brooks. Morgan's grandfather, Caleb Butler, married Clarissa Varnum, and they had a daughter, Frances Butler in 1822. Frances married Francis Augustus Brooks, a Boston, Mass., corporate attorney and railroad president, in 1847. This couple had three children: Charles B., Frederick, and Morgan Brooks. The collection includes correspondence among these family members and a great deal of professional correspondence and documents, mainly from Charles W. Buck, Benjamin Franklin Brooks, Franklin Herrick Brooks, and Francis Augustus Brooks.

Morgan Brooks and Frona Marie Brooks were married in 1888. They moved to Urbana, Illinois, shortly after their wedding where Morgan became a nationally known professor of engineering. Morgan and Frona had eight children, all of whom survived into adulthood: Henry Morgan (1889-1948), married Ruth Hayford in 1911; Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958), married Eleanor M. Stabler, and they had seven children; Frances Brooks (b. 1893) married Lincoln Colcord in 1929; Frederick Augustus Brooks (1895-1967), married Harriet Kinley in 1921 (divorced) and, secondly, Margaret H. Ward in 1929; Roger Brooks (1896-1957) married Anne Goebel in 1921 (divorced) and, secondly, Janet in 1928; Edith Brooks (1889-1952); Frona Marguerite Brooks ("Margie") (1901-1985), married George Hughes in 1924. The couple had two daughters, Ann and Octavia ("Taffy") before they divorced in 1927; she then married Richard Rice; Dorothy Prescott (b. 1905), married Joe Thomas in 1931.

Extent

3.5 Cubic Feet (9 boxes, 1 oversized box)

Language

English

Overview

Involved in this collection are Morgan Brooks (1861-1947), a professor of engineering, and his wife, Frona Marie (Brooks) Brooks (1861-1947). One of their children, Charles Franklin Brooks (1891-1958), became a member of the Society of Friends shortly after marrying Eleanor M. Stabler (1892-1986) in 1914. Their daughter, Barbara Brooks (1922-2007), married Edward H. Kerner, and she was active in Quaker concerns, particularly peace. This collection contains loose photgraphs, albums, and photos of family groups, among others.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Barbara Kerner and other members of the Brooks family, 2003 (Accession number: 2003-015). Part of the Brooks Family Papers, RG5/252.

Separated Materials

This collection was removed from the Brooks Family Papers, RG5/252.

Author
Zoe Peyton Jones
Date
2018
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting reproductions from Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Library

Contact:
500 College Avenue
Swarthmore Pennsylvania 19081 USA