Papers of Jeannette Garr Washburn Kelsey and her extended family; the papers include Jeannette G. W. Kelsey's memoir; family, social, and business correspondence; volumes, and photographs.

Jeannette Garr Washburn Kelsey (1850-1931) was born in Wisconsin to Cadwallader Colden Washburn (1818-1882) and Jeannette Garr Washburn (1818-1909). C. C. Washburn was a Governor of Wisconsin from 1872 to 1874, and also a businessman who founded a mill which later became General Mills; after the birth of her two daughters, Jeannette Garr Washburn began to suffer from some form of mental illness and was committed to an asylum in 1852 where she remained until her death in 1909. In June 1869, Jeannette G. W. Washburn married the political economist and journalist Albert Warren Kelsey (1840-1921) in La Crosse, Wisconsin and the couple lived in various places including St. Louis, Missouri, and Madison, Wisconsin; from 1878 to 1882 they traveled extensively in Europe and then returned to the United States and established themselves in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood in a house they named "Rauhala." Together the Kelsey's had eight living children: architect Albert Kelsey (1870-1950), lawyer and journalist Charlotte Kelsey Darling (1873-1949), Kate Garr Kelsey (1875-1959), who worked on behalf of Belgian refugees during World War I, peace activist Mary Kelsey (1877-1948), Mabel Washburn Parker (1878-1968), inventor and automobile manufacturer Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey (1880-1970), Ethel Kelsey Wentworth (1882-1964) wife of the art photographer Bertrand H. Wentworth, and Bonnibel Kelsey (1884-1953). Jeannette G. W. Kelsey was a published novelist whose titles include "Clouded Amber," "Weathering the Storm," and "On the Heights;" she died in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, age 80, on January 30, 1931.

5.6 Linear Feet (13 boxes)

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