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Guide to the Rebecca Emerson Papers
MS 43
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Table of contents
Title: Rebecca Emerson papers
Dates: 1867-1978
Bulk Dates: 1915-1953
Collection number: MS 43
Creator:
Emerson, Rebecca
Collection Size:
3.25 linear feet
(7 boxes)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Abstract: The Rebecca Emerson Papers include photographs, correspondence, legal documents, and ephemera that document the activities
of Rebecca Emerson and the Prince family in Texas.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish from the Rebecca Emerson Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Rebecca Emerson papers, MS 43, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
Processed by Sean Heyliger, 06/11/2013.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Rebecca Emerson Papers include photographs, correspondence, legal documents, and ephemera that document the activities
of Rebecca Emerson and the Prince family in Texas. The papers are organized into four series: Rebecca Emerson, Prince family
manuscripts, Clem Emerson, and Curtis Parrish. The bulk of the papers are 1048 photographs that document Emerson’s family
and friends beginning in the 1910s through the 1970s. The photographs have been organized roughly by location, documenting
Emerson’s time living in San Antonio, Texas in the 1920s, with various photographs of Emerson and friends at the San Antonio
missions, San Pedro Park, Brackenridge Park, and flooding in downtown San Antonio; a trip to Colorado in 1923; assorted portraits
of Emerson and her family and friends; and hunting, fishing, and assorted photographs while she was living in Alaska in the
1940s. Also included in the Rebecca Emerson series is a scrapbook of newspaper clippings Emerson kept while living in Alaska,
assorted legal documents including her birth and marriage certificates, Alaska hunting and fishing licenses, an application
to leave Alaska, and an assortment of 1955 brochures from the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The Prince family series includes mostly correspondence related to the family’s activities in Texas in the 1860-1880s. The
correspondence includes a letter requesting Richard Prince’s father to go to Indianola, Texas after a stabbing, letters from
a teacher to Lizzie Prince about the schooling of her children, a letter from Ike Prince to his father Henry Prince about
his work in Refugio, Texas. The series also includes Henry Prince’s school report card and register as an elector of DeWitt
County, Texas in 1867, and Mattie Onderdonk’s application to enter Alaska in 1943. The Clem Emerson series consists of his
discharge papers from the Department of the Army in 1949. The Curtis Parrish series includes two letters of recommendation
for Curtis Parrish.
Series I. Rebecca Emerson
1.1. Photographs
1.2. Scrapbook
1.3. Legal documents
1.4. Ephemera
Series II. Parrish family manuscripts
Series III. Clem Emerson
Series IV. Curtis Parrish
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Emerson, Rebecca.
African Americans--Families.
African Americans--Texas--San Antonio--History.
Japanese Tea Garden (San Antonio, Tex.).
African American photographers.
Hunting--Alaska--1940-1950.
Fishing--Alaska--1940-1950.
African Americans--Alaska.