Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Beecher Family Photograph Collection
photCL 688  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
 
 
Table of contents What's This?

Box 1

Lyman Beecher portrait approximately 1856

Physical Description: Hand-colored salted paper print in case (18 x 15 cm)

Scope and Contents

A half-length seated portrait of Lyman Beecher by photographer Mathew Brady. A combination of watercolor, ink, and pencil has been added to the surface of the salted paper print. "Brady's Gallery, 205 & 359 Broadway, New York" is stamped in the red velvet case lining.

Conditions Governing Access

RESTRICTED. Item is fragile and only available with curatorial approval.
Box 2

Bullard family album with portrait of Eunice White (Bullard) Beecher approximately 1860s-1880s

Physical Description: 46 photographs in one album without covers

Scope and Contents

An album featuring a hand-colored albumen print based on a miniature of a young Eunice White (Bullard) Beecher, author and wife of Henry Ward Beecher. The print by photographer Augustus Morand was made approximately 1860s and is on a carte-de-visite mount. Handwriting on the back reads: "Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher, taken from a miniature when she was 18 years old." The Bullard family album contains 45 additional cartes-de-visite and cabinet photographs dating from approximately 1860s to 1880s. Most people are unidentified, though three identified people were cousins of Eunice: Clara G. Bullard, daughter of William Reed Bullard; and two children, Florence May Wyman and Arthur Wyman, whose parents were Charles F. Wyman and Helen Knight (Bullard) Wyman. Visible imprints identify photographic studios in Boston, New York, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
Box 3

Beecher family portrait (ambrotype) approximately 1860

Physical Description: Ambrotype; plate 11 x 14 cm (half plate format), top half of case missing

Scope and Contents

An ambrotype of ten members of the Beecher family in a group portrait originally taken by Mathew Brady in New York, in March 1859. This ambrotype was copied by photographer George M. Howe from one of the original salted paper prints. The image is in the bottom half of a leather case and has a gold mat with the stamp of G. M. Howe of Portland and Upton, Maine. Lyman Beecher is seated at center, flanked by his four daughters (from left to right, Isabella, Catharine, Mary, and Harriet). Behind them stand five of the seven brothers (from left to right, Thomas, William, Edward, Charles, and Henry Ward - George died in 1843, and James was in Hong Kong serving as a missionary). This was the last time they came together before Lyman died in 1863. The portrait was reproduced in several photographic formats over the years, including the print in Box 4.
Box 4

Beecher family portrait (large albumen print) printed approximately 1880

Physical Description: Albumen print on card mount (25.4 x 31.75 cm), retouched on surface

Scope and Contents

A large format print (10 x 12 1/2 in.), with some retouching, of the 1859 Beecher family portrait, produced approximately 1880 by I. C. Pardee, Brooklyn, New York. The mount has Pardee's imprint and ink handwriting identifying the sitters and (incorrectly) dating the photograph 1852.
Box 4

Harriet Beecher Stowe portrait approximately 1880s

Physical Description: Albumen print on cabinet card mount, autographed (14 x 10.2 cm)

Scope and Contents

A cabinet photograph of an older Harriet Beecher Stowe, showing her in profile, taken approximately 1880s by photographer George H. Hastings, Boston, Massachusetts. Signed by Stowe on the lower front mount, below the image.