Finding Aid for the Edgar Spalsbury Portrait Album C012172
Finding aid prepared by B. McCallick
Society of California Pioneers
December 1, 2010
300 Fourth Street
San Francisco, CA, 94107-1272
(415) 959-1849
pkeats@californiapioneers.org
Title: Spalsbury, Edgar, Portrait Album
Identifier/Call Number: C012172
Contributing Institution:
Society of California Pioneers
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 volume
1 album (176 photographs)
Date: circa 1875
Abstract: This album contains a collection of portraits of famous figures, including actors and actresses, Civil War generals, and politicians.
Location note: P-4G:B001467 (C012172) The Society of California Pioneers. San Francisco, California.
creator:
Spalsbury, Edgar, 1835-1897
Edgar Spalsbury was born on a farm in Jefferson County, New York in 1835. He grew to become a lawyer at the age of twenty.
During the Civil War, Spalsbury served as a captain in Company C, 35th New York Infantry, and fought in the battle of Bull
Run. After the war, Spalsbury moved west in search a milder climate for his frail health. In 1875, after spending some time
in Chicago, (where according to his nephew George E. Parker, he served as a librarian) Spalsbury moved to Santa Cruz, California,
establishing a law practice in 1876. Successful and popular among the citizens of Santa Cruz, he was elected Justice of the
Peace and dubbed "Judge" by friends and supporters. He died in 1897.
Society of California Pioneers, 300 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107.
Edgar Spalsbury Portrait Album ca. 1875. Gift of George Edwin Parker, 1964. Society of California Pioneers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Gift of George Edwin Parker, 1964
Scope and Contents of the Collection
This album contains portrait photographs of various public figures. Among those pictured are unnamed actors and actresses;
period personalities including Thomas Carlyle, Simon Buliver (Bolivar), Washington Irving, Charles H. Gough, John Godfrey
Saxe, Rev. Doctor Edwin H. Chapin; political figures including Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Andrew
Johnson, Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, William H. Seward, Stephen A. Douglas, William Brownlow, Mrs. Varina (Jefferson)
Davis, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and John Wilkes Booth; Civil War generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, George B. McClellan,
Philip H. Sheridan, Ambrose Burnside, Benjamin F. Butler, George G. Meade, Oliver O. Howard, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston,
Braxton Bragg, Ambrose P. Hill, John H. Morgan, and James Longstreet. The subjects are identified by his/her last name, written
below each photo.
Collection open for research.
There are no restrictions on access.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Actors--Portraits
Civil War leaders
Photograph albums
Political Portraits
Portrait Collection