Title: George W. Perry Scrapbooks, 1847-1967, bulk 1880-1915
Creator: Perry, George W., 1891-1971
Creator Role: Collector
Accession / Call Number: 1974.045
Object ID: 1974.045
Date: 1847-1967
Bulk Dates: 1880-1915
Physical Description: 16 boxes ; 6.47 linear feet
Level of Description: Collection
Abstract: This large photograph collection of approximately 1,900 images centers on Concord, NH, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It documents with dates and specific locations neighborhoods, businesses, events, individual homes, government buildings, and parades and similar celebrations. People present in the images are often identified, but there are only a few portraits and the presence of people is usually incidental to the building or occasion photographed.
Scope and Content: George W. Perry collected approximately 1,900 images, which he then placed into a number of scrapbooks. The images are mostly of Concord, NH, but also include a few nearby towns, such as Bow, Hopkinton, and Penacook, NH. He was interested primarily in residential homes and neighborhoods, as well as in the built structures of the greater Concord area, which include stores, factories, hotels, government buildings, schools, libraries, parks, and cemeteries. Along the way, he also collected images of celebrations, mostly parades and similar public events. The photographs cluster in the 1880-1915 time period, though there are also some images from before and after. Perry annotated the photographs, sometimes at great length. He provided location (often specific street addresses) and date of the photograph. For some buildings, he gave the history of its construction and, if applicable, its demolition. Also included are biographies of home and business owners and even of individuals whose gravestones were photographed in cemeteries. As rich as this information is, there are surprising gaps in what Perry documented. There is no coverage of political campaigns, though sitting officials are occasionally present and identified in celebratory images, or of American participation in any of the wars during the period for which he was collecting (Spanish-American, World War I, World War II). Civil War veterans are shown marching in parades, but otherwise no attention is paid to them or to monuments celebrating their service. The depressions of the 1870s, 1890s, and 1930s are not addressed in any way. The homes and neighborhoods he was interested in were those of the traditional white elites; working class housing is included only incidentally in larger composed images such as aerial photographs. This collection is not a place to seek depictions of poverty, immigrant populations, or working class people except as they are seen incidentally (construction workers removing snow or employees lined up outside their workplace), nor does it include depictions of rural life (farms, farm work) unless of hotels or summer cottages in the country. There are only a few portraits and images of children, unless they are seen in a larger spectator group for events. Boxes 14 through 16 consist of negatives that belonged to George W. Perry. These negatives cover similar topics to the scrapbooks, focusing primarily on places and events in Concord, NH, with some images of surrounding towns, the White Mountains, and formal portraits. The majority of these images are identified. Of note are several folders of film negatives documenting the damage to Concord after the flood/hurricane of September 21, 1938. Descriptions of each scrapbook can be found in the folder level records.
Arrangment: The photographs in this collection were cut out of their scrapbooks at an unknown date and filed into the photograph collection by subject. In 2015, they were retrieved from the subject files, sorted into groups that constituted the original scrapbooks, and placed in folders by scrapbook, when known. The scrapbooks were originally numbered and titled; these numbers and titles have been used to create the order into which the folders are organized. Note, however, that the numbers are not consecutive, as some books contained non-photographic materials such as newspaper clippings. The arrangement of the images within the original scrapbooks is unknown. The negatives in this collection were removed from the binder they were housed in and organized into folders in their original order. Most of these negatives are identified by a number, followed by the unnumbered negatives. Larger format negatives are located after these numbered negatives and are organized alphabetically.
Subjects:
Airplanes,
Bicycles,
Buildings,
Cemeteries,
Church buildings,
Cities and towns,
Construction,
Construction workers,
Covered bridges,
Dwellings,
Exhibitions,
Fairs,
Fire fighters,
Fires,
Floods,
Golf,
Horse racing,
Hospitals,
Hotels,
Hurricanes,
Lakes,
Libraries,
Musicians,
Parades,
Parks,
Photographers,
Photography,
Politicians,
Ponds,
Post office buildings,
Prisons,
Quarries and quarrying,
Railroads,
Schools,
Scrapbooks,
Sleighs,
Societies and clubs,
Stagecoaches,
Street-railroads,
Students,
Taverns (Inns),
Teachers
Locations: Boscawen, NH
Bow, NH
Chichester, NH
Concord, NH
Contoocook River, NH
Hooksett, NH
Hopkinton, NH
Manchester, NH
Merrimack River
Moultonborough, NH
Penacook, NH
Webster, NH
White Mountains, NH
People:
Busiel, Charles A., 1842-1901,
Guilford, Jesse, 1895-1962,
Herd, Sandy, 1868-1944,
Lindbergh, Charles A., 1902-1974,
Ouimet, Francis, 1893-1967,
Perry, George W., 1891-1971,
Plant, Tom, 1859-1941,
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1882-1945,
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Organizations:
Abbot-Downing Company (Concord, N.H.),
Blossom Hill Cemetery (Concord, N.H.),
Concord & Manchester Electric Railway,
Concord High School (Concord, N.H.),
Concord Public Library (Concord, N.H.),
Fowler Public Library,
Horse Hill Cemetery (Concord, N.H.),
Lucknow (Moultonborough, N.H.),
Millville Cemetery (Concord, N.H.),
New Hampshire Historical Society,
New Hampshire State Hospital,
New Hampshire State House,
New Hampshire State Library,
Old North Cemetery (Concord, N.H.),
Perkins Inn,
Spirit of St. Louis (Airplane),
St. Paul's School (Concord, N.H.),
Stickney Hill Cemetery (Concord, N.H.),
Unitarian Church (Concord, N.H.),
West Garden (Concord, N.H.),
White Park
Credit Line: Gift of May Nutter.
Location Code: TL/1WX
Restrictions: Available for research.
Preferred Citation: Item title, George W. Perry Scrapbooks, 1974.045. New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, NH. Date accessed.