The gem album: [a charming Civil War Era and later Washington Territorial autograph souvenir album compiled by a young New England woman from Maine, and later Seattle pioneer, as well as wife to

Item Details

New York, NY; [Woolwich, ME & Seattle, W.T.]:, Leavitt & Allen (printer of the album); Mary Amanda Jones (Compiler),, [1863-1889]., Hardcover

N/A, NF

Small 4to. 5.5 x 7 in. [48 leaves (unnumbered).], w/ alternating blue-, orchid-, rose-, lavender-, and cream-coloured papers, including steel-engraved title, engraved frontisp., 2 engraved plates, all preserving original tissue guards. Full red embossed calf, elaborate gilt decorated lozenge front cover, gilt decorated & lettered spine, borders embossed in blind (minor rubbing to corners, slight scuffing), still a NF exemplar, w/ presentation inscription by A.D., [or Ada] MacLoed (1831-1916) to Mary A. Jones while they were attending Brown’s Commercial College in Portland, ME during the Civil War. 

This attractive commonplace/autograph book charts the family and friends of a young New England woman from Maine during the Civil War to her life as wife and mother in the Washington Territory, which managed to survive the ravages of the June 6, 1889 fire which destroyed much of the nascent city with less than 4000 residents. Featuring 17 different autographs, many with poems, or sentiments, this little album also features 5 novelty postage stamp portrait albumen photos, which during the Gilded Age were a curiosity although largely regional upstate New York and New England fad. They were issued in perforated sheets reproducing multiple miniature portraits, with postage-stamp style borders, and with adhesive so they could be easily sent along with actual postage. The five earliest autograph sentiments include penned missives from her mother Mary T. Jones (b. 1804), living in Penobscot, ME while Mary attended Brown’s Commercial College; her sister Sophia P. Jones, H.W. Taylor, Sarah M. Tufts, and Sarah E. Wheelwright [Peabody] (1828-1911), friend and schoolmaster at Commercial College who has included a poem.

The remainder were friends and family in Seattle, Washington Territory collected from 1882 through 1889. These featured Josephine Giddings (1840-1920), Seattle pioneer and dressmaker married to Howland M. Giddings, an Illinois Civil War Veteran who worked as a carpenter with Mary’s husband Willard Hawthorne. H.H. Hathorne [Hawthorne] Jan. 8th, 1882; William Hammond, Feb. 1st, 1889; Elise Magnus (1865-1933) who worked as a clerk in the County Auditor’s office, and married Charles Feilberg in August, 1889; Winnifred Sprigge with a nice poem, along with Mrs. Ha. Taylor. Significant Seattle pioneers with postage-stamp albumen photos include: Erick Ulin, Jr. (1864-1916), was bookkeeper for the Seattle Lumber & Commercial Co. on the waterfront, and served as Seattle Volunteer Fire Fighter; Frank Hubbard Van Brocklin (1868-1938), carpenter with Willard, and later longshoreman; Hiram Van Brocklin (1867-1958) who signed his Feb. 2, 1889 as “A Montana Boy” from Virginia City, M.T., and served as Seattle postmaster and postal clerk; Enoch M. Wood (1868-1938), who served as Deputy County Auditor in Seattle, and later as homeopathic doctor in Coupeville, and Seattle; Enoch’s father Lyman Wood (1839-1924) who was a builder with Willard on the Hotel Arlington, and served as County Auditor until March, 1889; and mother Nellie Wood (1837-1917). 

Original manuscript and photographic commonplace books dating from Washington Territory era are far scarcer than other Western locales, even Montana, as at the time Seattle, Washington Territory was growing from a small maritime incorporated city of just 3600 in 1880 (Portland, OR in comparison was about 20,000 with 2500 Chinese-Americans), which rapidly grew to over 40,000 following the fire and 1890 census. In addition, the 1889 fire which destroyed nearly the entire downtown commercial district burned much of the official documents, papers, and keepsakes of the young Western Territorial community. Willard Hawthorne (1840-1927) was a Civil War Veteran who had fought with Co. B, 28th Volunteer Infantry, had married the widow Mary Amanda Jones Phelps in Montana, four years after her first husband’s death, and moved to Seattle, Washington Territory for opportunity as builder in 1876, and became a Seattle City Councilman by 1880.