Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 84

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(CONNECTICUT.) Photograph album for the Yale University Class of 1872. 197 mounted photographs by William Notman, including 26 campus views, 140 members of the Class of 1872, and 31 portraits of the faculty and staff, uncaptioned but with a three-page manuscript table of contents. 4to, original gilt ½ morocco, moderate wear; front hinge fully split, minimal wear and foxing to contents; all edges gilt. New Haven, CT, 1872
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Additional Details

This album, like many college albums of the period, was custom-made to order for each graduate, with the option of purchasing additional campus views and faculty portraits. Among the faculty and officers represented here are former president Theodore B. Woolsey and President Noah Porter, as well as anti-slavery Congregationalist minister Leonard Bacon. Among the graduates shown here are at least two future congressmen: Senator Fred Thomas Dubois of Idaho; and Representative Elbert Hamilton Hubbard of Iowa. The views include a composite group of the Class of 1872 in the Yale chapel.

Adding to the interest are five photographs of African-American campus workers, each of them 5½ x 4 inches. First is a group of six "College Sweeps," the custodial staff who kept the campus clean. They were identified in pencil in another example sold at Swann on 24 March 2022, lot 342. They include Carter Wright (standing, left?), the son of an A.M.E. minister who had served as a chaplain in the Civil War. George T. Livingston (standing, center) had served in the 29th Connecticut Infantry during the war, was active in Republican politics, and served as a deacon of his church. See Charles E. Warner, Jr.'s article on the Sweeps in the Yale & Slavery Research Project. The "College Sweeps" image is followed by a spread of four individual portraits laid out on one page: Hannibal Silliman, John "Matches" Horen, "Candy Sam," and chimney sweep John Jackson. Theodore "Candy Sam" Ferris was a blind candy vendor who worked at Yale for many years; he carried a case which is stenciled "Yale Confectionery." Silliman had served with Ferris and Livingston in the 29th Connecticut regiment, and taught Ferris how to make molasses candy (see Yale Courant, 18 July 1868). Other photographs of Black Yale workers have often been sold separately on the market after being removed from class albums like this one.

Laid in are three items: an engraving of early president Ezra Stiles, removed from a book; a newspaper engraving of "Secret Society Buildings, New Haven"; and the original printed Notman order form for this album, listing all of the possible photographs and the pricing for duplicates.

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