Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 97

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Family photographs and correspondence of Bessie Rockefeller Strong, daughter of John D. Rockefeller. 125 items (0.4 linear feet) in one box and one sleeve; condition generally strong. Various places, 1882-1905 and undated
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Additional Details

Elizabeth "Bessie" Rockefeller (1866-1906) was the daughter of industrialist John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937). She married the philosopher Charles Augustus Strong (1862-1940) in 1881.

The autograph album is 49 manuscript pages, inscribed "Bessie Rockefeller" on the front free endpaper, with entries from 1882 to 1886 and undated. Entries include "Your living father, Jno. D. Rockefeller, N.Y. Feb'y 2d /83"; "your mother" [Laura Spelman Rockefeller] with a few lines of verse; aunts Almira G. Rockefeller and Helen E. Rockefeller; uncles William and Frank Rockefeller; "your loving grandma Eliza Rockefeller" in Cleveland, 12 September 1882; composer James Hotchkiss Rogers with a musical quotation, Cleveland, 13 October 1882; cousins William G. and Emma Rockefeller; her future father-in-law Augustus H. Strong; and as the final entry, a long 1883 inscription from her future husband Charles H. Strong (they married in 1889). The album is partly disbound and apparently missing some leaves.

The correspondence includes a Letter Signed from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to his brother-in-law Charles A. Strong, concerning the purchase of stock shares: "You ask to have these put in your name and charged to Bessie's account. . . . Of course, the item is charged to Bessie's account and will stand to her credit. Was it your idea to have the dividends paid to you?" New York, 15 April 1898. Other correspondence includes 6 postcards sent from Charles to Bessie while he was traveling in Europe, August-September 1903; 19 other postcards addressed to the Strongs circa 1890-1905; and 3 other Strong family letters.

The 81 photographs vary in size from small snapshots to larger formal portraits. The largest of the photographs are four just under 14 x 11 inches, including an Edmond Day portrait of John D. Rockefeller with his 2-year-old granddaughter Muriel McCormick, September 1904. A smaller unmounted photo, 3¼ inches square, shows John D. Rockefeller Sr. on all fours, with a small girl riding on his back. Many others show Laura Spelman Rockefeller and Bessie Rockefeller Strong, and other family members.

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