Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -
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Sale 2708 - Lot 99

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(FAMILY PAPERS.) Photograph albums and papers from the family of W.G. Fargo, founding partner of Wells Fargo. 6 family photo albums containing 442 photographs (361 cartes-de-visite, 76 cabinet cards, and 5 tintypes), plus one scrapbook of clippings and correspondence, and one printed book (1 linear foot); various wear to bindings but the photographs generally well preserved. Buffalo, NY and elsewhere, 1865-1888 and undated
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William George Fargo (1818-1881) was a founding partner of what became Wells Fargo and the American Express Company. Born and raised in rural Pompey, NY, he formed Wells & Co. in Buffalo in 1845, quickly becoming a leader in the shipping industry during the period of rapid western expansion. He served as mayor of Buffalo from 1862 to 1866.

These albums document Fargo's family life, including his wife Anna Williams Fargo (1820-1890) and their two surviving children Georgia Fargo (1841-1892) and Helen Lacy Fargo Squiers (1857-1886). Georgia married editor Charles W. McCune in 1866; after their divorce she was known as Mrs. Georgia Fargo.

A Civil War-era carte-de-visite album kept by Georgia Fargo includes 90 cartes-de-visite: images of W.G. Fargo and other family members, photographs of art, and political and military leaders such as Abraham Lincoln (the well-known portrait with son Tad, with no photographer mark), William Seward, Ambrose Burnside, and William T. Sherman. A portrait of actor Edwin Adams is signed and inscribed to Mrs. Fargo on verso, 1869; one of Louisville newspaper editor George D. Prentice is signed in the image. New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley signed his portrait in the lower mount. One unidentified young man who stood for a London photographer, presumably a hapless suitor, is inscribed on verso "Nice boy, darned fool."

An album containing 32 cabinet cards includes several Fargo and Squiers family members, and one inscribed on verso by actor Edwin Adams to William G. Fargo.

Another family album includes 27 cabinet cards, most notably a Brady National Portrait Galleries shot of William G. Fargo, along with several of his daughter Helen.

A mixed-format album contains 25 cartes-de-visite and 17 cabinet cards, most or all of them apparently family members. One is captioned in pencil by a descendant "William George Fargo," although we suspect it is actually his father William C. Fargo (1791-1878).

A quarto album contains 112 cartes-de-visite and 5 tintypes (4 to a page), 1865-1872 and undated. Many are European tourist images or portraits of European leaders such as Garibaldi; others are family members. Some are inscribed to the McCunes, and were probably compiled by Georgia Fargo before her divorce. The clasps are engraved "Georgia Fargo, June 7 1866." The 5 tintypes in the rear include 3 of a young man in athletic gear; in one, he is preparing to spar with a pugilistic opponent.

Another quarto album with Georgia Fargo's name stamped in the front board has 134 cartes-de-visite of family members and national figures such as George McClellan, Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott, Robert E. Lee, William T. Sherman, John Wilkes Booth, and Philadelphia philanthropist George H. Stuart (signed).

A scrapbook of clippings and correspondence was kept by Georgia Fargo. It includes 23 letters and telegrams, 1882-1888, most relating to the 1886 death of her sister Helen Fargo Squiers. The album leaves are mostly worn and detached.

Also included is one printed book: "In Memory of William George Fargo, Late President of the American Express Company." Frontispiece plate. 42 pages. 8vo, original gilt cloth, minor wear and spotting; frontispiece and front free endpaper detached; inscribed "Gladys Fargo Squiers, from your affectionate grandmother Anna H. Fargo," with Herbert Squiers bookplate on from pastedown. [Buffalo, NY: Times Co., 1881]. None traced at auction, and only two in OCLC (none traced outside of Buffalo).

With--a folder of later Fargo family and Wells Fargo research and ephemera, circa 1970-2000.

See also the next two lots for the family papers of Fargo's daughter Helen Fargo Squiers; and his granddaughter Gladys Squier Rousseau.

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