The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Chandler, Elizabeth Margaret, 1807-1834                 

Title:               Memorabilia

Dates:             1793-1889

Call No.:         Col. 168

Acc. No.:        88x217

Quantity:        2 boxes

Location:        16 A 1-2

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Elizabeth M. Chandler resided in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She attended a Quaker school.

 

Nothing in the papers sheds light on the identity of Elizabeth M. Chandler.  However, it seems she was Elizabeth Margaret Chandler (1807-1834), the poet and abolitionist.  This woman was born in Centreville, Delaware, the daughter of Margaret Evans (1778-1808) and Thomas Chandler (1773-1817), and sister to William Guest (1804-1873) and Thomas (1806-1881) Chandler.  Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Philadelphia.  There, Elizabeth attended school and embraced the Quaker support of abolition.  After the deaths of their parents, the Chandler children lived with their grandmother Elizabeth Guest Evans (1744-1827). 

 

Elizabeth Margaret Chandler began to write poetry at an early age, and her first works were published when she was but sixteen years old.  Her poem “The Slave-Ship,” published when she was 18 years old, was quite popular.  She continued to write poems and articles for abolitionist publications, especially for the women’s section of Benjamin Lundy’s The Genius of Universal Emancipation.  In 1830, Elizabeth, her brother Thomas, and their aunt Ruth Evans moved to Michigan.  There, she helped to establish the Logan Female Anti-Slavery Society.  She also urged better treatment of Native Americans and was a pacifist.  Sadly, Miss Chandler died in 1834.

 

Brother William G. Chandler had a daughter named for his sister.  However, this daughter was born in 1835, too young to have been the recipient of the rewards of merit in this collection. 

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Consists of 27 poems about friendship, nature, love, and mourning (it is not known if any of these were authored by Chandler); three bills made out to Chandler for instructions in drawing and lessons in elocution; eight reward of merit cards given to Chandler for industry in reading; fourteen calling cards, of which ten are blank; five pencil sketches of rural scenes; two silhouettes of a woman's head; an engraving of Elisha Tyson; two unidentified letters; two labels; and a locket-sized tintype photograph.  Also included are such small objects as jewelry, sewing equipment, buttons, ribbons, a pair of garters, an arrow point and other rocks, keys, a fake watch, etc.  Some of the objects are in small paste-board boxes that have decorative labels.  Not all the items in the collection belonged to Elizabeth Chandler.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

Accession number order, items arranged by type, although the poems are in two sections.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English, with one item in German.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Gift of Mary Walton.

 

 

RELATED MATERIAL

 

Another poem by Elizabeth M. Chandler is found in Doc. 23 at this repository.

           

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Art, Amateur.

Awards.

Buttons - Specimens.

            Jewelry.

            Landscape - Pictorial works.

            Poetry - Collections.

            Poetry - Manuscripts.

            Ribbons.

Students - Pennsylvania.

Textile fabrics - Specimens.

 

Bills (financial).

Calling cards.

Memorabilia.

Poems.

Rewards of merit.

Sketches.

Tintypes.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 16 A 1-2

 

 

Box 1: papers

 

Folder 1: (acc. 88x217.1-.3)

            .1         German writing exercise, probably late 19th or early 20th century.

                        [note: paper is brittle and has split along fold line]

 

            .2         letter, from William, no place, Feb. 11, 1855, to Mother: mentions school, Priscilla, and Jacob; chops and sometimes splits wood; went on a sleigh ride; getting  5’s in conduct.  [William’s identity is not known.]

 

            .3         fictitious letters addressed to Lady Sophia from Lady Frances, and a copy of Sally’s letter to Lady Frances.  Sally’s letter is about her impending death. 

The name R. Evans is also written on the paper, and she (or he) may have been the author of these letters, or these letters may have been sent to Evans.

 

 

Folder 2: rewards of merit award to Elizabeth M. Chandler (acc. 88x217.4-.11)

 

            .4-.6     for Industry in Reading, April 2, Dec. 7, Dec. 17, 1816

 

            .7         for Industry, Jan. 9, 1816

 

            .8         for Industry & Propriety, Nov. 18, 1815

 

            .9         for Industry, Feb. 29, 1816

 

            .10       for Industry in Reading, from M.L. & S.H. C.

 

            .11       approbation for Industry in Reading, History, Jan. 7, 1817

 

 

Folder 3: bills (acc. 88x217.12-.14)

 

            .12       receipted bill: D. Moulson was paid for instructing Elizabeth Chandler in drawing, for a hair pencil, a cake of carmine, and imperial paper, July 26, 1826

 

            .13-.14             receipted bills: Lemuel G. White, Philadelphia, was paid for giving lessons in elocution, January 1 and March 31, 1829

 

 

Folder 4: pencil sketches (acc. 88x217.15-.19)

 

            .15       man driving two women with parasols in a two-wheeled chariot, boy and a couple walk nearby

 

            .16       rough sketch of rocky landscape with trees

 

            .17       house, possibly a farmhouse, with fenced yard, large willow tree, garden

 

            .18       two groups, each of a man with two women, on a bridge built of rock and timbers

 

            .19       group of 4 people, 3 next to a campfire near their wagon

 

 

Folder 5: calling cards (acc. 88x217.20-.33)

 

            .20       Mrs. Ida P. Morrow (printed)

 

            .21       Thomas Fisher (hand-written)

 

            .22       Miss Anna Coe (printed) 

[A Miss Anna Coe belonged to Arch Street Meeting, as did the family of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler.]

 

            .23       Anna Coe (printed)

 

            .24-.33             blank cards

 

 

Folder 6: poems (acc. 88x217.34-.44)

 

            .34       first line: “Oh say my Robert why should we contend,” signed E.D.

 

            .35       “Ledyard’s Praise of Women,” signed Cleora[?];

                        First line: “Thro many a land and clime a stranger”

 

            .36       “The 16 of February”;

                        First line: “As every cheerful spring produces”

 

            .37       “Elegy to Pity”;

                        First line: “Hail, lovely power! Whose bosom heaves the sigh”

 

            .38       “Verses, supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, during his solitary abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez,” signed Cowper;

                        First line” “I am monarch of all I survey”

 

            .39       “An Elegy written in the burial-ground at Burlington,” by S. Smith;

                        First line: “Earths highest station ends, - in here he lies”;

                        Addressed to Sarah Williams

 

            .40       “An Ode on Cambrea, a Mountain in Cornwall,” by P. Pindan[?], dated Dec. 8, 1793;

                        First line: “Near yonder solitary tower”

 

            .41       first line: “O Thou Eternal One! whose presence bright”

 

            .42       “Sleep”;

                        First line: “Come gentle god of soft repose”

 

.43       first line: “What is beauty? Is it form,”

 

.44a     first line: “Sweet is friendship’s sacred flame”

 

.44b     list of poets and books of poetry

 

 

Folder 7: poems (acc. 88x217.45-.55)

 

            .45       “Sympathy”:

                        First line: “Ah! Why was the tear formed to flow,”

 

            .46       “An Acrostic,” on the name Mary Miller

                        First line: “May’st thou each pleasure shun that leads to harm”

 

            .47       first line: “Humid seal of soft affection”

 

            .48       “Sonnet to Hope,” to or by Miss Williams;

                        First line: “Oh ever skill’d to wear the form we love!”

 

            .49       “Alcanzar & Saida: A Moorish Tale,” signed Arethusa;

                        First line: “Softly blow the evening breezes”

 

            .50       first line: “Beloved youth thou slipt away how soon”

 

            .51       first line: “Lo! At the couch where infant beauty sleeps”

 

            .52       first line: “No Edmund, no with thee I’ll not contend”

 

            .53       “Abra[?]; or the Georgian Sultana”;

                        Scene: a forest, time: the evening;

                        First line: “In Georgia’s land, where Tefflid towers are seen”

 

            .54       “Sonnet to the Moon”;

                        First line: “Queen of the silver bow! By thy pale beam”

 

            .55       first line: “Sweet is friendship’s sacred flame”

 

 

Folder 8: list of Greek and Roman gods (acc. 88x217.56)

 

            .56       list of Greek and Roman gods, principally using the Roman names (Jupiter, Juno, Mars); also the 3 Fates, the 3 Graces, and the 9 Muses

 

 

Folder 9: “Biblical” denunciation (acc. 88x217.57

 

            .57       a passage, written so that it sounds like it is from the King James version of the Bible, but obviously not from the Bible as it references Westonia and New York (and also Philadelphia, in this context a reference to the city in Pennsylvania, although there was an city of that name in Asia Minor); the document is about church leaders denouncing certain clothing and the congregation, particularly young men, resisting giving up whatever articles of clothing the church leaders were denouncing

 

 

Folder 10: engraving (acc. 88x217.58)

 

            .58       engraving of Elisha Tyson, the philanthropist, engraved by J. Cone from portrait by H. Street

 

                        Elisha Tyson (1750-1824) ran a mill in Harford County, Maryland.  He was a Quaker, an abolitionist, and a philanthropist.

 

 

Folder 11: silhouettes (acc. 88x217.59-.60)

 

            .59-.60             two hollow cuts of the same woman; .60 has pencil sketches of flowers around the head and was cut from paper watermarked Whatman 1—7

 

 

Folder 12: blank paper (acc. 88x217.61-.62)

 

            .61-.62             two sheets of plain paper; .62 is watermarked JB

 

 

Folder 13: label, trade card (acc. 88x217.63-.64)

 

            .63       trade card of R. G. Laning, Painter, 273 North Second Street, Philadelphia, within a decorative boarder

 

            .64       label: woman holding a parasol, with gazebo in the background; gold border

 

 

Folder 14: poems (acc. 88x217.65-.66)         

 

            .65       first line: “When all is hush’d in silence and repose”

 

            .66       “Rural Felicity”

                        First line: “Sweet are the labours of the industrious swain”

 

 

Box 2: artifacts

 

Tray 1:            

            A set of silk and velveteen garters, with metal buckles;

           

Five samples of 4 different ribbons: pale yellow moiré, blue striped moiré, pale blue, ecru with woven stripes and flowers

 

 

Tray 2:

 

            Small pasteboard box, decorated with print of a lady, in profile; bottom of box labeled “Clematis, M to EMC,” and something else (in another hand); inside box: bright yellow flower;

 

            Small pasteboard box, decorated with print of a lady; inside box: remnants of some plant;

 

            Small pasteboard box, with label: Brevet d’invon., agraseo[?] perfectioneees  a la mechanique, no. 6; inside box: small thread button, the hook part of a hook and eye, four small rings, a short string of green beads, and a short string of blue beads

 

            Small round, empty, pasteboard box, decorated with a sun-like design, green sides;

           

            Small round pasteboard box, decorated with a ribbon-type design, blue sides; inside box: three rings, two hooks, a small spike, a set of wood and metal cuff links; a set of metal links decorated with lion’s head, two sets of octagonal metal cuff links decorated floral design, one small glass bead, a round metal object, and two ball and three bell-shaped decorative items

 

            Small round pasteboard box, decorated with design of draped fabric, green sides; inside: small piece of paper and dried plant material;

 

            Two metal rings; one once held a stone and is stamped “sterling” inside the band; the other has floral decorations stamped on it and the date July 4 - ‘89 engraved inside the band;

 

            Shirt stud (metal) engraved with a flower;

 

            Bone button on metal shank; fabric button; metal button made by G[?] D Mf’g;

 

            Tintype of a man;

 

            Bone or ivory decoration broken off something;

 

            Seal (for use with sealing wax), metal with a stone engraved MY [blank place] I.N.V;

 

            A piece of slag metal;

 

            A round silk item which was probably a pin cushion;

 

            Piece of some kind of substance, with profile of a man at one end; piece of some kind of substance with Chinese letters and decoration on it

 

 

Tray 3:

 

            Three cards of small thread buttons and a glass bead (resembling a diamond) on a string;

 

            Two wooden button molds; two strings of small buttons, all possibly of bone;

 

            Small metal stencil of the name I. P. Hallinan;

 

            Three small keys (one very small);

 

            A fake watch on a chain, with a seal engraved with the bust of a man in 18th century dress; the watch has a ceramic face, which is damaged; the watch hands are painted on;

 

            A curved needle and a long pin with a ceramic or glass head;

 

             A dried something, perhaps a gourd, on which there are splotches of black paint;

 

            Large hook and eye (for fastening something like a jacket) and a small pin, irregular in shape, with four “diamonds”;

 

            Three sets of bones(?);

 

            Round spool and flat spool of thread;

 

            Two small buckles and the eye part of a hook-and-eye set;

 

            A metal awl;

 

            A fabric heart, made of striped pink ribbon, with blue trim;

 

            An oval-shaped mother-of-pearl piece, perhaps a game counter;

 

            An arrowhead and two other pieces of rock