The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, DE  19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

                                               

Title:               Petford-Cranston family papers         

Dates:             1817-1918

Call No.:         Col. 850

Acc. No.:        09x50; 11x62

Quantity:        3 boxes, 2 folders

Location:        17 L 6, map case 3, dr. 3

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Elizabeth Hollington (Lizzie) Petford married Alfred Cranston, a Civil War veteran, on June 16, 1864, in Brooklyn, New York.  Alfred was the son of Edward and Ann Cranston of Brooklyn.  He served in the Brooklyn 14th Regiment from June 30, 1861 until June 1864.  After the war, he worked as a painter and decorator.  In 1870, the Cranston family moved to Morristown, New Jersey, where Alfred established an interior decorating business.  Ill health compelled him to sell the business in 1877, and he moved his family to Kansas, where they remained for eighteen months.  They returned to Brooklyn, where Alfred served as superintendant of the Postal Telegraph Building.  After retirement, he and Lizzie moved to St. Cloud, Florida.  They had three children: Alfred Petford (called Petford), Henrietta (Etta, who died young), and Ella Maud.  Petford married Emma Morehouse, and they had two daughters, Lillian Elsie and Marion Morehouse. 

 

Lizzie (Elizabeth Hollington) Petford was the daughter of Charles and Henrietta (Harriet) Hollington Petford, both of whom were born in England.  Lizzie had a sister named Emma.  Charles was the son of James Petford.  Charles and Harriet married in 1842, in Alcester, Warwick, England.  They lived in Adams Basin, New York, and Charles traveled selling needles.  Charles died in Sandusky, Ohio, in August 1850.  Afterwards, Harriet married Edward Richards, who was born at Ashwood Bank, Worcestershire, England, and died in Illinois.  There were Richards children, perhaps from an earlier marriage.  Emma Petford married Jack Buckley.

 

Charles Petford’s brother William also moved to the United States, and he married Lydia Mitchell.  He settled in Madison, Indiana, where he made stencils.  William and Lydia had four daughters: Emma, Ellen Rebecca, Mary Elizabeth, and Cornelia.  William died in September1850.  Charles and William had a sister Emma who remained in England and married John Hughes; they had a son named Benjamin.  The American Petfords maintained contact with and even visited their English relatives.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

A collection of family letters and photographs pertaining mostly to members of the Petford family who moved to the United States and to their descendants, one of whom, Lizzie Petford, married Alfred Cranston.  A number of the letters were written by or to the relatives in England.  Harriet Petford sent family news to her husband as he traveled, and prayed that God would keep him safe on the road.  Charles apprised her of his progress with sales of needles and recounted religious conversations he had with people he met.  As well, the collection includes a compact disk with images and transcripts of letters written by Alfred Cranston to Lizzie Petford while he was serving in the Civil War.  The collection also includes poems, some of which were written by Charles Petford; trade cards for Charles Petford, importer of Hollington’s Original Victoria Needles; and an ad for brands (i.e. stencils) cut to order by William Petford.  Some of the photographs are of places and people, mostly Hollingtons, in England, but most of the photos are of Lizzie Petford Cranston or her family.  Most photos are identified.  An interesting photo captures four generations of the Petford-Cranston family: Harriet Hollington Petford Richards, her daughter Lizzie Cranston, two of Lizzie’s children, and Petford Cranston’s wife and two daughters.  A tinted photo of Alfred and Lizzie Cranford and two of their children is believed to be in its original 19th century frame.  A large swatch of the stripped fabric used for Lizzie Petford’s wedding dress rounds out the collection.     

 

In addition to Charles Petford’s trade cards, the collection includes two items pertaining to the Hollington family’s needle manufactory in England.  One item is a poster advertising the needles, and the other item, which is in poor condition, is a cover from a paper of darning needles.

 

Also in the collection is a folder of materials about the Buckley family.  Emma Petford married Jack Buckley, who was a friend of the Cranstons.  All the materials about the Buckley family are copies, and includes photographs, the cover for a packet of Richard Richards’ needles, a letter from Henrietta Petford to Charles Petford (1850), genealogy notes, and a short history of Bowling Green, Ohio.

 

 

ORGANIZATION

 

The letters are filed by name of recipient. 

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

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

           

 

RELATED MATERIALS

 

The original Civil War letters and a collection of documents, photos, household items, and memorabilia of the Cranston family were donated to the Brooklyn Historical Society.

 

Items pertaining to the Petford and Cranston families are in the Winterthur Museum collection, with the accession number 2009.0051.  These include miniature portraits, needlework, pole screens, and ticking samples.

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

Accession 09x50: Gift of Ann Bastian.

Hollington advertising poster and packet of darning needles: gift of Ellen Bastian McHenry [museum accession number L2009.1076].

 

Accession 11x62: gift of Louis Curth.

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Cranston family.

            Hollington family.

Petford family.

Buckley family.

           

 

Topics:

            Family - Correspondence.

            Picture frames and framing - 19th century.

            Pins and needles.

            Pins and needles – England – Redditch.

            Stencils and stencil cutting.

            Textile fabrics - Specimens.

            Traveling sales personnel - Correspondence.

            Wedding costume.

            United States - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Correspondence. 

            Advertisements.

Black-and-white photographs.

Poems.

Tintypes.

            Trade cards.

           

 

Additional authors:

            Cranston, Alfred.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 17 L 6, map case 3, dr. 3

 

Box 1:

 

Folder 1:          Letters to Charles Petford, 1848-1850, no date

                        [see also photocopy of letter to him from Henrietta Petford, in folder 25]

 

Folder 2:          Petford, Charles James: certificate of membership in Baptist Church, Perrysburg, Ohio, 1849

 

Folder 3:          Petford, Charles James: his copy of “The Worth of a Dollar,” published by American Tract Society, no. 208

 

Folder 4:          Petford, Charles: trade cards: C. Petford, Adams’ Basin, Monroe County, importer of Hollington’s Original Victoria Needles.  [two copies, acc. 09x50.2a-b]

 

Folder 5:          Letters to Harriet Petford, 1849-1850, 1872, no date

 

Folder 6:          Letters to Harriet Petford after husband Charles’ death, 1850-1851;

                        Letter of Oct. 9, 1850, (acc. 09x50.3a) includes an embroidered card with image of tomb flanked by weeping willows, and the word Father underneath the image (acc. 09x50.3b)

 

Folder 7:          Letters to Emma Petford [Hughes], 1817-1862, no date

 

Folder 8:          Letters to William Petford, 1843-1850, no date

 

Folder 9:          Letters, recipients unknown, 1860-1872

           

Folder 10:        Civil War letters of Alfred Cranston, on compact disk; includes a typed list of the letters with brief notes regarding contents; a few letters written by others are also on the disk

 

Folder 11:        Letter to Alfred Cranston, from wife Lizzie, 1865 [transcript only]

 

Folder 12:        Letters to Lizzie Petford [Cranston] from Alfred Cranston, 1861, 1868      

 

Folder 13:        Letters to Lizzie Petford [Cranston], 1850-1887, no date

 

Folder 14:        Letter to Alfred Petford Cranston, from mother, 1895

 

Folder 15:        Letters to Marion Morehouse Cranston, from grandmother Lizzie Cranston,1917-1918     

 

Folder 16:        Cranston family records: marriages, births, deaths, for Alfred Cranston and John Oliver Cranston [brothers?]

 

Folder 17:        Poems, written by Charles Petford, Emma Petford, and unknown

 

Folder 18:        Memorial cards, for members of Hollington and Petford families;

 

Invitations: surprise party (1872), dance card (1888), wedding invitation or announcement (1896); another invitation or announcement, possibly a wedding (1898); pound party at Mount Hope Baptist Church, Tremont, N.Y. (1875)

 

Newspaper articles: account of marriage of Benjamin Hughes, England, 1864; description of celebrations of July 4, 1876, in Morristown, New Jersey; Bath, England, newspaper of 1906 listing people staying at various hotels

 

Print of a coat of arms, family not named

 

Folder 19:        ad for William Petford: “Brands in Copper, Tin, Paper, cut to order by W. Petford, brand cutter, Madison, Indiana”

                        [Note: oversize folder – on shelf]

 

Folder 20:        piece of silk from Lizzie Petford Cranston’s wedding dress, 1864

                       

Folder 21:        Photographs of Petford and Cranston family members

                                    (includes 09x50.1a-b: members of the family; the original is a bit faded; family tree on back of the copy)

 

Folder 22:        Photographs of people and places in England, mostly Hollington family

 

Folder 23:        miscellaneous genealogical notes

 

Folder 24: [Note: oversize folder – in map case]

                       

poster advertising “G. Hollington’s original diamond ey’d genuine spring steel needles, manufactures at Astwood, near Redditch, Worcestershire,”

printed by Dilks, Hart & Co., lithographers, Nottingham and Manchester

[museum accession number L2009.1076; Downs acc. 09x50.4].

 

packet which once held G. Hollington’s superfine cast-steel darning needles, taped to paper on which is written a genealogy of the Hollington-Petford-Cranston families (Downs acc. 09x50.5)

 

Folder 25:        Buckley family genealogy (acc. 11x62), including genealogy, a wrapper for Richard Richards’ needles, a letter from Henrietta Petford to Charles (March 24, 1850), photographs, and short history of Bowling Green, Ohio. 

Note: all materials are photocopies

 

Folder 26:        Petford-Hollington family chronology, prepared August 2010

 

 

 

 

Box 2:

 

Photo of Alcester Park, Warwickshire, England, ancestral home of the Petfords, taken circa 1900, in frame, which might not be original (museum number L2009.1057.11a, b)

 

 

Box 3:

 

Tinted photo of Alfred and Lizzie Cranford, and their children Petford and Etta, in frame, which is believed to be the original 19th century frame (museum number L2009.1057.12a, b)