1845-1938
Guide to the Photograph Collection
Restrictions on Access
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles (see links below). Where available, use of the originals is restricted.
Abstract
This collection consists of photographs related to Nathaniel T. Allen, the Allen family, the West Newton (Mass.) English and Classical School, and the Misses Allen School, including portraits of family members, portraits of students and teachers, and views of Allen family homes and school buildings.
Biographical Sketches
Nathaniel Topliff Allen was born in Medfield, Mass. on 29 Sep. 1823, the son of Ellis Allen (1792-1875) and Lucy Jane Lane Allen (1793-1889) and the brother of William Cowper Allen (1815-1909), George Ellis Allen (1817-1888), Joseph Addison Allen (1819-1904), Lucy Maria Allen Davis (1821-1900), Fanny Lane Allen (1825-1831), Abigail Ellis Allen Davis (1828-1896), and James Theodore Allen (1831-1900). He attended public schools in Medfield and Waltham, the school of his uncle Joseph Allen in Northboro, and the Northfield Academy. Having chosen teaching as a profession, he graduated from Bridgewater State Normal School in 1846 and continued his studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
In addition to his studies, Nathaniel worked at the Waltham Cotton Mill during part of the year from the ages 10-13 and on farms in the summer. His early teaching positions included schools in Mansfield (1842-1843), Northboro (1843-1844 and 1847-1848), Northfield (1844-1846), and Shrewsbury (1846-1847). In 1848, Horace Mann appointed Nathaniel as principal of the Model Department of the State Normal School at West Newton, a position he held until the school relocated to Framingham in 1853. He served as principal of the West Newton English and Classical School (familiarly known as "the Allen School") from its opening in 1854 until his retirement in 1900.
The Allen School opened with 38 students, but quickly grew. Three of Allen's brothers, and later his three daughters, an uncle, nieces, and cousins, taught at the school and provided homes for the boarding students. The socially progressive school conducted co-educational classes, enrolled African American students, and was one of the first to include physical education as part of its curriculum. In addition to their academic studies, students attended classes in ethics, dancing, music, and art, and attended lectures by speakers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Lloyd Garrison, and Theodore Parker. During its 50-year history, over 5,000 students attended the Allen School, representing almost every state in the United States, as well as Europe, Japan, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Central and South America, Cuba, and Hawaii.
Nathaniel spent 1869 to 1871 in Europe as an agent for the U.S. Commissioner of Education, publishing a report on German secondary schools and educational systems. A progressive reformer, Nathaniel was active in the anti-slavery movement, the Underground Railroad, women's suffrage, temperance, and the education of women and African Americans. He served as an officer of the American Peace Society and the Society of Garrison Abolitionists; president of the West Newton Anti-Slavery Society; president of the Newton Woman Suffrage League; and a member of the Unitarian Club of Boston. He was also the first president of the board of directors of the Pomroy Home for Orphans in Newton, a position he held for 30 years.
Nathaniel married Caroline Swift Bassett (1830-1915) on 30 Mar. 1853, and the couple lived in West Newton with their four children, Fanny Bassett Allen (1857-1913), Sarah Caroline Allen Cooney (1861-1897), Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1864-1865), and Lucy Ellis Allen (1867-1943). He died in Aug. 1903 at the family's summer home in Linekin, Maine.
Caroline "Carrie" Swift Bassett Allen was born on Nantucket on 16 Oct. 1830, the daughter of James Nye Bassett (1801-1884) and Rebecca Fessenden Freeman Bassett (1805-1839). After graduating from Nantucket High School, Carrie attended the State Normal School at West Newton in 1849, studying under Cyrus Peirce. Here she met her future husband, Nathaniel T. Allen, who was principal of the Normal School's Model Department. After teaching in Nantucket from 1849 to 1852, she married Nathaniel on 30 Mar. 1853. She worked with her husband at the Allen School from 1854 until 1903, creating an enriching home life for hundreds of students who boarded in their home. After Nathaniel's death in 1903, she continued working with students at the Misses Allen School, founded by her daughters Fanny and Lucy. Carrie was active in the women's suffrage movement and an advocate for women's educational reform. She co-founded the West Newton Women's Educational Club, was a member of the New England Women's Club of Boston (with Caroline Severance and Julia Ward Howe), and the Browning Clubs of Boston and West Newton. A published essayist, she traveled twice to Europe, as well as to the western United States and Cuba. She died on 13 Apr. 1915 in West Newton at the age of 84.
Fanny Bassett Allen was born in West Newton on 21 Feb. 1857, the daughter of Nathaniel T. Allen and Caroline Swift Bassett Allen. After beginning her education at the Allen School in 1862, she accompanied her family at the age of 12 on their two-year stay in Europe, where she studied at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva and learned French and German. She later took art classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an interest in architecture, but was unable to continue her studies since women were not admitted to the program. Fanny taught French and German at the Allen School from 1878 to 1884 and from 1887 to 1889. In 1904, after her father's death, Fanny and her sister Lucy began their own school, the Misses Allen School for Girls, in their home in West Newton. Offering a college preparatory curriculum, the school had a maximum enrollment of 40 girls, including 10 boarding students.
Fanny founded the Lucy Jackson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Republic in Newton in 1896 and served as its regent for nine years. She traveled extensively, making three voyages to Europe, including a 1908 trip to visit her friend Pauline Odescalchi, Princess of Hungary. She died in West Newton on 14 Oct. 1913.
Sarah Caroline Allen Cooney was born in West Newton on 12 Apr. 1861, the daughter of Nathaniel T. Allen and Caroline Swift Bassett Allen. Beginning her education at the Allen School in 1864, she studied in Europe from 1869 to 1871. She initially prepared to attend Vassar, but decided to study kindergarten teaching with her former Allen School instructor Louise Pollock, graduating from the Froebel Normal Kindergarten Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1881. From 1881 to 1895, she taught at the Allen School, where she was in charge of the younger boys housed separately at the Annex. Sarah married attorney Patrick Henry Cooney (1845-1915), a former Allen School student, on 12 Sep. 1895, and the couple settled in Natick. She became active in the Leonard Morse Hospital, the Women's League, the Lucy Jackson Chapter of the D.A.R. (founded by her sister Fanny), and the Woman Suffrage Association. Discovering the lack of a Unitarian Society in Natick, she organized Unitarian ministers to give sermons at her home and later at the Universalist Church and the Red Men's Hall. After her death in childbirth on 4 Nov. 1897, the Sarah Allen Cooney Memorial Committee built a church in Natick in her honor, dedicated in Jan. 1903 by Edward Everett Hale and Samuel A. Eliot. Sarah was briefly survived by a daughter, Sarah Caroline Cooney, who died two days after her mother.
Lucy Ellis Allen was born in West Newton on 3 May 1867, the daughter of Nathaniel T. Allen and Caroline Swift Bassett Allen. She traveled to Europe with her family from 1869 to 1871, attending kindergarten classes in Germany. She began her studies at the Allen School in 1872 and received her A.B. from Smith College in 1889. Lucy taught at the Allen School from 1889 until her father's retirement in 1900. In 1904, she founded the Misses Allen School for Girls with her sister Fanny in the family's West Newton home, serving as its principal until about 1942, and also teaching classes in history, literature, and art. Lucy was the fifth regent of the Lucy Jackson Chapter of the D.A.R., vice-president and director of the Boston College Club, an officer of the Woman Suffrage Association and the Twentieth Century Club, and secretary of her Smith College class. Lucy traveled widely throughout the United States, made over 20 trips to Europe, and toured Japan, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Middle East. She lectured throughout Massachusetts on education, travel, and social welfare, and wrote numerous historical essays. Her companion Ruby Margaret Keefer (1887-1975) was a Radcliffe graduate who taught with Lucy at the Misses Allen School and shared her home from 1917 until Lucy's death in Nov. 1943.
Edwin and Gustaf Nielsen were the sons of Lars Nielsen (b. 1843) and Thora Engebredson Nielsen (1857-1897), Norwegians who emigrated to the Isles of Shoals near Portsmouth, N.H., and later Churchs Ferry, N.D. The couple had five children: Edwin Bjorne (1876-1958); a son (1879-1894); Olaf (ca. 1880-1903); a daughter (1885-1981); and Gustaf Arnold (1888-1960). By 1894, Lars had died, and Thora was living in the Episcopal Church Home in Boston with her daughter and Gustaf. Shortly thereafter, Thora moved back to Churchs Ferry and remarried, leaving her youngest two children at the home. Her daughter was adopted by Moritz Emil Richter (1825-1907) and Josephine Jenness Richter (1836-1914) of Portsmouth, who renamed her Ellnora. Since Edwin was a student at the Allen School, Thora begged the Allen family to take in Gustaf, her youngest son. Both boys became an integral part of the Allen family, described in Caroline Swift Bassett Allen's 1915 obituary as "two former wards, now as sons to the family."
Edwin Bjorne Nielsen was born on the Isles of Shoals on 24 Sep. 1876. He attended the Allen School from 1890 to 1895 and received a degree from Harvard Medical School in 1899. Traveling to Great Britain in 1900 and 1901 to learn medical procedures in British hospitals and clinics, he returned to open his medical practice in Boston. Edwin served as a private in Company D, First Corps of Cadets in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in 1905 and 1906 and as a major and surgeon with the 101st Engineer Battalion of the U.S. National Guard during World War I. On 7 July 1917, he married Lucia Amalia Schueg (1894-1993), a member of the Bacardi family of Cuba and a former Misses Allen School student. The couple had four children: Edwin Henry Nielsen (1918-2011); Henry Louis Nielsen; Joan Nielsen; and Janet Nielsen (d. 1922). Edwin died at his home in Brookline on 3 July 1958.
Gustaf Arnold Nielsen was born on 26 Dec. 1888 in Churchs Ferry, N.D. In 1894 and 1895, he lived with his mother in the Episcopal Church Home in Boston. After his mother returned to North Dakota, the poet Celia Thaxter, an acquaintance of his mother's, implored the Allen family to adopt Gustaf. Although he was never formally adopted, Gustaf became the Allens' ward and Nathaniel T. Allen's godson. After attending the Allen School, Gustaf studied at the Harvard School of Agriculture and Horticulture from 1904 to 1905; Massachusetts Agricultural College (then part of Boston University) from 1907 to 1911; and the Harvard Graduate School of Applied Science from 1911 to 1912, specializing in forestry and botany. During World War I, Gustaf served in the 2nd Company, 17th Provisional Training Regiment in Nov. 1917 and became a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section of the Signal Officers Reserve Corps in Mar. 1918. After the war, he traveled to Alaska and San Francisco on forestry assignments. He died on 24 Aug. 1960 in Vancouver, Washington.
Collection Description
The Nathaniel T. Allen photographs consist of 1,030 photographs related to Nathaniel T. Allen, the Allen family, the West Newton (Mass.) English and Classical School (a.k.a. the Allen School), and the Misses Allen School. The collection contains individual and group portraits of members of the Allen family and related families; individual and group portraits of students and teachers at the Allen School and the Misses Allen School, including African American students, other students of color, and international students; and views of Allen family homes and school buildings. Included are daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and other photographs, as well as two photograph albums. Among the many photographers are Edward L. Allen, Allen & Rowell, Frederic L. Lay, McCormick & Heald, Charles Seaver, Jr., and Emily Stokes, all of Boston, Mass.; Henry F. Warren and William A. Webster of Waltham, Mass.; and Seaver Photo of West Newton, Mass. The collection also contains photographs taken on Gustaf Arnold Nielsen's logging trip to Alaska in 1921 and photographs of student Carlos Roman Yznaga depicting his family and sugar plantation in Trinidad, Cuba, ca. 1895-1910.
Acquisition Information
The Nathaniel T. Allen photographs were removed from the Nathaniel T. Allen papers (Ms. N-2484), which were given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by the Allen School and House Preservation Corporation as a condition of sale of the real estate by the corporation to the Newton Cultural Alliance, February-March 2013.
Restrictions on Access
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles (see links below). Where available, use of the originals is restricted.
Other Formats
Portions of this collection are available as color digital facsimiles.
Detailed Description of the Collection
I. Allen family photographs, ca. 1850-1938
This series contains individual and group portraits of members of the Allen family and related families, two photograph albums of portraits, and photographs of family homes. Included are cartes de visite, cabinet cards, tintypes, ambrotypes, and daguerreotypes. Many photographs contain inscriptions in various unknown hands. The series also includes photographs of Gustaf Arnold Nielsen during his World War I service and on a post-war logging trip to Alaska.
A. Individual portraits, ca. 1850-1938
Arranged alphabetically. Unidentified family members filed at the end.
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Inscription on verso: "Edna Louise Allen / Age 13 months / d. of Geo. E. Allen / Los Angeles Cal."
Inscription on verso: "Edward A. H. Allen, 1873 / West Newton, Mass. / Teacher at the Allen School / 1872-1874 / Betsy Allen's Grandfather."
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Label on recto: "Miss. Fanny B. Allen / Regent.....1895-1905." Inscription on verso: "Lucy Jackson Chapter DAR."
Apparently painted from Photo. #247.48 above.
Allen, Lucy Maria (1821-1900)
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To request Photo. #2.227 (#247.88), follow this link to the MHS catalog and click on the red "Place Request" button.
To request Photo. #2.228 (#247.89), follow this link. To request Photo. #2.229 (#247.90), follow this link.
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Apparently made from tintype above (Photo. #247.112).
Allen, Sarah Caroline (1861-1897)
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Bassett, Anna C. (b. 1838)
Bassett, Caroline Swift (1830-1915)
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Attached side by side with photograph of Davis family woman below (Photo. #247.147b) on carte-de-visite backing.
Attached side by side with photograph of Joseph Allen Davis above (Photo. #247.147a) on carte-de-visite backing. Subject is possibly one of Joseph Allen Davis's sisters.
Enclosed in envelope with inscription: "Stepbrother to the Nielsen's boys." The connection between the Dela Courts and Nielsens is unclear.
Enclosed in envelope with inscription: "Stepbrother to the Nielsen's boys." The connection between the Dela Courts and Nielsens is unclear.
Freeman, Bathsheba (1808-1890)
Inscription on verso: "John Ransom Kuderman / age 7 mo. 8 day. / Aug. 14 - 16 / Edwin half brother." Postcard is addressed to Edwin Nielsen. The connection between the Kudermans and Nielsens is unclear.
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Inscription on verso: "Aunt Harriet Lane Medfield."
Lane, Lucy Jane (1793-1889)
Lane, Lucy Marie (1851-1921)
Inscription on verso: "A Merry Christmas Aunt Carrie from your loving niece Carrie May / Dec. 25. 1868."
Nielsen, [Ellnora] (1885-1981)
Nielsen was the sister of Edwin Bjorne Nielsen and Gustaf Arnold Nielsen. She was adopted by Moritz Emil Richter (1825-1907) and Josephine Jenness Richter (1836-1914) and given the name Ellnora Richter. Her former first name is unknown. She married Arthur Hopkins Rice.
Inscription on verso: "Janet / 4 years old."
Inscription on verso in Lucia Nielsen's hand to Caroline Swift Bassett Allen: "Dear Mrs. Allen: here is the picture of a turkish girl; do you know her? With much love Lucia."
Subject may be Clara Idella Plimpton (later Kendall) (1848-1941) or Clara Ella Plimpton (later Newell) (1852-1931).
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Inscription on verso: "Miss Lucy A. Plimpton / Prin[cipa]l Albany Female Academy, 1880-3."
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Richter, Ellnora (1885-1981)
Schueg, Lucia Amalia (1894-1993)
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Subject may be George Ellis Allen (1817-1888) or Joseph Henry Allen (1820-1898).
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Label on outside of leather case: "Jos. A. Allen." Subject is possibly one of the daughters of Joseph Addison Allen and Lucy Temple Burt Allen, either Ellen Burt Allen or Rosa Smith Allen.
Unidentified members of the Allen and related families. Primarily cartes de visite, but also tintypes, cabinet cards, and other photographs. Photographers include Allen, Allen & Rowell, T. R. Burnham, Chute, L. W. Cook, W. H. Getchell, A. N. Hardy, F. L. Lay, G. H. Loomis, S. Masury, Notman, C. Seaver, Jr., Seaver & Lothrop, Whipple, and Wing's, all of Boston, Mass.; Freeman & Coffin of Nantucket, Mass.; Alexander Perry, H. F. Warren, and W. A. Webster, all of Waltham, Mass.; Collin's Gallery of Art of Westfield, Mass.; C. R. B. Claflin of Worcester, Mass.; and A. J. Fox of St. Louis, Mo. Also included is an undated cabinet card of the family dog. Some subjects may be non-relatives.
B. Group portraits, 1852-1938
Arranged alphabetically by family, then chronologically. Unidentified family groups filed at the end.
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Image is faded but probably depicts Caroline Swift Bassett Allen with one of her two older daughters as a child.
Subjects include the families of (from left to right): George Ellis Allen (1817-1888), William Cowper Allen (1815-1909), Abigail Ellis Allen Davis (1828-1896), Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823-1903), Joseph Addison Allen (1819-1904), Lucy Maria Allen Davis (1821-1900), and James Theodore Allen (1831-1900). Also depicted is William Winthrop Allen (formerly Silas Allen) (1795-1888). Included is a photocopied key to the photograph apparently written by Edward Ellis Allen. One part of the key reads: "Uncle Silas - minister - crazy / disappointed in love."
Inscription on verso: "Ellis Allen great abolitionist / Set pines out day John Brown was hung / Lucy Allen of Allen School is their granddaughter."
Inscription on verso: "4 generations Allen family."
Subjects include (back row from left to right, front row from left to right): Joseph Addison Allen (1819-1904), Abigail Ellis Allen Davis (1828-1896), Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823-1903), James Theodore Allen (1831-1900), William Cowper Allen (1815-1909), Lucy Maria Allen Davis (1821-1900), Lucy Jane Lane Allen (1793-1889), and George Ellis Allen (1817-1888).
Inscription on verso: "March '88 / at Smith."
Inscription on verso: "E. Gilmore on Dan / S. Allen on Prince / S. Bent on Princess." Other two subjects are Emma Louise Gilmore (later Mee) (1867-1949) and Susan Roby Bent (later Marvin) (1872-1961).
Caption on verso: "Reunion of Pupils. / Who attended the North School more than Sixty years ago. / Held at 'Allen Homestead,' Castle Hill, Medfield, Oct. 24, 1893." Caption includes an annotated list of pupils and a poem in honor of the school.
Subjects include (back row from left to right, middle row from left to right, front row from left to right): Caroline Swift Bassett Allen (1830-1915), James Theodore Allen (1831-1900), Caroline Augusta Kittredge Allen (1833-1897), Charles Dana Davis (b. 1826), Fanny Bassett Allen (1857-1913), Nathaniel Topliff Allen (1823-1903), Lucy Maria Allen Davis (1821-1900), Joseph Addison Allen (1819-1904), William Cowper Allen (1815-1909), Abigail Ellis Allen Davis (1828-1896), Lucy Ellis Allen (1867-1943), and Sarah Caroline Allen (later Cooney) (1861-1897).
Inscription on verso: "Medfield gathering to celebrate 103 anniversary of Grandma Allen [Lucy Jane Lane Allen (1793-1889)] June/96."
Sarah Caroline Cooney, the daughter of Sarah Caroline Allen Cooney and Patrick Henry Cooney, was born on 4 Nov. 1897 and died on 6 Nov. 1897. Sarah Caroline Allen Cooney died in childbirth on the day her daughter was born, 4 Nov. 1897.
The original glass plate negative has been removed to the MHS Photo Archives (#6.xxx) and is RESTRICTED. Glass plate negatives, glass plate positives, and lantern slides of any size are not available for research use. Consult the Reference Librarian for more information.
Cropped version of Photo. #247.336 above.
Inscription on verso: "Dora on Ruby, held by the mafoo. Peking, China, March 1890."
Enclosed in envelope with inscription: "Stepbrother to the Nielsen's boys." The connection between the Dela Courts and Nielsens is unclear.
Inscription on verso: "Old Sconset House / Sanford Cottage / Sarah Easton / Sarah Baxter / Martha Baxter / Eliza Nevins / Sarah Hallett / Carrie Nickerson / Mrs. Pearson / Mrs. Sanford / Anna Kelley / Amelia Wilbur / J. G. Nickerson / Mrs. Jas. Barker / Anna Nickerson / Sarah Wheeler."
Unidentified group portraits of members of the Allen and related families. Included are cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and other photographs by Allen, Conly, and Whipple, all of Boston, Mass.; Preble & Jordan of Waterville, Me.; Edwards of St. Stephen, New Brunswick; and unidentified photographers.
C. Photograph albums, ca. 1860-1875
This subseries consists of two photograph albums, one primarily containing cartes de visite and the other containing miniature tintypes.
Carte de visite album, [ca. 1860]-1875
This photograph album was compiled for Ellis and Lucy Jane (Lane) Allen and contains photographs of their children, grandchildren, and other family members. Many subjects are unidentified and may include non-relatives. All photographs are cartes de visite unless otherwise indicated, and some are duplicates of cartes de visite in Series I.A. Captions in quotations are taken from album pages or verso sides of photographs.
Inscription on verso: "Antonio my favorite Boy."
This album contains 40 miniature tintypes (four to a page) of unidentified individuals, probably members of the Allen family or a related family.
D. Views, ca. 1885-1930s
Arranged alphabetically by location.
This subseries contains photographs of Allen family homes in Maine and Massachusetts, including the Medfield, Mass. homestead; exterior and interior views of Nathaniel T. Allen's house in West Newton, Mass., including the tennis courts; photographs of the Smith College campus, possibly taken by Lucy Ellis Allen when she was a student in the late 1880s; and other views.
E. Gustaf Arnold Nielsen photographs, [ca. 1917-1921]
Gustaf Arnold Nielsen (1888-1960) was a ward of the Allen family, the godson of Nathaniel T. Allen, and an Allen School student. This subseries consists of photographs taken on a logging trip to Alaska in 1921 and probably also during Nielsen's service in World War I. Subjects and photographers are unidentified, but a few photographs feature Nielsen and possibly his brother Edwin. Included are photographs of camps, men in uniform, and forests, as well as one photograph of an Indigenous Alaskan woman.
II. School photographs, 1845-1931digital content
This series consists of individual and group portraits of students and teachers; a few photographs of students' family members; and Carlos Roman Yznaga photographs from his time as a student and after his return to Cuba, including portraits of his children and photographs of his property in Cuba.
A. Individual portraits, ca. 1850-ca. 1930digital content
Arranged alphabetically. Unidentified subjects filed at the end.
This subseries contains cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and other photographs of students of the Allen School and Misses Allen School, taken both while they were students and later, as well as a smaller number of teachers and other associated individuals. Included are African American students, as well as students from Cuba, Panama, Japan, and other countries. Many photographs have been personalized with messages to the Allens. Some former students also sent the Allens photographs of family members, and these are included here.
The son of student Elizabeth Lydia Smalls Bampfield (1858-1959).
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Possibly the son of student Austin Phelps Day (b. 1841).
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Inscription on verso: "For Lucy. George P. Eaton's Photo. Drowned. Jan. 7./82 in Charles river falling through the thin ice. A noble boy. 16 yrs & 6 mos. old. Had been in our school and family nearly 4 yrs. son of Lucien Eaton St. Louis Mo."
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To request this item, follow this link to the MHS catalog and click on the red "Place Request" button.
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The son of student Benjamin Wilder Guppy (1869-1960).
Inscription on verso: "Rochester Dec 7 /62 JCH." Subject is a young woman.
Hall, Frank Gardner (b. 1873), [ca. 1895]digital content
Taken by Seaver Photo (West Newton, Mass.).Cabinet card (2 copies).Both copies inscribed on verso by Frank Gardner Hall, one to "Mrs. & Mr. N. T. Allen" and the other to "Miss Sarah / from one of the worst boys that she ever knew."
Hawes, Samuel Moses (1846-1873) and George Francis Robinson (1843-1914), ca. 1858-1862digital content
Photographer(s) unknown.2 photographs on recto and verso sides.To request this item, follow this link to the MHS catalog and click on the red "Place Request" button.
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Inscription on verso in Japanese characters.
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The son of student Robert Galloway Moran (b. 1866).
Inscription on verso: "Parker? Now Prof Elocution."
Sources give Elizabeth Jane Piper Ensley's birth year as 1847 or 1848, but she appears to be younger in this photograph.
Subject is a child about five years old, probably a relative of Alfred Stuart Pratt.
Robinson, George Francis (1843-1914)
Sherman, George Douglass (1854-1921), [1872]digital content
Taken by Allen (Boston, Mass.).Carte de visite (2 copies).The father of students Mary Allison Tiffany (1853-1925), Francis Buchanan Tiffany (1855-1936), Walter Checkley Tiffany (b. 1857), and Esther Brown Tiffany (1858-1918).
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Inscription on verso: "Manuel Vasquez / Lost at Sea 1872? / returning to his home / Panama."
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The son of student Charles Story Williams (1867-1917).
The father of student Henry Hamilton Wilson (1846-1866).
Yznaga, Carlos Roman (1870-1910)
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Unidentified students and teachers, [ca. 1860]-1925digital content
96 photographs.The bulk of these photographs (85) consists of portraits of unidentified female students of the Misses Allen School taken in the early 20th century. Most of the photographers are unknown, but include Bachrach, Marceau, Sue Rice, Sands, Sarony, and others. Some photographs are personalized to "Miss Lucy." The other 11 photographs include cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and other photographs by Allen & Rowell (Boston, Mass.), McCormick & Heald (Boston, Mass.), Bierstadt Brothers (New Bedford, Mass.), Vance's Gallery (San Francisco, Calif.), Humblot (Dresden, Germany), De Chute & Brooks (Montevideo, Uruguay), and unknown photographers. One tintype and a few cartes de visite depict unidentified Black students.
Handwritten inscription on verso: "Mr. & Mrs. Allen"
Handwritten inscription on verso: "Miss Sarah."
Handwritten inscription on verso: "To Nath. Allen from the Maker. Jan/70"
Handwritten inscription on verso: "Prof. Schmidt? or Goering?"
Handwritten inscription on verso: "Mary [Alby?]"
Handwritten inscription: "Gainsbrough -17-"
Handwritten inscription: "[Horsman?]"
Handwritten inscription: "For [Joseph?] '13"
Handwritten inscription: "Miss Lucy Love from Phyllis Dec. 25, '23"
Handwritten inscription: "Lots of love To Miss Lucy From Martha"
Handwritten inscription: "Sue Rice"
Handwritten inscription: "[Garcele?]"
Handwritten inscription: "Much love to my dear Miss Lucy from Laura"
Handwritten inscription: "To dear Miss Lucy with much love from Bernice"
Handwritten inscription, verso: "Loads o' love. Hubby"
Handwritten inscription: "Bestest love, Miss Lucy from Phyllis"
Handwritten inscription: "With love to Miss Lucy from Muriel"
Handwritten inscription: "To Miss Lucy with love from Phyllis"
Handwritten inscription: "Maude [illegible last name], 1909"
Boarding students, [1872]digital content
Taken by E. L. Allen (Boston, Mass.).15 cartes de visite.B. Group portraits, 1845-1931digital content
Arranged chronologically.
This subseries contains group portraits of Allen School and Misses Allen School classes, teachers and students on school grounds, school sports teams, class outings, and smaller groups of students. Included are several photographs taken in front of the original Allen School building at the corner of Washington and Highland Sts. in West Newton, Mass., and in front of Nathaniel T. Allen's house at 35 Webster Street, West Newton.
Students in front of Nathaniel T. Allen's house, some with baseball bats, ca. 1870digital content
Photographer unknown.1 photograph and 1 negative.Included is a key identifying subjects in the photograph.
Subjects identified along the edges of the photograph: "[Lord] - Allen - Scott - Brigham - Miss [Davis] - M. B. Allen - Miss Davis - Miss Edwards - Miss Curtis - Mrs. Luke."
Inscription on verso in Nathaniel T. Allen's hand: "The school picnic on the great rock at Homestead 80 present."
"The Annex boys," [1890]digital content
Photographer unknown.Cabinet card (2 copies).Subjects include: Brackley Azel Shaw (1878-1946), Benjamin Wishart (1878-1943), Arthur Royden Mackenzie (b. 1880), Kiles Paul Gleason (b. 1881), George Newton Gleason (b. 1882), Frank Arnold Bowers (b. 1880), James Randall O'Hara, Jr. (b. 1882), Ezra Charles Fitch, Jr. (1881-1917), and Victor Neal (b. 1881).
Subjects include (back row from left to right, middle row from left to right, front row from left to right): Anna Cushing Clapp (later Olin) (b. 1877), an unidentified young woman, Grace Ingraham (later Spear) (1875-1937), Alice Mary Thayer (later Whaley) (1874-1964), Mary Agnes Andrews (later Russell) (b. 1875), Ella Louise Kittredge (1873-1896), an unidentified young woman, and Mollie Gertrude Kelley (later Schroeder) (1873-1971).
Subjects include (back row from left to right, front row from left to right): Anna Brooks Carter (1878-1966), Christina Mary Lord (later Studley) (1875-1920), Alice Mary Thayer (later Whaley) (1874-1964), Anna Cushing Clapp (later Olin) (b. 1877), Marie Elizabeth Pendexter (later Warren) (d. 1911), and Helen Stearns Carter (later Fassett) (b. 1875).
Included is a key identifying subjects.
Inscription on verso: "Katherine Fowler / Bertha Bennett / Alice Knight / Helen Ruhe / Clara Williamson / Ida Jenks / Carmen Aury / Edith Barlow / Constance Barrett / Allen School 1906."
Gustaf Arnold Nielsen (1888-1960) group portraits, [ca. 1911-1912]digital content
Photographer(s) unknown.3 photographs.Three group photographs featuring Gustaf Arnold Nielsen (1888-1960), possibly dating from his years at Harvard Graduate School of Applied Science and Massachusetts Agricultural College.
Includes first names and ages of subjects on verso.
C. Views, 1886-1895digital content
D. Carlos Roman Yznaga photographs, 1884-ca. 1910digital content
Arranged chronologically.
This subseries contains photographs of Allen School student Carlos Roman Yznaga, his children, and his property in Cuba. Yznaga (or Iznaga) was born in Trinidad, Cuba, in 1870. He attended the Allen School from 1884 and, beginning in 1888, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He returned to Cuba three years later, worked as a sugar planter, and served as the U.S. consul general in Trinidad, mayor of Trinidad (during the Spanish-American War), and lieutenant governor of the Province of Trinidad. Yznaga married Matilde Meyer y Cantero in 1894 and had several children. He died on 21 Sep. 1910 in New York City. Most of the photographs of the Yznaga children and estate contain descriptions and messages written by Carlos Yznaga to members of the Allen family. Subjects include the family's Black servants.
Yznaga was the 14th lord of his family's estate in the Valle de los Ingenios. Photographs of the estate include a view of what is now Plaza Mayor in Trinidad, Cuba.
Be advised that the creator-supplied caption on this photograph contains racist language.
III. Related photographs, 1852-1908digital content
Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains cartes de visite, cabinet cards, and other photographs of Allen family associates, including prominent abolitionists, reformers, educators, and members of the Hungarian royal family who were friends of Fanny Bassett Allen. Also included are mass-produced photographs of formerly enslaved people.
Group portrait of eight formerly enslaved people: Wilson Chinn, Mary Johnson, Robert Whitehead, Charles Taylor, Augusta Broujey, Isaac White, Rebecca Huger, and Rosina Downs. Caption on recto: "Emancipated Slaves / Brought from Louisiana by Col. Geo. H. Hanks. The Children are from the Schools established by order of Maj. Gen. Banks." Caption on verso: "The nett proceeds from the sale of these Photographs will be devoted exclusively to the education of colored people in the Department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj.-Gen. Banks."
Inscription on verso in Nathaniel T. Allen's hand: "My first teacher / Mrs. Sarah Harding Forbes / & her husband Wm. Forbes Esq / farmer Medfield / Dec. 25. 93."
Inscribed on verso: "Carrie - from Lizzie [Shurber] - in remembrance of the few days we passed pleasantly together - April 29. 1852."
Caption on recto: "Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a Redeemed slave child, 5 years of age. Redeemed in Virginia, by Catharine [sic] S. Lawrence; Baptized in Brooklyn, at Plymouth Church, by Henry Ward Beecher, May, 1863."
Caption on recto: "Redeemed in Virginia by Catharine [sic] S. Lawrence. Baptized in Brooklyn, at Plymouth Church, by Henry Ward Beecher, May, 1863. Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a Redeemed slave child, 5 years of age. "
Inscription on verso: "Fannie Allen / from Gorham, / Christmas 1863."
Inscription on verso: "Theod. Parker / The last Phot. taken in life / From Miss ___ Parker / 1874."
This carte de visite contains small images of 1866 Massachusetts government officials, including Gov. Alexander Hamilton Bullock (1816-1882), Lt. Gov. William Claflin (1818-1905), Secretary of State Oliver Warner (1818-1885), Treasurer Jacob Hersey Loud (1802-1880), Auditor Henry Shaw Briggs (1824-1887), and Attorney General Chester Isham Reed (1823-1873), as well as the State House in Boston.
Preferred Citation
Nathaniel T. Allen photographs, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Access Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.