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Georgine E. Upshur Willis collection
Title
[Georgine E. Upshur Willis collection]
Description
Collection of primarily 20th-century photographs, ephemera, manuscript and textual materials related to trained undertaker Georgine Upshur Willis and her extended family, including descendants of the African American middle-class Stevens-Cogdell and Sanders-Venning families. Majority of collection is photographs, studio and professional portraits, as well as snapshots of Georgine E. Upshur Willis and her parents Agnes S. Upshur, a teacher, and William A. Upshur, an undertaker and Pennsylvania State representative, at various ages and dating between the 1920s and early 1970s. Includes images of Georgine as a baby, with her parents and grandparents (Charles Sanders Chew and Georgine Saunders Chew), at her coming out party, in her University of Pennsylvania college yearbook and graduation photograph, and several group portrait photographs, predominately dating to the late 1940s and early 1950s. Group portrait photographs include views of Georgine in costume in a 1934 Book Week Play, at her 1949 engagement party and wedding to anthropologist and ethnohistorian William Willis, Jr., recreating in Atlantic City, at holiday events, and at other friends and family gatherings. William A. Upshur portraits include a photograph of his meeting with Richard Nixon at the 1960 GOP Convention. Several of the professional photographs were taken by African American photographers, including John Gaston Devigne, Frank W. Harris, Jr., and John W. Mosley. Photographs also depict an 1890 group portrait, including Rennie and Sallie Venning (Holden) (P.2022.16.41), at an outside location; a modern reproduction of a portrait of Charles S. Chew (Georgine Upshur’s grandfather); a circa 1920s portrait of an unidentified woman and her baby; and two circa 1950 color photographs of landscape views of Fisher’s Island, N.Y., Ephemera materials are comprised of postcards, invitations and announcements, certificates, programs, and scraps dated predominately between the 1920s and 1950. The materials include a circa 1930 Gorges Du Loup postcard booklet; postcards addressed to Mrs. Julia Venning or Mr. and Mrs. George Venning containing views of Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Wildwood, N.J.; invitations/announcements to the 1921 Henpeck’s Annual Ball (William B. Holden, Committee President), Georgine E. Upshurs high school and college graduations, and the 1921 wedding of Cordelia Sanders and Dr. Dehaven Hinkson; University of Pennsylvania Bachelor of Arts diploma issued to Georgine Elizabeth Upshur, 1943; ca. 1939 program for Georgine E. Upshur’s induction into the Sophrosyne Chapter of The National Honor Society; and the 1950 program for Dr. Eric Reiss presents for The Blockley Medical Society Philadelphia General Hospital “Osler Slept Here.”, Manuscript and related materials primarily contain correspondence and newspaper clippings dated between the 1920s and 1950s. Correspondence includes a 1928 letter to William B. Holden about the “charges of the moral character of your Rector” of the Church of the Crucifixion; a 1938 and 1942 letter about Georgine E. Upshur, respectively, being elected to the honor society and nomination for membership in the University of Pennsylvania Delta Chapter of the National Social Science Honor Society, Pi Gamma Mu; and a 1942 letter from the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Recreation about swimming training. Newspaper clippings relate to the 1921 engagement and wedding of Cordelia Sanders Chew and Dr. Dehaven Hinkson; Georgine Upshur and a Y.W.C.A. baby contest, her Philadelphia High School for Girls graduation and coming out parties, and passing of the state mortician’s exam circa 1949; the 1930 musical recital of Georgine E. Upshur’s maternal aunt Mary Saunders Patterson; the 1954 death of Charles S. Chew accompanied by mourning cards and a pressed flower; and the death of the Hinkson’s dog Patchy accompanied by a plot receipt and business card for the Cheltenham Pet Cemetery. A 1932 "My Trip Abroad" day journal of Agnes C. Upshur, including an insert of her passport with a passport photograph of her and young daughter Georgine E. Upshur and Georgine E. Upshur's diary of the trip to Europe also comprise the manuscript material. The trip to Europe, included visits to Paris, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Geneva., Collection also includes “Diary of the Women of the Class of 1943, University of Pennsylvania, The 1943 Almanack” containing inserts of correspondence, documents, and programs related to Georgine E. Upshur’s college education at University of Pennsylvania; The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, Civil War Issue, April 9, 1961; and The Saturday Evening Post, November 10, 1962 issue with mailing label for Dr. DeHaven Hinkson., Title supplied by cataloger., Date inferred from content., Photographers include Gaston Devigne, Harper, Frank W. Harris, Jr., John W. Mosley, Dan E. Paul, and Albert Sexton., RVCDC, See Lib. Company. Annual Report, 1991, p. 26-31., Gift of descendants of Cordelia H. Brown in honor of Phil Lapsansky., See LCP exhibit catalogue: African American Miscellany p. 45., Genealogical charts available at repository., Descriptive inventory, including with names of portrait sitters, available at repository., Reference copies and miscellaneous related materials located with collection., Digital catalog record includes select images from the collection., Diary of Georgine Upshur (P.2024.63) received in 2024 and added to collection.
Date
[1890-ca. 1990, bulk ca. 1921-ca. 1950]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders Venning Collection - Upshur Willis Collection [P.2022.16; P.2024.63]