A PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE OF THE WOLFERSBERGER AND BLACKMER FAMILIES, OF DENVER AND STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO. EIGHT FAMILY PHOTO ALBUMS, OVER 1000 PHOTOS OF THEIR LIVES, BEGINNING WITH THEIR SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS IN THE 1860s, AND THEIR MIGRATION WEST IN THE 1880s, AND FOLLOWING SEVERAL GENERATIONS TO THE 1930s
[various places, including Princeton, Illinois, Denver & Steamboat Springs, Colorado, etc]: [1860s-1930s]. A collection of eight photo albums, bound in several different styles, and including both professional [approx. 120] and candid [over 900] photos of Wolfersberger family members, family activities and vacations. Most are very good, clear (a few faded), and many are captioned, likely by Eda Wolfersberger Blackmer. The albums include:
1) Blind embossed photo album, 6 x 5 in., all edges gilt, with 22 portrait photos and an occasional tintype, most 3 1/2 x 2 in., inserted into cut-out gilt framed pages of stiff card stock. Several bear the imprint of various professional photo studios on the versos. No dates, but there are images of a Civil War soldier, Naval Academy cadets, and young women in long dresses.
2) Textured brown leather photo album, 12 x 9 in., all edges gilt, metal clasp at right margin, gilt stamped name of W.H. Wolfersberger on front cover, with 97 photos, and tintypes, from 7 x 3 1/4 in., to 5 1/4 x 3 1/2 in., to 3 1/4 x 2 in., inserted into cut-out gilt framed pages of stiff card stock. Small paper labels, likely penned by Eda Wolfersberger, are inserted into the frames of a few images identify some of the subjects: a tintype of four young men has an accompanying note, "father in back on the right;" another notes "father's cousin John Wolfersberger, father came West to join him in working for Wells Fargo;" another photo of a man is labeled "father's brother Charles" and there is a newspaper obituary laid in. There are several portrait photos of [Naval Academy?] cadets in uniform.
3) Oblong black fabrikoid photo albums, 7 x 11 1/2 in., bound with black button brads at left margin; white ink note on front cover: "2338 Gilpin / City Park / Mesa Verde / etc. / about 1900 and earlier." Approximately 104 cyanotypes and photos laid down on stiff card sheets, one to three to a page, most 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 in., or so, with a few larger, many with ink captions on the pages. A few photos faded. Many images are of family life in Denver, and trips to Balanced Rock, Garden of the Gods, City Park Lake, Perry Park Hotel, Palmer Lake, Castlewood Dam, Old Denver Fish Hatchery, and many others. Three photos show a parade for servicemen returning from the Spanish American War. There are 9 photos of a family excursion to Mesa Verde and a few of the Wetherill Ranch, ca. 1900. One photo of a lake scene, mountains in the background, 4 x 6 1/2 in., is laid in and identified on the verso with the photographer's printed label," W.H. Jackson & Co., Photographers of Rocky Mountain Scenery, Denver, Colorado."
4) Oblong stiff paper photo album, 7 x 10 1/2 in., bound with cord at left margin. Front cover detached. Some 97 cyanotypes and photos laid down on black paper sheets, one or two to a page, from 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. to 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in., many with white ink captions. There are family photos showing Philip Wolfersberger's home in Princeton, Illinois; photos of William H. Wolfersberger's home on Gilpin Street in Denver, including interior views; Warren Wolfersberger (son of Charles) who was killed in World War I; Eda in her high school graduation dress in 1905, with a newspaper picture noting she was one of the "pretty members of the Freshman Class at Boulder University;" group photos of young people with their bicycles; a cyanotype of women identified as the Deutsche Daman Club [one labeled "mother"]; Lake Wellington; Bear Creek; Old Evergreen Dam; one photo of a cheese factory at Littleton; two photos of the Cheesman Dam [under construction, and completed]; the Old Leadville toll road; etc. Tipped onto one page is an envelope addressed to Mrs. W.H. Wolfersberger, containing a 4 pp., approx. 800 word letter from her husband Will, on letterhead of the Colorado Division of the League of American Wheelmen, dated July 11, 1898, regarding a bicycle ride he had just completed up Elk Creek Canon.
5) Oblong brown fabrikoid photo album, 7 x 11 in., bound with cord at left margin. White ink note on front cover: "1908-1913." With 170 cyanotypes and photos, and a few photo postcards, laid down on black paper sheets, from one to several per page, varying in sizes from 2 x 3 1/4 in., to 3 x 4 in., to 5 x 6 3/4 in., most captioned in white ink. Some 35 of the photos depict Eda Wolfersberger's days as a student at Vassar College from 1908-1912 [having apparently transferred there from Boulder], including student activities, including a track meet and a photo of 5 members of the basketball team, and views of the campus. Another 23 photos are of a vacation in Steamboat Springs, 1910-11. There is a small group of photos of the "first camp trip Colorado Mountain Club." [This club was chartered in 1912 by 25 founding members, to promote and protect the Rocky Mountains; this album includes a group photo from the trip]. There is mention of a 1913 summer job, presumably Eda's, at Long's Peak Inn, with a few candid photos, including one of the young men and women of the hotel crew.
6) Oblong black cloth over paper boards photo album, 7 x 11 in., bound with cord at left margin. White ink note on front cover: "1913-1919." With about 100 photos, from one or two to several per page, laid down on black paper sheets, 3 x 2 in., to 3 1/2 x 5 1/4 in., most with white ink captions. Many of these images show Steamboat Springs and vicinity, as Eda settles into married life. Her husband Frank J. Blackmer is shown in his World War I uniform; there is a picture labeled "First House;" photos of their two children Frank and Joan; and in 1919, five photos from a trip to Niagara Falls.
7) Oblong black cloth over paper boards photo album, 7 x 11 in., bound with cord at left margin. White ink note on front cover: "1920-1928." Some 270 photos, from one or two to several to a page, held in place with corner mounts onto black paper sheets, 2 3/4 x 4 1/2 in., to 3 x 3 1/2 in., to 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in., most with white ink captions. An album of primarily vacation and road trip photos for the Blackmer family, including camping trips to Sapetti ranch, or Lake Luna, skiing trips to Storm Mt., a horseback trip to the Saw Tooth Range in 1927 (6 photos), 10 images from a trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons in 1926, an auto trip to North, South & Middle Park, excursions to Hot Springs, Dinosaur Lake, etc. Laid in are brochures from Coplen Petrified Forest, Pikes Peak Auto Highway, a printed "suggestion" card for telegrams to send from Pikes Peak, and Frank Blackmer's license for his 1923 Essex, Touring Model car.
8) Oblong brown fabrikoid photo album, 7 x 12 in., bound with cord at left margin. Approx. 196 photos, photo postcards (8), and hand-tinted postcards (5), one or two to a page, laid down of black paper sheets, 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. to 3 1/2 x 6 in., to 7 x 5 in. This group not captioned, for the most part. Many images of snow, skiing, Steamboat Springs, Estes Park, etc. There are pictures of Eda's family growing up in Steamboat Springs. Laid in is a Silver Anniversary Carnival 1935 program for the Winter Carnival of the Dartmouth Outing Club, Feb. 8 & 9, 1935. In the program Eda's son Franklin H. Blackmer is listed as being a student at Yale.
Included with the photos albums are two books, three report cards, and one large black & white photo. The photo, 8 x 10 3/4 in., bears the printed signature of Rex Gill, a Yampa Valley photographer, and shows a lone cross-country hiker/skier in a winter landscape, labeled in ink on the verso, "Gold Lake 1931-2." The three report cards belong to Eda Wolfersberger when she was a public school student [grades 6, 7, & 8] in Dist. No. One, Arapahoe County, Denver Public Schools, 1898-1901. One of the books is "Standard Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason... Grand Lodges of the United States...." by George E. Simons [NY: Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., 1905]. Plain black leather, with a wallet style flap closure, and the ownership signature of W.H. Wolfersberger, Denver, Colo., June 14, 1905. 13 cm. 253, (4) pp.
The other book is from W.H. Wolfersberger's time at the Naval Academy: "Fag-Ends from the Naval Academy. Illustrated. A Collection of Naval Poems, Songs and Autographs, Chronologically Arranged." [NY: Homer Lee & Co., 1878]. Gilt stamped red leather, 18 x 27 cm. 100 pp. Gilt decorated spine detached, and laid in, front and rear boards starting, all edges gilt. Text and illustrations printed rectos only, and include cartoons, poems, songs, etc. This copy contains several autographs of fellow cadets, in the autograph pages at the rear, members of the class of '79, plus one or two from the classes of '80 and '82. Item #67798
William Wolfersberger (ca.1859-ca.1944) was born in Princeton, Illinois where his father Philip made his living as a carpenter and later a merchant. Some of the early professional photos contained in this collection show the men of the family in uniform. One of a young man in a Civil War uniform may be his father Philip who served with the Fourth Illinois Cavalry. William was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated from there in 1880, serving two years on the US flag ship Pensacola. He then followed a cousin to Colorado to work for Wells Fargo, and by 1900 was a Secretary at a Building and Loan Association in Denver, according to the 1900 Census, and a real estate agent by 1910.
William's daughter Eda (1888-1976) became keeper of the family photos and likely the author of the captions that were added. She attended Boulder University and then went east to Vassar College, graduating in about 1912. She returned to the family in Denver and married Dr. Franklin J. Blackmer who had a general practice there and in Routt County until his untimely death in 1931. Dr. Blackmer had been a surgeon with the Denver & Salt Lake railway, surgeon for the McNeil Coal company, and once served as mayor of Steamboat Springs. "The Blackmers were an unusually active and effective family in community affairs, including the schools, the winter sports clubs and politics as well. While her husband attended the sick by way of house calls all over this part of Routt County, Mrs. Blackmer was a moving force in the affairs of her community...." [see her obituary in the Steamboat Pilot on Oct. 21, 1976, under the name Eda Blackmer Sapetti; and Dr. Blackmer's obituary in the same paper on Dec. 4, 1931]
A nearly 75 year record of several generations of a family growing as the towns of Denver and Steamboat Springs grew and developed at the turn of the 20th century.
Price: $3,000.00