Thomas family photograph collection
Abstract
This collection contains portraits and photographs related to the Thomas family and associated families. The Duval and Whitridge families are also represented throughout the collection. Professional portraits, photographs of ancestral homes, and travel photographs comprise the collection.
Dates
- 1859-1966
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use
The reproduction of materials in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine and satisfy copyright clearances or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information visit the MCHC’s Rights and Permissions page.
Biographical / Historical
Douglas Hamilton Thomas was born on January 1, 1847 to Dr. John Hanson Thomas (1813-1881) and Annie Campbell Gordon Thomas (1819-1886) in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended private schools in the city before enrolling at the University of Maryland. During the Civil War, he attempted to join the Confederate army but was caught by federal officials and returned to Maryland. He enlisted in the Fifth Maryland Regiment in 1867 and rose to the rank of major. Thomas worked in banking for the majority of his career and was employed by the Farmers and Merchants’ Bank, Marine Bank, and finally the Merchants’ National Bank where he was elected president in 1886. He was appointed to several government posts, such as the Baltimore Street Paving Commissioner, and considered running for mayor of Baltimore. At the end of his life, Thomas lived in apartments in the Belvedere Hotel and maintained a home at 1010 St. Paul Street, which he had built in the early 1890s. He died on March 12, 1919.
Thomas married Alice Lee Whitridge (1846-1918), the daughter of Dr. John and Catherine Cox (nee Morris) Whitridge, in 1870. Alice’s father moved to Baltimore in 1820 after graduating from Harvard College with a degree in medicine. The family owned several slaves, including Martha Ann “Patty” Atavis (ca. 1816-1874). Atavis was purchased in 1839 and cared for the family’s children until her death. She is buried next to one of her charges, Olivia Whitridge (1837-1839), in Green Mount Cemetery.
Thomas and Alice had three children, Douglas Hamilton, Jr. (1872-1915), Hanson Thomas (1876-?), and Alice Lee Whitridge (1884-1972), who married Robert Hooper Stevenson, Jr. (1876-1965). Their son, Douglas, Jr., a prominent architect, was killed in a car accident in 1915. Thomas, Jr. married Elizabeth “Bessie” Lyman Chadwick (1875-1912). Elizabeth died unexpectedly in Biartiz, France in 1912. They had four daughters, Katherine Lyman, Alice Lee Whitridge, Rosamund Whitridge, and Elizabeth “Betty.”
Thomas, Sr.’s sister Nannie Gordon Thomas (1849-1914) married Henry Rieman Duval (1843-1924) in 1878. Duval had served in the Confederate Army as part of an independent military force, McNeill’s Rangers, under Captain John Hanson McNeill. The Duvals had three children, Hanson Rawlings (1880-1925), Rieman Gordon (1878-1912), and Nannie Campbell (?-1932).
Extent
4.42 Linear Feet (4 full Hollinger boxes; 2 Oversize flat boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into eight series: Portraits, Houses, Places, Nannie G. Duval Scrapbook, Douglas H. Thomas, Jr. Photographs, Douglas H. Thomas Genealogy Book Photographs, Numbered Photographs, and Other Photographs. The series are primarily organized alphabetically or thematically. The Portrait series, Series I, is divided into subseries based on family and then arranged by family group and date. Series I is held in Boxes 1 through 3, and oversized portraits are in Box 5. Series II, Houses, is held in Box 3, and oversized photographs are in Box 6. The photographs in Series V were taken by Douglas H. Thomas, Jr of his family. The prints and glass negatives included in Series VI were intended to be used in a book by Douglas H. Thomas on his family history. The photographs in the Numbered Photographs series, Series VII, were grouped together and assigned numbers by an unknown person. These photographs and negatives have been kept together by their assigned number. Unnumbered duplicates of these images have been filed with the numbered photographs that they duplicate. Unnumbered photographs that were not duplicates were placed within Series VIII, Subseries II.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase from Crocker Farm, September, 2011.
Scope and Contents
The collection contains portraits and photographs related to the Thomas family and associated families. The Duval and Whitridge families are also represented throughout the collection. Professional portraits, photographs of ancestral homes, and travel photographs comprise the collection. Of particular note are photographs of 1 Mount Vernon Place and 1010 Saint Paul Street in Baltimore, Maryland, which include interior views. The families frequently visited Europe, New York, Rhode Island, and Florida on vacation and many of the images were made of these trips.
- Title
- Guide to the Thomas family photograph collection
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- Lara Westwood
- Date
- 2017-03
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- 2020-02-28: Manually entered into ArchivesSpace by Mallory Herberger.
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org