Dow, George Francis (07 January 1868–05 June 1936), antiquarian, editor, and museum curator, was born in Wakefield, New Hampshire, the son of George Prince and Ada Bingham Tappan. He grew up in Topsfield, Massachusetts, and lived there most of his life. After attending a commercial school in Boston, Dow entered the wholesale metal business, in which he was engaged from 1885 to 1898. During this time he became increasingly interested in local history and material culture. In 1893 Dow began to publish a local newspaper, the ...
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Dow, George Francis (1868-1936), antiquarian, editor, and museum curator
Morey Rothberg
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Gardiner, Leon (1892-1945), African-American bibliophile, researcher, and photographer
Robert L. Gale
Gardiner, Leon (25 November 1892–05 March 1945), African-American bibliophile, researcher, and photographer, was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the son of Jacob Gardiner and Martha (maiden name unknown). In 1902 he and his family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From childhood he was interested in reading, cross-country running, hiking, camping, and bicycling. Later he developed an interest in music, choir singing, and photography. Blatant racial discrimination kept him from attending the photography school of his choice in Philadelphia, to his great disappointment. In the very early 1900s he began to collect material of various kinds concerning the achievements of blacks, black institutions, and lynchings of blacks....
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Hoyte, Lenon (04 July 1905–01 August 1999), doll collector and art teacher
Betty Kaplan Gubert
Hoyte, Lenon (04 July 1905–01 August 1999), doll collector and art teacher, was born Lenon Holder in New York City, the oldest child of Moses Holder, a carpenter, and Rose Holder, who sewed hats for infants for a Manhattan department store. The family owned a house on 128th Street in Harlem, and Hoyte attended public schools there. It was a comfortable childhood, but ironically the doll collector to be and her sister were forbidden to play with dolls when the younger girl, after chewing on the hands of their dolls, contracted lead poisoning. Hoyte studied both art and education at the City College of New York, earning a B.S. degree in 1937, and at Teacher's College of Columbia University. She had private art teachers as well, and she painted in media such as oil, casein, and watercolor. In 1930 Hoyte was hired to teach in New York City elementary and junior high schools, which she did for 40 years. She began teaching art and added puppetry and doll making....
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Nutting, Wallace (1861-1941), author, photographer, and antiquarian
Linda S. Chase
Nutting, Wallace (17 November 1861–19 July 1941), author, photographer, and antiquarian, was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the son of Albion Nutting, a farmer and manufacturer, and Elizabeth Sanborn Fifield. Following his father’s death while serving in the Union army, Nutting grew up at the farm of an uncle in Maine. He dropped out of school in Augusta, Maine, because of poor health, then he worked and traveled for four years until he enrolled in Phillips Exeter Academy, from which he graduated in 1883. He studied at Harvard from 1883 until 1886, Hartford Theological Seminary from 1886 until 1887, and Union Theological Seminary in 1888. In 1888 he was ordained a Congregational minister. The same year Nutting married Mrs. Mariet Griswold Caswell of Colrain, Massachusetts; they had no children....
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Sachse, Julius Friedrich (1842-1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer
Donald F. Durnbaugh
Sachse, Julius Friedrich (22 November 1842–14 November 1919), antiquarian, historian, and photographer, was born in Philadelphia, the son of Johann Heinrich Friedrich Sachse, an artist and designer, and Julianna D. W. Bühler. Julius F. Sachse attended public schools and the Lutheran Academy but had no university education; he was largely a self-educated man. Sachse’s early business career was as a merchant of men’s clothing accessories and a manufacturer of men’s silk shirts. His achievements in shirtmaking were recognized at international trade fairs....
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Saltus, J. Sanford (1854-1922), art patron and numismatist
John M. Kleeberg
Saltus, J. Sanford (09 March 1854–23 June 1922), art patron and numismatist, was born John Sanford Saltus in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Theodore Saltus, a merchant and ironmaster, and Elizabeth Sanford. The vast family fortune was made by Saltus’s grandfather, the merchant Francis Saltus, who established an ironworks in upstate New York that pioneered rifled steel cannon. When Francis Saltus died in 1854, Theodore Saltus was his executor; litigation over the estate lasted into the 1890s....