The proceeds from the initial sale of the CDV were given to Mrs. Humiston who was struggling to support her family. Later, Dr. Bourns sold it as a fund raiser for the establishment of the National War Orphan’s Homestead in Gettysburg in 1866. The Humiston children attended the school, and Philinda Humiston found employment there.  Today if you go to Gettysburg, you can see an historical marker and the grave of Sergeant Humiston whose story has touched so many.  If you want to learn more about this story, Mark H. Dunkleman has done a masterful job researching this story in his book: Gettysburg’s Unknown Soldier: The Life, Death and Celebrity of Amos Humiston.  Pamela Powell, Photo Archivist

Redpath’s editorial comments in the first issue clearly declared the pro-Irish temper of the paper: “I shall try to make this journal an interpreter between American and Irish friends of liberty. As soon as Americans know the true story of Ireland they will support her in every wise effort to overthrow the despotic rule of England.”

By the third issue, published on August 5, 1882, Redpath had deemed the title too confusing and shortened it to Redpath’s Illustrated Weekly. Though founded as an activist newspaper devoted to the cause of reform in Ireland, the paper also covered Irish culture in general with sections such as “Pictures of Irish Life” and illustrations of prominent Irishmen, Irish-Americans and “friends of Ireland.” Redpath’s opposition to English rule in Ireland and the large Anglo-Irish landlords he saw as responsible for Ireland’s misfortune branched into other articles in his newspaper such as anti-landlordism in New York City and opposition to English imperialism in Egypt. The paper also supported other social causes such as women’s suffrage, civil service reform and the labor movement. Depictions of tenement housing in New York City   Illustration showing British imperialism in Egypt Redpath also realized that a newspaper devoted primarily to Ireland and social reform may have  limited appeal, so he tried to broaden its readership by including humorous pieces, domestic and foreign news blurbs, sheet music, poems and serialized novels. At times the paper also included a Boys and Girls Department and a Ladies Department. Section devoted to women's fashion Changing financial circumstances and lack of interest in Ireland and social issues caused gradual changes in the newspaper’s format and content. With the February 24, 1883 issue, the name of the newspaper was shortened further to Redpath’s Weekly. This reflected the reduction in the number of illustrations due to rising publication costs. By August 1883, the paper had become more literary and less a vehicle for Irish freedom and social activism with more space devoted to serialized fiction, including French and Russian works translated by associate editor, Jeremiah C. Curtin. Included were perhaps the earliest serializations of stories by Jules Verne. These changes, however, were not enough to save the paper and the last issue of Redpath’s Weekly was published on August 23, 1884. This 1883 issue included Part II of Verne's "The American Robinson Crusoe"   PAHRC has the most complete run of Redpath’s Illustrated Weekly. The paper has also been digitized as part the Digital Library @ Villanova University. To view the digitized issues click here.   References: McKivigan, John. Forgotten Firebrand: James Redpath and the Making of Nineteenth Century America. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London. 2008.

 This widely distributed CDV (carte-de-visite or photographic visiting card) of Lincoln ascending to heaven the in the arms of Washington found its way into the albums of many Chester County residents. According to photo historian William Darrah, this carte was known as “the apotheosis [glorification] of Lincoln” and was on the market one week after the assassination. CCHS’s copy has no photographer information, indicating that was probably a pirated copy. Photographs of Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators sold briskly.  That brings us to the story of a local person who witnessed history unfold. Isaac G. Jaquette, a saddler from Chatham, had served in Co H. 42nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, known as the Bucktails. He had been wounded at Chantilly Virginia and was discharged by Surgeon’s certificate September 15, 1862.  After the war he received an appointment as a clerk in the Adjutant General’s Office of the War Department and moved his family to Washington, D.C.  It was on that fateful night in April that Jaquette was seated in the dress circle opposite Lincoln’s box in Ford’s Theatre. He could see the Lincolns with Major Rathbone who accompanied them when General Grant was called away on short notice to New York.  Jaquette recounts the scene in an article published in the Daily Local News, July 28, 1892, “The play was nearly through when the report of a pistol was heard…Lincoln had dropped his head on his arms apparently to rest them when suddenly there was a great shriek from Mrs. Lincoln, then a man jumped over the front of the box..”   Jaquette describes seeing Booth leap to the stage, injuring himself in the process. At first he thought it must be part of the play, but then pandemonium breaks out.  “I and some others went up into the box after the President was carried out…” Jaquette describes seeing the preparations Booth had made to accomplish the deed including a whole cut in the wall that was wallpapered over to disguise it. He found a heavy stick which he used as a brace to hold the door closed once he entered the box.  “The stick..had dropped to the floor, and as they carried the President out his blood had nearly covered it. I picked it up and took it home.”  It was common for people in that era to collect “souvenirs” but this very gruesome one was in reality an important piece of evidence in the case against Booth and his accomplices. A week after the assassination, Jaquette learned that the soldiers were searching his rooms for the bloody stick. When he returned home, Jaquette was arrested. Detective Baker interviewed Jaquette, thinking he was another accomplice, instead he found a willing and credible witness. The pair went to Ford’s Theatre where Jaquette showed the detective what he observed when he visited the President’s box just after the shooting. Luckily, Jaquette was released and later was a witness at Booth’s trial. The stick was retained as evidence.  This and other fascinating stories will be part of “On the Edge of Battle: Chester County in the Civil War” this fall.  Pamela Powell, Photo Archivist  

Wendy Kopp's thesis is always among those requested by remote researchers--that is, those who do not visit the library in person, and whenever a Princetonian makes news or is on a hit show, their thesis is often requested.  In the past, this included Wentworth Miller III (when Prison Break was a hit), David Duchovny (for the X Files) and Dean Cain (Adventures of Lois and Clark), as well as all three now sitting Supreme Court Justices: Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.The entire theses collection can be searched via this database, and Archives staff are working to make all senior theses available online to the Princeton community starting in 2013.

Keep checking the next few issues of the PAW to see these items explained!!For more about the University Archives click here.

 I rushed to the newspaper clipping file in the library to find Lindley Way’s obituary published in the Daily Local News, March 7, 1879.  He had served with Co. H. 42nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers which was a company raised out of Kennett Square, PA known as the “Bucktails.”  According to the article, he had seen action in the major battles of the Civil War: Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Hope Church, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Bethesda Church, two in Petersburg and at Weldon Railroad he was captured and sent to Andersonville Prison where he spent the rest of the war. While there he became sick with consumption (tuberculosis) which finally caused his death on February 25, 1879.  

Pennington Way, photo by Eber Woodward, West Chester, PA, ca. 1862

Looking at the stained photo again, I thought how often Lindley Way had taken the photo from his pocket and longed for his family at home. The picture of the little boy is his youngest half- brother, Pennington Way. A genealogy titled: Descendants of Robert and Hannah Hickman Way of Chester County, PA, volume I by D. Herbert Way supplied me with an overview of the family history. Way’s father had married a second time after his first wife Eliza Hoopes Way died after giving birth to Lindley. The family lived in Chatham in London Grove Township.  Checking the backs of other Way family CDVs, I discovered seven more with the same inscription! They depicted his father, John Way, his sister Elmira Way Snyder and his half-sister Eliza E. Way, two unidentified young girls, an unidentified woman and a published CDV of Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas! It is possible the young girls were two of his six sisters, the woman could be his step-mother who as 15 years younger than his father. Curious why he carried the published picture of the Washington D.C. socialite Adele Cutts Douglas! It is interesting to note that four of the photographs were taken at Eber Woodward’s studio in West Chester and bear sequential negative numbers.  This indicates that the family was photographed together on the same day – either before Way left to go to war or to be sent as a gift in letters.  Several mysteries, yet to be solved, emerged from the research. According to the Way genealogy, John Way and his first wife were members of New Garden Friends Meeting, their family graves are in the Meeting cemetery. After the war, Lindley married Caroline Bell Darlington at the West Grove Presbyterian Church in 1873. The couple had one daughter named Beatrice in 1877. Does this mean that Lindley was disowned for participating in the war or for marrying out of meeting?  Also conflicting details emerged about Lindley Way’s imprisonment. According to the March 7, 1879 obituary, Deputy Sheriff Baker who served with Way stated that Way had been in Andersonville Prison throughout the war. According to the Way genealogy, Way had also been in Libby and Belle Isle Prisons also.  Bates “History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers” clarified his service record. Way mustered into service in Co. H 42nd PA August 7, 1862 and transferred to Co. H. 190th May 31, 1864. He was taken prisoner August 14, 1864 until March 2, 1865. He was discharged from service May 15, 1865.  Deputy Sheriff Baker told some interesting stories about Way’s bravery during the war in the March 7, 1879 article: “At Spottsylvania he was one of a party of fifteen who dug holes in the sand with their dinner plates, in advance of the lines and for three hours silenced a rebel battery that had been dealing death and destruction in the Union ranks, but were finally driven from their positions by a strong force of rebel infantry.”  He also noted that Way used the Spencer rifle – that was well known as a highly accurate weapon – Way fired it so fast that it became too hot to hold.  Looking at the stained photographs, had these images of his family sustained his spirits while he was imprisoned?  Had they given him the hope and comfort he needed until his release? Certainly this is why each one was documented so carefully, so that those in the future would know just how significant they were to him. Pamela Powell, Photo Archivist