Delaware Valley Archivists Group

Photo of Smith's Mill in Chadds Ford, PA, ca. 1910 used as a model for pen and ink sketches in "Along the Western Brandywine" Smith Mill Sketch by Gatchel and Manning of Philadelphia Working on creating a collection guide is a fulfilling task for me. Always something new is discovered. On this blog we have been looking at photographs from the Joseph Thorne collection. Now that I am writing the guide I am learning more about who he was and am raising questions about some of the photos. Joseph Thorne, 1849-1916, was the son of Anna M. Williams and Henry Thorne. After apprenticing at the American Republican newspaper in West Chester, he went to work for printer and publisher F. S. Hickman. Here he was Hickman’s right-hand man for the rest of his career. Thorne’s obituary called him the best printer in West Chester. What is curious are glass plate negatives mixed into Thorne’s collection marked “MacElree negative.” Many of the photos show the Brandywine, so I picked up a copy of Wilmer W. MacElree’s “Along the Western Brandywine” and voila here were the same images in the book. A quick look at the title page showed that F. S. Hickman printed the work in 1912. So are these Thorne’s photos that were used in MacElree’s work or are they MacElree’s photographs that are somehow included in Thorne’s collection? I started looking around through CCHS’ voluminous newspaper clippings file for an answer. I discovered that MacElree wrote two books on the Brandywine. The first one was published in 1906 titled: “Down the Eastern and up the Black Brandywine.” MacElree printed a limited edition of 1500 copies which contained 200 illustrations, but cost only $5 each. This volume is a journey taken by the author along the Brandywine, filled with historical notes and poetic musings. According to information from the clippings file, MacElree found his walks along the Brandywine to gather information for the book to be a welcome break from his demanding career as Chester County’s District Attorney. Then I discovered a clipping from the Daily Local News dated July 20, 1905 it read: “W.W. MacElree has just completed some very fine photographs of scenes in Northern Chester County. Some of the pictures of scenes along Marsh Creek are very pretty indeed. The engravings of these will be used to illustrate a new book to be printed by Mr. MacElree.” Here was the answer I was looking for - MacElree took his own photographs for his books. MacElree, 1859-1960, was a person of many talents. Professionally he was a respected lawyer. He also was a well known orator, writer, artist and wood carver and lived to be 100 years old. The discovery of MacElree’s photographic talent are another exciting find in CCHS glass plate negative collection. - Pamela Powell, Photo Archivist