News
Events
Blogs
Adelaide Ermentrout scrapbooks on Daniel Ermentrout
Comprising this collection are three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, letters, and other ephemera highlighting Daniel Ermentrout's life and work. The volumes were compiled by his wife, Adelaide Louise (Metzger) Ermentrout, and they date from 1877-1880 (Volume 1), 1859-1883, (Volume 2), and 1...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Collection: | Adelaide Ermentrout Scrapbooks On Daniel Ermentrout |
| Collection Number: | 3629 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Physical Description: |
0.8 Linear feet ; 1 box, 3 volumes |
|---|---|
| Access: |
The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
Comprising this collection are three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, letters, and other ephemera highlighting Daniel Ermentrout's life and work. The volumes were compiled by his wife, Adelaide Louise (Metzger) Ermentrout, and they date from 1877-1880 (Volume 1), 1859-1883, (Volume 2), and 1899 (Volume 3.) All loose items from the volumes have been placed into folders and boxed (Box 1).
The clippings and other items (mostly letters, programs, telegrams) that Adelaide saved largely pertain to Ermentrout's local and regional political efforts. However, she also added in scant family material, such as in Volume 1 a program featuring the Ermentrouts' son, Fitz. And some clippings highlight Ernmentrout's public persona generally, like those with the text of his "Christmas Legend" speech, which he delivered in December 1878 to a crowd at the Second Reformed Church of Reading, Pennsylvania, also in Volume 1. Most of the clippings are in English with a few from German papers scattered among them. The most prominently featured papers are those from Reading, Pennsylvania, including the Daily Eagle, the Times Dispatch, the Times, and the Sunday Times. Clippings from other regional papers also show up occasionally, and in Volume 3, among the clippings on Ermentrout's death are those collected from numerous American newspapers by a clipping service. In Volumes 1 and 2, Adelaide provided her own annotations, some of which shed light on current events, Ermentrout's correspondents, and the Ermentrout family's history.
The material in Volume 1 spans Ermentrout's move from the local to the national political scene, though the majority of the clippings are partial to governmental happenings in Berks County. Among the clippings are cordial letters to the Ermentrouts from federal officials, local businessmen, and family friends. In 1880, Ermentrout attended the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, and this volume also contains a few ribbons ribbons and other ephemera he collected from the event.
In a written introduction to Volume 2, Adelaide describes the volume's contents, which primarily date from 1880-1883, but also contains a very small number of include clippings from as early as 1859, which she found after she had already created earlier scrapbooks. These twelve pages of early clippings shed light Ermentrout as a rising public figure in Berks County. In addition to the large complement of clippings on Ermentrout's political ventures, this volume also contains a booklet of notes on the Metzgers and related families that was compiled by Adelaide called "A Glance at My Ancestry," clippings pertaining to other members of the Ermentrout family, and a series of travel ephemera collected by the Ermentrout's during a European vacation they took in 1881. There are also some interesting items on current events, such as clippings on the assassination of President James Garfield in 1881 and an invitation to Ermentrout to attend the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge in 1883.
The sole subject of Volume 3 is Ermentrout's death, which occurred unexpectedly after a choking incident in September 1899. This volume contains printed obituaries, the lengthier ones of which go into great detail about Ermentrout's life and career. In the middle of the volume Adelaide pasted in envelopes of bereavement letters. These letters have been removed to Box 1, Folders 4 and 5, in the order in which they were found. These three scrapbooks were compiled by Adelaide Louise (Metzger) Ermentrout, wife of Daniel Ermentrout (1837-1899), a six-time Congressman from Reading, Pennsylvania. Adelaide was a journalist, and the first two volumes contain her notes alongside newspaper clippings, letters and telegrams, cards, programs, travel tickets, invitations, and other ephemera. Ermentrout was very interested in the history of the early Germans of Pennsylvania, who formed a large part of his constituency. The third volume solely documents Ermentrout’s untimely death. In it are clippings of obituaries, some of which were gathered by a clipping service, and bereavement letters sent to Adelaide. |