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John S. Winthrop and his wife, Lilia Chouteau, moved to Tallahassee in the late nineteenth century from St. Louis, Missouri. One of their children, Guy Louis, lived on North Monroe Street in Tallahassee and was active in the community throughout the early twentieth century.
Alvan S. Harper was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1847. Between 1870 and 1884, he was a professional photographer in Philadelphia. A chance meeting with Judge J.T. Bernard of Tallahassee, who was in Philadelphia as a commissioner from Florida to the 1876 Centennial Exposition, may have led to Harper's move to Tallahassee in 1884. Harper was soon advertising that he would take "artistic photographs" in his first studio.
Summary:
The collection contains photographs of the Winthrop family and their activities in North Florida. The bulk of the collection consists of a series of photographs taken during a hunting trip along the Wacissa River in 1901, which includes several scenes of the hunting party boating down the Wacissa River, as well as of Black laborers setting up and transporting equipment. Also included are photographs of the Wakulla, St. Marks, Ochlockonee, and Aucilla rivers, as well images of the various industries and peoples found along these rivers such as turpentine camps, steam ships, railroads, fishermen, and residents. There are also several images of the San Marcos de Apalachee, a colonial Spanish fort in St. Marks, and of the town of Panacea.
There are several family photographs taken by Tallahassee photographer Alvin S. Harper, including two of the Winthrop family's Black coachman. Other photographs include portraits of Guy Winthrop and his family, his home in Tallahassee, and of other family members taken in Missouri. Of interest are the two photographs from President William McKinley's 1899 visit to Tallahassee with Governor Bloxham, and one photograph depicting snow on the Florida State Capitol grounds, dated February 1899.
Finding Aids:
Folder listing available. 0
Additional Physical Form:
Select images have been digitized and are available on the Florida Memory website: https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs/
Reproduction Note:
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Associated Materials:
For more of Harper's photographs of Tallahassee, see Collections M82-52, Alvan S. Harper Tallahassee Photographs, and M87-30, Alvan S. Harper Photographic Collection. For more materials related to the Winthrop family, the Florida State University Special Collections and Archives houses the Winthrop Family Papers, 1841-1941 (MSS 0-266).
Language Notes:
Ownership/Custodial History:
Guy Winthrop's wife donated the Winthrop family photographs to Allen Morris, founder of the Florida Photographic Collection, in the 1950s.
Bloxham, William Dunnington, 1835-1911 Harper, Alvan S., 1847-1911 Winthrop family.
African Americans Florida. Boats and boating Florida Governors Florida Hunting Florida Logging Rivers Florida Turpentine industry and trade Florida
Photographs. aat
Aucilla River (Ga. and Fla.) Leon County (Fla.) Ochlockonee River (Ga. and Fla.) Panacea (Fla.) St. Marks (Fla.) St. Marks River (Fla.) San Marcos de Apalachee (Fla.) Tallahassee (Fla.) Wacissa River (Fla.) Wakulla River (Fla.)
for detailed listing.