Burton family papers and photographs
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Burton family papers and photographs date from 1870 to 1949 and measure 1.25 linear feet. The collection includes the papers of William W. Burton, his wife Virginia Baptista Burton, their son and daughter-in-law Percival Burton and Josie E. Newcombe Burton, and the Newcombe family.
Biographical note
William W. Burton (d. 1882) was born in England and became a U.S. citizen in 1861. The same year, he married Virginia Baptista, a Portugese immigrant. William Burton was a house painter based in Manhattan. The Burton family lived at 436 Lafayette Avenue in what is now the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The couple had five children: Percival, Virginia E., Minnie, Charles, and Sidney. Percival Burton (b. 1879) married Josie E. Newcombe, and the couple had one son, Robert Burton.
Virginia Baptista was born in Madeira, Portugal, and was separated from her family as they emigrated from Portugal to Trinidad. According to correspondence, she was stolen by a childless couple who eventually settled in New York. Twenty-five years later, Baptista was able to locate her family in Madeira, but lost permanent contact with her mother. Her father died two months after his family left Portugal.
Scope and Contents
The Burton family papers and photographs date from 1870 to 1949 and measure 1.25 linear feet. The collection includes the papers of William W. Burton, his wife Virginia Baptista Burton, their son and daughter-in-law Percival Burton and Josie E. Newcombe Burton, and the Newcombe family. Manuscript material includes bonds, deeds, titles, and mortgages related to the family home on Lafayette Avenue; wills; family correspondence; school ephemera and certificates; receipts and account books; and drivers licenses and automobile registration papers.
Photographs in the collection, totalling 189 items, include cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, tintypes, and prints with portraits of the Burton family. Many of the photographic items are contained in two albums. Portraits of unidentified men, women, and children--possibly related to the Burton and Newcombe families--as well as images of Naval ships, Manhattan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are also included.
Subjects
Families
Genres
Conditions Governing Access
Open to users without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright will remain in effect for 120 years following the date of creation. All images in this collection will enter the public domain by 2057. For information on securing rights to publish or reproduce, please see the Brooklyn Historical Society Reproduction Rights Policy.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Burton family papers and photographs, ARC.217, Box and Folder number, Object ID number (if applicable); Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source and date of acquisition for this collection are unknown.
Other Finding Aids
Item-level description and digital versions of images from the collection are available for searching via the image database in the library.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Minimally processed to the collection level.
This collection combines two separate accessions: 1978.181 and V1981.283.