Blanche Potter photograph albums and travel journals
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Abstract
The collection holds 26 photograph albums and 4 journals compiled and written by philanthropist Blanche Potter (1864-1942). All relate to Potter's travels in the United States and abroad from 1904-1939, taken with her life companion, Louise Christie, and/or other women. The photograph albums hold about 3,400 sepia-toned, well-captioned snapshots of historic sites, local peoples, travel accommodations, landscapes, and various points of interest in Europe, northern Africa, India, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Canada, and the United States. Potter, Christie and their traveling companions are in many of the photos. Potter's travel journals provide rich context and additional photographs for four of the trips. Some of the photograph albums include local New York State travel and scenes from visits to Potter and her sibling's country homes in Ossining.
Biographical / Historical
Blanche Potter was born in New York City on January 2, 1864. She was the daughter of wealthy New York businessman, real estate developer and politician Orlando B. Potter (1823-1894) and his wife, Martha Green Wiley Potter (1822-1879). Orlando Potter died intestate and his estate was divided among his four children, including his 600 acre farm in Ossining, a portion of which was inherited by Blanche.
Blanche was a philanthropist and at least from 1910, and possibly before, she was engaged in various causes, especially those concerning health and welfare. Among other positions, from 1910 until her death she was a member of the board of Bellevue Hospital's Training School for Nurses, and from 1910 to 1927 she was Chair of the auxiliary of Bellevue's Tuberculosis Division.
Blanche lived for thirty years with another woman, Emma Louise Christie (who seems to have used Louise as her call name), which is suggestive of a possibly gay relationship. Christie was born September 1, 1869, at Haverstraw, New York. She became a Registered Nurse (R.N.), graduating from the Bellevue Training School in 1894. In 1907, according to Christie's brief obituary in the New York Times, which seems likely to have been written by Potter, she "became the beloved friend and constant companion of Miss Blanche Potter, with whom until her death, she made her home at 45 Park Ave., New York City."
For the last thirty years of Christie's life, she and Potter lived together in New York City and at Potter's country home in Ossining. They also traveled widely together, along with other women, as documented in this collection of Potter's travel journals and photograph albums.
In 1937, Louise Christie died while on a visit to her family home in Thiells, in Haverstraw, NY. Potter sold her home in Ossining shortly afterward. Potter died on October 5, 1942, and is buried with her parents and sisters in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.
[The above note is based on notes provided by the dealer from whom the collection was acquired (a copy of the notes is included in the first box of the collection) and the obituaries in the New York Times of Blanche Potter (October 6, 1942) and E. Louise Christie (July 5, 1937).]
Arrangement
The photograph albums are arranged in Blanche Potter's original sequence number order, which runs chronologically, from number 20 to number 65, with gaps. The 4 travel journals are integrated into that chronological order.
Scope and Contents
The collection holds 26 photograph albums and 4 journals compiled and written by Blanche Potter. All relate to Potter's travels in the United States and abroad from 1904-1939, taken with her life companion, Louise Christie, and/or other women. The photograph albums hold about 3,400 sepia-toned snapshots of historic sites, local peoples, travel accommodations, landscapes, and various points of interest in Europe, northern Africa, India, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Canada, and the United States. Potter, Christie and their traveling companions are in many of the photos.
The photographs are captioned. Though most of the photos were likely taken by Potter, not all were, as indicated by many caption's reference to "taken by" and crediting another person by name or initial. The albums are dated with at least an opening date on the inside cover. They were all numbered by Potter, though the collection seems not to have all the albums she ever compiled as those in the collection start with number 20 and end with number 65, with gaps.
Some of the photograph albums include local New York State travel and scenes from visits to Potter and her sibling's country homes in Ossining. Visits to her father's roots in Charlemont, Massachusetts, are also pictured.
Providing rich context to some of the photo albums are the 4 travel journals in the collection, which take the form of either letters written to friends or of diary entries. These journals relate to Potter and her companions' travels in Europe (1904; albums 20-22); in, primarily, Italy and Egypt (1911; albums 31-35); eastern Canada, especially Nova Scotia (1923; album 52); and Central and South America (1924; albums 53-55). The journals also include many additional photographs for illustration.
The container list includes reference to each of the volumes in the collection, with a fuller description of each volume. That description was taken primarily from the description provided by the dealer from which N-YHS acquired the volumes.
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Access Restrictions
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Use Restrictions
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff. Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
The collection should be cited as: Blanche Potter photograph albums and travel journals, MS 3100, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchase, 2015.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The collection was processed by archivist Larry Weimer in 2022. Most of the description of the collection content used in this finding aid was copied from the substantive descriptions provided by the dealer from which the material was acquired by N-YHS, supplemented with additional description from the processing archivist.