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Adella Liebenow Wotherspoon photographs and papers

Call Number

PR 400

Date

1860-2004, inclusive

Creator

Wotherspoon, Adella Martha Liebenow, 1903-2004

Extent

approximately 4 Linear feet in 2 document boxes, 3 flat boxes, and 1 oversize folder.

Language of Materials

Many of the documents in Series I are written in German.

Abstract

Photographs, postcards, sacramental certificates, passports, naturalization papers, scrapbooks, and ephemera documenting the lives of members of the German-American Liebenow, Weber, and Wulf families, at least six of whom died during the burning of the paddle steamer General Slocum on June 15, 1904. The Slocum disaster, on New York's East River, claimed an estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 passengers on board, many of whom were women and children who could not swim. Adella (Liebenow) Wotherspoon (1903–2004), donor of the collection, was the youngest survivor. She unveiled a memorial to the unknown dead in 1905, and lived to be the sole survivor of what was, until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the single greatest loss of life in New York City history.

Biographical / Historical Note

Adella Martha (Liebenow) Wotherspoon (1903–2004), sometimes known by the nicknames "Dolly" and "Tiby," was the youngest daughter of Paul and Anna (Wulf) Liebenow, both New York City natives and the children of German immigrants. Paul (1871–1910), the son of Heinrich and Henriette (Pisch) Liebenow, married Anna (1872–1947), the daughter of Heinrich and Helene (Brauer) Wulf, in 1896. Their first daughter, Helen, was born in 1898. She was followed by Anna in 1901, and Adella, who was born November 28, 1903. Adella, at the age of six months, became the youngest survivor of the General Slocum steamboat disaster of June 15, 1904.

The General Slocum, a popular paddle steamer chartered for the 17th annual Sunday school excursion of St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, was destined for Locust Grove, a picnic site on the north shore of Long Island. The ship rode up the East River carrying just over 1,300 passengers, many of them young mothers with their children from the vicinity of St. Mark's, the Manhattan neighborhood known then as Kleindeutschland (Little Germany) and today a part of the East Village. For most of those passengers it was to be their first—and last—trip by pleasure boat.

On board that morning was the Liebenow family—Paul, Anna, and daughters Helen, Anna, and Adella. They joined Paul's sisters, Martha Liebenow (1875–1904), Annie (Liebenow) Weber (1873–1905), and Annie's husband, Frank Weber (1869–1936), with their two children, Emma (1893–1904), and Frank Weber Jr. (1898–1904). Also with them was "Aunt" Katie King (circa 1878–1904), the Irish-born fiancée of Anna (Wulf) Liebenow's brother, Henry Wulf (1876–1912). It is unclear if Henry Wulf was part of the group, but he and Katie were due to be married on September 15, 1904, so Katie was practically part of the family.

Through a cause that will never be known, the Slocum caught fire almost immediately after embarking at 9:40 a.m. Smoke billowing from a lower deck was at first attributed to "chowder cooking" by the jolly excursionists. Twenty-six minutes later the ship exploded in flames off Randall's Island. Life vests crumbled to dust in the hands of panicked passengers. Lifeboats were found wired in place. Shoddy canvas fire hoses burst under water pressure. At 10:10 the Slocum beached on North Brother Island, off the Bronx. A staggering 1,021 people died, if not by burning, then by drowning. Until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the General Slocum disaster was the single greatest loss of life in New York City history.

The eleven-member Liebenow-Weber party was reduced by six. Nearly all suffered scorching. Frank and Annie (Liebenow) Weber survived, although Annie's hair caught fire. Paul Liebenow stayed on the ship looking for his children until his clothing began to burn away. His wife, Anna, was severely burned down her side as she clung to the ship with one arm while shielding the infant Adella in the other, dropping into the water only when she could no longer bear the pain. She and the baby were eventually reunited with Paul, Annie, and Frank. Dead were Martha Liebenow and Katie King, Emma and Frank Weber Jr., and Helen and Anna Liebenow. (As Adella later phrased it, she lost two aunts, two cousins, and two sisters to the Slocum.) While little Anna Liebenow's body was recovered (her parents carefully preserving the shoes she wore that day), Helen's was never identified. She is believed to lie in the communal grave of the unknown dead of the General Slocum at Lutheran Cemetery (now called All Faiths Cemetery) in Middle Village, Queens. On the first anniversary of the tragedy 18-month-old Adella pulled a cord to unveil a monument to their memory.

Like other survivors, Paul Liebenow spent his subsequent days in dazed shock, but with one difference: he gathered in scrapbooks every memento and newspaper article he could find about the fire (in German and in English), every piece of ephemera and correspondence, even including the receipt for the new suit and hat he'd purchased specifically for the St. Mark's excursion. Adella said the compilation of his scrapbooks was a form of therapy. Paul never truly recovered, and died in 1910. His sister, Annie Weber, died a week shy of the first anniversary of the disaster, on June 9, 1905, as noted on the back of her photograph, "from effects of [the] Slocum."

Soon after Paul's death Anna (Wulf) Liebenow and Adella moved to Watchung, New Jersey, where Adella, who became a high school teacher, married James Wotherspoon (1903–1982) in 1930. Anna died in 1947, and for many years after Adella avoided the annual commemorations at Lutheran Cemetery and Tompkins Square Park in Manhattan, where another memorial to the Slocum dead had been dedicated in 1906. The rediscovery of her father's scrapbooks, stored in the attic along with photographs and family papers, renewed Adella's interest and involvement in the Organization of the General Slocum Survivors. She began attending events again when she was 85, and made it to most of them until shortly before her death at the age of 100 on January 26, 2004. Usually she brought along her sister Anna's shoes, and the dress she herself had worn to unveil the monument to the unknown dead at Lutheran Cemetery on June 15, 1905.

With the death of Catherine Connelly in 2002, who, at the remarkable age of 109 was the oldest survivor of the General Slocum, Adella, once the youngest survivor of that fateful day, became its oldest and sole survivor. Sadly, she missed the Slocum centennial by just shy of five months. On her death she bequeathed her scrapbooks, photographs, dress, and sister's shoes to the New-York Historical Society, where they were exhibited in The General Slocum and Little Germany, June 15 – August 22, 2004.

The fullest account of the disaster is Edward T. O'Donnell's Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum (New York: Broadway Books, 2003), available at the New-York Historical Society under call number F128 VK1257.G4 O29 2003.

Arrangement

The Adella Liebenow Wotherspoon Photographs and Papers are organized in three series:

Series I.
Family photographs and documents, 1860-2004
Series II.
​General Slocum disaster scrapbooks, 1904-1908, 1934
Series III.
​General Slocum disaster memorial programs, newspaper clippings, ephemera, 1904-2004

Series I is sorted alphabetically by surname. Series II and III are sorted chronologically.

Scope and Contents

The Adella Liebenow Wotherspoon Photographs and Papers document the extended Liebenow, Weber, and Wulf families of New York City, German immigrants and their American-born offspring, whose lives centered on the community known as Kleindeutschland (Little Germany), in Manhattan's East Village, and other German enclaves. The collection contains sacramental certificates marking baptisms, confirmations, and marriages, most of them written in German even when the events took place in New York, which speaks to the pervasiveness of German language and culture throughout their lives. Also present are German passports issued to Adella's paternal grandmother, Henriette (Pisch) Liebenow (1846–1881) in 1860, and her maternal grandfather, Heinrich Wulf (circa 1842–1909) in 1865. Both of Adella's grandfathers, Henrich Wulf and Heinrich Liebenow (1839–1902), became United States citizens, as indicated by their naturalization papers of 1872 and 1890.

At the heart of the collection are the late 19th- and early 20th-century cabinet card photographs of family members, six of whom died in the General Slocum tragedy of June 15, 1904: Adella's sisters, Helen (1898–1904) and Anna (1901–1904) Liebenow; her cousins, Emma (1893–1904) and Frank Weber Jr. (1898–1904); and aunts, Martha Liebenow (1875–1904) and Katie King (circa 1878–1904). [Although her photograph is identified as "Aunt Katie King," Katie was not technically a relative; she was the fiancée of Adella's uncle, Henry Wulf (1876–1912), whom she planned to marry on September 15, 1904.]

The collection's two scrapbooks include additional photographs and even artifacts (such as a hatpin Paul Liebenow retrieved from an unknown victim's body on North Brother Island), but are full, mainly, of German and English-language newspaper coverage of the Slocum disaster, rescue efforts, memorial ceremonies, and the subsequent hearings and trials.

And rounding out the collection is a small group of newspaper clippings, ceremonial programs, postcards, and interviews confirming Adella (Liebenow) Wotherspoon's role as the youngest and, ultimately, sole survivor of the General Slocum.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers by appointment only.

Use Restrictions

Permission to reproduce any Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections holdings through publication must be obtained from:

Rights and Reproductions
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 270
Fax: (212) 579-8794.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as the "Adella Liebenow Wotherspoon Photographs and Papers, PR 400, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society."

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Bequest of Adella Liebenow Wotherspoon, 2004.

Related Material at the New-York Historical Society

In addition to the many books and other publications documenting the General Slocum disaster, which may be found through BobCat, the library's online catalog, the New-York Historical Society holds the following archival material stemming from the event and its aftermath. (Click the hyperlinks for details.)

• General Slocum (Steamboat) dollar bill and letter, [1904]. Call phrase: AHMC - General Slocum (Steamboat).

• Minnie Weiss letter to Emma Bruning, 1904 July 15. Call phrase: AHMC - Weiss, Minnie.

• Organization of the General Slocum Survivors. Minutes, 1951-1963. Call phrase: BV Organization.

• Edwin Robinson letter, 1954 November 19. Call phrase: AHMC - Robinson, Edwin.

• George E. Stonebridge photograph collection [graphic]. Call phrase: PR-066, Box 64, 65, 70. Available online.

• New-York Historical Society Collection of Geographic Images. Call phrase: PR-020, Subseries IA: MANHATTAN - BOXED MATERIAL, Box 100, Folders 10-11: Events-Shipwrecks-General Slocum Shipwreck and sinking, 1904. Finding aid.

• Samuel H. Berg. [Scrapbook of clippings relating to the General Slocum disasters] (1909?). Call number: F128 VK1257.G4 B4.

• Scrapbook of newspaper clippings relating to the General Slocum Steamboat disaster, 1904. Call number: F128 VK1257.G4 S4 Oversize.

• [Newspaper clippings pertaining to the General Slocum steamboat disaster of 1904 and the subsequent investigations]: scrapbook, 1904-1908. Call number: F128 VK1257.G4 S42 1904 Oversize.

Collection processed by

Joseph Ditta

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:39 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing Information

Much of the material in this collection, along with a number of objects also acquired through the 2004 bequest of Adella (Liebenow) Wotherspoon, appeared in the New-York Historical Society's exhibition The General Slocum and Little Germany , June 15, 2004 – August 22, 2004. When the exhibition closed, the objects—including the shoes worn by Anna Liebenow (1901–1904) the day of the disaster, and the dress worn by Adella (1903–2004) when she unveiled the monument to the Slocum's unknown dead in 1905—were retained by the Society's museum division. For details on these, search for the word "Wotherspoon" in the museum catalog. The photographs and paper-based items were transferred to the library and dispersed to its Manuscript, Printed, and Graphic collections divisions. Archivist Joseph Ditta reassembled the material under the unified call phrase PR-400, and created this finding aid in August 2019.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024