Yankee Publishing Photograph Collection, 1890-1950

Yankee Publishing Incorporated · 1890–1950

The Yankee Publishing photographic collection contains about 6,000 glass plate, acetate, and nitrate negatives from Yankee Publishing, Inc. of Dublin, New Hampshire. The negatives come in a variety of sizes, including 4 x 5, 5 x 7, 5 x 8, and 8 x 10 inches. When the negatives were donated to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquates, the negatives were arranged by Yankee Publishing, Inc. archivist and librarian Lorna Trowbridge. Ms. Trowbridge placed the negatives into several different categories and subcategories. Effort has been made on behalf of Historic New England to keep this arrangement intact, ensuring that the collection in its original order. i735\li-15 Ms. Trowbridge organized the collection by topic, geographic location, and negative size. The majority of the 4 x 5 negatives are arranged into two series: subjects and geographic locations. These series are the largest in the collection, containing over 4,000 negatives. Many of these images were taken by photographer A.H. Blackington a photojournalist and author who worked as a news photographer for the Boston Herald and later operated his own service offering illustrated lectures and commercial news photographs . The subjects give insight into everyday life in New England from circa 1890 to 1945, and depict a wide variety of people and events, from the Hindenberg, to 4th of July picnics, to children on the seashore. The geographic series includes negatives from all six New England states. The negatives depict the environmental and geographic diversity of the area, from the steel skyscrapers in Boston to the picturesque White Mountains of New Hampshire and rocky coast line of Maine. The Yankee Photograph Collection includes numerous images of New Englanders engaged in various occupations--fishing along the Atlantic coast, stonecutting in Maine, tending stores throughout New England, logging in the Waterville Valley of New Hampshire, and harvesting crops--cranberries in the bogs of southeastern Massachusetts, potatoes in Aroostook, Maine, and strawberries in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The series of 8 x 10 negatives also include images of all five states, showcasing the natural beauty of New England. The subject, geographic, and 8 x 10 series are followed by several smaller series, Jewett City, Coaches, Cottages, and Groups, Negatives for Prints, and Unknown Groups. These series include mainly 5 x 8, 5 x 7, and 6 ½ by 8 ½ negatives. The negatives depict family life in Jewett City, Connecticut, groups of people traveling in the White Mountains, family portraits, cats, and other diverse scenes of everyday life. Unknown groups contains three subseries that were grouped together by Yankee Publishing, Inc., librarian and archivist Lorna Trowbridge for an unknown reason. The negatives depict a wide range of images, from family celebrations to an early automobile shop. Lastly, the collection includes about 100 glass plate negatives that were taken by renowned photographer, Martha Hale Harvey.