Fowler Collection - PP110

Collection finding aids of Photograph Collections in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Maryland Historical Society Library

FOWLER COLLECTION
ca. 1860s
PP110

Prints and Photographs Division, Maryland Historical Society
201 W. Monument St.
Baltimore, MD 21201

Finding aid created by Katherine Cowan with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, July 1999

History

Henry Oliver Thompson (1865-1937) and Charlotte de M. Thompson were the children of Henry Fenwick Thompson (1830-1910) and Margaret Sprigg Oliver Thompson. The family lived at 78 W. Monument St. in Baltimore during the 1860s.

Henry Fenwick Thompson was a non-practicing attorney and art connoisseur who made frequent trips to Europe for research in art and history archives. He wrote on these subjects for the Maryland Historical Review, was a president of the Loudon Park Cemetery Company, a vice-president of the Maryland Historical Society, and a trustee of the Peabody Institute. His father was Capt. Henry Thompson, president of the National Bank of Baltimore, and his mother belonged to the Gratiot family of St. Louis, said to be among the oldest French families in that city.

Henry Oliver Thompson graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1887, then read law in the office of Severn Teackle Wallis. A member of the Baltimore and Maryland Bar Associations, he formed a practice with W. Hall Harris in 1896, their firm known as Harris & Thompson. Other affiliations included the University Club, the Bachelors Cotillon, the Hibernian Society (he was president at one point), the Delta Phi Fraternity, the Sons of the Revolution (he was registrar at one point), and the Sons of Colonial War. As an adult, Henry Oliver Thompson resided at Joppa Road near Riderwood, Baltimore County.

Collection Origin

Provenance unknown (64574).

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of 1 folder with 27 photoprints, which are all studio portrait cartes de visite, one of which has color added. Most of the photographs are unidentified and undated, although a few have dates in the 1860s. The subjects are men, women and children who are formally and often elaborately attired; the children depicted may be Henry Oliver and Charlotte de M. Thompson. Some of the portraits were made by photographers in Paris and London, as well as Baltimore.

Arrangement

The photographs, housed in 1 folder, are not numbered or sorted .

Container List

1 Box

Box 1: 1 Folder

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Fowler Collection - PP110