History

Adelaide Fehr Miller was the daughter of Jacob Henry Miller, Esq. of Allegheny, Penn. She married Baltimore builder, real estate broker and banker Carroll Bates Blick, and was the mother of twin girls in ca. 1900: Emilie Bates Blick and Mariana Miller Blick. At that time, the Blick family lived at "Rosemere" overlooking Lake Roland in Ruxton (Baltimore Co.), a house built in ca. 1897. That home was destroyed in a ca. 1902 fire caused by an ember from the Northern Central Railroad running along Bellona Ave. However, the family continued to live at the site, as well as at hotel and other addresses in Baltimore City, through the 1920s. A third daughter born to the family ca. 1910 was Adelaide Carroll Blick.

The Blick family also spent time in Atlantic City, N.J. and at a farm (Tower Hill?) in St. Mary’s Co., Md. The family may have had contact with the Catholic community of St. Mary’s Co., as both Emilie and Adelaide would later correspond with Fr. John LaFarge (1880-1963), a Jesuit priest whose concern with interracial ministry led him to work with the black population of St. Mary’s County from 1911-1926. Adelaide Blick became a nun named Sr. Mary St. Jude. Emilie Bates Blick married Rowland Hall Mulford and in the 1950s returned with her husband from out of state to live at the Rosemere property in what was formerly the coach house, now on Wagner Rd. in Ruxton.

Collection Origin

Gift of Mrs. Rowland Hall Mulford, 1982 (000234).

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of 1 box with 1 folder and 13 albums containing 1555 photoprints made 1897-ca. 1940s. Print processes include cyanotypes and platinotypes. Images are sporadically captioned and dated; subjects are Blick family members and homes, including Rosemere in Baltimore Co. and a farm (Tower Hill?) in St. Mary’s Co., Md. There are many images of children, including the Blick twins Emilie and Mariana, at play with toys, riding in goat carts, holding kittens and puppies, dressed in Halloween and other costumes, etc. A few images depict women and children at Baltimore City sites including Mt. Vernon Place and Eutaw Place. Many group portraits include African Americans, and there is an image of African American children at a Christmas party, ca. 1913-1915.

St. Mary’s Co. scenes include farm views with workers, equipment, and animals, as well as Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent and St. Mary’s River views with steamboats. There are a few images of Charlotte Hall Academy, an unidentified convent with nuns, and unidentified priests.

Some non-Maryland locations are depicted, including Cape May and Atlantic City, N.J., and an unidentified urban setting (Philadelphia?).

Arrangement

The photographs remain in 13 albums, with 1 loose photoprint housed in 1 folder.

Container List

1 Box

Box 1: 1 folder and 13 albums
 

Folder 1
Emilie and Mariana Blick, ca. 1904. 1 item.
 

Album 1
20 x 25 cm. Maroon cover. Inscription on first page: "Miss Sarah Taylor Adams, Point Chautauqua, July 17, (18)94". 29 photoprints, 1897-1899. Includes cyanotypes. Images are dated and sometimes captioned. Album contains 3 sketches and 2 small pieces of printed ephemera which are paper doll clothes.

The construction of Rosemere (Ruxton, Baltimore Co.); group and individual portraits at Rosemere, mostly unidentified, including C.B.B. (Carrol Bates Blick?); Northern Central Railroad trains and station at Lake Roland.
 

Album 2
19 x 29 cm. Black cover with gold lettering and red cord binding. 137 photoprints, 1898-ca. 1904.

Rosemere (Ruxton, Baltimore Co.), interior and exterior views; portraits of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Cockins (?), Northern Central Railroad trains approaching the Lake station (Lake Roland, Baltimore Co.); Jacob Henry Miller, Esq. of Allegheny, Penn., portrait and residence; view of Allegheny Park (Penn.?); scenes at Cape May, N.J.: seashore, boardwalk, Sister Cottage, and First Presbyterian Church; steamboat Republic; Valley Rd. (location not specified); women sewing with machine; nurses Miss Preston and Frances (African American woman) with twins Mariana and Emilie Blick; ruins of house (Rosemere?); family pets including litter of puppies, horses, and chickens.
 

Album 3
19 x 28 cm. Black cover. 265 photoprints, 1904-1911. Photographs are unidentified; many are stamped with date.

Blick family in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s County?), with many group portraits including African Americans; twins Emilie and Mariana Blick in elaborate outfits, at play outdoors and with toys; farm scenes including workers, buildings, equipment, and animals; steamship St. Mary’s and passengers; unidentified African American family; the Blicks at Mt. Vernon Place in Baltimore; scenes along a canal; unidentified church buildings; horse and buggies and automobiles.
 

Album 4
11 x 14 cm. Black cover. 22 photoprints, ca. 1910. Photographs are undated and uncaptioned.

Group and individual portraits of Blick family in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s Co.?); automobiles; farm vehicles; family pets; waterfront scenes.
 

Album 5
19 x 27 cm. Black cover. 192 photoprints, ca. 1910. Photographs are unidentified and undated.

Formal and informal portraits of a mother with baby in urban and rural settings, including Eutaw Place in Baltimore; children playing including African American children; family pets; toys and a goat cart; people working on a farm including African Americans; people in an automobile and on excursion to beach, boarding steamboat with luggage; various boats; and children in Halloween costumes.
 

Album 6
14 x 21 cm. Gray cover. 20 photoprints, ca. 1911-1912. Photographs are uncaptioned and only 1 is dated.

Group and individual portraits of Blick family in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s Co.?); automobiles; farm vehicles; family pets including puppies; waterfront scenes; and men with string of fish.
 

Album 7
19 x 26 cm. Black cover with gold lettering. 137 photoprints, 1913-1915. Some images have captions.

Liberty Hall; informal portraits including Lord (Ford?), Clayton and unidentified African American families; children with toys and sledding in winter; Christmas party with African American children; farm animals and family pets; and the Chesapeake Bay, Patuxent River and St. Mary’s River with boats, wharf and fish.
 

Album 8
19 x 27 cm. Black cover with green lettering. 251 photoprints, 1915-ca. 1930. Photographs are largely uncaptioned; a few throughout have dates. Many duplicates of images in Album 10.

Group and individual portraits including Blick family and unidentified African Americans in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s Co.?); automobiles; a dog on sled in winter; farm scenes including fields and animals; people working including African Americans; bay and ocean shore scenes including people bathing and sitting at boardwalk (Blick sisters?); an unidentified convent and nuns; unidentified priest; gravestone of Sr. M. de Sales Smith (d. 1918); man in uniform; elderly man in wheel chair; children sledding in winter; Joppa Farm(?); Protestant Episcopal Church of the Epiphany; and unidentified urban apartment buildings.
 

Album 9
19 x 26 cm. Black cover with gold lettering. 31 photoprints, ca. 1916. Photographs are uncaptioned and undated. Album includes 1 clipping and 1 hand-written greeting card.

Group and individual portraits of Blick family in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s Co.?); groups portraits of girls; man on horse; people in horse-drawn sled and automobiles in winter.
 

Album 10
15 x 19 cm. Black cover with green lettering. 266 photoprints, 1916-1927. Some images have caption and date. Many duplicates of images in Album 8.

Informal group and individual portraits including African Americans; Western Inn (?); 3 Notch Rd.(?); unidentified farm; Chesapeake (?) Bay, circus; family pets; farm animals; automobiles; Tower Hill; Charlotte Hall; unidentified convent, nuns, and priest; gravestone of Sr. M. Petronilla Gilmartin (d. 1918); farm workers including African Americans; Joffre (?) Farm; Piney Point; and Ocean City (Md.?) and Atlantic City (N.J.) beach and boardwalk scenes, including church, cottages and parade.
 

Album 11
12 x 14 cm. Black cover with stamped lettering. 35 photoprints, ca. 1920. Photographs are largely uncaptioned and undated.

Blick family children and others, including African American children, in rural setting (home/farm in St. Mary’s Co.?); children with pets; toys; farm animals; automobiles and farm vehicles; and houses and fields.
 

Album 12
19 x 26 cm. Black cover with white lettering. 50 photoprints, n.d. (ca. 1921?). Photographs are uncaptioned and undated.

Tower Hill Farm: views of fields, buildings, river, and bay waterfront, with a few unidentified people.
 

Album 13
19 x 26 cm. Black cover with gold lettering. 119 photoprints, ca. 1925-1940s. Photographs are uncaptioned and largely undated.

People in unidentified residential and urban areas (Philadelphia?); people and pets with sleds in winter; tudor-style buildings; stone bridge over stream; beach scenes with bathers; bay and lake waterfronts; waterfront in Margate City, N.J.; parade with patriotic and political floats ("Wilkie for president, Barbour for U.S. Senator, Hendrickson for Governor"); and signs for Tower Hill Farm ("For information John S. Flack Philadelphia"). © 2001 Maryland Historical Society - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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