Ninety glass plate negatives created ca. 1881-1910, chiefly of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Content of images date from ca. 1780s-1817 (these are facsimiles of documents and pictorial material), and the 1881-1910s, and undated. Subjects include buildings in Berkeley Springs, such as the baths, David Hunter Strother's house, Mount Wesley Academy, and others. The negatives also include images of portraits or letters of prominent individuals, such as Joseph Barnes, Alexander Boteler, DeWitt Clinton, General William Darke, Moses Hoge, and James Rumsey and family. Some subjects are unidentified. Box 2 contains prints of some of the glass plates.
James Rumsey (1743–1792) lived in Bath, Virginia (now Berkeley Springs, West Virginia) in the 1780s. He is known for successfully demonstrating a boat propelled by a steam engine on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown, [West] Virginia on December 3, 1787.
Collector Frederick T. Newbraugh (1910-1996) was postal worker and a local historian of Morgan County, West Virginia. He taught classes about the history of Bath and Morgan County, and he served as a board member of the Morgan County Historical Society. He also authored books about the history of the county, including the three-volume Warm Springs Echoes About Berkeley Springs and Morgan County (1967); Berkeley Springs Methodist Church, 1775-1965 (1965?); Berkeley Castle: in the Picturesque Foot Hills of the Alleghenies, Berkeley Springs, W. Va. (1988); and Bath, that Seat of Sin: a Compilation of Incidents at the Town of Bath (Berkeley Springs, W. Va.) (1993). More information about Fred's family and history can be found on page 177 of Morgan County, West Virginia, and Its People (compiled by Morgan County Historical and Genealogical Society, 1981).
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1.8 Linear Feet (1 ft. 9 1/2 in. (3 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.); (1 notecard box, 4 in.))
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