“What is this a negative of? Asked Frank’s 10 year old granddaughter Hannah while working on a book they were co-authoring and holding up a 4 x 5 glass negative to the light. This innocent question led to untold hours of searching through Frank’s (that’s me) vast collection of glass negatives from c. 1900. By now you are probably wondering what the negative was of that led to all this research and ultimately to this blog and soon to a complete website. The following is a brief story of many chance happenings that followed Hannah’s question which itself was chance. We were looking at negatives of street scenes of Worcester and searching for just the right ones to add to our book (which is now published, “Worcester Through Time”, and available at bookstores and Amazon.com). Sorry for the plug, let me get back to the story. This negative was not a building but a portrait image and by chance it was misplaced in a box of street scene negatives. It was an image of Celia Perkins an African American woman who was born into slavery in 1858 in South Carolina and much later, with her husband Richard, moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. Fascinating isn’t it? That information was not on the negative but discovered through much research. Back to the story. A few weeks later I picked up the negative that was put aside and began to wonder if more images like this existed in my portraits section of negatives. It should be noted here that I had these portrait glass negatives for a number of years and they kind of took a back seat in the research because without identification they would become a research dead end. As the search through the collection began numbers were discovered on many of the of the images. The numbers which were as small as 1/16th of an inch high, were scratched into the bottom or side of the emulsion side of the glass negative. Hannah’s young eyes were invaluable in reading many of these which were difficult to determine even with a jeweler’s loupe. So how did I know it was Celia Perkins?……..Hang on as the intriguing story continues. The portrait collection is all from one photographer and by a stroke of luck many years ago I had a random conversation with the person I purchased the negatives from earlier. He asked if I was interested in the photographer’s log book that that he had recently found. The log book is a journal full of numbers along with descriptions and identifications. I had found gold! All of these negatives are from 1890’s to 1918 so a log book is rare. There it was a very tiny # 76 at the bottom right of Hannah’s questioned negative. The log book indicated it was Celia Perkins! In case you are wondering where all the other information came from, keep reading. After a couple weeks of searching there were about 30 portraits of African Americans living in Worcester connected to the log book. At this time, by complete chance, I was speaking with a Director of the Antiquarian Society about the history of Charlton Historical Society and at the end of the conversation he asked about other projects I was working on. In mentioning these images he said he knew individuals who may have a strong interest in them and gave me names to contact. I sent an email to Dr. Janette Thomas Greenwood who has spent many years researching and writing books about the migration of former slaves to the North and specifically to Worcester, Massachusetts. Her last book, a wonderful historical read, “First Fruits of Freedom” (one more plug) was the result of years of research. We didn’t connect right away and I thought maybe what I had was not as important and unique as I thought it was. I sent a second email as a last chance and Janette answered right away (she had been preparing for a one semester sabbatical from Clark University). By this time I had uncovered nearly 100 images through countless hours of holding them to the light and then scanning to be certain. The collection now is about complete and is nearly 200 images. When Janette visited to examine them she started to see names and images of individuals she had researched but did not know pictures existed. You often hear the following: “the rest is history” but in this case it fits so well. Janette and I have become partners on a quest to tell the story of the individuals and families who migrated to Worcester in their search for equality. Many of the descendants and friends of these individuals are alive today and we have spoken with several. We believe this is a series of stories within the larger story that will be exciting and historically important to tell. Soon we will add some photographs including #76 of Celia Perkins….Please check back to our blog! Feel free to comment or ask questions.
Great story. I am curious if you know any of the people who who escaped on the underground railroad particularly those that went thru Liberty Farm (Abby Kelly Foster’s homestead) which is just up the street from where I live.
This is a great question. Because the Underground Railroad and all efforts to aid runaway slaves in the North were illegal by federal law (the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), much of the railroad’s history remains shrouded in mystery. We do know, though, that Worcester was a destination for runaway slaves, and was considered to be a safer place than Boston, where slave hunters roamed the streets. Worcester, according to Isaac Mason, a runaway from Maryland, found Worcester to be a place of “benevolent sympathizers” and came to Worcester, after a brief stay in Boston, in the 1840s and lived in the city the rest of his life, The Kelley-Foster farm (Liberty Farm) in Tatnuck, as you note, was a stop and destination for many. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Worcester minister and radical abolitionist, wrote in his memoirs of transporting runaway slaves to the farm in his carriage. Research for my book, First Fruits of Freedom, about the migration of former slaves to Worcester County, revealed that Abby Kelley and Stephen Foster took in North Carolina migrant George Wiggins, after the Civil War, which reflects their ongoing concern for those who suffered under slavery. Thanks for your question!
Thank you for your response. I realize the underground railroad preceded the photos c 1900. I was curious if any of those fugitive slaves had siblings/relatives during the latter time in Worcester.
So far our research hasn’t turned up anyone with an underground railroad connection. Most of those with Southern roots, whose stories we have been able to trace, appear to have come after the Civil War. But we are still relatively early in our research and may yet uncover such a connection! It’s a good question for us to be aware of as we research individual and family stories.
There is much yet to be discovered through our research. Comments such as yours, Stephen, will continue to keep us aware of the many possible connections that could be waiting for us to just turn the page or open the file. We have found that cemetery records offer more than we first thought and are continuing to research them. Walking the neighborhoods where these circa 1900 portrait and street photos were taken, with the original photographs in hand, affords us a unique and rare perspective. We look forward to and welcome more comments and questions from readers.