Committal 1953 (11)

File — Box: 1, Folder: 9

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The Matthew F. Steele Photograph Collection spans his entire life from the 1860s to 1953; including family portraits, vacation snapshots from his trips to San Francisco and Yosemite National Park, plus amateur photos from his committal in 1953. The collection consists of seventy-six images, to include gelatin silver and albumen prints. These photographs were accessioned as part of the Steele papers that have been organized as Manuscript Collection 128. The collection was organized into three series: Diary Photographs, Trips, and Matthew F. Steele. The Diary Photograph Series contains three files. They are all images that were taken from the M.F. Steele diaries, part of Mss 128. The images do not directly correspond to the page or date of the diary entry that they were found, but do correspond with the time period of the diary in which they were located. Most photographs within these files contain images of Matthew Steele with his wife and friends while living in Alabama. There are also images of what may be his niece and nephew. Some research may be required to identify everyone in these photographs. The Trip Series contains two files. They are images taken from M.F. Steele‟s travels to Yosemite National Park and San Francisco in 1901. The quality of several images is poor and the photography is amateur. They contain images of the San Francisco city hall and other buildings, including some maritime images from that trip. The Yosemite file contains several images of the wilderness around Yosemite; including M.F. Steele on his horse, and images with him, his wife Stella, and friends. The Matthew Steele Series contains four files. Most photographs in these files contain images of M.F. Steele. They span the years 1948-1953. File 7 contains a collection of good quality Matthew Steele images from 1948 when he visited forts he had visited or was assigned to during the Indian Wars. There is also an image of him at the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and images at the battlefield graves of a few of his army comrades. This series also contains an image from his 90st birthday in Fargo, family Christmas photographs from 1952, as well as his funeral. The final file contains a photograph of the home of John B. Folsom, M. D. Steele‟s father-in-law located at 423 13th Street (University Drive S.), Fargo, N.D.