Mott-Slingsby Family Photograph Collection
Collection
Identifier: Photo 2104
Scope and Contents
The Mott-Slingsby Family Photograph Collection consists primarily of social and family related images surrounding the families of Henry V. and Margie (Slingsby) Mott, and Margie’s parents Floyd H. and Ida (Anderson) Slingsby. The majority of the photographs in this collection are unidentified, and they contain mostly of snapshots, rather than professional studio photographs. The collection has been broken arranged four series; Topical Series, People Series, Album Series, and Ephemera Series.
The Topical Series is listed alphabetically by subject. The first file consists of three small snapshots taken in Argusville during the flood of 1947. The North Dakota Agricultural College file has four images mounted back to back on pages that appear to have been torn out of a photograph album. They likely belonged to Floyd Slingsby as there is a photograph of members of the Alpha Mu fraternity, of which Floyd was a member, standing in front of their house. The other images in this file show Old Main, a pageant beside Putnam Hall, and an elevated view of the campus from 12th Avenue N. The Road Construction file contains two photographs showing a road construction crew. There is no identification other than a date of June 1959. They are likely related to some work done by Henry V. Mott, Jr. during his work as a civil engineer. The World War II photographs are mostly snapshots, with some identification linking them to Henry Mott. They are likely taken in the South Pacific Theater.
The majority of the photographs in the People Series are unidentified. There is only one image that contains identification; it is that of a small girl with a caption identifying her as “Lulu Atkinson, died Easter Day 1881”. Beyond that, the file contains photographs by photographers from Fargo, Grafton and Minto, North Dakota, and one by a photographer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Snapshots file contains twelve items. They are mostly unidentified and appear to have been mounted in albums at one sometime. It is probable that they were from the photograph albums belonging to Floyd and Ida Slingsby. A number of the images appear to be children, with one identified as Floyd with his baby daughter Helen. Another interesting snapshot shows a woman making apple cider using a hand turned apple grinder. The final set of images in this series are photographic postcards. The first image is a Christmas card with a man standing on the front. An airplane is behind him spelling out “Merry Christmas” in smoke. The rest are all groups of unidentified people
There are three albums in the Photograph Album Series. The albums appear to have belonged to Floyd and Ida (Anderson) Slingsby. The first album, the smallest, and contains 36 photographs glued onto the pages. Most of the photographs in the front of the album are social scenes, likely taken in and around New York Mills, Minnesota area. These images appear to have been taken in the 1910s. In the back of
the album are several photographs taken at a later time period, and include some group photographs of students standing in front of the Argusville school building in 1940-41. The second albums consists of photographs taken in the 1910s, and are of social scenes. Among these photographs are some taken at the depot in Richdale, Minnesota; Moorhead Teachers College (MSUM); some lake scenes, and a few scenes from Floyd Slingsby’s time in stationed at the Naval Air Station in Montauk, N.Y. The third album, appears to have belonged to Floyd Slingsby and includes images of his time at North Dakota Agricultural College (NDAC). There are some really nice photographs of football players from around 1916-1917 and the Alpha Mu fraternity. Also in this album are a number of image taken while he was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Montauk, N.Y. during World War I. The back of the album has several photographs of family members and agricultural scenes.
The Ephemera Series contains one file of several non-photographic objects. The first item is a letter addressed to Mrs. E. S. Mott from Webster Merrifield, President of the University of North Dakota dated January 30, 1904, requesting her participation in the twenty-first anniversary of the signing of the bill creating the University. There are also the report cards of Valentine Mott from Grafton Public Schools from the years 1927-1928, 1928-1929, and 1935-1936, and Valentine Mott’s diploma from Grafton High School in 1939. Also in this folder are two items belonging to Margie Slingsby; an autograph book and her diploma from North Dakota Agricultural College in 1948. The final object in this file is the 1942 membership certificate to Phi Kappa Phi belonging to Helen Slingsby.
Dates
- 1880 - 1959
Access
The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.
Copyrights
Copyrights to this collection remain with the creator.
Biography
Margie M. Slingsby was born on August 30, 1926. She was the daughter of Floyd H. and Ida (Anderson) Slingsby. She grew up on a farm near Argusville, North Dakota, where she attended school. She graduated from North Dakota Agricultural College in 1948. She married Henry Valentine Mott, Jr. on August 21, 1949. He was the son of Henry V. and Ragna (Paulsen) Mott, and grandson of Emma Shoemaker Mott, the first female instructor at the University of North Dakota. He was the youngest of three children. He graduated from Grafton High School and served in the U. S. Army during World War II. He attended North Dakota Agricultural College and graduated in 1949. He worked as a civil engineer for the Federal Bureau of Reclamation in Denver, Colorado. He received his master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He worked for Portland Cement Corporation for 27 years, living in Fargo, North Dakota and Pierre, South Dakota. In 1979 he returned to Fargo and opened Mott Engineering. He died on December 12, 1983, in Fargo. Margie Slingsby Mott died on May 30, 2003. The couple had a son and three daughters; Henry, Jean, Judy and Jane.
Margie Mott’s paternal grandfather was Arthur Slingsby who came with is parents to Dakota Territory in 1878, from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Slingsby family homesteaded about four miles straight west of Argusville, North Dakota. Arthur married Louise Turner about 1882. Together the couple had six children, Ellis A., Harry A., John “Jay”, Ira W. Edythe (Mrs. Ernest S. Jordan) and Floyd H. Tragedy struck the Slingsby family on September 22, 1897, when Arthur Slingsby was killed by an exploding
steam engine boiler while threshing on his land. This left Louise a widow with six children. Louise and her children continued to own and farm the land, but the family moved to Fargo, North Dakota where they lived at 612 3rd Street N. Here the children were able to receive a good education and had successful careers. Harry became a chemist, Ira became a dentist, Jay died at the age of 23, Edythe married, and Ellis and Floyd continued farming the land near Argusville. Louise Slingsby died in Fargo on June 6, 1943.
Margie Mott’s father Floyd, was born on November 4, 1894. After his father’s death, he grew up in Fargo, but continued to work out on the Argusville farm in the summers. He graduated from Fargo Central High School in 1913 and from North Dakota Agricultural College in 1918. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, where he was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Montauk, N.Y. After the war he returned to Fargo, and married to Ida A. Anderson on March 15, 1920. The couple made their home on the Argusville farm. They had three children, Helen, William and Margie.
Margie’s mother Ida Anderson was born on March 8, 1892 at New York Mills, Minnesota. She was the daughter of Andrew and Maria (Runtti) Anderson, both immigrants from Finland. She was the fourth child in a family of eight children. Ida graduated from Moorhead State Teachers College, and taught school in Hawley, Minnesota until her marriage in 1920. When her husband retired from farming, the couple moved to Sun City, Arizona in 1959. They returned to Fargo in 1979 to live with their daughter. Ida died on March 28, 1981, and Floyd died on July 18, 1982.
Extent
520 Photographic Prints (520 photographic prints)
2 Photographic Negatives (2 negatives (120mm-677 and 678))
Language of Materials
English
Provenance
Donated by Jean Mott, 2010 (Acc. 2936).
Property rights
The Institute for Regional Studies Archives owns the property rights to this collection.
- Title
- Finding Aid to the Mott - Slingsby Family Photograph Collection
- Description rules
- Rda
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Institute for Regional Studies Repository
Contact:
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu
West Building N
3551 7th Avenue North
Fargo North Dakota 58102 United States
ndsu.archives@ndsu.edu