Spring/Eldredge Family Collection
Collection Overview
Scope and Contents
This collection contains material passed down from five generations of mothers to daughters. The correspondences of the collection are mostly from the Spring family detailing upcoming marriages and everyday life in the early and mid twentieth century. Correspondences of particular interest are the photocopies of Fred and Marion Hotchkiss's 1867 letters to each other, including a detailed narrative of their courtship. Elinor Spring Eldredge's memoirs and diaries also provide a detailed account of courtship in the 1940s.
Louise Hall Spring's World War II ration books provide priceless personal information of not only her name, age, and address but her physical characteristics such as hair color, eye color, weight, and height. The newspaper clippings are mostly announcements of Louise and Ernest Spring's wedding. The electronic washing machine campaign advertisement, that pictures Louise and Ernest Spring, provides a glimpse into 1967's economy and technology.
The family photographs are the most extensive segment of the collection and they provide varying examples of individual cased daguerreotype images, black and white photographs, and tintype images that were popular in the mid to late nineteenth century. The nature of the Spring/Eldredge collection provides rare insight into American family life during the mid nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1850s-2003
Extent
.33 Cubic Feet (1 letter manuscript box)
Creator
- Spring Family (Family)
- Eldredge Family (Family)
- Hotchkiss Family (Family)
Family History Note
The multiple generations of family materials contained in this collection was mostly maintained by Louise Hall Spring and her daughter Elinor Spring Eldredge. Avery, Heacock, Hotchkiss, Hall, Spring, and Eldredge are the collection's surnames and are from Connecticut, New York, Michigan, and Ohio.
Louise Hall Spring was born in New Haven, Connecticut, on August 9, 1902. She was the youngest daughter of three girls born to Lucius W. Hall from New Haven, Connecticut and Minerva Hotchkiss Hall from Gloversville, New York. She graduated from Connecticut College in June, 1924, and married Ernest Spring on October 10, 1925. Ernest Spring was a 1924 alumnus of Yale University and the son of Professor and Mrs. Samuel Spring of Ithaca, New York. In the late 1920s Ernest and Louise Spring moved to Detroit, Michigan where they raised their four children, Samuel, Elinor, Peter, and Majory. Louise Hall Spring passed away in Jackson, Michigan on March 28, 1985.
Elinor Spring Eldredge, daughter of Louise Hall Spring, was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 5, 1929. Elinor Eldredge was a graduate of Redford High School, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Michigan. In 1948, she married Edward H. Eldredge and was the mother to one daughter, Louise Spring Eldredge. Elinor's professional life was devoted to private practice in clinical social work in Ann Arbor, Michigan and she served in professional and community organizations. In 1985, Elinor retired and became an active volunteer at Flower Hospital in Sylvania, Ohio. After four years and nine months of battling illness, Elinor Spring Eldredge passed away in Sylvania, Ohio on December 9, 1998.
Conditions Governing Access
No known access restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Spring/Eldredge Family Collection was donated to the Center for Archival Collections by Edward H. Eldredge of Sylvania, Ohio on November 20, 2007.
Source
- Eldredge, Edward H. (Person)
Subject
- Spring Family (Family)
- Eldredge Family (Family)
- Hotchkiss Family (Family)
- Title
- Guide to the Spring/Eldredge Family Collection
- Author
- Pamela L. Bayer, Mark Sprang
- Date
- February 2008, June 2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English