Spring/Eldredge Family Collection

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.