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Dabney family photograph collection, approximately 1875-1911

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Dabney (Family : 1825-1915 : Boston, Mass.)
Title
Dabney family photograph collection
Dates
approximately 1875-1911 (inclusive)
Quantity
314 photographs ; sizes vary
Collection Number
PH1349
Summary
Photographs relating to the Dabney family who lived in the Azores, California, and Washington State
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Selections from collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials curator is required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Request at UW

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Members of the Dabney family were the first, second, and third consuls for the Azores. They were John Bass Dabney (1766-1826), Charles William Dabney (1794-1871), and Samuel Wyllys Pomerey (1826-1893). John Pomeroy Dabney (1822-1874) was consul to Prussia and acting vice-consul. The family prospered through its foreign trade connections in England, Scotland, Germany, France, Mexico, South America and Russia. It was a large and extended family. The Dabneys had three estates on Fayal in the Azores, Bagatelle, Fredonia, and The Cedars. There were four boys and four girls in the family of John P. and Sarah H. Dabney, including Frank Dabney. The boys were sent to school in Jamaica Plain, Roxbury, Massachusetts, and the girls were tutored at home. Most of the boys attended Harvard but Frank Dabney, and his cousin, Herbert, attended MIT. After the accidental shipboard death of John Pomeroy Dabney in 1874, the fortunes of his wife Sarah and his son Frank seemed to diminish, and most if not all of the Dabneys left Fayal. Frank was required by his uncles to leave MIT and look after family investments in Ohio. Members of the family settled in estates in California near Santa Barbara. Samuel Dabney built a house in California in 1892 which he called the Fayal Ranch. Sarah H. Dabney lived abroad with at least two of her daughters. Frank Dabney settled in Seattle in 1900.

Edith Dabney was born around 1885 to Frank and Mary Dabney. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1903 and became the headmistress of a girl's school in Seattle. She married Sherwood Ford and was an aunt to her brother Jack's children Francis and Joan Dabney. In March of 1909, Edith joined her parents and six others for a skiing trip to Mt. Rainier where she and her close friend Milnora Roberts became the first women to make a ski trip on the mountain, and the first to make a trip of any kind to an altitude of 7000 feet in the winter. This achievement is chronicled in an article written on March 27, 1909 in the Seattle Times, as well as an article entitled, "A Wonderland of Glaciers and Snow" written by Minora's husband Milnor Roberts in June of 1909 in the National Geographic Magazine.

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Content Description

Photographs relating to the Dabney family, who were a prominent family that included several members who served as consuls for the Azores. The collection includes a hand-made album of photographs of the family at Fayal Ranch, and the family home built by Samuel Dabney in California in 1892. Also included is an album with pictures of a climbing expedition to Mt. Rainier with Milnor and Milnora Roberts and Carl Gould.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in digital format

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

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Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donors: Nathaniel Harris, 2007; Sally D. Parker, 2011.

Processing Note

Processed by: Sara Cordes, 2017.

47 photographs and 2 postcards accessioned as PH2009-008.

Related Materials

Dabney family papers (Mss Coll 4210) in the repository.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)

Family Names

  • Dabney family--Photographs


2009 (Last modified: 1/31/2020)

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