Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. .2 linear ft.

Summary

1. The Frank Wuttge Jr. research file is comprised of material Wuttge gathered about Mary Elizabeth Bowser and the Bowser family. Included are research notes, correspondence with researchers, publishers, television and movie producers and others regarding documentation about Bowser's life. There are also committee materials and the 1977 tree dedication ceremony announcement. Wuttge's interest in Arthur Schomburg and the Schomburg family is documented by letters from Wuttge to Schomburg biographer James Egert Allen, notes on the Schomburg family, and the origin and history of the surname. There is also printed material regarding Alexandre Dumas and other prominent black men.

Subject

1. African American women
2. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Participation, Female
3. Bowser, Mary Elizabeth, approximately 1840-
4. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Participation, African American
5. Schomburg, Arthur Alfonso, 1874-1938
6. Mary Elizabeth Bowser Tree Dedication Committee
7. Civil War Memorial Committee (Bronx, N.Y.)
8. Spies > United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865

Call number

1. Sc MG 645

Location of other archival materials (note)

1. New York Public Library.

Biography (note)

1. Frank Wuttge, Jr., son of the German photographer Frank Wuttge, was the secretary/historian of the 71st Regiment Veteran Association and president of the Civil War Memorial Committee. A member of the Mary Elizabeth Bowser Tree Dedication Committee, Wuttge led the effort to pay tribute to Bowser with a tree dedication at West Farms Soldiers Cemetery in the Bronx.

Indexes/finding aids (note)

1. Partial collection guide available.

Author

1. Wuttge, Frank, Jr., 1901-1985.

Title

1. Frank Wuttge Jr. research files, 1972-1979.

Biography

1. Frank Wuttge, Jr., son of the German photographer Frank Wuttge, was the secretary/historian of the 71st Regiment Veteran Association and president of the Civil War Memorial Committee. A member of the Mary Elizabeth Bowser Tree Dedication Committee, Wuttge led the effort to pay tribute to Bowser with a tree dedication at West Farms Soldiers Cemetery in the Bronx.
2. Mary Elizabeth Bowser served as a Union spy during the Civil War in the Confederate White House of President Jefferson Davis. Born into slavery on a plantation outside of Richmond, Virginia in 1839 to the Van Lew family, she was freed in 1851 by Elizabeth Van Lew, daughter of her owner John Van Lew and a Quaker abolitionist. Bowser was sent to Philadelphia by Elizabeth Van Lew where she received her education, but was summoned back to Richmond to assist Van Lew, a Northern sympathizer and Union spy. Van Lew's contacts placed Bowser in the Virginia home of Jefferson Davis, where she labored as an uneducated, domestic servant under the alias "Ellen Bond." She passed along Confederate strategic and military plans to Van Lew who in turn sent the information to Union military commanders. The collection also contains information on Arthur A. Schomburg and the Schomburg family.

Location of other archival materials

1. Frank Wuttge papers; Also located at, Manuscripts & Archives Division, New York Public Library.

Indexes

1. Partial collection guide available.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Research call number

1. Sc MG 645