Lea family photographs
Creation: circa 1845-circa 1920Abstract
Thomas Lea (1757–1823) joined in partnership with Joseph Tatnall (1740–1813), and passed on the Tatnall-Lea grain mills in Wilmington, Delaware to his son William Lea (1805-1876), who took over operation of the mills in 1837. In 1864, William Lea brought his sons Henry Lea (1839-1888) and Preston Lea (1841-1916) into the firm, changing the name to William Lea & Sons Company. This collection includes portraits of members of the Lea and related families. These include such family names as Tatnall, Warner, Preston, Ferris, Downing, Spruance, Lovett, Moore, Bush, Ely, and others.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1845-circa 1920
Creator
- Lea family (Family)
Extent
1 Linear Foot
General Physical Description note
3 photographs: daguerreotypes, 5 photographs: ambrotypes and 5 albums (169 carte-de-visite photographs, 25 cabinet card photographs, 4 tintype photographs.)
Biographical Note
Thomas Lea (1757–1823) joined in partnership with Joseph Tatnall (1740–1813), and passed on the Tatnall-Lea grain mills in Wilmington, Delaware to his son William Lea (1805-1876), who took over operation of the mills in 1837. In 1864, William Lea brought his sons Henry Lea (1839-1888) and Preston Lea (1841-1916) into the firm, changing the name to William Lea & Sons Company. William Lea died in 1876 and his sons carried on the business, modernizing the mills, but facing increasing competition from the West. The firm dissolved in 1923, a few years after the death of Preston Lea. The Lea family was prominent in Wilmington and Brandywine Village, and married into several other prominent Delaware business families, as can be seen by the list of family names below.
Scope and Content
Portraits of members of the Lea and related families. These include such family names as Tatnall, Warner, Preston, Ferris, Downing, Spruance, Lovett, Moore, Bush, Ely, and others. Most are carte-de-visite photographs, but there are cased photographs, crayon prints, and gelatin photographic prints, too. There are many portraits of children, including one of two children with a young African American girl, possibly a servant. There is one view of the garden at a home at 1901 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, circa 1920. Also one group portrait of executives from the explosives department of the DuPont Company at Atlantic City, undated.
Existence and Location of Copies
Several of these portraits were reproduced in Carol E. Hoffecker's Brandywine Village: The Story of a Milling Community (Wilmington: Old Brandywine Village Inc., 1974).
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Subjects
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Lea family photographs
- Date:
- 2013
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Audiovisual Collections Repository
