Cookie House

It occurs to me that I have a lot of information about the family in my head to go along with all the letters and photographs that I have snagged from the various house cleanings out that I have helped with over the years. I’ve been snagging things for years. And Gumma snagged things before me and Dita before her and Aileen was a squirrel and Gumma and Lawrence agreed to send me photos and papers – so my upstairs if full of stuff. This falls into three broad catagories:

1. Stallforth-Risse family photos and letters
   1. Letters from 1911 to about 1922 exchanged between Papsi, Anita, Adi, and their families – especially the Risse sisters – and there were lots.
   2. Family photographs and studio portraits taken in New York, Europe, and Woodstock from 1900 on (including Brady NY studio and Watson-Schutze)
   3. Photographs and movies from between WWl and WWII – mostly before 1930 when Gumma and Papi married.
   4. Photographs of Stallforth family in Germany and Mexico from 1870 or earlier
   5. Photographs of Risse family in Germany from 1870s
   6. Lia Risse’s work prints and glass negatives from 1890-1910
2. B.L.Websters in Woodstock and New York from 1920s to 1980s
   1. Images from Ben and Aileen’s childhood in New York, Woodstock and Europe (trips)
   2. Studio portraits
   3. Ben young professional life (very few)
   4. Family photos from 1933 birth of Audrey through 1990 (Gumma’s pictures of family including many grandchildren in Woodstock, Maine, Wyoming, New York City, and Florida – also some European trips. These need to be sorted through and given to the various cousins.
3. Webster forbears from Aileen’s squirreling which include letters and images from Websters, Wilburs, and to a lesser extent Lawrences.
   1. This includes letters, photographs, wills and business papers from the Wilburs (1840’s 1880s)
   2. Letters from the young adulthood of Albert Lowry Webster (Yale class of 1879)
   3. Letters and pictures from the young adulthood of Aileen Webster Payne
   4. Pictures from the young adulthood of Benjamin Lawrence Webster

So Lawrence, as a librarian, what’s the first step. Sorting and labeling- putting in boxes with general descriptions of contents. This will require buying lots of archive boxes and folders.

Am I right?

Mary