HISTORICAL NOTE

The Clarke Family Papers span the years 1840 through 1970. The Clarke line of the family came from Bishop Stortford, England in the mid nineteenth century. Through a marriage in 1874, the Clarkes joined a family with colonial American ancestry. Two distinguished individuals, Colonel Joshua Fry and Dr. Thomas Walker of Albemarle County, Virginia, are the progenitors of this line=s colonial link.

Although there are a number of photos of and letters between friends and family in England, the majority of the correspondence originates in the United States from and to the Clarke family and their acquaintances. This collection reflects the economic, political, and social interests of the mid nineteenth century through the early twentieth century, and includes American and European perspectives.

William and Elizabeth Clarke emigrated to the United States in the mid to late 1840s. In the 1860s they moved their family from Brooklyn, New York to Washington, D.C. In hopes of obtaining some financial stability the family's patriarch, William Clarke, returned to his ailing mother and father in England in 1864 (during the Civil War). After a brief visit, William returned to the states to again pursue his profession as a printer. Unable to maintain a position in D.C., he left his family to obtain suitable employment in New York. Throughout most of the remainder of his life, William Clarke worked at The Herald in New York.

William Clarke's sons, Alfred and Will, were able to rise above the financial hardships experienced by their father. Will, the eldest, became an attorney and worked for the United States Treasury Department for a good portion of his career. Alfred became a newspaper journalist who worked for various newspapers and covered numerous events of national interest.

The first family historian was William Clarke. Clarke, upon his death in 1874, passed the tradition along to his son Will. After Will Clarke's death in the early decades of the twentieth century, the responsibility as family historian was turned over to his daughter, Ada. Ada Clarke vigilantly maintained the standard set forth by her father until her death in the 1960s at which time she left the majority of her estate to her great niece, Alice B. Wilkes.

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The majority of correspondence dates from 1841 to 1916. Other miscellaneous documents date through 1970. Many of the letters and postcards are betweeen Washington, D.C. and the Pacific Northwest, the northeast, the deep south, and Europe. These letters and postcards represent leisure and business correspondence to and from the Clarkes and reflect concerns, beliefs and opinions of ordinary men and women of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The photos within this collection date from the 1840s and include various methods of processing illustrative of the evolution of photographic procedures. The majority of the photos are in carte de visite format. Also included in the collection are cabinet mounted photos and Kodak box camera snapshots. Additionally, photos taken in the 1970s depict the Clarke's ancestral home, Patmore Manor in Bishop Stortford, England.

The transcription of an oral history interview conducted in 1998 with Alice B. Wilkes is also included.

ORGANIZATION AND ARRANGEMENT

The papers and photographs of the Clarke family are organized in chronological or date of donation order. The correspondence is arranged as follows:

1840-1865
1866-1870
1871-1874
1875-1880s
1884-1890s
1900-1911
Postcards 1884-1916