Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Ruth E. Dunsford Elm Place photographs and typed poetry book, C0397, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Donor is unknown.

Processing Information

Processing and finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner from September - October 2023.

Biographical Information

Ruth Emma Dunsford was born in 1877 to Rev. Alfred George Dunsford, originally from England, and Mercy Isabella (Markham) Dunsford. Ruth was the eldest of three or four children, including sister Mabel Hope Dunsford (later Spinning) born in 1879 and a younger brother, William Markham Dunsford, who died at the age of 1 in 1881. Ruth's father passed away in 1900 at the age of 56 and it is at this time that Ruth and her mother likely moved in with Mercy's brother William Guy Markham on the Markham family's Elm Place estate. Ruth passed away in 1936 at the age of 58 or 59 and is buried in Avon Cemetery in Livingston County, New York.

William Guy Markham was born at Elm Place on September 2, 1836. He spent his life in and around the village of Avon in Livingston County, New York and served as president of the Livingston County Historical Society. He passed away on May 16, 1922 at the age of 85 and is buried in Avon Cemetery.

The original Elm Place estate was built in 1804 for William Guy's grandfather Colonel William Markham (1762-1826) in Rush, New York. It was the first brick house in the region and the front room served as a meeting place for the town council. The estate was remodeled and added on to over the next 150 years, including an addition built in the 1950s, and as of 2023 consists of an 8,500 square-foot mansion on 40 acres.

Scope and Content

Two unbound photo scrapbooks created using gray construction paper containing photographs of domestic life at Elm Place estate in Rush, New York and one small book containing poems, both created by Ruth E. Dunsford. The photo scrapbooks contain images of life and architecture at Elm Place, including the replica log cabin that Ruth's uncle built on the property. One of the cover pages also contains a pasted image of a woman in a pointed witch hat accompanied by a black cat with the name "Ruth E. Dunsford" written in calligraphy beneath it. The poetry book contains approximately 32 typed poems, some without titles, and numerous blank pages in the back. Few poems are dated, but those that are include 1929 and three dates from 1933: July 16, October 3, and October 30. The first page includes the typed title "A Collection of the Verses of Ruth Dunsford" and a sticker on the front cover reads "This book is a gift from the Eakin Family".

Arrangement

This collection was arranged into 2 folders based on medium of materials.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center also holds other domestic life photograph collections, such as the Larkin family photograph collection , and other collections containing personal poetry and creative writing, including the Lavinia Scott papers .

The Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation at the University of Rochester's River Campus Libraries holds the Markham family papers .

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Creative writing
• Domestic life
• Dwellings
• Elm Place (Rush, N.Y.)
• Markham, William Guy, 1836-1922
• Photography
• Poetry
• Rush (N.Y. : Town)
• Scrapbooks