Grace Mason Papers/ Franklyn Atkinson Henderson Photograph Collection
- Collection ID ARCHIVES 199206
- Creator Names Mason, Grace.
- Title Papers, 1830-1992
- Physical description 4 linear feet
- Collection arrangement Materials are arranged into four series, Photographs taken or collected by Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, Photographs of Atkinson family members collected by Grace Mason and Michele Madison, Photographs of Atkinson family documents, and Historical documents on Chicago's "Old Settlers"
- Access and usage restrictions Available for research in the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Public Library.
- Collection summary Grace Mason, a descendant of pioneering Chicago African American photographer Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, donated his collection of nearly 100 photo portraits of "prominent Negro Chicagoans." Photos were created from 1885 to 1915. Many of these photos were exhibited at the 1940 American Negro Exposition. The papers include photos of the 'Old Settlers" and an official register of the Chicago Old Settlers Club, founded by Ida McIntosh Dempsey in 1904. Later Scott family records and photographs are also included.
- Biographical or Historical Note Isaac and Emma Atkinson and their descendants were one of the first African-American families to settle in Chicago. Isaac was the son of Richard Atkinson, who emigrated from Scotland in the early 1800s, and Cecelia, a full-blooded Cherokee. Isaac married Emma Jane, who was half African-American and half Cherokee. Isaac and Emma Atkinson came to Chicago in 1847. In the 1930s, Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, an illustrator, interior designer, and photographer, launched a concerted effort to preserve the history of the Atkinson family, and of the Chicago Old Settlers Social Club. He collected photographs of nineteenth century Black Chicagoans and sought to document the contributions of the Old Settlers. Many of the photographs in his collection were exhibited at the 1940 American Negro Exposition, held in Chicago. A larger group of the photographs was exhibited in 1943 at the South Side Community Art Center; that exhibit received a major feature article in the Chicago Herald American newspaper. At the time of the exhibit, he was serving as secretary and official historian of the Chicago Old Settlers Social Club. Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, lauded as the Atkinson family historian, died in 1962.
- Finding Aids Note Finding aid available in the Harsh Research Collection, Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, Chicago Public Library and on the library's web site.
- Acquisition information Donation of Grace Scott Mason, November 5, 1992. Register of members of Chicago Old Settlers Social Club added by Michele Scott Madison, 1998.
- Names
- Henderson, Franklyn Atkinson Archives.
- Chicago Old Settlers Social Club Archives.
- Subjects
- African Americans Illinois Chicago Portraits.
- African Americans Illinois Chicago History.
- African Americans Illinois Chicago Societies, etc.
- African American photographers Illinois Chicago.
- Finding aid URL http://www.chipublib.org/grace-mason-papers-franklin-atkinson-henderson-photograph-collection/