Charles E. Hughes Campaign

The fifteen scrapbooks in this addition are arranged by format, and span the years 1910-1950. With the exception of the three scrapbooks relating to the Charles Evans Hughes presidential campaign (described below), the scrapbooks contain black-and-white photographs, some taken by commercial photographers (mostly 8x10) and some candids ranging in size from 2x3 to 5x7. Subjects include individual and group photos of Settlement personnel and participants in Settlement programs; activities such as banquets, picnics, dances, and parades; and sites including the Settlement house and its west-side neighborhood, and rural retreats at Camp Channing and the House in the Woods. Many photographs are not identified, some photos have been removed, and some pages are mislabeled. The older scrapbooks are in poor condition, with crumbling pages and a number of glue-damaged photographs.

The scrapbooks in Box 17 provide a unique and personalized record of the 1916 presidential campaign of Charles Evans Hughes. The scrapbooks belonged to Harriet Vittum, longtime Head Resident at the Northwestern University Settlement, who headed the Chicago Republican Woman's Campaign for Hughes. Vittum was involved in the Woman's Campaign Train which crossed the country between October 2 and November 4, 1916, with prominent women stumping for Hughes at stops along the way. The three large scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings and ephemera from across the United States. One scrapbook focuses on women's issues in relation to Hughes' campaign (including Vittum's work on the Woman's Campaign). The second contains materials relating to the Woman's Campaign train. In contrast to the other two, the clippings and other items in the third scrapbook illustrate the role of women's issues in the Woodrow Wilson presidential campaign.

Materials in Box 18 include three large, fragile albums filled with photographs dating from 1910 to 1919. One of these scrapbooks includes snapshots of army inductees from the neighborhood, circa 1916 to 1918, many with the recruit's name written beneath the photograph; more such snapshots are contained in folders 1 and 2, which were removed from a deteriorated scrapbook. A smaller scrapbook, with items dating from 1928 to 1930 and inscribed with a dedication to Miss Vittum, was compiled by a young man named Maloski, and is filled with photographs of his family's farm, Settlement activities, and the city of Chicago. A small scrapbook, probably from the 1940s, contains photographs of Settlement children, with a few newspaper clippings. Another small scrapbook holds eight pages of photographs of the Chicago apartment to which Harriet Vittum retired after forty years as Head Resident (Miss Vittum appears in two of the photographs). Several loose, undated scrapbook pages have pages from a book of nature poetry glued to them. One page shows a drawing of the Settlement House and a copy of its theme, song, and motto.

Box 19 holds four scrapbooks with photographs spanning the early years of Michael Rachwalski's Head Residency, 1947-1950 (some date to 1946). There are many 8x10 photographs of Settlement clubs, programs, and events. There are also a number of 3-1/2x5 and 5x7 photographs. Many of the pages are labeled, but photographs have been moved around and some placed on incorrect pages.