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Creator
Wuttge, Frank, Jr., 1901-1985
Call number
Sc MG 645
Physical description
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Frank Wuttge Jr. research files, Sc MG 645, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
Home to Harlem Project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Frank Wuttge Jr. research file is comprised of material Wuttge gathered about Mary Elizabeth Bowser and the Bowser family. Included are research notes, correspondence with researchers, publishers, television and movie producers and others regarding documentation about Bowser's life. There are also committee materials and the 1977 tree dedication ceremony announcement. Wuttge's interest in Arthur Schomburg and the Schomburg family is documented by letters from Wuttge to Schomburg biographer James Egert Allen, notes on the Schomburg family, and the origin and history of the surname. There is also printed material regarding Alexandre Dumas and other prominent black men.

Biographical/historical information

Frank Wuttge, Jr., son of the German photographer Frank Wuttge, was the secretary/historian of the 71st Regiment Veteran Association and president of the Civil War Memorial Committee. A member of the Mary Elizabeth Bowser Tree Dedication Committee, Wuttge led the effort to pay tribute to Bowser with a tree dedication at West Farms Soldiers Cemetery in the Bronx.

Mary Elizabeth Bowser served as a Union spy during the Civil War in the Confederate White House of President Jefferson Davis. Born into slavery on a plantation outside of Richmond, Virginia in 1839 to the Van Lew family, she was freed in 1851 by Elizabeth Van Lew, daughter of her owner John Van Lew and a Quaker abolitionist. Bowser was sent to Philadelphia by Elizabeth Van Lew where she received her education, but was summoned back to Richmond to assist Van Lew, a Northern sympathizer and Union spy. Van Lew's contacts placed Bowser in the Virginia home of Jefferson Davis, where she labored as an uneducated, domestic servant under the alias "Ellen Bond." She passed along Confederate strategic and military plans to Van Lew who in turn sent the information to Union military commanders. The collection also contains information on Arthur A. Schomburg and the Schomburg family.

Scope and arrangement

The Frank Wuttge Jr. research file is comprised of material Wuttge gathered about Mary Elizabeth Bowser and the Bowser family. Included are research notes, correspondence with researchers, publishers, television and movie producers and others regarding documentation about Bowser's life. There are also committee materials and the 1977 tree dedication ceremony announcement. Wuttge's interest in Arthur Schomburg and the Schomburg family is documented by letters from Wuttge to Schomburg biographer James Egert Allen, notes on the Schomburg family, and the origin and history of the surname. There is also printed material regarding Alexandre Dumas and other prominent black men.

Administrative information

Revision History

This finding aid was updated by Allison Hughes. (2020 July 27)

Related Material

See the Frank Wuttge papers (MssCol 3401) in the Manuscripts & Archives Division, New York Public Library.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor