Deiah, A great way to start is to find out what you do know. Since it was found at your parent's home, you will also want to question your family including extended if at all possible to see if anyone is familiar with this photo album. Is it a family member's memento or was it left in the house. If left, try to find out who lived in the house previously and see if the family is still in the area. If so, you may be able to find someone who is familiar. You may also want to contact the Allen County Public Library in Allen County Indiana (one county to the west) which has a very large and extensive historical library and genealogy section. In addition, they have a huge primary/secondary source reference index of local books, pamphlets, and journals that are often found in few other places. It can be referenced by name, subject, and location. They also have a great newspaper index, but I don't know if Van Wert's papers are there. In addition, you will want to contact all the major Ohio University archival collections, the Ohio Historical Society and any local, neighboring or regional historical museums, archives or libraries. This could be anything from a society group to a book club. When you start to look at newspapers, you will want to find an index or a searchable source. You can "read" through past issues, but it is still very difficult to find what you need. You can try the newspaper archives online (they charge a fee) but they have lots of papers and this is a lot faster. This will probably take some work, but it can be a lot of fun. Good Luck Tracie Evans Collections Manager Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum PO Box 2570, Waco, TX 76706 254/750-8631 -----Original Message----- From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deiah Haddock Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 8:49 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: HELP! I found an old photo album of members of the Hawthorn Club, Van Wert Ohio Greetings! My name is Deiah Haddock and I am currently in my senior year at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. I am finishing a duel degree in English and Hospitality & Tourism, with plans of attending graduate school for museum studies. I have always loved looking and exploring old things, researching and what not - and the other day I was at my parents house looking through an old box, when to my surprise I found a very old photo album. In the front of the album someone has written: "The Hawthorn Club" "The first ladies club of VW" (I have determined that VW is for Van Wert, Ohio, as all but a couple of the pictures were taken by a photographer in Van Wert) What follows are some wonderful portraits of these "first ladies", many of them appearing to be in their 60's or older. According to the back of one of the photos (that I carefully removed from the cracking brown paper) it was taken in 1898. I am looking for information on these ladies and the club they were members of - so far I have not found much. I would love to find out who these women were, and possibly where this photo album came from (it looks very official, for being over 100 years old that is.). The following is a list of the names I was able to get from the paper below each photo: Georgia Glenn Lucetta McConahay Mrs. Conant Charlotte Baker Ann Webb Clark Fidelia Purviort (not sure about this spelling) Mrs. Bonner Mrs. David Johns Maieha McGovern (again with the spelling of the first name, wasn't very clear) Mrs. Marsh Mrs. Stripe Please pass this along to anyone who would have some information or at least an interest in this old album! Thanks so much! Deiah Haddock [log in to unmask] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).