American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography

Collection of items associated with Edward Burgess Butler, highlighted by 2 volumes, identified on gilt lettered spines as "Edward B. Butler / Calendar / 1913 / Vol. I" and "Edward B. Butler / Calendar / 1913 / Vol. II" respectively. Rather than a traditional calendar, albums are arranged as scrapbooks, with blank album pages filled with an assortment of photographs, letters, autographs and other ephemera, spanning 1912-1913. Among the autographs is a card signed ("Wm. H. Taft") by William Howard Taft on "The White House / Washington" calling card, January 7, 1913. Albums accompanied by typed Butler autobiographies, miscellaneous correspondence, and other ephemera.

Edward Burgess Butler was a collector, artist, co-founder of Butler Brothers (wholesale dry goods with warehouses in Chicago, New York, St. Louis), philanthropist, Chicago Institute of Art Trustee and chairman of the finance committee for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Born in Lewiston, Maine, Butler, with his brothers George Henry Butler (1839-1880) and Charles Hamblet Butler (1845-1889), founded Butler Brothers in Boston in 1877. With the wealth acquired from his successful business operations, Butler began collecting art, including works by artist George Inness. Butler donated 18 Inness paintings to the Chicago Institute of Art in 1911. Butler was a charter member of the Pasadena Society of Artists and its first president, 1925-27. As an American artist in his own right, he was predominantly a landscape painter, having works in collections of institutions including the Dallas Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.