American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography

"Companion Autographs" album. Perry Mason & Co., 1877. Approx. 7 x 4 1/4 in., 63pp utilized (includes a mix of facsimile autographs and those compiled by the owner). Album identified to "C. Waldo Baker / 47 Troup St. / Rochester / N.Y." Signatures appear to have been collected ca 1881, and predominantly include members of the Rochester Free Academy Class of 1881. Oscar Wilde signs "Oscar Wilde / May 31st."

Early in his career, Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) embarked on a lecture tour in Canada and America. Throughout 1882, Wilde conducted 141 lectures, two of which were held on May 30 and 31st, 1882, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, a town approximately 135 miles away from Baker's hometown of Rochester, New York. It is seems likely that Baker attended the May 31, 1882, lecture, at which Wilde signed Baker's autograph album.

Baker was born in Rochester ca 1865, and is identified in multiple Rochester City Directories as a student in the 1880s then a teacher in 1887.