Existe-t-il une photographie de l'écrivain STANTON DAVIS KIRKHAM ?

Bonjour,

Nous venons de recevoir une réponse de la New-York Public Library, que nous remercions.

Une nouvelle photographie de Stanton Davis Kirkham a été trouvée dans une demande de passeport :

D'autres pistes ont été explorées et vous sont proposées. Voici la réponse intégrale de la NYPL :

We were unable to reply to your email query until now. We regret any confusion, frustration and inconvenience that this delay in replying might have caused.

Regrettably, despite much searching, only 1 possible photograph was found, of which you had most likely already came across online on your own. That photograph is the one posted on the "Find a Grave" website athttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11288130/stanton-davis-kirkham#view-photo=175262811in the entry for Stanton Davis Kirkham athttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11288130/stanton-davis-kirkhamThat image was added by Lukhanyo Mfene (https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/49574518). However, no source of the photograph was mentioned.

Aside from that photograph, the only other possible but not-so-clear photograph found was that of the one from "ancestry Library" (https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/). The entry is noted as the following:

 

U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 for Stanton Davis Kirkham
Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925
1922
Roll 2138 - Certificates: 233100-233475, 24 Nov 1922-27 Nov 1922

 

Please refer to the attachment file to this email reply for details.

 

A few of the books by Stanton Davis Kirkham, but not all, were checked (https://archive.org/search?query=Stanton+Davis+Kirkham), but none of the ones checked included a photograph of him.

 

Articles about him, including his obituaries, were also checked. Here are two such examples from The New York Times, which did mention Stanton D. Kirkham was sick for many years before he died at 75 years old,and that he had been a "shut-in" ever since the age of 43.That might have been one of the reasons why there is no other photograph of him that could be found online.

 

• "STANTON D. KIRKHAM: Travel Author Wrote' Also subjects for Children,"Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES, The New York Times, Saturday, January 8, 1944: page 13.

 

STANTON D. KIRKHAM

————

Travel Author Wrote Also on
Subjects for Children

————

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

 

CANANDAIGUA, N. Y., Jan. 7
—Stanton Davis Kirkham, world traveler and author of children's books, died at his home in this city last night at the age of 75. He had been an invalid many years as the result of an illness contracted thirty years ago on a horseback trip across South America.

Born in Nice, France, the son of Major Murray Davis and Julia Kirkham Davis, Mr. Kirkham was adopted by his maternal grand-father, Gen. Ralph Wilson Kirkham, USA, and with him came to America. He attended public schools in California, later being graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Surviving are a son, Paul Kirkham of Marblehead, Mass.; a daughter, Mrs. Mary Clark Kirkham McKechnie of Canandaigua and two grandchildren, Frederick A. McKechnie 3d and Mary Williams McKechnie.

 

[Note: According to Find a Grave at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11288130/stanton-davis-kirkham, his son Paul Davis Kirkham also died that same year in 1944. His daughter, Mary Clark Kirkham McKechnie died back in 2000.]

• "Difficult Happiness: SHUT-IN. By Stanton Davis Kirkkam. 318 pp. New York: G.P. Putnams Sons. $2.50.," The New York Times, Sunday,November 1,1936, Section 7:The New York Times Book Review, page BR12: Miscellaneous Brief Reviews.

 

Difficult Happiness

SHUT-IN.By Stanton Davis Kirkkam. 318 pp. New York: G. P.

Putnams Sons. $2.50.

A HORSEMAN and hiker, an engineer and a traveler in far countries, Stanton Davis Kirkham was suddenly stricken with incurable disease at the age of 43. He has been a "shut-in" ever since.As a shut-in he has written a courageous and realistic book which should be of real use and encouragement to others who are afflicted as he is.

HIs book is realistic in that it avoids any mirage of false promise. If you are crippled or invalided, he says frankly you must make up your mind to a fairly solitary life. People aren't going to come and sit with you, keep you cheerful and entertained. They haven't time. You've got to entertain yourself. And the only way to do that—this is implicit throughout his book—is to cultivate the resources of your own mind. If you are well enough to read, so much the better. But if you can't read, you can remember.
And, always, you can think.

 

Born on December 7, 1868, sinceStanton D. Kirkham did attend the Massachusetts of Technology (MIT), perhaps MIT might still has a photograph of him in one of its class photo albums. Regrettably, it is not known as to which year he might have graduated from MIT. Assuming that he might have graduated from high school when he was 18 years old, and he attended 4 years of college at MIT after high school, then 1868+18+4=1890. And so, just as a guess, he could have been a member or a graduate of the Class of 1890.

On the Internet, there is a photograph posted online athttps://digital.hagley.org/P72362_1_011which is labeled as "Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M. I. T.) Class of 1890."

 

Officially though, the Massachusetts Instittute of Technology has its own MIT, Class Photograph Albums on record:

 

•MIT, Class Photograph Albums(AC-0319). This collection is composed of class photo albums received by early MIT alumni (1870-1895) and lose photos composed primarily of individual portrait photographs of class members, faculty, and administrators of MIT. Specific classes included are as follows: 1870, 1873, 1882, 1885, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895.

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class Photograph Albums (AC)

Class Photograph Albums

https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/100865

 

Class of 1889 photograph album:https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/100880

Class of 1890 photograph album:https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/100881

Class of 1891 photograph album:https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/100882

 

Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository

https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/

Contact:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
CambridgeMA02139-4307US
distinctive-collections@mit.edu

 

And so, for any further assistance, please contact MIT directly at:distinctive-collections@mit.edu

 

Finally, since Stanton lived and died in Canandaigua, New York, which is part of Ontario County, if you have not yet done so, perhaps also try contacting a local library in Canandaigua, New York for suggestions and/or guidance. There is the Archives & Library of the Ontario County Historical Society (seehttps://www.ochs.org/archives-and-library/ andhttps://www.ochs.org/contact/). There is also the public library in Canandaigua, called Wood Library (https://woodlibrary.org/; https://woodlibrary.org/services/). Its email address, in turn, is:woodlibrary@owwl.org

(Note: Just to clarify, Canandaigua, New York is actually physically311 miles (or 500 kilometers) or 5 hours 23 minutes by car away from New York City. And so, The New York Public Library which only covers 3 of the 5 boroughs of New York City simply does not keep records ofCanandaigua, New York.)

 

Thank you for emailing the Ask NYPL service.