Joseph Boggs Beale 1841-1926 Collection

Collection

Identifier: BMA-JBB

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The materials show the distribution and use of Beale’s illustrations as magic-lantern media. A variety of glass-slides and related materials that would have been manufactured and distributed by companies such as C.W. Briggs are included in the collection, such as: A slip-slide; a light sample, or an image’s initial printing on the glass before it was cut, painted, sealed, and housed; economy slide; slide label; a magic-lantern slide catalogue; scrip t for magic-lantern performance; and a film reel.

This collection includes e xamples of Beale’s illustration reused and reprinted between 1930 and 1970 on China, posters, periodicals, advertisements, and stamps.

Terry and Deborah Borton’s final book, of which the manuscript is within Box 5, “Before the Movies: American Magic-Lantern Entertainment and the Nation’s First Great Screen Artist, Joseph Boggs Beale” was donated by authors (accession 44241). For further information, please see the library catalog.

Dates

Creation: Majority of material found within 1930 - 1950
Creation: 1865 - 2013

Creator

Borton, Terry (Person)
Borton, Deborah (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for researchers by appointment only. Please contact the Research Center for information on access and research.

Conditions Governing Use

Materials held within the Research Center may be protected by copyright. Authorization to reproduce, publish, or quote from any restricted material requires permission from the copyright holder and is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain.

Biographical / Historical

Joseph Boggs Beale, 1841- 1926, was born in Philadelphia, where he attended Central High School and then the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1856, Beale moved to New York to work for Frank Leslie’s Weekly. Around 1870, Beale moved to Chicago with his wife Marie Taffard, where he completed illustration work for Baker and Company. The couple returned to Philadelphia in 1881 after his wife fell ill, and shortly after Beale attained work through C.W. Briggs Company,1850-1930, illustrating stories for Magic-Lanterns, or light shows. Beale was a member and former president of the historical Philadelphia Sketch Club, located on South Camac Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

During his magic-lantern illustration career, Beale completed around 2,000 pieces. After C.W. Briggs ended its run of glass-slide production, many of the original paintings by artists like Beale were sold or distributed . One of the destinations of Beale’s illustrations was the Bettman Archive, a warehouse of stock imagery. Beale’s illustrations found a new life in patriotic contexts between 1930-1970 due to the Bettman Archive.

Extent

3.484 Linear Feet (5 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection includes a variety of magic-lantern materials donated by Terry and Deborah Borton from their personal magic-lantern collection. Materials include glass slides, advertisements, stamps, articles, exhibition catalogs and other Song of the Brook memorabilia.

Arrangement

The presentation of the materials was organized chronologically around Beale’s career as “Pre-Magic-Lantern Work,” “Magic Lantern Career,” and “Influence of Beale, 1930-Present.” Due to the nature of the materials, this order was not maintained. The collection is instead arranged by material type. The material arrangement is as follows: paper, traditional glass slides, non-traditional glass slides, a ceramic plate and film strip, and a manuscript of the donor’s book.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Terry and Deborah Borton, 2013.

Accruals

No further accruals expected.

Related Materials

Other Institutions (external):

Additional records related to Joseph Boggs Beale and his work may be found in the following repositories:

C. W. Briggs Company Records are within the Louis Walton Sipley/American Museum of Photography Collection at the George Eastman Museum Richard and Ronay Menschel Library. https://www.eastman.org/c-w-briggs-company-records

Arthur Colen collection of Joseph Boggs Beale papers (Collection 2007) is held at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. https://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/b/Beale2007.html

The University of Texas holds a Joseph Boggs Beale Collection at the Harry Randsom Center https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00828

Bibliography

Borton, Terry and Deborah. Before the Movies. United Kingdom: John Libby Publishing Ltd., 2014.

Finding aid of C. W. Briggs Company Records. Louis Walton Sipley/American Museum of Photography Collection. Richard and Ronay Menschel Library, George Eastman Museum. Accessed June 13, 2024, from https://www.eastman.org/c-w-briggs-company-records

Philadelphia Sketch Club intern, email communications with Bri Cronin, 2019 .

Processing Information

The collection was donated in May of 2013, and processed in 2019. The original presentation of the materials was organized chronologically around Beale’s career as “Pre-Magic-Lantern Work,” “Magic Lantern Career,” and “Influence of Beale, 1930-Present”. Due to the nature of the materials, this order was not maintained.

The glass slides were housed within an archival slide box and surrounded by polyethylene foam, oversized materials stored within a flat box, and the manuscript stored within a standard letter-sized archival box. The ceramic plates were placed within envelopes, cushioned, and stored flat within a legal sized top-load box. Within the same box, the filmstrip was kept within its original container and stored above the plates. Objects 1 and 2 in Box 3 of the collection were removed from a cardboard tube labeled: “#1 Beale’s first published picture – baseball – Harper’s – AND #14 Netz poster,” presumably written by the donors. During a finding aid reassessment in 2024 the manuscript of Terry and Deborah Borton’s book, originally held within a three-ring-binder, was rehoused into a letter-sized archival box for preservation purposes. The contents’ original order was maintained, and the binder was disposed.