Stewart Family Ledger and Scrapbook, PC.2064

[Identification of item], in PC.2065. Stewart Family Sanitorium Ledger and Travel Scapbook, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, N.C., USA.

The collection consists of two volumes, including the Stewart Sanitorium Case Book, 1911-1913, and a travel scrapbook of Miss Eleanor Grace Stewart (1899-1927).

The volume called a case book includes entries dated from 1911-1913. It served as a register of patients who stayed various lengths of time, as they recovered from a variety of medical conditions. The book names physicians assigned to individual patients, with a brief diagnosis noted, but no confidential medical history. It appears that the book was not maintained by medical staff.

The travel scrapbook of Eleanor Grace Stewart describes and documents her travel during the summer of 1923 to New York City and to Europe. It includes her handwritten descriptions of landmarks, and contains programs, travel brochures, commercial postcards, and a small quantity of photographs--many with handwritten captions and notes, and a clipping naming her sisters, Miss Sara Stewart and Mrs. Robert Fowle of Washington, N.C. who met her upon her return to New York City and accompanied her home.

The travel volume is a cloth scrapbook, held by two cords, consisting of 147 pages, measuring 11 1/4 x 15 7/8 inches, and assembled by Eleanor Grace Stewart. She created the scrapbook to describe and document her travel during the summer of 1923 to New York City, to Montreal, Canada, across the Atlantic by ship to Europe, and back to New York City for time with her sisters before returning home to New Bern, North Carolina. Countries that Miss Stewart visited include Canada (Montreal); Scotland, England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. The scrapbook includes her handwritten descriptions of landmarks, and contains programs, travel brochures, commercial postcards, and a small quantity of photographs-many labelled with handwritten captions, observations, impressions, notes. There is a small clipping naming her sisters, Miss Sara Stewart and Katherine Stewart Fowle (Mrs. Robert Fowle) of Washington, N.C., who met her upon her return to New York City and accompanied her to plays and other events before returning home.

The programs retained in the volume include a variety of images and information, such as names, entertainments, schedules and advertisements. One is the passenger list of the Canadian Pacific S.S. Marburn. In addition to Miss Stewart, the passengers from North Carolina included several from Goldsboro: the Misses Mary F. De Vane, Alice and Florence Freeman, Helen Kirby, and Elizabeth Smith. Other mementoes from the voyage across the Atlantic are a wine list, a news/social letter, photographs, a program from the "Grand Concert" in the cabin dining room featuring addresses, piano, violin and vocal solos, comedians, community singing, and prizes for deck sports. There was also a collection taken in aid of the Seamen's Orphanage. Other programs include those of the return voyage on the Red Star Line S.S. Leeland, from Antwerp and Cherbourg to New York. There is also a ship luncheon menu, photographs, a Grand Concert program, which featured stories, recitations, solos, performances by the ship's orchestra, and dancing on the deck from 10 to 11 P.M. There are a travel itineraries prepared by the international travel firm, Thomas Cook & Son, Paris, and the Elliott Tours, Talladega, Alabama. Additionally, there are three pages with additional itinerary from the Elliott Tours, and covering the dates June 16 to August 11. Part of the excursions listed detailed a visit to Versailles, "where the Peace Treaty [ending World War I] was signed. Another day to Rheims, which was shelled for four years, and see the marvelous Cathedral in ruins, shall see the dug-outs, forts, etc." The scrapbook contents are filled with charming and picturesque images, yet the impact of World War I, is also present. For example, there is loose brown/sepia tinted newspaper clipping of a photograph and caption: "The Great Company of Those Who Made and Won the War: American Children in Paris get a last view of the Pantheon de La Guerre, which is being removed from Paris for exhibition at Madison Square Garden in New York."

The last section of the scrapbook includes numerous programs, with one from the Hotel Astor featuring the Roof Garden Restaurant; several from Broadway shows attended by Eleanor Grace Stewart, and her sisters, Sara Stewart, and Katherine Stewart Fowle. These include "Little Miss Bluebeard," starring Irene Bordoni, at Lyceum Theatre; "Wildflower," with Edith Day at the Casino; "The Passing Show of 1923" at the Winter Garden; "Seventh Heaven," with Beatrice Noyes and others at the Booth Theatre; and the "Ziegfeld Follies with Gilda Gray, Janet Megrew, and others, plus the music of Victor Herbert and others ("celebrating the American girl") at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Additionally, there are programs from the Church of the Transfiguration and the Marble Collegiate Church. Lastly, there is a Lyon's Theatre program, Morristown, N.J., featuring vaudeville and photoplays.

See the North Carolina Digital Collection, category of Travel Perspectives, for scanned images of the travel scrapbook of Eleanor Grace Stewart.

Volumes are inherently arranged in chronological order.

The Stewart family was prominent in early 20th century New Bern, Craven County. J.W. (John Washington) Stewart was owner of the Stewart Sanitorium and the Hazelton Hotel and other businesses located in and around New Bern. He was married to Sarah Weatherington and they had several children. Stewart's daughters included Eleanor Grace Stewart (1899-1927), Sara Stewart, and Mrs. Robert Fowle of Washington, N.C.

Stewart Family

Manners and customs

Voyages and Travels

World War, 1914-1918

Theater

Musicals

Craven County

New Bern (N.C.)

New York (N.Y.)

Montreal (Quebec)

England

Scotland

Europe

France

Gift of Riley Godley II