Hilda Chase Foster Photographs, 1879-1981; bulk: 1898-1940 Guide to the Photograph Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Sources Collection Description Related Material Acquisition Information Organization of the Collection Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Hilda Chase Foster

Hilda Chase Foster (1891-1974) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster (1859-1955) and Mabel Chase Hill Foster (1864-1925). She was the fourth of nine children. Her siblings were Charles O. (1887-1933), Catherine H. (1888-1975), Reginald C. (1889-1945), Edith H. (1893-1977), Ruth M. (1894-1896), Caroline W. (b. 1896), Barbara (1899-1952), and John W. (1907-1913).

The family moved from Brookline to Charles River Village in Needham, Mass. in 1901. Their home became known as Castle Farm. Hilda attended school in Chestnut Hill until the age of twelve when she transferred to Miss Winsor's School on Beacon Street in Boston. After attending Miss Low and Miss Heywood's School in Stamford, Connecticut, Hilda made her debut on October 7th, 1910.

Hilda's parents maintained a summer home in Marblehead, Massachusetts for many years and her father was the owner of numerous yachts and sailing vessels. Hilda and her siblings grew up around the water and were all avid sailors.

In 1915 Hilda's brother Reginald went to Germany and Poland. He was employed by the Rockefeller Foundation and organized the care of orphans during World War I. He eventually joined the Red Cross in Europe, and convinced Hilda to do the same. She joined at the end of World War I, and arrived in Paris on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. She remained abroad for some time performing various Red Cross service jobs in France, Germany, and Poland. Reginald remained in Europe as well, and the two saw each other and traveled on occasion.

After Hilda returned to the United States she was briefly engaged to a man named "Bill" Wanton Dunnell. He was a family friend who Hilda met in Squam Lake, New Hampshire. The engagement was called off and Hilda never married, but Wanton's mother, Mrs. W.W. Dunnell remained her traveling companion, close friend, and correspondent.

Hilda spent a great part of the 1920's and 1930's traveling. She spent time in Westmeath, Ireland where she took part in fox hunting, and from 1934-1935 she embarked on a trek through Kashmir, traveled throughout Asia, and visited Australia and New Zealand.

When war was declared in Europe in 1939 Hilda returned to work as an ambulance driver in Cambridge, England. Her brother Reginald also returned to Europe.

Upon her return to the United States in 1942, she continued her work for the war effort. She worked on the assembly line at the Hood Rubber Company in Watertown, Mass., and at the Commercial Filters Corporation in Boston.

In 1957 she made her home in Norwich, Vermont where she died in 1974.

Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster and Mabel Hill Foster

Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster was born in 1859 in Brookline, Mass. He was the second son of Charles Orin Foster and Caroline Blanchard Candler Foster. The family briefly lived in Cuba, but returned to Brookline where Caroline gave birth to three daughters.

His father was president of Oriental Powder Mills and president of the Boston Sugar Refinery Company. Charles went to the William N. Eayrs School in Brookline, and then to Harvard where he graduated in 1881. He immediately entered his father's business, rising to become superintendent of the sugar refinery. He was a sportsman at college, and was a lifelong sailing and polo enthusiast. He died in 1955.

Mabel Hill was born in 1864, one of four daughters to William Henry Hill and Catherine Cogswell Chase Hill. Her father was a director of the First National Bank of Boston, and a railroad investor. Mabel died in 1925.

Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster and Mabel Hill were married on October 7th, 1885 at Saint Paul's Church in Brookline, Mass.

Please note the Family Tree on pages 224-225 of The Memoirs of Hilda Chase Foster.

Sources

Morris, Anne Farlow. The Memoirs of Hilda Chase Foster, 1891-1974. Nashua : Puritan Press, c1982.

Winsor School. Graduate Club. The Overseas War Record of the Winsor School, 1914-1919. [Boston? : s.n., 1919?]

Collection Description

The Hilda Chase Foster photographs, 1879-1981, consist of 8 boxes and 1 oversize box containing 2064 photographs, 1044 film photonegatives, 20 color phototransparencies, 4 Kodachrome reels, and 146 color slides. The collection also contains 92 postcards and 9 film reels that are stored onsite in separate collections, the Hilda Chase Foster postcards (Photo. Coll. 16.1) and the Hilda Chase Foster films (Photo. Coll. 22.1).

These photographs were gathered to supply information for The Memoirs of Hilda Chase Foster, written by Anne Farlow Morris, a grandniece of Hilda Chase Foster. The memoir was privately printed in 1982 for the Foster family and friends. A copy of the memoir is in the book collection of the MHS. Some of the photographs in this collection are copy prints made by Anne Farlow Morris from original negatives and photographs taken by Hilda Chase Foster.

The bulk of the collection dates from 1898-1940. 8 albums of photographs taken by Hilda Chase Foster between 1898 and 1934 depict her childhood in Brookline, Needham, and Marblehead, Mass., as well as her travels to Squam Lake, N.H. and her time spent living in Ireland from 1929-1934. The loose photographs in the collection include individual and group portraits of various members of the Foster family, including Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster, Mabel Chase Hill Foster, Hilda Chase Foster, and Hilda's brothers and sisters. There are also a number of loose photographs, color slides, and film reels from Hilda's travels abroad in Ireland, India, Europe, Mexico, Asia, and the western United States between 1908 and 1950. The collection also includes photographs and Kodachrome reels of the Foster family's homes at Brookline, Mass., at Castle Farm and the "Pink House" in Needham, Mass., and at the Foster family summer homes in Marblehead, Mass., including photos of sailing and sailboats. There are also a number of photos of Hilda's Red Cross service jobs in Europe during World War I and work as an ambulance driver in England during World War II, as well as of her home in Norwich, Vt.

Most of the photographs in this collection were taken by Hilda Chase Foster.

This collection includes cabinet cards, tintypes, color slides, Kodachrome reels (dye coupler phototransparencies), film negatives, color film phototransparencies, film reels, and paper-based photographs.

Related Material

The Massachusetts Historical Society holds the following manuscript collections relating to the Hilda Chase Foster photographs and the Foster family:

Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster diaries, 1901-1955. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0101.

Charles Henry Wheelwright papers, 1957-2002.

Hilda Chase Foster papers, 1873-1974. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0032.

Acquisition Information

This collection was removed from the Hilda Chase Foster papers, which were given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Anne Farlow Morris, May 2001.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series. The series and subseries title links lead to the corresponding series or subseries in the Detailed Description of the Collection.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Hilda Chase Foster photographs, Photo. Coll. 143, Massachusetts Historical Society Photo Archives.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.