M.B. Brady's Day Book reply
Subject: M.B. Brady's Day Book reply
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 14:35: 10 -0400
From: TiogaMus@clarityconnect.com
Organization: Tioga County Historical Society
To: palm@n-jcenter.com
Dear Mr. Ryan:
Thank you for your e-mail letter of June 22, 1998. I apologize for the
tardiness of my reply.
Andrew Burgess lived in-Owego for a time with his wife, Eudora Tiffany
Burgess (I don't know the dates) .He died in December 1908. When Mrs.
Burgess died in December 1926, she willed the collection of Brady
photographs to the Tioga County Historical Society. It seems the
collection was given to Burgess when Brady was having financial
di£ficulties. According to our recrods, Brady also sold a set of
negatives to the E.& H.T. Anthony Co. (later Ansco, as I'm sure you
know) after they were used in the Photographic History of the Civil War
in 1911.
In 1949, Frederic C. Andrews discovered 44 original Mathew Brady glass
plate negatives in his grandfather's (Judge George F. Andrews) barn
attic in Owego (333 Front Street). George Andrews sold them to the Ansco
Company for an undisclosed amount. It seems Eudora Burgess was a
childhood friend of George's wife, Francella Williams Andrews, and
willed her effects to Francella upon Eudora's death in 1926. I have not
found in our records anything which refers to "many hundreds of wet
plate and wet plate copy negatives" from the Andrews barn. Could there
have been two separate discoveries?
The 333 Front Street home still stands, as does the carriage house in
which the negatives were found. It is currently being operated as an
antique store/private home but is in fine condition.
Mr. and Mrs. Burgess are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Owego. Andrews
had left Owego in the late 19th century and moved to Buffalo where he
designed magazines for rifles. He held many patents on-his Inventions.
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I hope I have answered your questions. Should you require any further
information, I would be pleased to help you.
Sincerely,
Joann K. Lindstrom
Director of Collections
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