Frederick Bennett Wright Collection, 1893-1905, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
Frederick Bennett Wright (1873-1922) was the son of George Frederick and Hulda Maria (Day) Wright, born in Andover, Massachusetts on November 4, 1873. His father had received both his A.B. and theological degree at Oberlin College, and returned to the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1881 as Professor of New Testament Language and Literature. George and Hulda Wright had four children, all Oberlin graduates. Frederick Bennett Wright enrolled at Oberlin in 1893, and graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in 1897. For two years after graduation he was enrolled as a graduate student in geology at Johns Hopkins University, and during this time was a student observer for the U.S. Weather Bureau and was also connected with the Maryland Geological Survey.
In 1900-1901 Frederick Bennett Wright accompanied his father on a trip across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, his father’s most ambitious voyage among several with the purpose of making firsthand observation of geological conditions. The elder Wright was assisted by his son in the work of producing a two-volume work entitled Asiatic Russia published in 1902. In the author’s preface, George Frederick Wright credits his son Frederick for most of the photographs that appear in the publication, as well as the chapter on climate and assistance in preparing the chapter on flora and fauna.
George Frederick Wright was Assistant Editor for the archeology journal Records of the Past, published by its parent organization Records of the Past Exploration Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., from its creation in 1901 until 1903. He was Editor-in-Chief with his son Frederick as Assistant Editor from 1903 until 1911, when he was listed as Editor Emeritus while Frederick ascended to the Editorship. Frederick’s sister Helen M. Wright, a 1902 graduate of Oberlin, was listed as Assistant Editor in 1911-1913. Frederick Bennett Wright authored several articles for Records of the Past, including “The Ming Tombs,” April 1902; “Ancient Samarkand,” September 1902; “The Mastodon and Mammoth Contemporary with Man,” August 1903, and “Ancient Caravan Routes of China,” June 1904. In 1914 Records of the Past merged with Art and Archeology, and at that point the Wright editorship ceased.
Frederick Bennett Wright married Sarah Ann Carrick in 1907; together they had five children. In 1915 Wright became a lecturer for the National Homecrofter’s Society. In 1916-1917 Frederick was a free-lance lecturer and manufacturer of educational sets of lantern slides, an indication of his continuing interest in photography. From 1918 to 1922 he was engaged in Y.M.C.A. educational work at Camp Humphreys, Virginia, and at Walter Reed Hospital.
Frederick Bennett Wright died of pneumonia on December 12, 1922.
SOURCES CONSULTED
The student files of Frederick Bennett Wright and Helen M. Wright (RG 28).
Finding Guide for the George Frederick Wright Papers, RG 30/21.
Records of the Past Exploration Society, Records of the Past, volumes 1-7, 10-12, accessed from the Harvard University Open Collections Program, “Expeditions and Discoveries,” http://fig.lib.harvard.edu/fig/?bib=000132553, 3/17/2011.
George Frederick Wright, Asiatic Russia, Volumes I and II. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1902.
Author: Anne Cuyler Salsich Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The Frederick Bennett Wright Collection consists primarily of photographs taken in Russian and the Far East ca. 1900-1901, some of which appear in the two-volume work Asiatic Russia, 1902, authored in Oberlin by his father George Frederick Wright and with a chapter by the younger Wright. Some of the photographs appear in articles written by Frederick Bennett Wright for issues of the periodical Records of the Past in the early 1900s. F.B. Wright is presumed to be the photographer for the collection, since his father credited him for their production in his preface to Asiatic Russia.
Textual material in the collection comprises offprints of articles, an undated typescript, a printed statement made by Frederick Bennett Wright to the Supreme Court, and print outs of articles by Wright from an online source for the journal Records of the Past.
The collection has been organized into two series: Photographs and Writings.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series I. Photographs, 1893, ca. 1900-1901 (0.34 l.f.)
Series I comprises one hundred and fifty-nine photographic prints, all but three in 6 ¼” x 8 ¼” format. These cover images of Russia, Siberia, China, Turkestan, Mongolia, and Manchuria from the early years of the 1900s. All of these have printed labels affixed to the backs carrying a unique 4-digit number, a place name, short caption, and the credit line “Records of the Past Exploration Society, 215 3rd Ave., Washington, D.C.” Two prints taken in Russia and Manchuria are in different papers and sizes, and do not have the printed labels; inscriptions in ink appear on the backs identifying their subjects. A cabinet card portrait of Frederick Bennett Wright taken in 1893 by a Cleveland photographer is included in the series.
Series II. Writings, 1896, 1902-1905, n.d. (0.06 l.f.)
One typed essay on music in Minusinsk, Russia accompanied the photographs. It was not signed but the name “Miss Helen Wright” (Frederick Bennett Wright’s sister) appears in pencil on the back. This comprises the only manuscript material in the collection. It may have been authored by George Frederick Wright for his book Asiatic Russia, in which Minusinsk is discussed in several different chapters.
Three articles by Frederick Bennett Wright published in the journal Records of the Past in 1902 and 1904 were printed from a library collection online. These articles relate to or have illustrations from the photographs in the collection. An original offprint of his article “The Mastodon and Mammoth Contemporary with Man,” with an attached business card from Wright as Assistant Editor of Records of the Past was transferred from the Oberlin College Library Special Collections Department. Also from Special Collections are two additional printed items, one being an offprint of an article by Frederick Bennett Wright entitled “The Origin of the Wind Gap,” this time from the American Geologist, 1896, the year before his graduation from Oberlin. The other item is a statement for the Supreme Court dated 18 January 1905 that refutes statements made in a circular by the former editor of Records of the Past, Rev. Henry Mason Baum.
INVENTORY
Series I. Photographs, 1893, ca. 1900-1901 (0.34 l.f.)
Box 1
Portrait (cabinet card) of Frederick Bennett
Wright, 1893
Photographs (156, black-and-white) labeled
by the Records of the Past Exploration
Society, 6 ¼” x 8 ¼”, ca. 1900-01
Russia and Trans-Caspia
Manchuria & Mongolia
Northern China
Turkestan
Siberia
Photographs without labels (2, black-and-white),
ca. 1900-01
Cossacks, Tieling, Manchuria (4 3/8” x 6 ¼”)
Greek church, Russia (6 ¾” x 9”)
Series II. Writings, 1896, 1902-1905, n.d. (0.06 l.f.)
Box 1 (cont.)
Typescript (one page) on music in Minusinsk,
Russia, n.d.
Frederick Bennett Wright, “The Origin of the Wind
Gap,” The American Geologist, Vol. XVIII,
August 1896 (offprint)
Articles by Frederick Bennett Wright in Records
of the Past
“The Ming Tombs,” Vol. I, Part IV, April 1902
“Ancient Samarkand,” Vol. I, Part IX,
September 1902
“The Mastodon and Mammoth Contemporary
with Man,” Vol. II, Part VIII, August
1903 (offprint).
“Ancient Caravan Routes of China,” Vol. III,
Part VI, June 1904
“Replying to Dr. Baum’s Circular of Dec. 5 and the Notice
Appended to the Prospectus of the Institute of
Historical Research …,” statement made to the
Clerk of the Supreme Court by Frederick Bennett
Wright on January 18, 1905
Item-level inventory of labeled photographs by Frederick Bennett Wright
Negative numbers and information were transcribed from labels pasted to the back sides.
Mongolia (1)
1495 Han Oor – towers of Chinese wall on Mongolian border
Trans-Caspia (1)
1365 Krasnovodsk – veiled woman
Northern China (32)
1396 Chee Foo [Chefoo] – Chee Foo from the Presbyterian Mission
1397 Chee Foo [Chefoo] – view from Presbyterian Mission
1399 Chee Foo [Chefoo] – low tide
1419 Great Caravan Route – man drawing water for the mules
on the road halfway from Peking to Kalgan
1450 Ming tombs – pack mule
1451 Ming tombs – Pailow – Triple Gate
1452 Ming tombs – old bridge on the way up to
1453 Ming tombs – detail of carving on marble - Pailow
1455 Ming tombs – donkey with stone roller
1457 Ming tombs – elephant standing (statue)
1461 Ming tombs – statue of military man, approach to
1462 Ming tombs – row of animalas, Chi-Ling
1463 Ming tombs – row of animals, horse
1467 Ming tombs – farming scenes near – donkeys and drag
1468 Ming tombs – oxen and drag
1469 Ming tombs – Chinese wooden plow
1470 Ming tombs – carrying vegetables
1472 Ming tombs – entrance to Yung Low’s tomb
1475 Ming tombs – tablet hall of Yung Low – rear view
1477 Ming tombs – boulders in dry bed of stream crossed
on way to tombs
1479 Nan Kan – camels in an inn yard
1490 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – brick yard
1492 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – Fold in strata, Castle Rock
1496 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – single tower and part of wall
1504 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – A Mongol house above
1511 Shi-wan-tse [Shiwan?] – upper end of Northern China
1514 Kalgan {Zhangjiakou] – carts
1515 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – entrance to Glen Gulick
1518 Ming Tombs – tilted strata S.W. of
1521 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – Chinese carpenter
1522 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – Chinese carpenter sawing
1529 Kalgan [Zhangjiakou] – Typical valley on Mongolian
frontier near Kalgan
Manchuria (21)
1534 Teiling [Tieling] – Russian compound
1535 Teiling [Tieling] – Russian buildings
1536 Teiling [Tieling] – Russian Chief Engineer’s house
1539 Teiling [Tieling] – Russian tarantass
1544 Teiling [Tieling] – coolies on the railroad embankment
1547 Teiling [Tieling] – two Cassocks of the Don
1549 Three Cossack guards
1550 Chinese plow and Mongolian horse
1552 Northern Manchurian town
1556 Schala-Ho – ferry on the
1559 Teiling [Tieling] – drawing telegraph poles for the
Chinese Eastern Railroad
1560 Lao-sha-ku – railroad ties being loaded by Chinese
1565 Lao-sha-ku – banks of the Sungari [Songhua] at – are low
1566 Lao-sha-ku – box car on Chinese Eastern Railroad
1567 Korforskai – general station and engineer’s house
1568 Harbin – railroad station at
1569 Harbin – hotel in 1900 (back view)
1591 Now-mo-dui – interior of a Russian Cossack’s room
in the permanent barracks
1592 Now-mo-dui – caravan leaving
1596 Sangari [Songhua] River – Russian steamer
4353 Port Arthur [Lushun] – signing the treaty for the
Chinese Easter Railroad
Siberia (55)
448 Amoor [Amur] River - crowd of women at the landing at
Ennokepgebskoy
460 Amoor [Amur] River – open tarantass
488 Amoor [Amur] River – peasant woman on shore
491 Amoor [Amur] River – Russian travelers cooking while
steamer is taking on wood
495 Amoor [Amur] River – Russian children on board
a river steamer
503 Blagoveysehensk [Blagoveshchensk] – Chinese town
20 miles west of – being burned by the Russians in 1900
574 Town 120 miles below Stretensk
616 Amoor [Amur] River – steamer at Ignaschera
620 Ignascheva – ruins of Chinese village
627 Amoor [Amur] River – near the head of the river
667 Amoor [Amur] River
691 Amoor [Amur] River – pushing steamer off the bar
701 Siberia
702 Shilka River – 3 children at steamer landing
704 Shilka River – man holding his little girl
726 Chita – dogs
740 Chita – part of a market
779 Siberia – Lake Baikal
784 Lake Baikal – beggar and man in a cart
786 Lake Baikal – peasants on steamer crossing the lake
837 Irkontsk [Irkutsk] – women in the market
838 Irkutsk – market, cucumbers for sale
839 Irkutsk – bread for sale in market
866 Irkutsk – washing on the Angara, monastery in distance
874 Irkutsk – soldiers drilling
923 Krasnoyarsk – railroad bridge
928 Yenisei River – raft
934 Yenisei River – rocks and cliffs 8 miles above
Krasnoyarsk
944 Yenisei River – captain of river steamer
962 Minusinsk – washing black wool at river
975 Minusinsk – washing black wool in the river
991 Omsk – looking up the Om River
1026 Irtish [Irtysh] River
1029 Irtish [Irtysh] River – little girl and baby
1039 Pavlodara [Pavlodar] – post station and tarantass
1056 Semipalatinsk [Semey]
1058 Semipalatinsk [Semey] – 2 boys (Tartar)
1061 Semipalatinsk [Semey] – interior Post house
1110 Peschpek [Bishkek]
1115 Semipalatinsk [Semey] – fastening sheep
1117 Post road to Tashkend [Tashkent] – sheep
1121 Post road – Russian boy and girl on donkeys
1123 Camels at town of Baskanskoy
1125 Baskanskoy – sleighs parked for summer
1128 Post road – Tartar camp where millet has been sifted
1134 Post station beyond Kopal [Kapal]
1145 Greasing the wheels of a tarantass – Post road
1179 Vernui, mountains
1204 Aulieata [Aulie-Ata] – Tartar boy
1207 Morning scene at an inn a Aulieatu [Aulie-Ata] – Tartars
4362a Vladivostock [Vladivostok]
4640 Lake Baikal
4641 Baikal – Lake
4359 Vladivostock [Vladivostok] – panorama no. 2
4360 Vladivostock [Vladivostok] – panorama of harbor in 1900 no. 3
Russia (13)
1352 Baku – street of oil refineries
3410 Baku – general view of city
3413 Baku – burning oil well
3415 Caucasus – military road above Milety
3418 Caucasus – family moving, precipitous defile in mountain
3422 Caucasus – Ananur on the Oragwa River
3424 Caucasus – military roads, sheds
3428 Caucasus - Dariel Gorge – river below
3430 Caucasus - Dariel Gorge
3442 Moscow – Church of the Annunciation
3620 St. Petersburg – monument of Minine and Pojarsky 1818
3624 St. Petersburg – Nevsky
3772 Crimea – Kertsch [Kerch] – chariot frescoes on walls
in Kourgan at
Turkestan (30)
1090 Verni – stone mound 100 miles west of Verni
1107 Alexander Mountains – street scene in Tartar town
at base of the mountains
1164 Post Road – Post house family
1189 Vernui – beggar
1190 Vernui – Russian apple woman
1223 Tashkend [Tashkent] – Hill of Loess
1228 Tashkend [Tashkent] – street in Sart
1235 Tashkend [Tashkent] – bazaar
1247 Tashkend [Tashkent] – court in mosque adjoining the bazaar
1250 Tashkend [Tashkent] – buying grapes by weight, water-worn
stones being used as weights
1253 Chemkeut – Tartar boy and a dongla
1273 Tashkend [Tashkent] – two old Sarts on horseback
1275 Tashkend [Tashkent] – grain market
1291 Samarkand – a side addition on Timur’s tomb
1309 Samarkand – barber shop in the Righistan
1311 Samarkand – a Sart with his horse in the street
1312 Samarkand – corner of a side court – “The Tiger” of the Righistan
1313 Samarkand – court off from the Righistan
1317 Samarkand – East side of the Righistan
1318 Samarkand – from the Righistan towards the low dome of the
bazaar
1321 Samarkand – the “General’s Tomb”
1324 Samarkand – the Bebekan from the wall of the Righistan
1325 Samarkand – court off from the Righistan
1326 Samarkand – from the market towards one of the summer palaces
1327 Samarkand – tombs in the fortifications – back of the tombs of the
Timur’s wives
1328 Samarkand – a single tomb
1329 Samarkand – a number of tombs
1333 Samarkand – a corner of the Righistan showing the booths
and shops
1335 Samarkand – ruins of the Bebekan from the market
1347 Samarkand – filling a water skin