Nichols Family Papers, 1884-1962, n.d.
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Administrative/Biographical History
Born in Bethany, Nebraska on 30 September 1893, Ruth Alexander Nichols navigated her studies at Oberlin College, a prolonged engagement, and a first marriage ending prematurely with her husband’s death to craft an eminently successful career as a photographer. Her career was marked not only by her success but by innovations that led magazine publishers to demand her work – in particular, her use of “Cabro” prints and ordinary children and babies set in natural poses were revolutionary. Her work was almost entirely for commercial use, beginning with her first job writing and photographing college publicity brochures in 1919 and resulting in her establishment of a company dedicated to taking photographs of babies, parents, and children.
The daughter of Benjamin Alexander and Ida May Smith, Ruth Alexander Nichols displayed easily interest in writing and photography. Her first photographic efforts focused on the natural world, and she developed a skill for catching small wild animals on film without disturbing them. This skill foretold the career she was to build later in life, in which her patience and attention to natural lighting and details was translated onto new subjects – babies. Ruth Alexander Nichols ultimately became known as “the baby photographer,” who would seek out models by marching up to new mothers in supermarket aisles.
Her career was not only the product of talent and interest, though, but in fact arose from necessity. After moving to Oberlin in 1911 and attending college there, matriculating in 1915, Ruth Alexander Nichols found herself alone with a fiancé away at war. Herman Nichols, a fellow graduate of Oberlin, serves as a member of the Armed Services in World War I. While he was away, Ruth Nichols attempted to pursue domestic life, teaching in a public school in Hiawatha, Kansas from 1916-17.This soon grew painfully boring for her, though, and she sought other employment. She found a far more interesting pursuit in a job with a publicity agency, which employed her to photograph and write brochures for college campuses. This gave her the opportunity to travel as well as use her technical skills.
In 1920, she and Herman Nichols were at last married, and they settled in Brooklyn, NY to raise a family. Herman Nichols began work as an attorney, and Ruth gave birth to her first daughter, Jane Ellis Nichols, in 1922. Sadly, the marriage and family were not to last long: Herman Nichols died in 1924, just prior to the birth of their second daughter, Anne Townsend Nichols. Left alone, Ruth Alexander Nichols was forced to rely upon her skills and experience to support her family and earn an income – not an ordinary task for a woman of the 1920s. When she offered to sell candid, naturally-posed and lit photographs of her own daughters to one publishing house, it led to increasing interest among other magazine publishers. By 1925, more and more publishers, including those at Women’s Home Companion and Good Housekeeping, were buying and requesting photographs. As her business and reputation as a photographer for magazines grew, she added to her earnings by taking personal portraits as well.
Her career took another large step nearly five years later, when advertising companies began to employ her. This led to accounts with Johnson and Johnson and Clapps Baby Food, among others. A characteristic style had emerged in her photographs that made them instantly recognizable: she chose to photograph babies and children in the midst of their activities, necessitating the use of ordinary children as models, rather than those who had already been trained to smile at the camera. She used a great deal of ambient lighting and focused directly on the subject’s face, making for an attention-grabbing look. Finally, she worked with the technique of “Cabro” printing, a color-printing technique that required a long process of development and resulted in incredibly detailed prints. This technique was too expensive and time-consuming to be used frequently, and was eventually abandoned by the era’s photographers. It did, however, produce very high quality photographs unlike any other printing process.
Her daughters were a valuable resource to Nichols; without her candid portraits of them in infancy, she might never have broken into professional photography. Their role in her career did not end there, though. Jane Ellis and Anne Townsend were both pressed into service as photographic assistants once they had grown too old to be used as subjects. Eventually, both daughters attended Oberlin College – Jane from 1939-41, and Anne a graduate in the class of 1947. By 1933, before they left home, Ruth Alexander Nichols had set up her own indoor studio in Westfield, New Jersey and employed two other photographers, Elizabeth and Oscar Bro, to help her with her business. With this expanded business, Nichols continues to receive commissions for photographs, published illustrated children’s books, and produced photographs for use in both magazine features and advertising campaigns.
In 1935, Nichols married again. Her husband’s name was Brewster Sperry Beach, and the two has maintained correspondence during his military service in World War II prior to their marriage. Brewster Beach worked in journalism and public relations, and Nichols herself continued to work prolifically throughout the 1950s. Nichols retired from professional photography around 1960, and died in Summit, New Jersey on 22 April 1970.
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The papers of the Nichols Family primarily document the career of Ruth Alexander Nichols as a photographer and businesswoman and range from letters to and from diverse family members to photographs and negatives. These materials provide an example of a successful commercial photographer who was almost entirely self-taught. Ruth Alexander Nichols began her career as a photographer out of necessity, finding herself widowed in the first half of the twentieth century, an age when single motherhood and the pursuit of an independent career were unusual and difficult roles for women.
Nichols’s records of sale are one way of grasping the popular success she was eventually able to accrue, as they display the volume and variety of buyers for her photographs. As well as highlighting Ruth Alexander Nichols’s abilities and achievements, and offering insight into the mechanics of her business, the collection sheds light on the work of another successful semi-professional woman: May Ellis Nichols, her mother-in-law. May Ellis Nichols was a fairly prolific writer whose articles on travel and experiences abroad were published in a number of periodicals, such as The Sketch Book Magazine, during the late nineteenth century into the early 1900s. She also collaborated with her daughter-in-law on articles in which the photography was done by Ruth A. Nichols and set to text written by May Ellis Nichols.
Ruth Alexander Nichols wrote and illustrated some of her own books as well, including Babies and Betty and Dolly, and these were designed primarily as children’s books. Her early photographs of animals, such as those in “Into the Land of the Chipmunk” published in National Geographic, reflected the abiding patience and skill that enabled her to work so closely with babies and children. Her approach to photographing these subjects, using ordinary children in many unposed and naturally-lighted scenes, was entirely unique. Another unique aspect of her work was her use of “Carbro” printing, a painstaking color printing process which took over twenty-four hours to complete, but which resulted in extremely detailed, lifelike prints. Such a process was used to produce cover shots for McCall’s and other popular magazines, helping to propel Ruth Alexander Nichols’s career into a realm of extreme popularity.
In addition to professional materials of these two women, such as the rare and valuable “Carbro” prints and copies of many magazines in which her photographs appeared, the collection includes a lengthy personal correspondence series that spans two generations and was generated by members of both the Nichols and Alexander families, as well as Brewster Sperry Beach, Nichols’s second husband. The collection also contains additional personal materials such as scrapbooks, daybooks, and journals, including one written by Herman Nichols during his time as a combatant in World War I. His 1918 wartime journal documents his experiences beginning with base training in the United States, through his voyage to England and duties while in service there and ultimate dischargement from the services. In it, Nichols discusses news about the Allies’ successes and defeats as well as detailing his impressions of the towns and camps in which he stayed and the activities he shared with other soldiers.
Other journals include the travel and college-day diaries of Herman Nichols and the travel diaries of May Ellis Nichols. The latter provide detail regarding the daily experiences and events of the countries she visited, including France. Journals like the “Excelsior” and “Line A Day” diaries kept by May Ellis Nichols between 1893 and 1954, were designed to accommodate brief entries and contain commentary on pedestrian activities, rather than longer descriptions.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
The papers are organized into thirteen series: 1. Personal Correspondence of Ruth A. Nichols, 2. Personal Correspondence of Herman Nichols, 3. Personal and Professional Correspondence of May Ellis Nichols, 4. Personal Correspondence Sent by Louis Nichols, 5. Personal Correspondence of Brewster Sperry Beach, 6. Professional Correspondence of Ruth A. Nichols, 7. Diaries, Daybooks and Journals, 8. Business and Financial Materials of Ruth Alexander Nichols, 9. Scrapbooks, 10. Select Works of Ruth Alexander Nichols and May Ellis Nichols, 11. Writings, 12. Computer Diskettes, and 13. Photographs.
Series I. Personal Correspondence of Ruth A. Nichols, 1911-24, 1928, 1930-31, 1934
The personal correspondence of Ruth Alexander Nichols consists of letters, 1911-34, sent and received between Nichols and her eventual first husband, Herman Nichols, Ida May Smith and Benjamin Johnson Alexander, her parents, and May Ellis Nichols and Louis Nichols, her parents-in-law. The letters primarily concern the daily lives of the family members, and include the courtship letters between Ruth Alexander and Herman Nichols, as well as those letters written during their long period of separation while affianced.
Series II. Personal Correspondence of Herman Nichols, 1913-23
The second series consists of the personal correspondence of Herman Nichols, 1913–23, and mainly comprises letters sent to Ruth Alexander Nichols and those sent to his parents. Of particular interest are his letters to these individuals written during his time abroad in combat during World War I, in 1917–18, as a member of the U.S. Army. He wrote frequently to his loved ones at home, and described his daily life as a combatant abroad. These letters provide a personal insight into life in wartime.
Series III. Personal and Professional Correspondence of May Ellis Nichols, 1878-1932
The third series is the personal correspondence of May Ellis Nichols, mother of Herman Nichols, dating 1878–1932. As well as containing letters written to and received from family members, such as her husband Louis and daughter Jane, this series contains correspondence from publishers related to her published writing. These letters were mainly written and received during the later period of her life, from 1902 to 1930, and detail business terms for the publication of her written articles in a variety of periodicals such as The Sketch Book Magazine.
Series IV. Personal Correspondence Sent by Louis Nichols, 1886-96, 1900-24, n.d.
Series 4 consists of correspondence sent and received by Louis Nichols, husband of May Nichols. The bulk of these letters were written to May Nichols, many during their courtship. Additional letters to Ruth Nichols, his daughter-in-law, are filed here.
Series V. Personal Correspondence of Brewster Sperry Beach, 1933-45
The personal correspondence of Brewster Sperry Beach, second husband of Ruth Alexander Nichols, makes up series 5. These letters, most sent to or received from Ruth Alexander Nichols, span from 1933–1945. Many were written prior to their marriage, especially during Beach’s military service in the Pacific during World War II.
Series VI. Professional Correspondence of Ruth Alexander Nichols, 1919, 1930-31, 1935, 1947-54, 1957-58
The final series of correspondence contains exclusively professional correspondence of Ruth Alexander Nichols. Included are letters from publishers and admirers written between 1919 and 1958, a period during which Ruth Alexander Nichols’s career as a photographer began to flourish, and many publications of her photographs were published in magazines such as McCall’s and Good Housekeeping.
Series VII. Diaries, Daybooks and Journals, 1891-95, 1898-1901, 1904, 1906-34
This series is subdivided into two subseries: the diaries, daybooks, and journals of May Ellis Nichols and those of other family members. The first subseries includes daily diaries, such as the “Excelsior,” “Line A Day,” and “Standard” diaries, as well as a personal engagement book and guest book for a cottage at Kenka Lake. These diaries span the time frame 1891-1934. Also included are travel diaries from journeys taken by May Ellis Nichols in 1904, 1909, 1928, and 1933. Some of the travel diaries are handmade, using individual leaves of paper bound by metal rings.
The second subseries includes a travel diary belonging to Jane Nichols, documenting initial and subsequent trips to France. Of particular note in this series are the diaries of Herman Nichols, kept during his time as a soldier abroad in World War I.
Series VIII. Financial and Business Materials, c. 1925-62
This series primarily consists of index cards which were Ruth Alexander Nichols’s preferred method of tracking the sales of her photographs. Each index card describes the subject of the print (i.e. “baby in bath”) and the dates and names involved with its purchase. Also included are thumbnail-sized images and elaborations on the rights of ownership of the photographs. For details on the contents of each box of index cards, please refer to the addendum, “Business and Financial Materials – Index Cards.”
In addition to these index cards (all c. 1925-42) Series 8 includes financial statements on Ruth Alexander Nichols’s photographic business produced by her accountant, Charles Reydel. Finally, eight business ledgers, containing records of Ruth Alexander’s business transactions and dated 1932-62, complete the financial series.
Series IX. Scrapbooks, 1891-1914
This series consists of scrapbooks compiled by Ruth A. Nichols (1891-1914) and Herman Nichols (1891-1913). The scrapbooks contain photographs and memorabilia that document their student days at Oberlin. Some notes and signatures from friends date from years before and/or after those spent at Oberlin.
Series X. Select Works of Ruth Alexander Nichols and May Ellis Nichols, c. 1906-1980s
The Select Works series provides examples which exemplify the achievements in the professional careers of both Ruth Alexander Nichols and May Ellis Nichols. Many magazine covers, featured photographic essays, and other examples of Ruth Nichols’s professional photography are included. A catalogue of available prints by Ruth Alexander Nichols exists in multiple copies within the series. Also included are large-format prints of her work, and of particular note are the thirty-three included “Carbro” prints. Many more negatives and prints, including duplicates and similar shots, as well as unpublished or less-widely circulated images, are included in the photographic series (Series 13).
In addition, Ruth Alexander Nichols and her mother-in-law, May Ellis Nichols, collaborated as writer and photographer on several published articles included in this series. May Ellis Nichols published a good number of essays and articles on traveling abroad, as well as stories, in a variety of publications; here, the bulk of these are compiled in a single volume called Some Leaves from my Note-Books. More examples and additional copies of her writings are included in Series 11.
Series XI. Writings, 1831-1945
The writings series is subdivided into four subseries: writings by May Ellis Nichols, 1926-35, writings by Herman Nichols, c. 1917-18, writings by and about Ruth A. Nichols, 1911-45, and writings by others, 1831-1938.
May Ellis Nichols had success in publishing a number of articles in assorted periodicals, particularly The Sketch Book Magazine and The Cunarder, and produced several unpublished books for historical clubs and societies. The writings of Herman Nichols consist of only one folder of poetry, but are of great historical significance because they reflect his experiences as an American soldier during World War I and his reflections on the images of war.
The writings of Ruth Alexander Nichols include both books for children that she wrote and illustrated with her own photography and the article “Into the Land of the Chipmunk,” which she wrote and photographed for National Geographic. Also included are books of Ruth Alexander Nichols’s baby photographs with text written by others.
Finally, the writings series includes books owned by the family members, such as medical and religious texts. Some of the religious texts were used as family almanacs or genealogical charts, and include scribblings or clippings placed therein by members of the Alexander or Nichols family.
Series XII. Computer Diskettes (content, 1885-1930)
This series consists of one box of computer diskettes assembled by Ruth Alexander Nichols’s daughter, Jane Spragg. On the disks can be found transcriptions of Nichols and Alexander family letters, 1885-1930. Also included is Spragg’s biography of Ruth Alexander Nichols.
Series XIII. Photographs, ca. 1919-1960
The photographic series makes up the bulk of the holdings in this collection. It represents a more complete selection of the professional work of Ruth Alexander Nichols, offering a comprehensive view of the photography with which she attained significant commercial success. The series is subdivided into three subseries. The first contains printed photographs in varying sizes and formats, including one box of personal photographs of the Nichols family members. The second subseries contains exclusively “Carbro” prints, most of which are in large format with vivid color that has survived aging. These prints are the result of a rare process that was ultimately given up by professional photographers because of its labor-intensive nature. The last subseries contains negatives and transparencies of the professional photographs of Ruth Alexander Nichols. This subseries is particularly lengthy and comprehensive, in many cases containing duplicates or multiple takes of a single subject or shot. The materials of the photographic series offer an in-depth example of the photographs of Ruth Alexander Nichols.