As a family genealogist, we get so excited when we can find a lovely photo or an image of one of our early ancestors. It feels like Christmas when you unexpectedly discover something that you can look at and see the person that you have only before been able to imagine.
I have quite a lot of information about my great grandparents, David Alba Scribner and his wife, Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner, and many photos of David who was a clipper ship captain in the late 1800’s.
Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner was born in Baltimore in 1848, and both her father and her grandfather were also clipper ship captains. I expect that being a part of that mariner community is how she first met Capt David Alba Scribner. David and Virginia married in 1876, and in the early years of their marriage Virginia and their children would accompany David on the ship as they traveled between ports worldwide (see my last blog post). Virginia sailed with David for 17 years living aboard ship in the small captain’s quarters with her husband and small children.
The Scribner family could
afford to have portrait photos made, and were often in port locations where
photographers were aplenty. What
confounds me is that I have several photos of Capt Scribner at various ages
that I believe were taken for the family to have in the times while he was away.
(I plan to share some in a later blog post.)
But I can’t seem to find a good photo of his wife, Virginia, or even a
photo of David & Virginia together. I would think that Virginia would have also
had her photo made for her mother and sister to have during her absences when
she accompanied David on voyages, and in later years for David to take with him
during his voyages without her.
There is a family photo album that Capt Scribner first had aboard the ship, St Lucie, which he sailed during the years 1870-1873 and again 1875-1878. The album includes many carte de visite photos of friends and family – but, while I can identify several of the photos as David Scribner’s siblings and family, there are also many that are unidentified and not labeled. Because I don’t know what Virginia looked like when she was young, I suspect that I might even have a photo of her among the photos in David’s photo album. It just seems so reasonable that David would have a portrait photo of Virginia to keep with him. Captain Scribner continued his ship’s voyages for another decade after the family settled in Brooklyn so that the children could attend formal schooling. He retired from the sea in 1900.
Capt David A Scribner died in 1911, however Virginia lived many more years until 1940. Virginia and David’s son, Henry Dickinson Scribner, was a very good amateur photographer long before his mother died in 1940. I also had hoped that her son, Henry, might also have taken photos of Virginia. And yet, so far I haven’t found what I am looking for.
My grandfather, Henry Dickinson Scribner, was the only one of David and Virginia’s children that married and had children of his own. Thus, I have a small number of aunts, uncles and cousins, who I had hoped might have a photo of Virginia, but no luck there.
While I don’t have a portrait photo of Virginia, however I do have two small snapshots – one I am certain has Virginia in it, and the other, I “think” has Virginia in it. The first one is circa 1922 and is from a family photo album with identifying notes. There is a side view of Virginia on the far left wearing a coat and hat, and a notation below that says “Mrs. S.” The second photo I believe is probably Virginia Scribner with her eldest daughter, Mary, and likely was taken sometime during the 1930’s. I found this unlabeled shapshot in a box of old letters that had belonged to Virginia.
If anyone feels that they could have a photo of Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner, I would love to hear from you!
* * * * *
Key individuals:
Capt David Alba Scribner (1840 – 1911)
Virginia Augusta Hale Scribner (1848 – 1940)
Wallace Flint Scribner (1877 – 1882)
Henry (Harry) Dickinson Scribner (1880 – 1943)
Mary Islethera Scribner (1882 – 1959)
Ella Virginia Scribner (1885 – 1935)
Notes:
Virginia also had an active interest in her family history. In 1897, she was one of the early members of the Colonial Daughters of the 17th Century lineage society in in Brooklyn. She was active with the group for more than 40 years.
– Jane Scribner McCrary
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