The Shirley family collection is a recently-processed collection that contains an interesting item. The collection consists of a copy of “Stemmata Shirleiana,” along with a photo album belonging to Ellen Shirley of Baltimore, Maryland. The book was purchased by the Indiana State Library in 1951. The bookseller gave the library the album since it was in the same lot of items that he had purchased. The photo album contains several images of not only Ellen Shirley’s immediate family, but also more distant relations of William Shirley.
William Shirley, Ellen’s husband, was born January 1816 in London. His family was involved in the crockery and glassware trade, something he followed in their footsteps by being sent to Brussels to learn the trade.
When William was 18, he immigrated to Baltimore and found a job in a crockery firm. His brothers John and Jesse Shirley also came to America and traveled to California where they were involved with the glassware and crockery business. Jesse Shirley died in March of 1862 in Sacramento, California, while John died in 1911 in San Francisco. In the album is a photograph of Jesse Shirley probably from around the 1850s, as well as a later photograph of his brother John in California.
William and Ellen Shirley had four children: Henry Clay, William Walter, Hannah and Eliza Ann Shirley. Some of the children are represented in the photo album. There are also two photographs of Henry Clay Shirley’s sons – Henry Clay, Jr. and Joseph Whitney Shirley – in the album wearing uniforms from the Pennsylvania Military Academy.
William Shirley’s maternal cousins are also featured in the book. John and William Arnold along with William’s wife Emma left England in 1831 for the United States arriving and living in New York, before traveling south to Baltimore in the 1840s. By the 1860 census both John, William and his family are living in Terre Haute. After William Arnold’s death in 1860, the family moved to Indianapolis where they are found in the 1870 census. Two of William’s daughters married men who were photographers. His oldest, Elizabeth, married Adam Rodabaugh Miller in December of 1851 while his youngest daughter Mary married William H. Salter in September of 1865.
William H. Salter was born in Indiana in 1839. He married Mary L. Arnold in September of 1865. By 1870, William was a partner in a photography studio with his wife’s brother-in-law Adam R. Miller. He worked with Miller until 1872 when he went out on his own. Around 1873, he partnered with Judd. Their partnership only lasted a few years and by 1877 William was back out on his own. William ran his own studio until December of 1882 when he died of typhoid fever. He was buried at Crown Hill cemetery. In the collection are several photographs of his daughters Emma and Bessie, these were taken during his time at Salter & Judd’s.
Adam R. Miller was born in Montgomery County, Ohio on June 9, 1827. He married Elizabeth Arnold in Montgomery County, Ohio in December of 1851. He moved with the Shirleys to Terre Haute, showing up on the 1860 census with the family. In Terre Haute, Adam ran a studio, but by the mid-1860s he had partnered with Francis L. Frank operating a studio in Indianapolis. He would later partner with William H. Salter running a studio for a couple years in the 1870s. He had one daughter with Elizabeth, Sarah Lydia Miller, who would die in 1882. Adam and Elizabeth had a tumultuous relationship getting married and divorced twice. He also had issues with creditors and landlords due to nonpayment of bills. By 1880, Adam had ended his photography business and was a real estate agent. There are two unlabeled photographs by him in Ellen Shirley’s photo album, one of a woman and the other a young girl who could possibly be Elizabeth Arnold Miller and Sarah Lydia Miller.
You can see more of the Shirley photographs by going to the Indiana State Library’s Digital Collections page and searching “Shirley,” or by visiting the State Library.
Blog written by Sarah Pfundstein, genealogy librarian, Indiana State Library. For more information, contact the Indiana State Library at 317-232-3689 or “Ask-A-Librarian.”