[From Millicent Hargrave-Thwaite's private library catalog, a bound three-volume set hand-indexed in her own precise hand. Volume II, "Port Hume Mediums 1870-1924." Representative pages from Section H (items H-041 through H-058, covering the period 1912-1924).]
HARGRAVE-THWAITE COLLECTION Section H — Port Hume Mediums, Séance Records, and Allied Phenomena, 1870-1924 Volume II of III. Catalogued by the collector, with E. Cargill's assistance, 1917 and ongoing.
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NO. DATE ITEM LOC.
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H-041 1911 ca. Séance programme, Orpheus Society, a shelf 3,
"Mrs. Tissdale, the Cincinnati Communicant," bottom
visiting 1911. Handbill.
H-042 1912 ca. Sitters' book of the Orpheus Society, 1912 shelf 3
season. Bound in half-calf. Seven named
sitters per evening; circled names are those
I have independently confirmed to be of
the Crescent or Vanderlin Row circle.
H-043 1913 Oct Arrival notice, Madame T. Laforge, from shelf 4
Chicago. *The Port Hume Beacon*, 14 Oct 1913.
Clipping.
H-044 1913 Nov 17 Private invitation to a sitting at the shelf 4
residence of Mrs. Augusta Thorpe Callisher, (envelope
The Crescent. Returned with my regrets in folder)
(I was not yet persuaded).
H-045 1913 Nov 17 Photograph — the séance at Mrs. Callisher's **LOC'D**
residence, taken by the amateur S. (unnamed **at HUPL
to this day). Purchased by me from S. in see CARG**
1914 for $12. Subsequently donated to E. (my notes
Cargill at Hume Poly Library in 1916 for retained,
preservation; donor restriction on display; shelf 4)
my retained NEGATIVE positive is here in
folder H-045-DUP.
H-046 1914 Apr Ingersoll, Prof. M.J. "Ectoplasmic shelf 4
Phenomena..." offprint from *Popular (two
Science Monthly*. Annotated by the copies;
collector in the margins. one anno-
tated)
H-047 1914 May Madame Laforge's published reply to shelf 4
Ingersoll, in *The Orpheus Messenger* vol. 2.
Denies the photograph in question was of her
personally. (She is identified in my H-044
and H-045 and cannot sustain this denial, but
Ingersoll declined to respond publicly.)
H-048 1915 ca. Sitters' book, Orpheus Society 1915 season. shelf 3
Evangeline Hume's name first appears 17 Feb
1915 — 3 months after her daughter Eleanor's
death in Buffalo (see my notes H-048-A).
H-049 1915-16 Orpheus Society annual subscription rolls. shelf 3
Names and contributions. The women of the
Crescent are a disproportionate share.
...
H-055 1872 ca. **Kelsey, A. — three unpublished songs shelf 6
for voice and piano, "For E."** Score (separate
autograph in his hand. **This item is box, cold
NOT a spiritualist document but is storage)
attached here** because the composer was
Dr. Abraham Kelsey of Port Hume, whose
music appears in the Orpheus Society's
parlor programmes of the 1870s. Score was
donated anonymously to HUPL in 1921 under
the provisional title "Blane/Elspeth
effects" and was identified by me on
examination there in 1923. I have taken a
typescript of the score for the Collection.
H-056-A 1879 ca. Obituary of Dr. A. Kelsey, *Port Hume shelf 6
Beacon*, August 1879. Names no survivors.
Mentions his musical compositions as "of
local attainment." Mentions none of his
other personal attachments.
...
H-058 1922-23 Catalog continues. Correspondents: 12 shelf 5
scholars and seven amateurs. Regular
professional visitor: Prof. Ingersoll,
who has examined the photographs of H-045
under magnification and has updated his
1914 findings in conversation with me on
three occasions; Ingersoll's informal
notes from those conversations are in my
folder H-058-C.
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[at the bottom of the catalog's introductory page, in Hargrave-Thwaite's hand:]
"Why do I keep this Collection? Because the history of my city's encounter with the unseen, proper and improper, deserves to be preserved, and because no institution in Port Hume has been inclined to preserve it. The Library under Mrs. Cargill will accept, at my eventual death, such items of the Collection as suit the Library's mission; the remainder I will bequeath to the American Society for Psychical Research in Boston, where my husband's old friends will understand what to do with them. Meanwhile the Collection lives in my house. Anyone in Port Hume who can be trusted to handle the materials with care is welcome to consult them; I receive such visitors on Thursday afternoons, by appointment. The few who have come have not been disappointed, and one — Prof. Ingersoll — has been, on several occasions, surprised. — M.H.-T."