Four generations of a prosperous family prominent in Springfield, Illinois. Many of the photographs were taken by Mary Esther Booth Grunendike (1865-1967). Prominently featured are her parents Amasa and Harriot Richardson Booth, her husband Edward H. Grunendike and son E. Booth Grunendike. The collection contains approximately 4000 photographs, including cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards and cyanotypes, as well as scrapbooks, clippings and memorabilia documenting family members and friends, their business enterprises, homes, farms, travels, social values and activities. Photographic topics include farming activities; natural disasters and fires; Republican Party events; parades and festivals; buildings and monuments in Springfield, Decatur, Beardstown, Quincy and Chicago; President McKinley's 1898 visit to Springfield; Stuart School; Camp Tanner and soldiers of the Spanish-American War; Beardstown Flood; the 1908 Springfield Race Riot (including a postcard); and the Booth Drug Store. The collection is divided into two series: photographic prints, ca. 1870-1950, and Scrapbooks and memorabilia, 1856-1956. Series I: Photographic Prints, ca. 1870-1950 (boxes 1-9), consist of loose photographs arranged alphabetically by topic followed by 20 photo albums arranged in rough chronological order. Duplication exists between the loose prints and photos in the albums. The format of the photographs includes cartes-de-vistes, cabinet cards and cyanotypes, chiefly illustrating family members and friends, their social activities and their travels around the Midwest and abroad. Also pictured are rural scenes and farming activities; natural disasters and fires; Republican Party events; parades and festivals; and buildings and monuments in Springfield, Decatur, Beardstown, Quincy and Chicago, Illinois. Sangamon River at the Peoria Road bridge, north of Springfield, 1890s (now Carpenter Park) Photographs of particular note in the albums include the following: President McKinley's 1898 visit to Springfield (images #436-9, #2594-8, 4203-6); the Illinois State Republican Convention, 1898 (#4202); the burning of Stuart School in Springfield on Palm Sunday, 1898 (#2600-1, #556-9); Camp Tanner, 1898 (#4284-4323, #705-22); soldiers departing for and returning from the Spanish-American War (#723-6, #727-39); the Sangamon County Courthouse (Old State Capitol) on jacks, 1901 (#648-53, #2621-3); the Illinois River flooding at Beardstown, 1901 (#4237-40); the aftermath of the Springfield Race Riot of 1908 (#1066-77, #3147-58); a postcard of the Race Riot (#220, #2300); Decatur fire, 1911 (#656-60, #879-92, #3293-7); Governor Dunne's Inaugural Parade, 1913 (#261-3, #699-701), laying the cornerstone of the Centennial (now Howlett) Building, 1918 (#1290-3); cutting and threshing wheat in 1920 (#1463-9); Governor Green's Inauguration, 1941 (#2350); parade pictures with World War II slogans (#2500-11); the Booth Drug Store (#1674-7, #1927-28, #2640-3, #2831-2; Chicago scenes (#369-691, #4115-54); the A.S. Booth residence at 500 S. Sixth St. in Springfield (#268, #1490-5, #3078-80); interiors of the same (#4231-4235); and the old Booth homestead where Amasa Booth was raised, seven miles north of Springfield (#240-45). Series II: Scrapbooks and Memorabilia, 1856-1956 (boxes 9-14), contains scrapbooks including newspaper clippings, poems, obituaries, wedding announcements, magazine articles and pictures, compiled by Harriot Richardson Booth, Mary E. Booth Grunendike, and Helene Rogers. The scrapbooks contain material assembled over several years. The ones compiled by Harriot Booth and Mary Booth Grunendike contain numerous references to the Booth, Grunendike and related families. The series also contains a collection of drawing exercises (1886-88) executed by Amasa Booth Jr. as a youth; samples of business forms used by Booth and McCosker Carriage and Spring Manufacturers; a scrapbook of pictures of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893; and two world atlases and two photographic travel books.