Collection #

P0019

 

 

lucille winkler voigt
collection, ca. 1897

 

Collection Information

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Content Note

Contents

Cataloging Information

 

 

 

Processed by

Janet Schmidt and Dorothy A. Nicholson
April 2008

Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269

www.indianahistory.org

 

COLLECTION INFORMATION

VOLUME OF
COLLECTION:

1 box of OVA size photographs

COLLECTION
DATES:

Ca. 1897

PROVENANCE:

Lucille Winkler Voigt, donated by her daughter Lane Young, Atlanta, Georgia, 1980

RESTRICTIONS:

None

COPYRIGHT:

 

REPRODUCTION
RIGHTS:

Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society.

ALTERNATE
FORMATS:

 

RELATED
HOLDINGS:

W. H. Bass Photo Company Collection
Fahnley & McCrea Millinery Co., 1914
Box 10, Folder 6 (Bass #36202)
Fahnley residence, April 1921
Box 23, Folder 6 (Bass #74372)

Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century Collection, (M0363), Photographs: Box 2, Folder 3

ACCESSION
NUMBER:

1980.0004

NOTES:

 

BIOGRAPHiCAL SKETCH

Frederick Fahnley was a German immigrant and milliner.  Mr. Fahnley was president of the Fahnley & McCrea Millinery Company and was a leader in the wholesale millinery trade in Indianapolis for nearly half a century.  Fahnley was a native of Wurttemberg, Germany, born in 1839; he immigrated to America in 1854 when he was 15 years old.  He worked several years in Ohio and began an independent business career in 1860 with the opening of a general store.  In 1865 he moved to Indianapolis and organized the wholesale millinery firm of Stiles, Fahnley & McCrea.  Mr. Stiles retired from the firm and by 1875 Fahnley & McCrea erected the finest building at that time in the wholesale district at 240–242 South Meridian Street.  After a disastrous fire in February, 1905 the firm rebuilt a five-story brick structure on the same site. An image of the new store can be seen in the Bass Photo Company Collection Digital Image Collections (Bass #36202).

Mr. Fahnley never ran for political office but was a director of the Merchants’ National Bank and the Indiana Trust Company, a member of the Board of Trade and the Commercial Club, and one of the organizers of the Columbia Club.  He was an active member of the German House and the Indianapolis Maennerchor Society. 

Mr. Fahnley married Miss Lena Soehner, a native of Baden, Germany.  She came to America with her parents when she was seven years old and they lived in Dayton, Ohio where Mrs. Fahnley was reared and educated.  She died October 7, 1899, aged fifty-eight years, survived by two daughters, Bertha, who married Gavin Payne of Indianapolis, and Ada, the wife of William J. Shafer, also of Indianapolis.

According to the Indianapolis City Directories the Fahnleys lived at 200 North Meridian Street until 1897 and had moved to the 350 North Meridian address by 1898.

Francis Costigan, (1810–1865) a well-known nineteenth-century architect, designed the Fahnley home about 1860. Born in Washington, D.C, he began his career as a carpenter and builder. He moved to Madison, Indiana in 1840 where he designed the Lanier House. In 1837 he moved to Indianapolis where he designed many homes and public buildings including the Institute for the Blind, and the Hospital for the Deaf and Dumb. Costigan appears in the 1860 Indianapolis City Directory as residing at Oriental House on S. Illinois Street, located between Maryland and Georgia Streets.

 

Sources:

Dunn, Jacob Piatt, Greater Indianapolis, The History, the Industries, the Institutions, and the People of the City of Homes, Vol II., Chicago, 1910.
Reference Room Collection: F534.I55 D8 1977

Who Was Who In America: Historical Volume. Chicago, Marquis-Who’s Who.
Reference Room Collection: E176.W64

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The collection consists of 12 interior photographs of the Frederick Fahnley home at 350 North Meridian Street, 4 portraits of the Fahnley family, and a note about an oral history interview with Mrs. Bowman Elder of Pike Township concerning the preservation of two fireplace mantels from the Fahnley home.

The Marceau Bassett Studio of Indianapolis made the portraits, circa 1897.  Views of the Fahnley home also date from that year. They appear to document the Fahnley’s move to their new home with its’ beautiful furnishings and interiors.

Indianapolis architect Francis Costigan designed the home ca. 1860. It was razed in 1922 to make way for the construction of the Indianapolis Athletic Club. For researchers who want to see images of the home’s exterior there are two small copy photographs of the Fahnley home in collection M0363, Indiana Houses of the Nineteenth Century, Photographs: Box 2, Folder 3. Another image of the home’s exterior taken before it was razed is in the Bass Photo Collection (P0130). The image has been scanned and can be viewed by searching the Digital Image Collections for the Bass number 74372.

The photographs in this collection belonged to Lucille Winkler Voigt, a Fahnley descendant, and were donated by her daughter, Lane Young of Atlanta, Georgia.

 

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

CONTAINER

Portrait:
Frederick Fahnley,
Marceau & Power Studio, Indianapolis.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 1

Portrait:
Lena Soehner Fahnley,
Marceau & Power Studio, Indianapolis.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 1

Portrait:
Ada Fahnley,
Marceau & Bassett Studio, Indianapolis. 
Ada Fahnley married Billy Shaeffer about 1896.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 1

Portrait:
Bertha Fahnley
Marceau & Bassett Studio, Indianapolis.
Bertha Fahnley married Gavin Payne about 1897.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 1

Oral History Document:
Note from an oral history interview with Mrs. Bowman Elder of Pike Township concerning two fireplace mantels from the Fahnley home.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 1

Dining Room: [view 1]
Marble mantel (noted in document above), elaborate marble-topped sideboard, square table with large rose bouquet in front of fireplace.  Room decorated with greenery.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 2

Dining Room: [view2]
View of wall opposite fireplace, square table with large rose bouquet.  Mounted deer head above picture.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 3

Formal Dining Room:
Built-in china cabinets at end of room, sideboard in front of window, seven chairs along wall.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 4

Room adjacent to formal dining room:
(china cabinets visible in next room).  Dark wood mantel on fireplace with mirror on top.  Lilies, ferns, and palms on mantel.  Wallpaper on ceiling and walls. (2 copies)

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 5

Curved Stairway:
High arched door visible with arched niche.  Newel post at bottom of stair is a statue and five lights.  Wall clock draped with greenery.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 6

Formal sitting room:
High arched door [one of a pair], stuffed dog on rug in center, piano along wall, damask covered furniture. Decorative plaster ceiling.  Greenery on chandelier.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 7

Formal sitting room:
Damask covered furniture; curved settee in center.  Piano bench visible in lower right.  Dark wood framed ceiling height mirror.  Floor to ceiling draperies.  [Other end of room described in folder 7]

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 8

Corner in formal sitting room:
Damask covered chair, window coverings, corner table with family photographs, and large portrait on wall.  Asian statue on pedestal.  Four vases with roses.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 9

Room with carved white fireplace mantel:
Portrait of child over mantel. Fireplace centered on end wall with ceiling high windows at both sides.  Chair against wall with small round table in center.  Six-light chandelier in center of room.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 10

Same room as in folder 10:
Small round table, six-light chandelier, two rocking chairs.  Tassel draped arched doorway into adjoining room.  Piano in alcove.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 11

Interior:
End of room showing fireplace with large mirror built-in above mantel.  High arched doorway on one side of fireplace, man’s portrait on other side.  Child’s portrait on easel.

OVA Photographs:
Box 1, Folder 12

CATALOGING INFORMATION

For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:

1.      Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog:  http://opac.indianahistory.org/

2.      Click on the "Basic Search" icon.

3.      Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.

4.      Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, P0019).

5.      When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.