A 4"x6" glass plate negative, full-figure portrait photograph of Mrs. Madessa Wolfe, David City, Nebraska. She is wearing a dark, floor-length dress, with belted waist and fabric ruffles on the skirt and scooped neckline. The full skirt is pulled to the back and bustled. The long, tight-fitted sleeves have horizontal, see-through stripes and there is a velvet chocker on her neck. Her long dark hair is pulled up and away from her face and fastened atop her head.
Thorpe Opera House Foundation/Boston Studio Project
Local Accession Number
00043680000
Source
Original format: 4"x6" glass plate negative from the Boston Studio Project collection.
Historical Notes
Madessa Guist was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, in September 1868. She married Thomas Wolfe in 1896 in Buffalo, New York, and moved to his home in David City, Nebraska, where Thomas was president of the First National Bank. They had three children: Lionel, Thomas and Madessa. Thomas Wolfe was born in Germany, May 18, 1846, and immigrated to Wisconsin with his parents in 1852. At ten years of age he began working for the local newspaper, serving as a printer. He later moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he was on the staff of the Tribune and Journal. He then moved to New York where he worked for the Evening Post and Tribune. He moved to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1864 where he worked on the Republican, Herald, Tribune and Bee, and served as president of the Omaha Typographical Union for several years. In 1874, he moved to Seward, Nebraska, where he published the Nebraska Reporter. He moved to David City, Nebraska, in 1877 and became president of the Butler County Bank; a position he continued to hold after it became the First National Bank. He served as president of the Nebraska Press Association 1879-1880 and represented Seward County in the legislature from 1887-1888. In 1893, he established the David City Public Library and served as president and treasurer of the Butler County Agricultural Society.
