Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1080

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

2 volumes

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Elizabeth R. F. Parrack Photograph Album, 1938, Ms. Coll. 1080, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1938 (inclusive)

Creator:

Parrack, Elizabeth R. F. (Elizabeth Rees Felix)

Form:

Itineraries, Picture postcards, Photograph albums, Photographs, Photograph albums -- Europe -- 20th century, Manuscripts, American -- 20th century, and Ticket stubs

Abstract:

A small collection of materials created by Elizabeth R. F. Parrack comprising one oblong photograph album, a copied typescript itinerary, and one folded world map.

Elizabeth Rees Felix was born in 1914 at Thornburg, Allegheny, Pennsylvania to Daniel T. and Margaret A. Felix. She received her secondary education at the Thurston Preparatory School located in Shadyside, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Felix then attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated in 1937. Felix married advertising executive Edward Taylor Parrack in 1941 and they had one son Edward T. Parrack, Jr.

This small collection contains one oblong photograph album, a copied typescript itinerary provided by Thos. Cook & Son - Wagons-Lits Inc., and one folded world map. On August 3, 1938, three years prior to her marriage, Elizabeth R. F. Parrack made the voyage to Europe aboard the S. S. Normandie. Her photograph album serves as visual documentation of Parrack's journey aboard ship and in Europe. The photographs follow Parrack and her unnamed aunt through the following cities: Paris, Interlaken, Lucerne, Heidelberg, Frankfort, Cologne, Amsterdam, Brussels, London, and smaller towns in between. The album consists of 311 black-and-white photographs (158 taken by Felix and 143 souvenir photographs). Parrack visited major sites in each city. A majority of the photographs have captions in white ink. Parrack purchased souvenir photographs at several sites. Some of these are numbered with corresponding labels pasted in or laid in the album identifying the images. Two examples of these souvenir photographs are twenty-five images of Chartres Cathedral and twelve of Shakespeare's birthplace. Parrack visited two coastal towns in the Netherlands en route to Brussels, Volendam and Marken, where she captured images of people in their traditional dress and surroundings. Toward the end of the volume are photographs Parrack took returning to New York aboard the Ile de France capturing the New York City skyline. The final images pasted in the album are ten postcards of site Paris. The copied itinerary called a "gift book" was furnished by the travel agency Thos. Cook & Son and is entitled "My European journey." The book provides extensive details and descriptions for each city on the trip, consisting of forty-six leaves between brown paper covers with one foldout map of Europe. The last portion of the daily itinerary in London has been crossed out presumably by Parrack. A train ticket stub from Amsterdam to Brussels is pasted on the recto of the first leaf and "Elizabeth Rees Felix, August 3, 1938" is written on the verso.