“Lost Photographs, a family album, and the gift of ancestry: The search for an image of Minot Pratt unearths new photos of Anna Alcott and John Pratt”

This article was originally published in the Winter 2018 edition of the Louisa May Alcott Society newsletter.

January 14, 2018 — “Lost Photographs, a family album, and the gift of ancestry: The search for an image of Minot Pratt unearths new photos of Anna Alcott and John Pratt”

©2018 Susan W. Bailey

Abstract: Ray Angelo’s passion for flora in New England led him to Concord some forty years ago. Using the journals and writings of Henry David Thoreau and Minot Pratt (father of John Bridge Pratt who married Anna Alcott), Angelo was able to track down many interesting species which added greatly to his research. In the course of his work he became interested in Minot Pratt, writing a biographical sketch on his life. Anxious to unearth a photograph of Pratt, Angelo began studying the family history, eventually becoming acquainted with a descendant of Pratt, Donna Keeler. A family album in her keeping, dating back to the 1800s would contain hereto unknown treasures. This essay, published in the Winter 2018 edition of the Louisa May Alcott Society newsletter tells the fascinating story of how previously unknown photographs of Anna Alcott Pratt and John Bridge Pratt were discovered through Ray Angelo’s painstaking work.

Download “Lost photographs, a family album, and the gift of ancestry”

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