Mathias T. Welsh (1858-1927), Phillips Academy Class of 1878, was from Middle Valley, New Jersey. The exterior of Welsh’s scrapbook is dark brown with gold and black embellishments of vines, branches, tree trunks and ferns. There is a gray strip imprinted across the front of the book with the words “scrap book” written across in black and gold. Most pages of the interior are intact, but some of the pages have slight tears on their bottoms.

The contents of Welsh’s scrapbook range from 1877 to 1882. Some of these contents include newspaper clippings about current events, cartoons, two of his textbooks, Republican and Democratic tickets from Morris County and Washington Township, a photograph of him with the football team and programs from activities in which he engaged during his senior year. Mathias Welsh participated in the Academy’s Society of Inquiry, a charitable club that performed social service work, and he was on a football team.

His two art education American text books were for geometrical drawing. Also included in his scrapbook is a paper labeled “Phillips Telegraph Company” with telegraph characters, signals and abbreviations. The book contains an invitation to the Andover Town Ball of 1878, programs from the Phillips Academy Means Essay Reading event, a matinée taking place at Abbot Academy and the Phillips Academy Centennial Celebration in 1878. Welsh kept a napkin from the Centennial Celebration as well as a little white flag with red lettering and an engraving of the Andover emblem marked “Phillips Dinner 1778-1878.” Welsh died May 19, 1927 due to pneumonia.

By Hannah Sorkin, Class of 2014

 

Scrapbook Box 33