Tag Archives: Daguerre

This Week in History: July 6–13

Let­ter of Vir­ginia Camp­bell to hus­band Robert
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Mt Car­bon July 7, 1856
Dear Husband
I received your tele­graph yes­ter­day. Mr Tuck­er had been so kind as to write a mes­sage the day before announc­ing your  tele­graph­ic mes­sage. I was sor­ry to hear you did not get there on Sun­day as you expect­ed you must have been oblig­ed to lie over at some place for some hours.

Our blessed chil­dren are well and the baby’s flesh is so firm and he improves every day per­cep­ti­bly, if you could hear ^him [^]  talk­ing in his way — you would be sur­prised to hear what a loud  noise he can make and it is to my ear the sweet­est music. Hazlett was so pleased with your Daguerre he said “Lady is laugh­ing at  me” Mama talk to Lady” and makes me take it out for him to see,  he seems to take a plea­sure in look­ing at it, as if you were  present.

[Page 2] The tableaux came off very suc­cess­ful­ly the oth­er day ‑I nev­er saw any as good Hughy & Tom­my had their full share of the  fun I assure — Tom­my offi­ci­at­ed as “a wash­er­woman” at a big tub  with cap, pet­ti­coats, etc etc — and Hugh was dressed as a “page”  and he gave it as his opin­ion that he was the pret­ti­est one there the inno­cence of
child­hood! I like to pro­long it as long as pos­si­ble.  You will be sur­prised to hear that I was at a par­ty last night. We were at  that hand­some house on the hill near Pottsville where the  Mon­u­ment stands. Mrs Banan came and invit­ed the whole Camp­bell  par­ty as well as some oth­er ladies in the house — we had a very  nice tea, and ice cream etc etc after tea — they had been at the  tableaux here the
evening before — Cousin Mary & I ordered ice cream and cake as  refresh­ments con­sid­er­ing that as our part in the necessary

[Page 3] preper­a­tions. I met at Mrs Banan’s at Capt Sim­mons of  the army and his lady we had a good deal of talk togeth­er She knows
all of our army friends in St Louis, she had a very star­tling  occur­rence to spoil her evening, a young son who has just been a  month at West Point and is about to be phys­i­cal­ly exam­ined as  to his qual­i­fi­ca­tion for that pro­fes­sion had a hemaraghe from the lungs and with the blood com­ing from mouth and nose came up the  hill on foot to
find his Moth­er & father who were sit­ting play­ing whist Their  plea­sure was soon destroyed. I’m told she has lost maybe t??  before in that way as soon as they come to matu­ri­ty. I  sym­pa­thized with her very much. Sis­ter and Bet­ty seem to be very  hap­py here. I intend to write to Moth­er very soon. I want Sis­ter  to write her own ver­sion of Bet­ty’s love affair

[Page 4] Bet­ty is not for­ward in her ways at all she seems to  love fun
and danc­ing and is a very cheer­ful talk­a­tive hap­py dis­po­si­tion I  think in a month she will not care a ??? for her dandy danc­ing  ?eau. I have not said a word to her about it, ??? she to me.  Broth­er Hugh is going down to the city tomor­row — there is some  lit­tle busi­ness doing and I think he tires of the monot­o­ny here — to us it is very pleas­ant and our sewing and gos­sip occu­pies us. dear lit­tle Hazlett is com­pa­ny for us all with his sweet tongue  — he is the dear­est child ever was — he enjoyed the tableaux very much — but said “I wont keep still” I will talk” when Mr  Whitak­er was recit­ing a long pro­gramme he made every
body laugh.

The wid­ow Mrs Bryan with her family

[Page 5, on Page 1] are here — I should rather be at
home — (not sure which sen­tence is next} They all think the  Daguerre good, but old­er than you a good deal. I like it pret­ty  well. I do not think it is a very good one, but the chil­dren  think it is just like you, so it is bet­ter than none.

Hugh sends his good love he reads a good deal to me I had a very  nice let­ter from Cousin Mis­souri say­ing many kind things of you  your kind­ness­es to aunt Bet­sy. {} if l were She ‑I sup­pose she  thinks it will do her chil­dren good

Dear hus­band I feel so sor­ry to think you are out in St Louis  alone ‑I feel anx­ious to hear what you do with your­self where you eat and so on Give my love to Mr Branch and Macken­zie & Woods if you see them

Your affect wife
VJ Campbellletter