An 1890s sterling silver flask having belonged to Walter Chauncey Camp; WCC monogram. Providence, RI maker, Knowles, working 1879-1905. Camp is known to most as the "Father of American Football" contributing to its development, particularly through rules changes he initiated. An important piece that is a nice addition to our collection.
The flask is accompanied by a nine page letter from Harriet E. Koehler, written in 1987, when she was 93, about her family and the flask. Her family had a long history of living in New Haven, where she died at 101.
She wrote the letter to give a history of the flask and her family, and stated the intent was to document the flask was "brought into my hands thru perfectly legitimate means, and that my family history makes that clear". She had been in possession of the flask fifty years at the time she penned this letter.
Her father Henry, who died in 1927 worked for 12 years at Yale's Marsh Hall School of Forestry. Two of seven of her brothers (she was the youngest) worked at Yale in the Gardens and Greenhouses as well. They were also in charge of the horses and wagon stabled at Hillhouse barn, which was used by the Marsh Botanical Garden to dispose of debris. The brothers would oversee properties and clean out houses when they were taken over by Yale, and this included the Walter C. Camp residence. It was her brother Richard (1879-1966) who brought the flask and other items back from the Camp home.
Related posts, September 28, 2014, June 15, 2015 and November 21, 2013 (a photo that had hung in the Camp home).
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