The Jerald T. Teesdale papers is comprised of photographs and manuscript material relating to Jerald Teesdale and the Teesdale family. The bulk of the collection is comprised of visual materials (prints, negatives and transparencies) created by Teesdale, 1939-2007. There is minimal documentation of his professional life in the collection.
Manuscript material includes three Teesdale family account books (1920-1981); two of Jerald Teesdale's diaries from his childhood (1933, 1941-1942); business papers associated with Jerald's father, Lawrence Victor Teesdale and the Forest Products Laboratory from 1933; papers associated with Jerald Teesdale's service in the United States Navy between 1943 to about 1951; and Jerald Teesdale's lengthy and detailed indices describing the visual materials in the collection from 1951-2004.
The photographic portion of the collection includes images of activities at Woodcraft Camp in Wautoma, Wisconsin where Teesdale was a camper in the early 1940s and a counselor in the early 1950s. The bulk of the visual materials, however, document the built environment in Wisconsin including houses, buildings, and historical monuments as well as the activities of Teesdale's family and friends and local events, gun shows, antique automobile shows, and local construction projects in the Madison and Shorewood Hills areas between the late 1980s through about 2005.
Teesdale created indices for his prints and transparencies which include the date, address, and city of his subject, and the model camera he used for each set of images. The indices also include a brief list of the major subject areas documented in the collection. The photographs and transparencies were labeled in the order in which they were photographed. Prints are labeled on the back with the date the photograph was made in the top right corner and index code in the bottom left corner. Color prints are labeled with CP then the last two digits of the year followed by the number roll of film for that year and finally by the number print in that roll. For example, CP 89-4-1 corresponds to the first color print in the fourth roll of film photographed in 1989. Transparencies follow a similar coding except for the omission of the preceding CP before the year and image number (ex: 89-4-1 rather than CP 89-4-1). Color prints, created after 1979, make up the majority of the collection.
The collection is divided into three series: TEESDALE FAMILY, JERALD T. TEESDALE, and VISUAL MATERIALS. Materials in the first two series are arranged chronologically. The VISUAL MATERIALS series mirrors the arrangement of the manuscript material but has additional subsets of materials arranged by photographic process and then chronologically thereafter.
The TEESDALE FAMILY series includes account books of household expenses 1920-1981 and material belonging to Teesdale's father, Lawrence Victor Teesdale, documenting construction projects at the Forest Products Laboratory and a blue print of a panel kiln invented by Lawrence Teesdale. Included in the account books are the names of several generations of the Teesdale and families along with a hand-drawn family tree in the back of the account book from 1945-1965.
The JERALD T. TEESDALE series includes dairies kept by Teesdale of his experiences at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair and time he spent at Woodcraft Camp, 1941-1942. Additional materials about the Camp includes pamphlets, ephemera, and promotional materials, 1930-1953. There is also a 1950 map of Waushara County showing the numerous camps in the area. The series also includes materials documenting Teesdale's entry into the United State Navy and a letter from a Wisconsin comrade also serving in the military at the time.
The VISUAL MATERIALS series is divided into two subseries (mirroring the above): the Teesdale Family and Jerald T. Teesdale. A hand-written index to the color prints and slides made by Teesdale is also included in this series. Included in the Teesdale Family subseries are images from the State Forest Products Laboratory documenting road construction at the laboratory, products and equipment, a 1945 staff portrait, and images of the panel kiln designed by Lawrence Teesdale. There are several images of Jerald Teesdale with his camera photographing the panel kiln.
The Jerald T. Teesdale subseries includes postcards from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair found with his diary. Images from Woodcraft Camp include several albums and loose prints documenting camp life, the campgrounds, and founders of Woodcraft Camp during the 1940s. There is also a banquet-size photograph of Company 1133 at the U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, from October 4, 1945.
The bulk of the Jerald T. Teesdale subseries is made up of the photographic prints, negatives and transparencies made by Teesdale. This subseries is further divided by formats: photographic prints, negatives, and transparencies. The photographic prints include images removed from subject albums as well as the color prints arranged chronologically. The prints removed from the subject albums include images of historic buildings and sites in Southern Wisconsin, and Waushara County as well as construction projects and historic homes in Madison, Wisconsin. There are a handful of black and white prints of damage from an ice storm in 1976 and images of Bell Center village and cemetery also made in 1976. The color prints are arranged by year and cover 1979 through 2004. These images are dated, numbered, and described in the index. Subjects include historic homes and buildings of Madison and the surrounding townships; home remodeling projects and local construction projects in Teesdale's neighborhood of Shorewood Hills; the Primrose School construction and remodeling; and construction projects of downtown Madison in the 1980s and 1990s; as well as historic buildings, dams, mills, and power plants that J. Teesdale photographed while touring Wisconsin. The prints also document Teesdale's antique gun collection and his enthusiasm for antique cars.
The negatives mirror the arrangement of the black and white prints and the color prints and cover the years 1979-2004. Not all of the negatives have been printed so there are more images in the negatives than are in the color prints.
The transparencies (1951-1960s) includes images of Woodcraft Camp, antique automobile and gun shows in the Madison area, images of historic buildings in greater Dane County, and images of group camping trips and general leisure activities in the 1950s through the 1980s. Many of the images from Teesdale's early adulthood can be found in the transparencies.
There is a photocopy of both indexes housed with the color photographs for ease of use.
