Title: Jerald T. Teesdale Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1918-2007

Creator:

• Teesdale, Jerald T. (Jerald Tyrrell)

Call Number: Mss 1058; PH 6573

Quantity: 0.4 cubic feet (1 archives box and 1 oversize folder) and 5.0 cubic feet of photographs, negatives, and transparencies (7 archives boxes, 2 negative boxes, 5 transparency boxes, and 1 oversize folder)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers and photographs collected and created by Jerald Teesdale, amateur photographer, antique automobile enthusiast, gun collector, and life-long resident of Shorewood Hills, Madison, Wisconsin. The papers include: family account books; materials related to his father, Laurence [Lawrence?] Victor Teesdale, an engineer at the United States Forest Products Laboratory; material collected by Jerald Teesdale about Woodcraft Camp (Waushara County, Wisconsin) where he spent summers as a youth; information about his career in the United States Navy (1945-1951); and a diary of his trip to the 1933 World's Fair. The majority of the photographs document the built environment around southern Wisconsin including Madison and Dane County. Additional photographs document summers spent at Woodcraft Camp and Camp Indianola (Dane County, Wisconsin); his service in the United States Navy (1945-1951); and his father's work.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01058

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Jerald Tyrell Teesdale (1924-2007) was a lifelong resident of Madison, Wisconsin, eventually occupying the family home where he grew up in the village of Shorewood Hills. Teesdale was the younger of two children of Lawrence (Laurence) Victor Teesdale and Gladys Teesdale. They also had a daughter named Patricia. Lawrence Teesdale was employed by the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison from the early 1930s through the 1970s.

As a youth, Jerald Teesdale attended the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, staying with his Uncle Clyde and Aunt Bessie who lived in Chicago as well as spending summers at Woodcraft Camp in Wautoma, Wisconsin. Teesdale kept a dairy of his time at the fair and at camp.

In 1943, Teesdale entered the United States Navy, completing his basic training in Company 1133 at the United States Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. Following his service in the Navy, Teesdale returned to Woodcraft Camp working as part of the staff.

Teesdale was an amateur photographer, antique gun collector, and antique automobile enthusiast. His photographs document the architecture in and around Madison, Saxeville, Vermont Township, Belleville, Columbia and Sauk Cities, Auroraville, and many historic sites throughout the state of Wisconsin. He also took an interest in photographing local construction projects in Shorewood Hills and the Primrose School as well as his interests in guns and automobiles.

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.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Patricia McIntosh, 2008. Accession Number: M2009-011

Processing Information

Processed by Sloan McBride (Practicum student), May 2009.

Mss 1058	Series: Teesdale Family
Box   1 Folder   1-3	Account books, 1920-1981
	State Forest Products Laboratory papers
Box   1 Folder   4	Construction papers, 1934
Oversize Folder	Panel kiln blueprint, 1918
	Series: Jerald T. Teesdale	⇧
Box   1 Folder   5	Chicago World's Fair diary, 1933
	Woodcraft Camp
Box   1 Folder   6	Pamphlets and ephemera, 1930-1953
Box   1 Folder   7	Woodcraft Camp dairy, 1941-1942
Oversize Folder	Waushara County map, 1950
	United States Navy service, 1943-1950
Box   1 Folder   8	Selective Service notices, 1943 February-1943 May
Box   1 Folder   9	John Erling Backman to J. T. Teesdale, 1945 November 24
	Series: Visual Materials	⇧
	Photography
Box   1 Folder   10	Color print and slide index, 1979-2004
PH 6573	Teesdale family
	State Forest Products Laboratory visual materials
Box   1 Folder   1	Road construction, 1934
Box   1 Folder   2	Products and equipment
Oversize Folder	Staff, 1945
Box   1 Folder   3	Panel kiln (includes J. T. Teesdale with camera), 1950s
	Jerald T. Teesdale
Box   1 Folder   4	Chicago World's Fair postcards, 1933
	Woodcraft Camp
Box   1 Folder   5-6	Album, 1939-1940
Box   1 Folder   7	Album, 1940
Box   1 Folder   8	Campground and camp life, 1951-1960
Oversize Folder	United States Navy service, 1943-1950
	Photography
	Photographic prints
	Historic buildings and sites in Southern Wisconsin
Box   1 Folder   9-10	1979-1983
Box   2 Folder   1	1992-1996
	Madison, Wisconsin
Box   2 Folder   2	Construction projects, 1983-1984
Box   2 Folder   3-4	Historic homes, 1983-1984
	Waushara County historic buildings and sites
Box   2 Folder   5	1942
Box   2 Folder   6	1979-1983
Box   2 Folder   7	Ice storm damage, 1976
Box   2 Folder   8	Bell Center village and cemetery, 1976
	Color prints by year
Box   2 Folder   9-18	1979-1982
Box   3 Folder   1-36	1983-1986
Box   4 Folder   1-11	1987-1990
Box   4 Folder   12-16	1992-1993
Box   4 Folder   17-28	1996
Box   5 Folder   1-19	1997-1998
Box   6 Folder   1-23	1999-2001
Box   7 Folder   1-7	2002-2004
Box   7 Folder   8	Color print index [photocopy], 1979-2004
Box   7 Folder   9	Slide index [photocopy], 1951-1986
	Negatives
	Black and white
Box   8 Folder   1	Ice storm damage, 1976
Box   8 Folder   2	Bell Center village and cemetery, 1976
	Color by year
Box   8 Folder   3-60	1979-1990
Box   8 Folder   61-65	1992-1993
Box   8 Folder   66-90	1996-1997
Box   9 Folder   1-36	1998-2004
	Transparencies
Box   10 Folder   1-16	1951-1952
Box   11 Folder   1-4	1953-1954
Box   11 Folder   5-11	1960-1961
Box   11 Folder   12	1972
Box   11 Folder   13-31	1979-1980
Box   12 Folder   1-24	1980-1982
Box   13 Folder   1-28	1982-1983
Box   14 Folder   1-12	1984
Box   14 Folder   13-17	1986