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West Family Collection Finding Aid
Donated by
Jeff Murray
115 Pearl Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 15, 2007
Prepared by
Alice Dodds
June 2007
Cambridge Historical Commission
831 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
West Family Collection
Description
The West Family Collection was donated to the Cambridge
Historical Commission by Jeff Murray of 115 Pearl Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mr. Murray
had been a long term tenant of the Wests, and his account provides the only,
very sketchy, descriptive material available on the family.
Alfred West came from Bristol, England in the early 1900s, settled in Cambridge,
and bought properties at 115 Pearl Street and 6 Cottage Street. The family,
of
five children, maintained these properties, the former as a rental unit and
the latter as their home, until the death of the last child, Gertrude, in 1987.
Little is known of the family’s activities except for Alfred’s
brief foray into a clock business and Gertrude’s fifty years of service
at the Jordan Marsh store in Boston.
Scope and Content
The materials found in this collection include blue prints
and a contract for work done on the two West properties; the ledger of a short-lived
family clock
business; school copy books for Alfred, George, and Gertrude, which reflect
the educational methods of the times; grade school essays by George, and; a
large album of unidentified photographs. Of particular interest are the essays
composed by George, which describe the experiences of a schoolboy in the early
1900s; an eighth grade class visit to the new Cambridge Public Library being
a particularly expansive and engaging account. The family’s penchant
for copying and clipping famous poetry brought into the collection the poem “Hagerty,” written
to honor a Cambridge soldier killed in the Spanish American War.
Folder List
Box I
1. Baseball Players, Photographs undated
2. Blue Prints, 115 Pearl Street Undated
3. Contract, 6 Cottage Street March 10, 1913\
4. “Hagerty,” A Poem undated
5. Ledger, Clock Business 1916
6. Maps, Civil War 1885, undated
7. Murray, Jeff, Account of the West Family May 15, 2007
8. West, Alfred, Copy Book undated
9. West, George, Copy Book undated
10.West George, Essays c 1912-1915
11.West, Gertrude, Copy Book undated
12.West, Gertrude, Photograph undated
Box II
Photograph Album 1920-1926