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Photo, Print, Drawing Bird-Brady House, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

[ Photos from Survey HABS WV-304  ]

More Resources

[ Drawings from Survey HABS WV-304  ]
[ Data Pages from Survey HABS WV-304  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS WV-304  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Bird-Brady House, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV

Other Title

  • Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Bird, Elizabeth Brady
  • Brady, Mabel S.
  • Storer College
  • Freewill Baptist Church
  • Brackett, Nathan C.
  • Lightner, Lura
  • Lightner, Scott
  • Newcomer, Celeste
  • Newcomer, John
  • Barron, Mark, historian
  • Bieretz, Renee, photographer
  • Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, sponsor
  • U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Harpers Ferry Center (HFC), sponsor
  • Schara, Mark, project manager
  • Jacobs, James A., project manager
  • Koning, William Cooper, field team
  • Gibbons, Shane, delineator
  • Gibbons, Shane

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  houses
  • -  lodging houses
  • -  hip roofs
  • -  stone foundations
  • -  stucco
  • -  African Americans
  • -  2 1/2 stories
  • -  raised basements
  • -  double-hung windows
  • -  hip roofs
  • -  sidelights
  • -  brick chimneys
  • -  skylights
  • -  porches
  • -  fire escapes
  • -  domestic life
  • -  West Virginia--Jefferson County--Harpers Ferry

Latitude / Longitude

  • 39.322999,-77.74185

Notes

  • -  Significance: Built between 1895 and 1897, the Bird-Brady House served as a private residence for teachers and families associated with Storer College, a historically black school founded in 1867 by missionaries of the Freewill Baptist Church. Though spatially linked to the school for most of its history, architecturally the building presented a living space separate from the school's academic buildings and dormitories and embraced the natural setting of area. Early occupants of the house included members of the Lightner and Newcomer families, descendents of Storer College founder, Reverend Nathan C. Brackett. The building's namesake occupants, Elizabeth Bird and Mabel Brady, were sisters and both graduates of Storer who later worked there in administrative capacities in the 1940s and 1950s. The change in ownership of the Bird-Brady House, from white families associated with the founding of the school to two African American women, is reflective of significant changes throughout the Storer College campus in the mid-twentieth century. From the mid 1940s until the school closed in 1955, African Americans began assuming a more active role in how the school was being administrated. Declining numbers of Freewill Baptists combined with the ambitions of African American educators to take more control in guiding the daily activities of the school substantially altered the academic and racial landscape of the college. The Bird-Brady House helps convey the history of domestic life for faculty members at Storer College and the changing roles African Americans played in affecting academic education at the school. After the National Park Service acquired the property in 1962, Elizabeth Bird and Mabel Brady remained in the house as lessees until at least 1970, the year that renovations began. In spite of being converted from domestic use to office space, the National Park Service has continued to recognize the building as the Bird-Brady House.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1590
  • -  Survey number: HABS WV-304
  • -  Building/structure dates: after. 1894- before. 1898 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000041

Medium

  • Photo(s): 7
  • Color Transparencies: 1
  • Measured Drawing(s): 7
  • Data Page(s): 14
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS WV-304

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • wv0547

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS WV-304
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

You can download online images yourself. Alternatively, you can purchase copies of various types through Library of Congress Duplication Services.

HABS/HAER/HALS materials have generally been scanned at high resolution that is suitable for most publication purposes (see Digitizing the Collection for further details about the digital images).

  • Photographs--All photographs are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Call Number and Item Number that appear under the photograph in the multiple-image display (e.g., HAER, NY,52-BRIG,4-2).
    • If possible, include a printout of the photograph.
  • Drawings--All drawings are printed from digital files to preserve the fragile originals.
    • Make note of the Survey Number (e.g., HAER NY - 143) and Sheet Number (e.g., "Sheet 1 of 4"), which appear on the edge of the drawing. (NOTE: These numbers are visible in the Tiff "Reference Image" display.)
    • If possible, include a printout of the drawing.
  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

If Digital Images Are Not Displaying

In the rare case that a digital image for HABS/HAER/HALS documentation is not displaying online, select images for reproduction through one of these methods:

  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
  • P&P reading room staff can provide up to 15 quick copies of items per calendar year (many original items in the holdings are too old or fragile to make such copies, but generally HABS/HAER/HALS materials are in good enough condition to be placed on photocopy machines). For assistance, see our Ask a Librarian page OR
  • Hire a freelance researcher to do further selection for you (a list of researchers in available at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/resource/013_pic.html).
  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
    • Make note of the Call Number listed above.
    • Look at the Medium field above. If it lists more than one item:
      • The entire group can be ordered as photocopies or high-quality copies.
      • All the items in a particular medium (e.g., all drawings, all photographs) can be ordered as photocopies or high-quality copies.

Access to Originals

Please use the following steps to determine whether you need to fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room to view the original item(s). In some cases, a surrogate (substitute image) is available, often in the form of a digital image, a copy print, or microfilm.

  1. Is the item digitized? (A thumbnail (small) image will be visible on the left.)

    • Yes, the item is digitized. Please use the digital image in preference to requesting the original. All images can be viewed at a large size when you are in any reading room at the Library of Congress. In some cases, only thumbnail (small) images are available when you are outside the Library of Congress because the item is rights restricted or has not been evaluated for rights restrictions.
      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
  2. Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?

    • Yes, another surrogate exists. Reference staff can direct you to this surrogate.
    • No, another surrogate does not exist. Please go to #3.
  3. If you do not see a thumbnail image or a reference to another surrogate, please fill out a call slip in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. In many cases, the originals can be served in a few minutes. Other materials require appointments for later the same day or in the future. Reference staff can advise you in both how to fill out a call slip and when the item can be served.

To contact Reference staff in the Prints and Photographs Reading Room, please use our Ask A Librarian service or call the reading room between 8:30 and 5:00 at 202-707-6394, and Press 3.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Elizabeth Brady Bird, Mabel S Brady, Storer College, Freewill Baptist Church, Nathan C Brackett, Lura Lightner, et al., Bieretz, Renee, photographer. Bird-Brady House, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV. West Virginia Harpers Ferry Jefferson County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/wv0547/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Bird, E. B., Brady, M. S., Storer College, Freewill Baptist Church, Brackett, N. C. [...] Gibbons, S., Bieretz, R., photographer. (1933) Bird-Brady House, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV. West Virginia Harpers Ferry Jefferson County, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wv0547/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Bieretz, Renee. Bird-Brady House, Camp Hill, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, WV. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/wv0547/>.