tibbals collection gibbs company collection v1

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Howard Tibbals’ Gibbs Company Collection


Overview

Administrative Information

Historical Note

Description of Papers

Collection Overview

Related Materials

Subject Headings

Contents of the Collection

Series 1 - Printed Materials and Records

Series 2 - Photographic Materials

Appendix 1

Overview

Repository Archives

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

5401 Bayshore Drive

Sarasota, FL 34243

Creator Jonathan King, Ed Bolton, The Gibbs Family

Title Howard Tibbals’ Gibbs Company Collection

Dates c. 1890 – 1919

Physical Description 5 linear feet: 10 boxes and 1 drawer

Language English

Arrangement The order as received has been maintained. Collection is

arranged in two series: Photographs, and Records and

Printed Materials.

Summary The collection consists of photographs and records of The

Gibbs Company, a vaudeville troupe, and the Gibbs family

when they were with various other performing groups. The

materials consist of photographs, photographic albums,

cabinet cards, card photographs, postcards, correspondence,

invoices and receipts, printed advertising materials, and

account books.

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Administrative Information

Provenance Howard Tibbals purchased this collection from Jonathon

King, a British museum professional and collector.

Collection may have been originally assembled by Ed

Bolton, a performer with The Gibbs Company.

Information about Access The Howard Tibbals’ Gibbs Company Collection may be

viewed by appointment. Use of certain materials is

restricted by statute, by the office of origin, or by the donor.

For the protection of its collections, the Archives also

reserves the right to restrict access to records which are not

arranged, are being processed, or are exceptionally valuable

or fragile. In some cases, copies may be substituted for the

originals.

Ownership and Copyright Copyright has been transferred to The John and Mable

Ringling Museum of Art for unpublished materials authored

or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection.

Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown.

Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S.

Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by

fair use requires the written permission of the copyright

owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be

commercially exploited without permission of the copyright

owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the

user.

Cite As Credit must be given for any use of materials. The credit

line should read: The John and Mable Ringling Museum of

Art, Florida State University, Howard Tibbals’ Gibbs

Company Collection and should include the box and folder

listing.

Processing Note Collection processed by K. Zacovic, January 2016; Finding

aid created by K. Zacovic, February 2016. Cabinet cards

and card photographs are cataloged and digitized in the

Museum’s collections database, The Museum System -

“TMS” and are assigned object numbers ht1005900-

ht1006059. Cataloged objects can be accessed at

www.ringling.org/collections

http://www.ringling.org/collections

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Historical Note1

The Gibbs Company were vaudeville artists based in Syracuse, NY and Fichtburg, MA, who

performed widely throughout Canada. The Company was led by William H. Gibbs (also known

as Bill or Billy), who was an actor and comedian. The Gibbs Company troupe were variously

known as The Gibbs Comedy Company, The Gibbs Family Entertainers, and Gibbs Empire

Amusement Co. The earliest materials in the collection indicate that William Gibbs began life as

an itinerant performer and vendor of ‘Kickapoo Indian Medicine’ in the early 1890’s alongside

Sioux and Winnebago Native Americans. Later, the family, consisting of wife May, and two

daughters, Marjorie and Lula, were involved in a number of different shows. The bookkeeping

records for the period of 1911-1914 document that the company operated as The Gibbs Company

with May, Lula, Marjorie, Edward Bolton, and Myron Gibbs (both acrobats), along with William

Gibbs. Originally, Ed Bolton performed with a brother as the Bolton Brothers before leaving to

fight in World War I in 1915 for Canadian forces. Around this time, it seems that Ed was in a

relationship with or married to Lula Gibbs, and was injured during his time at war. Though

unclear, this collection may have been assembled by Mr. Bolton. The family was also involved

in the La Reane Show.

Description of Papers

This collection documents the activities of the Gibbs family and their various entertainment

ventures throughout Canada and the United States. Throughout this collection, The Gibbs family

shows were referred to as The Gibbs Company, The Gibbs Comedy Company, The Gibbs

Family Entertainers, and Gibbs Empire Amusement Co.. Other show and act titles associated

with the collection are: The Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company, John Van Arnan’s Minstrels,

LaReane Shows, Woods Music Trio, Secardo and Ritchison’s Dogs, Al Post’s Animal Show,

The Henry Family Theatre Company, The Barnards, Patten and Perry’s High Class Comedy

Attractions, and Roy E. Fox’s Popular Players.

Performers associated with the collection include, but may not be not limited to: Clifford Allen,

Burt Bernier, Ed Bolton, Ritchie Brown, Bill Conkling, Dr. E.H. De Alva. Charles Fonda, ‘Miss

French’, Marjorie Gibbs, May Gibbs, Lulu Gibbs, William Gibbs, Jack Hunt, Harold Jarvis, Tom

Kelley, Helen King, Fairbanks and Lavin, Harry LeReane, J.B. Lovelace, Edith Lu, Al ‘Smokey’

Lyle, George Patten, Sylphette Radcliffe, ‘Mr. Shore’, George Stewart, Jug Said Wak, Witney

Ward, and Hooker White

The majority of materials in the collection are photographic in nature, consisting of cabinet

cards, card photographs, photographic postcards, photo albums, and photographs in various

sizes. Represented in these photographs are portraits of performers (in and out of costume),

1 This historical note was provided by Jonathan King when the collection was purchased from him by Howard

Tibbals

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performance scenes, back lot scenes, family and leisure activities, and landscapes of locations

visited while on tour.

Also included in the collection are records, correspondence, and other printed materials

pertaining to performing vaudeville troupes. Two ledger books document transactions, profits

and losses of the Gibbs Comedy Company for each location visited between July 1911 and

December 1914.

While this collection represents a diverse geographic area, including Atlanta, Georgia, Lisbon

Iowa, and Moline, Illinois, the bulk of materials pertain to activities in New York state and

Eastern Canadian locations such as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario.

The collection is arranged as it was received. This collection was purchased by Jonathan King

and sold to Howard Tibbals in 2000. Jonathan King included a typed inventory with some

identifications, dates, and locations for materials. There are gaps in the collection and not all

materials included in original inventory sheets are present as assembled to date. Some materials

were removed by Howard Tibbals before donation and may be included with other portions of

the Tibbals Collection. There are items in the collection that do not have an inventory number

recorded on them.

Jonathan King’s inventory sheets are divided by material type and numbered within each

division. The material type groupings are rearranged in some places in order to accommodate for

ease of the researcher and housing requirements, but items retain their original order within their

groupings. The groups are: A – large photographs, portraits of performers and performances; B –

Albums, account books; C – Printed Materials; E – photographic postcards, etc; F –

miscellaneous materials. No “D” list is present. King inventory numbers, where possible, are

included after the object. Inventory lists may be viewed in Appendix 1. Some materials have

been cataloged and digitized in the Museum collections database, and are available online

through the Ringling Collections portal (www.ringling.org/collections) Cataloged objects have

been assigned an object number, and in this finding aid they are referred to by their object

number.

Related Materials

Howard Tibbals Collection at The Ringling

Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas

New York Public Library

Harvard Theatre Collection

Subject Headings

Vaudeville – Canada --20th century

Vaudeville – United States – 20th century

http://www.ringling.org/collections

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Minstrel Shows – 20th century

Canada – entertainment

Contents

Series 1 – Records and Printed Materials

Box 1

correspondence, business records and advertising materials

Book Box 1 account ledger book: November 1912 – December 1914

[12B4].

Book Box 2 account ledger book: July 1911 – October 1912 [12B5].

Folder 1 The Gibbs Family and Company of Vaudeville Artistes and

Comedians magazine cover [12C1].

Folder 2 handbill for The Henry Family at London Vaudeville

Theatre, c. 1910 [12C8].

Folder 3 handbill for Henry Family at the Opera House, Madrid

NY, c. 1905 [12C9].

Folder 4 handbill for Ed Bolton at Crystal Theatre, c. 1910 [12C10].

Folder 5 advertisement for The Henry Family Theatre Company, no

date [12E4].

Folder 6 playbill for The Gibbs Comedy Company, Heuvelton, NY,

no date [12E7].

Folder 7 correspondence from Menard and Bolton to Frank

Melville, 1909 [12F1].

Folder 8 correspondence from Menard and Bolton to Frank

Melville, 1909 [12F2].

Folder 9 correspondence to Lulu Gibbs from Harold Jarvis, 1916;

includes leather bow and metal button with the envelope

[12F3].

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Folder 10 correspondence to George Stewart from “Slim”, 1919

[12F4].

Folder 11 correspondence, a love letter, from an unidentified member

of the Gibbs Company to a lover, 1919 [12F5].

Folder 12 daily ledger receipt for Gibbs Comedy Company at The

Empress, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 14, 1913

[12F6].

Folder 13 Princess Theatre Daily statement, May 7, 1913 [12F7].

Folder 14 Princess Theatre Daily statement, May 10, 1913 [12F8].

Folder 15 correspondence to Lulu Gibbs from Wm. A. Mitchell,

1914 [12F9].

Folder 16 Princess Theatre daily statement, May 9, 1913 [12F10].

Folder 17 box office statement, Temple Theatre, Carthage NY,

March 17, 1914 [12F11].

Folder 18 advertising receipt from E.S. Bence Company, Carthage

NY, March 20, 1914 [12F12].

Folder 19 script for the character Sambo in “What a girl can do” by

Roy La Mar, owned by Ed Bolton. [12F13].

Folder 20 script for the character Bill Vane in “The Way of the

World” by Roy Le Mar, owned by Ed Bolton. [12F14].

Folder 21 script for the character Sam in “Paying the Price”, owned

by Ed Bolton. [12F15].

Folder 22 script for “Loved and Lost”, a four act melodrama by Roy

Le Mar [12F16].

Folder 23 Eddie Bolton’s 5th grade composition book [12F17].

Folder 24 handbill for The Henry Family at the Opera House, Madrid

NY, c. 1905. [not numbered].

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Folder 25 handbill for The Barnards, at The Opera House, c. 1906

[not numbered].

Drawer 1

oversized printed materials

half sheet poster for Patten and Perry’s High Class

Comedy Attractions, featuring an image of Marjorie and

Lulu Gibbs, c. 1910 [12C2].

broadside for The Gibbs Family Entertainers, No Date

[12C3].

large bill for a Vaudeville Show, Cleghorn, NY. Sept. 16,

1904. [12C6].

Series 2 – Photographic Materials

Box 2 – photo album

50 pages,400 photographs of the Gibbs family on the road. c. 1912 – 1918.

[12B1].

Box 3

album, photographic postcards, photographs

8 photographs on board [12A1- 12A8] – Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company

Party, with William Gibbs and Native Americans, Woods Music Trio, Ed

Bolton, George Patten, acrobat. C. 1892-1893.

Album – 36 pages, dismantled binding, showing Gibbs Family on shows and at

leisure in Canadian locations.

57 photographic postcards [12E1-12E40, 17 un-numbered] – showing Gibbs

family, Ed Bolton, Stewart Bolton, LeReane Show, Hooker White, Tom

Kelley, Miss French, Burt Bernier, a dog act, Helen King, and Clifford

Allen.

56 photographs [12E50-12E105] – showing Gibbs family, Harry LeReane,

LaReane show, tent scenes, acrobatic portraits, and leisure scenes.

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Box 4

photographs, card photographs and oversized cabinet cards

13 cabinet cards and photographs that are cataloged in TMS, but oversized for

cabinet card storage boxes.

ht1005924 [12D7]

ht1005926 [12D8a]

ht1005927 [12D9]

ht1005928 [12D10]

ht1005939 [12D42]

ht1005957 [12D60]

ht1005958 [12D61]

ht1005959 [12D62]

ht1005986 [12D87]

ht1006000 [12D99]

ht1006003 [12D103]

ht1006005 [12D104]

ht1006006 [unnumbered]

26 oversized cabinet cards and card photographs, 12 8 x 10 photographs

cataloged in TMS, object numbers - ht1006020 – ht1006059,

[12A9 – 12A55].

Box 5

cabinet cards

ht1005900 – ht1005919 [12D1-12D2, 12D20-12D40].

Box 6

cabinet cards

ht1005920-ht1005944, excluding ht1005924, ht1005926-ht1005928, ht1005939

[12D3-12D19, 12D41-12D47] (see Box 4 for oversized).

Box 7

cabinet cards

ht1005945 – ht1005967, excluding ht1005957, ht1005958, ht1005959

[12D48 – 12D70] (see Box 4 for oversized).

Box 8

cabinet cards

ht1005968 – ht1005983 [12D71 – 12D85].

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]Box 9

cabinet cards

ht1005984 – ht1006001, excluding ht1005986, ht1006000 [12D86-12D92,

multiple unnumbered] (see Box 4 for oversized).

Box 10

cabinet cards

ht1006002 – ht1006019, excluding ht1006003, ht1006005, ht1006006. [12D101 –

12D103, multiple unnumbered].

tibbals collection gibbs company collection v1

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