Claude François Ferdinand de Brossard, a well to do French businessman, and his second wife, Elizabeth Rosalie Pestel, emigrated to New York City in about 1840, bringing with them their two children. Their daughter Jenny is known to have attended Mrs. Draper's Ladies Seminary in Hartford, Conn., where she met and married Caleb Ellis Draper. A son, Ferdinand, appears to have remained in New York for several years before emigrating to Texas. Ferdinand's wife is identified only as Honorine.

The primary focus of this collection, Florence Smith Romaine, née Florence Frisbie Smith, was born in Detroit in 1882 to Seth Enos Smith (1848-1936) and Jenny Draper (1852-1921). After training as a vocalist and pianist, Florence Smith Romaine moved to New York City to pursue a career as an actress and musician. In the decades around the turn of the century, she starred in several musical comedies, including San Toy (1905) and Ko-ko-mo (ca.1905). In 1906, she married an actor, Oscar Worthington Stull (d. ca.1940), who worked under the pseudonym, Worthington L. Romaine. Hearing problems and ill health hampered Florence Romaine's stage career, and she spent her later years writing children's plays and literature, mainly for the Christian Science Monitor. She died in New York City in 1963.

Scope and Contents:

The Florence Smith Romaine Papers have been organized into five series housed in two boxes:

1. Correspondence;
2. Documents;
3. Miscellaneous;
4. Scrapbooks; and
5. Photographs.

Box 1:

The correspondence series is arranged chronologically from 1839-1963, and relates mainly to the Brossard family in the United States. Five of these letters were written by Elizabeth Brossard to her son, Ferdinand, and there are a few letters written in French by friends and family members in Europe. The latter part of the correspondence series contains three letters from Jenny Draper to her daughter Jenny Draper Smith and three to her granddaughter Florence Smith Romaine. Also included is a group of six letters addressed to the Detroit art dealer, C. C. Randall. While the content of these letters is not of outstanding importance, writers include Frederick Church, George Waters, and Albert Bierstadt. It is unclear how these letters ended up in the Romaine Papers.

The documents series is arranged chronologically and includes birth, marriage and death certificates, diplomas, and a certificate from the French government granting the Fleur de Lys to Ferdinand Brossard's father, Nicolas. A group of items labeled "Business Letters" has been placed in this series in the folder marked "French Papers." Most of these letters relate to Claude François Brossard's business concerns in France, though not all are strictly "business letters."

Included in the miscellaneous series are some biographical notes written or collected by the donor, miscellaneous notes made by her, and several poems (3 by an anonymous author, one by Florence Romaine).

Box 2:

The scrapbooks were assembled by Florence Smith Romaine to document her acting, vocal and writing careers. She included reviews, programs of plays, and copies of articles and stories she wrote. Also filed in Box 2 is a manuscript for a children's play written by her, and a copy of her book, Whistling Bill : Our Changing World.

A majority of the photographs are of Florence Romaine and her husband. Many depict Florence Romaine in full stage costume as she appeared in San Toy and Ko-ko-mo. There is also a photo album with 104 cartes-de-visite and tintypes (filed in Box 2), mostly of Draper and Brossard family members. Many of the people in these photos, however, remain unidentified.

M-2233
Cat. 5/90 maj

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