Grace Mason Papers/ Franklyn Atkinson Henderson Photograph Collection

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Grace Scott Mason and the Atkinson Family

Grace Vivian Mason(née Scott) and her sister, Michele Antoinette Madison (née Scott), were fiercely proud of their family history as some of the earliest African Americans to settle in Chicago. They called themselves “third generation Chicagoans,” members of a community which came to be known in Chicago as the “Old Settlers.” They traced their family history to Isaac and Emma Jane Atkinson, who arrived in Chicago in 1847, the thirteenth Black family to settle in the city. These first Chicago Atkinsons originally resided at State and Quincy streets in downtown Chicago. Isaac Atkinson was the son of Richard Atkinson, born in Scotland, and Cecelia (last name unknown), a member of the Cherokee nation. Isaac Atkinson came to own his own bus line in Chicago, before the advent of streetcars. He later worked for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.

Emma Jane Atkinson was active in the Underground Railroad, aiding fugitive slaves. She was one of the famous “Big Four,” a group of women members of Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church who sheltered runaways and steered them to safety in Michigan and Canada. Other women in the group included Mary Richardson Jones, wife of John Jones, and Joanna Huss Hall, wife of Rev. Abram T. Hall.

Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth Henderson (née Atkinson), born in 1856, was Grace Mason and Michele Madison’s grandmother. She lived until 1941, and was memorialized in the Chicago Defender as “the oldest Chicago-born Negro woman living in the city,” and a “founding member of the Chicago Old Settlers Social Club.” Mary Elizabeth Henderson and James Henderson had two children: Essie, who was Grace Mason and Michele Madison’s mother, and Franklyn (sometimes spelled “Franklyn” and nicknamed “Petey”) Atkinson Henderson, their uncle.

In the 1930s, Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, an illustrator, interior designer, and photographer, launched a concerted effort to preserve the history of the Atkinson family, and of the Chicago Old Settlers Social Club. He collected photographs of nineteenth century Black Chicagoans and sought to document the contributions of the Old Settlers. Many of the photographs in his collection were exhibited at the 1940 American Negro Exposition, held in Chicago. A larger group of the photographs was exhibited in 1943 at the South Side Community Art Center; that exhibit received a major feature article in the Chicago Herald American newspaper. At the time of the exhibit, he was serving as secretary and official historian of the Chicago Old Settlers Social Club. Franklyn Atkinson Henderson, lauded as the Atkinson family historian, died in 1962.

Grace Mason and Michele Madison grew up in the family’s home at 3334 South Vernon Avenue, until they were forced to move to make way for the huge Lake Meadows housing development. Many of the family’s documents and keepsakes did not survive the move. Grace and Michele took over responsibility for preserving family history after Franklyn Atkinson Henderson’s death. They combined materials in their possession with the photographs owned by Franklyn Atkinson Henderson. They studied census and burial records, created a family tree, composed a brief family history, and researched the family gravesites in Graceland Cemetery. They donated sets of the photographs and documents to both the Chicago History Museum and the Chicago Public Library’s Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.

Sources

• Dolinar, Brian, ed., The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press), 2013

• Hendry, A.B., “Old Settlers Club Exhibit Marks 111 Years of History,” Chicago Herald American, February 7, 1943

• Lyon, Jeff, “Generations: A quiet quest to honor a family’s legacy,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, February 23, 1992

• Reed, Christopher Robert, Black Chicago’s First Century, Volume 1, 1833-1900. (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2005

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Grace Mason Papers/Franklyn Atkinson Photograph Collection documents the history of nineteenth century African Americans in Chicago with an extraordinary collection of photographs and a small group of documents. Also included are photographs and documents which illustrate the continuing history of the Atkinson family in twentieth century Chicago.

Series I: Photographs taken by, or collected by, Franklyn Atkinson Henderson

The photographs in this series were taken by, or collected by, Franklyn Atkinson Henderson. Many of them were exhibited at the 1940 American Negro Exposition held in Chicago, and in a 1943 exhibition held at the South Side Community Art Center. The photographs are arranged in the order in which they were received.

Series 2: Photographs of Atkinson family members collected by Grace Mason and Michele Madison

These photographs were collected by Grace Scott Mason and her sister, Michele Madison, from family albums held by the descendents of Isaac and Emma Atkinson. They document family members in twentieth century Chicago. The photographs are arranged in the order in which they were received.

Series 3: Photographs of Atkinson family documents

The documents in this series are of two types: the first group presents research on Atkinson family history done by Grace Mason and Michele Madison; the second group includes clippings, financial documents and invitations collected by Franklyn Atkinson Henderson. They are arranged in the order in which they were received.

Series 4: Historical documents on Chicago’s “Old Settlers”

The extraordinary document in this series is a copy of the register of “The Chicago Old Settlers Social Club, Organized February 11, 1904.” It includes an account of the initial organizing meetings, and a full list of the members of the club throughout its history. Also included here is a newspaper article on the 1943 South Side Community Art Center exhibit on the Old Settlers, and an article on Grace Mason and Michele Madison. The two articles are arranged chronologically.

CONTAINER LIST

Series 1: Photographs taken by, or collected by, Franklyn Atkinson Henderson

Series 2: Photographs of Atkinson family members collected by Grace Mason and Michele Madison

Series 3: Photographs of Atkinson family documents

Series 4: Historical Documents on Chicago’s “Old Settlers”