Robert Ingersoll Collection

Title

Robert Ingersoll Collection

Subject


Description

Known as the "Great Agnostic," Robert Green Ingersoll was one of the most popular and controversial public speakers of the late nineteenth century. He denounced organized religion and spoke in favor of equal rights for all all Americans, including women and African Americans. Although born in Massachusetts in 1833, Ingersoll eventually settled in Illinois, where he raised and led a cavalry regiment during the Civil War. Ingersoll was a successful attorney and a leader in the Republican Party. Robert Ingersoll died in 1899.

The Robert Ingersoll Collection mostly consists of family photographs.

Collection Items

Eva Ingersoll Brown
Eva Ingersoll Brown, elder daughter of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," and wife of fellow agnostic, Walston Hill Brown, was a political and social activist who founded the International Child Welfare League.

Maud Ingersoll Probasco
Maud Ingersoll Probasco, younger daughter of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," and wife of wealthy businessman, Wallace M. Probasco, was a political and social activist who founded the Vivisection Investigation League.

Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, Infant
Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, daughter of Eva Ingersoll Brown, and granddaughter of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," devoted her entire life to the promotion of world peace and animal welfare. She became the authority on the life and work of her…

Robert Ingersoll and Eva Ingersoll Wakefield
Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil War, politician, attorney, and orator, poses for a picture with his granddaughter, Eva Ingersoll Wakefield.

Robert Ingersoll with Eva Ingersoll Wakefield and Robert G. Ingersoll Brown
Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil War, politician, attorney, and orator, poses for a picture with his grandchildren, Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, and Robert G. Ingersoll Brown.

Minnie Maddern Fiske
Minnie Maddern Fiske was an influential stage actress of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Robert G. Ingersoll Brown
Robert G. Ingersoll Brown, grandson of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," poses for a picture with his dog. On verso: "To dear papa with lots of love, Eva, 10 years old. To dear papa with love and lots of kisses, Robert, 8 years old."

Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, Young Girl
Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, granddaughter of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," poses for a picture wearing a dress and a bow in her hair. On verso: "To dear papa with very much love from Eva."

Robert Green Ingersoll
Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil War, politician, attorney, and orator, endorses a photograph, "To Marshall P. Wilder-Who knows that mirth is medicine and that laughter lengthens life-from his friend &…

Robert Ingersoll, Life
Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil War, politician, attorney, and orator, poses for a picture with his granddaughter, Eva Ingersoll Wakefield. Their picture is set within a long poem titled, "LIFE."

Robert Ingersoll, Love
Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil War, politician, attorney, and orator, poses for a picture with his grandchildren, Eva Ingersoll Wakefield, and Robert G. Ingersoll Brown. Their picture is set within a poem…

Ebon Clark Ingersoll
Ebon Clark Ingersoll, brother of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," was a member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Maud Ingersoll Probasco
Maud Ingersoll Probasco, younger daughter of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," and wife of wealthy businessman, Wallace M. Probasco, was a political and social activist who founded the Vivisection Investigation League.

Robert Green Ingersoll
Portrait of Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," colonel during the American Civil war, politician, attorney, and orator.

The Dream
"The Dream," an oil painting by French artist Edouard Detaille, depicts sleeping French soldiers dreaming of the glory of France's Grand Army. This copy was brought to John Charles Black from Paris by his son in 1908. Black was a Union Army…

Ingersoll Islands, Ukon River
Ingersoll Islands, Yukon River, was acquired with the Ingersoll Papers in 1947. Robert Ingersoll, "The Great Agnostic," was a colonel during the American Civil War, a politician, an attorney, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought.
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