Danforth Family Photographs

Born in Boston in 1804, Rev. Simeon Howard Calhoun attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1829 and returned home with the intention of establishing a career in law or politics. By 1833 however, his goals had changed and he returned to Williams College as a tutor where he focused on religious education. During his time there he encouraged many students to become missionaries, and eventually accepted a position with the American Bible Society (ABS). From 1836-1844 he worked as a representative of ABS and was based in Smyrna, Turkey. He ended his tenure with ABS when he was hired by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions as a missionary in Syria (in an area that is now part of modern-day Lebanon). He spent the majority of the next 32 years in Syria as a missionary. He also worked as a teacher and administrator of a seminary in Abeih. This was the precursor to the American University in Beirut, still in operation today. Simeon Calhoun married Emily Pitkin Raynolds in 1848 and brought his wife with him to Syria. The couple had four children, including Emily Raynolds Calhoun, born in 1852.

In 1871 Emily R. Calhoun married Galen Bancroft Danforth, who came to Syria as a medical missionary after earning his M.D. from the University of New York. Between 1872 and 1874 the couple had two daughters, Agnes and Helen Danforth. They were very young when their father died in 1875. Although their mother was still living, she was in poor health and according to reports by Agnes, she and her sister were largely left in the care of a nurse and other household employees. This changed when their maternal grandmother, Emily P. Calhoun, returned to Syria after spending time back in the United States. She and her husband had been visiting with his family in Buffalo when he died on December 14, 1876. After his death, she returned to Syria and helped with caring for Agnes and Helen. She became their primary caretaker when their mother died in 1881.

Agnes and Helen left Syria with their grandmother sometime around 1884 and were educated in the United States. Agnes went on to attend Elmira College and in 1901 she married Laurence I. Hewes. The couple had five children, with the oldest being born in 1902. In 1923 she published the historical novel A Boy of the Lost Crusade, the first of many publications she authored. She died in San Francisco in 1963. Helen met Dr. John Ross while on her way to Panama to teach English to children in 1907. Ross was a physician and was involved with the construction of the Panama Canal. The couple were married in 1908 and had three children. They eventually settled in Ross’s hometown of Clarksville, Tennessee. Helen died in Clarksville in 1971.

While the complete provenance of the photographs in this collection is unknown, it is certain that they once belonged to the Danforth family. Given their history in Syria, it is possible that a member of the family was the photographer, but that is not verified. Other family members continued to live in Syria after the Danforths left, including Emily Danforth’s sister Helen Calhoun Van Dyck. She was known to keep photographs similar in composition to those in this collection, some of which have been preserved in the related Ross-Russo Collection. According to family tradition, neither Agnes nor Helen returned to Syria after leaving, but the country remained dear to them. Agnes in particular remembered her time there fondly, and was inspired to write her first historical novel for young people drawing from the history of the region.