The collection includes glass plate negatives sizes 3x5 inches, 3.25x5 inches, 4.25x4.25 inches, 5x7.5 inches, 5x inches, 5x8.5 inches, and 21 acetate film negatives, size 3.5x5.62 inches. Topics include dynamos, industry, Great Lakes ferries, nature, baseball, parlors, buildings, railroads, lumber, ships, logging, mine shafts, people in Hurley, Saint Ignace, and Montreal, Michigan, near Marquette. It appears that negatives in boxes 1-3 were probably taken by W. Wells Lamb, a photographer from Glidden, Wisconsin. Other photographers are unidentified. Items were identified as much as possible from labels, slips of papers, notes on original boxes, and, whenever possible, information on/in the negatives themselves. Negatives with damage such as fading, spotting, oxidation, cracks, broken or missing pieces, deteriorated or flaking emulsions have been noted on the sleeves. (For information on Fred R. Trelfa see the finding aid to his other collections.) Boxes 1-8 measure 4x7x10.5 inches, smaller than a .5 cubic foot letter-size box.
Biography:
Fred R. Trelfa, born April 9, 1886 in Strathroy (Ontario), moved to Alpena, Michigan, in 1895. He had a brother, Tom C. Trelfa, of Detroit. On September 16, 1914, Fred married Mable C. Hagen. She died on August 19, 1974, after 60 years of marriage. They had two children, Mable and Richard T.
Fred Trelfa attended public schools until 1902 when he began working with the Alpena City Water Company. He worked for Holmes and Kelsey Wholesale Grocery Company from 1905 to 1908 and at Alpena County Savings Bank from 1908 to 1919, as a bookkeeper and bond teller.
In 1919, he began work at Fletcher Paper Company, where he worked until he retired in 1959 as secretary-treasurer and director of the company.
He was active in school organizations, the Masons, and historical societies. He was a community leader interested in preserving Alpena’s history, including hundreds of photographs and manuscripts that he collected and organized.
Fred R. Trelfa died March 27, 1979, at age 92, in Alpena. (This information is from Fred’s obituary.)
