Nebeker family papers

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Scope and content note

Administrative Information

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Creator

Nebeker, Aquila, 1843-1913.

Creator

Nebeker, Mary E., 1848-1929.

Creator

Nebeker

Title

Nebeker family papers

ID

4647

Date

1875-1919, undated

Extent

1.0 Linear feet ; 3 boxes

Author

Finding aid prepared by Randi Kamine.

Language

English

Abstract

Aquila Nebeker (22 April 1843-28 May 1913) was a physician who practiced in Philadelphia in the late 1800s.He is buried in Westminster Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Emma Talley Nebeker (1848-1929), and together they had two children: Mary Boys Nebeker Volkhardt (1869-1942) and Aquilina Nebeker Eno (1871-1949). The Nebeker family papers includes medical records from Dr. Aquilla Nebeker’s medical practice and businesses in Philadelphia. There is very little personal correspondence. Much of the business correspondence concerns investments made by Nebeker in mining, tobacco, paper, and other companies in which he held stock. In order to expedite his business he formed a partnership, Nebeker and Eno, a fiscal agency and investment firm that dealt with stock shares. There are land deeds and other business documents, including papers from the U.S. Patent Office in 1893 when Nebeker worked to patent an improvement to a device for making medicinal tablets.

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Scope and content note

The Nebeker family papers consists primraily of business correspondence, along with receipts of Nebeker and Eno, concerning Nebeker’s speculative investments in mining and other endeavors. In reading these documents, one can discern the various trials and tribulations of investors in the setting up and managing these mines. Articles of incorporation and annual reports from the various mining and other investments would be of interest to scholars researching speculative investments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Notable among the stock correspondence are letters beseeching Nebeker and other investors to keep investing more and more money into the stocks.

Personal material or information the family is scant, but there are some personal letters of Aquilla, Mary, and Myrtle Nebeker. There are also items in the collection from Nebeker's medical practice, such as notebooks with handwritten recipes for medicines and ointments, and a ledger containing a list of Nebeker's patients with medical notes. Other items include Wanamaker dairies; a diary, account book, and day book by Mrs. Mary E. Nebeker; and some miscellenous ephemera. Serving up a little intrigue is a clipping from a unknown newspaper from April 1908 with the headline, “Druggist Accused. Coroner Causes Warrant to be Issued Following Woman’s death from Morphine.” The name of the perpetrator is given as Aquilla Neubaker with the same address as Nebeker’s Philadelphia practice.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania ; 2024.

Access restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of the Staten Island Historical Society, 1992.

Accession number A1992.2.

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Controlled Access Headings

Subject(s)

• Medical history--19th century.
• Medical history--20th century.
• Medical treatments--19th century.
• Medical treatments--20th century.
• Mines and mineral resources.
• Physicians--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--19th century.
• Physicians--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--20th century.
• Stock certificates--20th century.
• Stock certificates.

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Collection Inventory