Glass Plate Negative, Virginia Shivell, by Jane Reece, Undated

The collection contains both documents and photographs. Articles about Paul Shivell note his contributions to poetry, and a 1916 letter to Shivell from poet Robert Frost congratulated him on his 1915 book, mentioning two poems specifically for merit.

Photographs in the collection are primarily the work of noted Dayton photographer Jane Reece. A friend of the Shivell family, portraits and other studies follow the Shivell family through several decades, containing both formal portraits of Paul Shivell, silhouettes of Paul and Gertrude Shivell, and several portraits of their youngest daughter, Virginia Shivell, at variety of ages. There are also two glass plate negatives, as well as an original print of Reece’s photograph of Matilda Dunbar, mother of local Dayton poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Also included are reference prints of other photographs of the Shivells from MS-151, the Jane Reece Collection.