Frank R. Zebley papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0135

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The Frank R. Zebley papers span the period 1897-1950, and consists of .5 linear feet of material comprising correspondence, business of the Delaware state legislature, legal and financial business of the estate of Alexander C. Rodgers, a scrapbook, and ephemera. This is a very small collection of personal papers with large lacunae that make it difficult to piece together a narrative of Zebley's life.

Mention of his family members are made only briefly in his two books, and in a 1916 newspaper clipping regarding the death of Elizabeth Frazier (as three of Frank's brothers were pallbearers). It is also uncertain how he became active in politics, what offices he held before 1938, or why he retired in 1940. In some ways, the collection raises more questions than it answers. For example, the newspaper clippings pasted to the spine of the scrapbook which read "Personal 3" suggest that there may be at least two other scrapbooks which are not extant, and his seemingly great interest in professional wrestlers, as implied by the numerous clippings of articles and photographs found on the last pages of the scrapbook, is curious.

Much of the correspondence dates to his term in the Delaware House of Representatives, and includes numerous requests for jobs and legislation. Among the papers is also found a list of the members of the House's 107th assembly, as well as a breakdown of the various committees on which these individuals sat.

Dates

Creation: 1897-1950

Creator

Zebley, Frank R. (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec

Biographical Note

Frank R. Zebley was a Delaware native, author, and Speaker in the Delaware House of Representatives in 1938.

He was born in January, 1883 in Wilmington, Delaware, to Lewis Atwood (d. circa 1897) and Katherine Price Zebley (b. 1850). His father was employed at one time as a car builder and manager with the Pullman Palace Car Co. in Wilmington, and worked variously as a carpenter and general laborer for other local companies as well. Frank graduated from Wilmington High School in 1898, after which he found employment as a machinist in the Delaware Machine Works. Sometime between 1906 and 1912 he acquired a degree in mechanical engineering from the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, PA, and by 1912, the Wilmington City Directory lists Frank Zebley as a contractor and builder.

Frank Zebley was also an active supporter of the Republican party, and generally opposed to New Deal liberalism. He had been a member of the Young Men's Republican Club, and in the 1930s had embarked upon a political career, winning a seat as Speaker in the Delaware House of Representatives in 1938. According to a note in his scrapbook, however, Zebley felt betrayed by his party's leaders (for reasons not divulged), and in 1940 he retired in disgust.

During the 1930s he spent a great deal of his leisure time traveling extensively around Delaware, and wrote several books based on these experiences: Along the Brandywine (1940), and The Churches of Delaware (1947). He died in 1960.

Index (soundex) to the population schedules of the 12th census of the United States, 1900, Delaware. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1986?The Wilmington City Directory. Wilmington, DE: s.n.Zebley, Frank R. Along the Brandywine. Wilmington, DE: William M. Cann, 1940.Zebley, Frank R. Churches of Delaware: a history, in brief, of the nearly 900 churches in Delaware as located by the author. Wilmington, DE: s.n., 1947.Historical and biographical information derived from the collection.

Extent

.5 linear foot (2 boxes)

Additional Description

Abstract

The Frank R. Zebley Papers spans the period 1897-1950, and consists of .5 linear feet of material comprising correspondence, business of the Delaware state legislature, legal and financial business of the estate of Alexander C. Rodgers, a scrapbook, and ephemera. This is a very small collection of personal papers with large lacunae that make it difficult to piece together a narrative of Zebley's life.

Source

Gift of Harold W. T. Purnell, 1963.

Related Materials in this Repository

Items from the collection appeared in the exhibition “Trail to the Voting Booth: An Exploration of Political Ephemera,” lauched online September 2020, University of Delaware – Morris Library. The exhibition can be viewed online at https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/trail-to-the-voting-booth.

Shelving Summary

Boxes 1-2: Shelved in SPEC MSS manuscript boxes

Processing

Processed by Arthur Siegel, November 1998. Encoded by Thomas Pulhamus, February 2010. Further encoding by Lauren Connolly, June 2015, and Tiffany Saulter, November 2015.