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Title
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Passport photograph of Agnes Upshur and Georgine Upshur
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Description
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An insert from Agnes C. Upshur’s day journal “My Trip Abroad.” The insert features her passport with a passport photograph of her and her young daughter Georgine Elizabeth Upshur.
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Agnes Sanders Upshur was born in 1896 to Georgine “Davia” (née Saunders) and Charles Sanders Chew in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was one of two children and a descendant of a white, English son of enslavers Richard Walpole Cogdell (1787-1866) and a Black enslaved woman Sarah Martha Sanders (1850). After migrating from Charleston, South Carolina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1850, Sarah and Richard’s children and their children’s descendants went on to join the city’s middle class Black citizenry (University of Pennsylvania, n.d.). In 1880, members of her paternal family (the Chews) sued to abolish racially segregated schools in Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania, n.d.).
Agnes Upshur was a teacher in the Philadelphia public school system teaching at Martha Washington and William Harrison elementary schools (Death Notices 1984; Deaths here 1984). She was also active in the civic and social life of the city participating as a board member of the Lincoln Day Nursery and a charter member of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) (Deaths here 1984).
She graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls and then Philadelphia Normal School in 1917 (P. E. Divinity School Holds Commencement 1917).
In 1918, she and William A. Upshur Jr. (former state representative, Republican leader of the 30th Ward, secretary of the Republican City Committee and funeral home director) married (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Marriage Index, 1885-1951 [database on-line] 2011). The couple had one child, Georgine Elizabeth Upshur in 1921. At William’s death in 1963, Agnes took over the operation of his funeral home at 21st and Christian Streets.
She died on Jun 28 1984, at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia.
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Georgine “Gene” Elizabeth Upshur Willis was born to Agnes Sanders Chew and William A. Upshur in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 3, 1921 (U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1970 [database on-line] 2016).
She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls from which she graduated on June 16, 1939. During her time there, she was a distinguished student. One of her accomplishments included being voted to the Sophrosyne Honor Society at age 17 on October 13, 1938. She was also columnist for the Philadelphia edition of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper (Georgine E. Upshur Willis collection of the Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning collection, n.d.).
Her academic achievements would continue through her post secondary education. During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, she was 1 of 14 students elected to Pi Gamma Mu, a national social science honor society (14 at U. of P. Honored by Group 1943). She graduated in 1943 from the University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to her father being one of Philadelphia’s most prominent civic and political leaders, her father William “Bill” Upshur was a well respected undertaker. When Georgine passed the state morticians exam around 1949, she partnered with her father and practiced undertaking at the William A. Upshur, Jr. Funeral Home in West Philadelphia (Georgine E. Upshur Willis collection of the Stevens-Cogdell-Sanders-Venning collection, n.d.).
In 1949 she married William Willis. A census record from the following year shows the couple living in Queens, New York and Georgine working as a social worker in a private hospital (1950 United States Federal Census [database on-line] 2022).
She died on December 30, 1998 (Ancestry.com 2012).
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Rights
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This work is not in copyright, but commercial uses of this digital representation are limited. For more information, contact printroom@librarycompany.org and see http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-NC/1.0/
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Creator
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Willis, Georgine Upshur
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Format
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Text
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Language
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eng
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Spatial Coverage
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Philadelphia, PA
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Publisher
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The Library Company of Philadelphia
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Contributor
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Library Company of Philadelphia
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Extent
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2 pages
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Identifier
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P.2022.16.78
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Date Created
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1932
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Is Part Of
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Stevens-Cogdell/Sanders Venning Collection - Upshur Willis Collection_Georgine E. Upshur Willis collection_scsv-p-2022-16-78-passport-p4
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Subject
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African American women
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Diaries
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Middle class African Americans
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Mothers and daughters
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Passports
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Middle class African Americans
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Socialites
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transcription
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Photograph of bearer
PHOTOGRAPH ATTACHED
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
WASHINGTON
This passport is good for travel in all countries unless otherwise limited. This passport is valid for two years from the date of issue unless limited to a shorter period.
Passport photograph of Agnes Upshur and Georgine Upshur 