The materials in this collection are related primarily to Alvin M. Woolson (1841-1925), a merchant and businessman in Toledo, Ohio, and his daughter Weona Woolson Engle (1879-1970), who lived in Chicago after her marriage to Walter J. Engle.

Alvin Mansfield Woolson was born in Huron, Erie County, Ohio, in 1841, the son of Ira Knight and Arietta Mansfield Woolson. As a boy he worked on his family's farm and was also hired out as a printer's apprentice. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the First Regiment, Ohio Volunteers Heavy artillery, formerly the 117th Regiment of Infantry, Ohio Volunteers, and attained the rank of sergeant major. After the war, Woolson worked with the Union Pacific Railway in Kansas and traveled extensively in the west before returning to Ohio in 1868 and establishing a store in the town of Berlin Heights. Woolson married Frances Delia Tillinghast in 1870, and the couple lived briefly in Wauseon, Ohio, before relocating permanently to Toledo in 1875. Woolson established the Woolson Spice Company in 1882, and built it into a successful coffee business which became well known for its printed trade cards. Woolson sold the company in 1897, and for the remainder of his life was active in many civic activities and clubs in Toledo. Alvin and Frances Woolson had three daughters: Maude (1873-1929), married to Herman Brand; Weona (1879-1970), married to Walter J. Engle; and Constance (1885-1970), married to John Barney. Constance was named for her father Alvin's cousin, the novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson, a grand-niece of James Fenimore Cooper.

Weona Woolson Engle was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1879. She grew up with her sisters Maude and Constance in an affluent environment made possible by her father Alvin's successful coffee business. After her marriage to Walter J. Engle, the couple settled in Chicago, where they maintained a home on East Division Street. The Woolson family owned automobiles and took many driving trips which are documented in the photo album Weona Woolson Engle kept. Weona and Walter Engle had one daughter, Weona Charlotte (1902-2001). Weona Charlotte married William Armstrong and had one daughter, Weona, born in 1925 and married to Henry Sutton in 1944. Weona Sutton lives in the Chicago area and is a member of Ballet Chicago's Board of Directors.

The Woolsons are descended from Thomas Woolson, born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1630, and his wife Sarah Hyde, and can trace the family lineage to Great Britain. Branches of the family settled in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California and Ohio, and include the McFarland, Yerington, Claflin, and Hunt families. Other family members include the novelist Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894), and Albert Woolson (1850-1956), the last surviving Union veteran of the Civil War.