The Dunham family as represented in this collection begins with Edward Wood Dunham (1794-1871) of New Brunswick, New Jersey, and his wife, Maria Smyth Parker (1794-1834), of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. They moved to New York City in 1821. There Edward established himself as a banker and eventually became president of the Corn Exchange Bank. Edward and Maria Dunham had four children: Ann Lawrence, Edward, James, and Carroll.

Carroll Dunham (1828-1877) was a homeopathic physician and dean of faculty at the New York Homeopathic Medical College. He was also president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. In 1853, Carroll married Harriet E. Kellogg (1828-1878), the daughter of Edward and Esther Kellogg of Brooklyn, New York. They lived in Irvington, New York, and had six children: Carroll, Edward Kellogg, Theodore, Herbert, Constantine, and Beatrice. Herbert and Constantine both died before one year. Harriet's sister, Amelia Nash (Kellogg) Henshaw--affectionately called "Aunt Rabbit," studied under artist Samuel Colman (Anne Lawrence Dunham's husband). Beatrice Dunham was a prolific writer of stories and verses. She and other family members also compiled a family magazine called "The Phoenix."

Edward Kellogg Dunham (1860-1922) was well known for his work in the fields of pathology and bacteriology. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1886 then studied for a period at Koch's laboratory in Berlin where he discovered the "cholera-red" reaction. After returning to the United States, he worked for the Board of Health Commission in Boston and later became professor of pathology at the Bellevue Medical College of New York University. During World War I, he worked in U.S. Army hospitals, researching and treating meningitis cases. Soon he became involved in treating soldiers infected with empyema (a lung disease related to pneumonia) and in 1918 was appointed chairman of the "Empyema Commission." After Edward's death his empyema research was published by his wife, Mary (Dows) Dunham, and several of his colleagues. In 1923 Mary gave an endowment to Harvard Medical School for the establishment of the "Edward Kellogg Dunham Lectures for the Promotion of the Medical Sciences."

In 1893 Edward married Mary Dows (1865-1936), daughter of David Dows (1814-1890) and Margaret (Worcester) Dows (1831-1909), also of Irvington, N.Y. David Dows headed the New York firm, David Dows and Company, one of the largest grain dealers in the country. He also served on the Board of Directors of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Co. Mary was stricken with polio as a child and was left partially disabled. She suffered from almost constant pain throughout her life, nevertheless, traveled extensively and pursued various artistic and philanthropic activities. Mary became interested in photography at a young age and was encouraged in her endeavors by artist Samuel Colman (Anne Lawrence Dunham's husband). She traveled to the western United States and Europe numerous times before her marriage to Edward in 1893. Mary and Edward traveled together in Europe, Egypt, and the Western U.S. from the 1890s to the 1910s. In Egypt, they journeyed down the Nile River on a houseboat for three weeks in 1906.

Edward and Mary had two children: Theodora Dunham (1895-1983) and Edward Kellogg Dunham, Jr. (1901-1951). Soon after the birth of their daughter Theodora, Edward and Mary moved from Litchfield, Connecticut, to New York City. In 1898 they built a house in Seal Harbor, Maine, which they named "Keewaydin." The Dows family had spent many summers in Seal Harbor and several of Mary's siblings also made it their summer home.

During World War I, Mary and Theodora were involved with the American Fund for French Wounded (AFFW), an organization which provided medical and material aid to wounded soldiers and refugees. Theodora went to France to work as a volunteer at the front from 1916 to 1917. Mary organized volunteers in both New York City and in Seal Harbor to send relief packages overseas for the AFFW workers there to distribute to refugees and soldiers.

During the early twentieth century, Mary and Edward were involved in various philanthropic activities in New York and Seal Harbor. They worked with the New York Cooking School and several New York City hospitals to establish a cooking school for nurses with the aim of improving hospital food service. In Seal Harbor, Edward tested the milk of the local dairy farms, and Edward and Mary helped to organize the Mount Desert Chapter of the American Red Cross for which both Mary and Edward Dunham, Jr., were board members. The family was also active in the Seal Harbor Village Improvement Society.

Edward Kellogg Dunham, Jr. (1901-1951), was graduated from Harvard University in 1922, and worked as assistant manager for the Corn Exchange Bank (his great-grandfather's institution) in New York through the 1920s. After that, much of his time was occupied with other financial activities as treasurer of Dows Estates (established with the estate of his grandparents) and as trustee of his mother's estate. Edward lived for a few years in the western United States where, in 1933, he met and married Anne ("Nancy") Yellott. Edward and Nancy had two children: Edward Kellogg Dunham III and Elizabeth Dunham. They eventually moved to New York City and spent their summers in Seal Harbor where Edward continued in his parents' philanthropic footsteps.