The Littell family traces its ancestry to settlers in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the early eighteenth century. Elton Gardiner Littell, third son of Rev. T. Harrington Littell, an Episcopalian priest, was a New York City pediatrician, chief of school medical services for the Westchester Medical Society, and superintendent of health in the public schools of Yonkers. He great-uncle, Eliakim Littel, was a notable American publisher. A graduate of Trinity College and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Elton Gardiner Littell died in Yonkers in 1962 Littell's scrapbook focuses mainly on his years at Trinity College, 1895-1899, and includes clippings, photographs, calling cards and ephemera. Littell collected autographs from friends and faculty members, and maintained material documenting his participation in football and tennis, his attendance at social dances and theatrical events, and his membership in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Additional items include obituaries of family members, friends, and notable individuals; a small quantity of correspondence; and a draft of his 1899 Trinity College commencement address, The Proper Treatment of Criminals. Also present are clippings from this same time period related to his father, Rev. T. Harrington Littell, his brother Rev. John Stockton Littell, and his brother Rev. Samuel Harrington Littell, a missionary who later served the Episcopalian Church as the Bishop of Honolulu
