The Dorsey family album opens in Detroit, Michigan, in 1960. The photographs show a family rooted in the Midwest — connected to friends, extended relatives, and a beloved family dog named Tippy. These early images set the stage for a decade that would take the Dorseys far beyond their home state.
Bob Dorsey was enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1960, and the album captures his college years with a candid ease. Family visits to the Ann Arbor campus appear more than once, showing parents Melba and Charles Dorsey making the trip to see their son.
By Christmas 1961, the family gathered at West Point, marking the holiday with photographs that stand out from the rest of the album’s domestic scenes. Tippy, the family dog, also earned her own snapshot that year — leaving a dog kennel, a small but telling detail of everyday family life.
The years 1962 and 1963 brought a new presence into the album: Nancy Boskay, who would become Nancy Dorsey. She appears repeatedly — posed outdoors, at a University of Michigan dance alongside Bob, and seated in the family’s 1956 MGA sports car. The couple’s courtship is documented across more than a dozen photographs from this period.
Illinois also features in the 1963 photographs, with images of the Welsh family and Whitfield Farm. These snapshots show the Dorseys’ ties reaching beyond Michigan into neighboring states, where extended family and friends filled out the edges of their world.
In 1964, the family had settled at 4702 Polk in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. That year brought Bonnie and Ron Webb’s wedding — a celebratory event captured across three separate photographs — as well as a Christmas gathering at the Polk address and a visit to the grandparents’ house in Warren.
Bob graduated from the University of Michigan in 1965. That same year, the family relocated to Baytown, Texas, where Bob and Nancy moved into the Graywood Arms Apartment on Memorial Drive. The move marked a clear shift in the album — Michigan winters and campus life gave way to Texas settings.
The 1966 photographs spread across Texas with new detail. Nancy’s parents, Mary and Jim Boskay, appear alongside the couple’s new house in Baytown. The Dorseys posed with Jack Cantrell, a pilot, in Baytown, and Nancy is pictured separately in San Antonio. A shot from the top of the Humble Building shows the downtown Houston skyline.
The biggest event of 1967 was the arrival of Janice. The album tracks her early weeks with close attention — photographs taken at six weeks, then at three months, followed by her baptism. The family returned to Michigan for Christmas that year, the infant now at the center of the holiday gathering.
The album closes out the decade with Christmas photographs from Baytown in 1968 and then a final Christmas in 1969. By then, Janice had grown from a newborn into a toddler. The family’s journey from Detroit to Dearborn Heights to Baytown — and the people who populated each stop along the way — fills nearly 60 photographs across ten years.
