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University of Michigan William L. Clements Library

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Hill family papers, 1841-1915 (majority within 1864-1907)

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Summary

Creator:
Hill family
Abstract:
The Hill Family papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.
Extent:
4.5 linear feet
Language:
English
Sponsor:
Blandina Diedrich Collection
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Sara Quashnie, October 2019

Background

Scope and Content:

The Hill Family Papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.

Correspondence Series: The earliest correspondence in the collection is between Nathaniel Hill and Alice Hill during his research and business trips to England and Colorado in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Alice Hill wrote of family and social news in Providence, Rhode Island, while Nathaniel Hill discussed his travels, particularly on the frontier in Colorado. The Colorado letters include detailed accounts of geography, daily life, and cultural practices of the local Native Americans and Mexican settlers. Later letters, after the family's move to Colorado in 1867, include those between Alice Hill and her daughter Isabel at school in Providence. The collection includes substantial correspondence between Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, Alice Hill, and family friend Kate Slaymaker from the 1870s through the 1900s, while living and travelling in Colorado, California, New York, Washington, D.C., and in Europe. Family and friend updates, social events, travel, theatrical and musical performances, and current news were frequent topics of discussion. They often described food, especially meals served at various events.

The papers also include a small number of letters to and from various members of the Hale Family (Alice's mother, siblings, and cousins). These include a transcript of extracts from an 1832 letter by Nathan Hale, two 1841 letters by Harriet Johnson Hale to her sister Nancy, 1857 and 1858 letters from Harriet Johnson Hale to George Johnson, an 1858 letter from Alice Hale to her parents and siblings, and an 1863 letter from Bell Borland to Nathaniel P. Hill and Alice Hale Hill.

The Diaries Series spans 1879 to 1895 and is comprised of Isabel Hill's daily journals during her time living in Providence, Denver, and Washington, D.C., as well as trips abroad to Europe. She discussed social calls, daily activities, meals, sightseeing, Congregational Church services, books read, and performances attended. Also included are her typed notes from a 1915 YWCA National Board Meeting and two academic notebooks. Isabel Hill's diaries include the following:

  • 1879-1884 of 1885. Daily life in Denver, Providence, and Washington, D.C.; includes lecture notes on history of English literature. Return voyage from England by way of Queenstown, Ireland, to New York City.
  • 1880, "Letters Written by Isabel Hill from Europe." Letters written to parents and siblings during trip to Europe: England, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Germany. Includes one letter written from Denver by Isabel to a Mrs. Guy.
  • 1883-1885. Winter in Washington, D.C., trips to New York City, summer in Charlottesville, Virginia (including a day trip to Luray Caverns).
  • 1887-1888. Denver, Colorado. Travels through Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Includes log of calls made and received while in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C.
  • 1889. Denver, Colorado, and Trip to Europe via New York City: England (Handel Festival at Crystal Palace), Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France. Contains dried plant specimens. List of Albany acquaintances and calls made in New York (Dec. '85 and Jan '86) in back.
  • 1890-1893. Denver, Colorado. "The Doll Fair" clipping and Mrs. Ella C. Benton calling card. Contains plant specimens
  • June 9-September 26, [1891]. European Travel Diary. Trans-Atlantic crossing to Liverpool with trip culminating at New York City. Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, and Ireland. Discusses sights within context of current events. Originally enclosed in the 1890-1893 Diary.
  • April 1893-November 1895. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Boston, Washington, D.C., New York.
  • 1896-1897. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (Italy, France, Monaco, and Switzerland). Includes clothing accounts, books read, and list of people and European addresses in back. Partial newspaper clipping and name card in front of volume.
  • April 16, 1897-June 12, 1899. Denver, Colorado. Trip to New York and Rhode Island.
  • June 1899-July 1901. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (England. France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Germany). Drink recipes, seating diagram, and list of names with addresses in back.
  • July 1901-July 1904. Trip to Europe (England, Scotland, France, returning via New York City and Chicago, Illinois), Denver, Colorado, summering in Maine and Canada. List of presents for 1902, names with addresses, copied epitaphs, and two recipes written in the back of the book. Contains plant specimens.
  • May 5-10, [1915]. YWCA Association National Meeting Notes, Los Angeles, California.
  • Notebook, 1882. Zoology Lecture Notes (Professor Fairchild) and German Exercises.
  • Kitchen Garden Class Notebook, 1897. Sample colors for linens with instructions for use and styling

Three Scrapbooks spanning the years 1892 to 1904 are filled with newspaper clippings, programs, and ephemera chronicling the activities of the Tuesday Musical Club in Denver. Isabel Hill was an active member who served as president of the Club. The organization was a group of amateur female musicians who hosted concerts by professional performers and held their own performances.

The collection's 68 Photographs include landscape views and group and solo portraits of Nathaniel P. Hill, Alice Hale Hill, Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, and family members and friends from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. They are largely card-mounted paper photographs.

The Printed Items and Ephemera Series includes business cards for the English Church in Milan and hotels including Charles Justin's The Shakespeare (Stratford on Avon), Hôtel de Flandre (Bruges), and Hotel Schweizerhof. Also included is a scrap of paper with address of Mary Cabell, a card for Caledonia Mills, and newspaper clippings chronicling the Knott's 1909 automobile tour of France, Mrs. J. H. P. Voorhies death, and a United States Legation reception. One envelope contains a lock of Isabel's hair. Additional items include Tuesday Musical Club ephemera, Brown University entrance examination schedule and English text, Cook's Tour railroad ticket (Milan to Chiasso), Crawford Hill's 1881 Classical Department (English and Classical School) report card, a telegram from N. P. Hill to Isabel Hill, a programme for Seamen's Orphanage Benefit Concert, and receipts from Chicago wholesalers. Two books include James Alexander Semple's Representative Women of Colorado (Denver, 1914) and Susan Fenimore Cooper's Mount Vernon: A Letter to the Children of America (New York, 1859).

Biographical / Historical:

Alice Hale Hill was born July 19, 1840, to Isaac Hale (1814-1865) and Harriet (Johnson) Hale (1807-1890) of Providence, Rhode Island. She attended Troy Female Seminary from 1858 to 1859 and married Nathaniel P. Hill on July 26, 1860. She and their children, Crawford (1862-) and Isabel (1864-1926), joined Nathaniel in Black Hawk, Colorado in 1867. Alice gave birth to a second daughter, Gertrude, in 1869. In 1877, the family moved to Denver, Colorado. Alice Hale Hill was a vice regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and president of the YWCA and Kindergarten Association in Denver. She died in Denver, Colorado, on July 19, 1908, and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

Nathaniel Peter Hill II was born February 18, 1832, in Montgomery, New York, to Nathaniel Peter Hill (1781-1842) and Matilda (Crawford) Hill (1799-1879). Hill attended Brown University where he was later a professor of chemistry. His specific interests in metallurgy led to research trips to Europe in 1865 and Colorado from 1864 to 1867. He was the founder of the Boston and Colorado Smelting Company. Hill served as mayor of Black Hawk (1872-1874) and United States Senator (1879-1885), and was the owner and publisher of The Denver Republican. He died on May 22, 1900, in Denver, Colorado, and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

Isabel Hill was born April 19, 1864, to Nathaniel P. and Alice Hale Hill in Providence, Rhode Island. She married Franklin Price Knott (1864-1930), a photographer for National Geographic Magazine, on December 28, 1901. They moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1911. Isabel Hill Knott died February 6, 1926, in Santa Barbara and is buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Gertrude Hill was born January 26, 1869, to Nathaniel P. and Alice Hale Hill in Colorado. In 1886, she enrolled as a student at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. She married Charles Bart Berger (1866-1891) on November 5, 1890. They had one daughter, Charlotte Alice Berger (1891-1971). Gertrude married her second husband, Lucius Montrose Cuthbert (1856-1915), on October 24, 1900. They had three children: Gertrude (1901-1968), Alice Middleton (1902-1965), and Lucius Montrose, Jr. (1904-1906). She died on December 16, 1944, in Orlando, Florida and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.

Acquisition Information:
2000. M-4077 .
Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following series:
  • Correspondence
  • Diaries and Notebooks
  • Scrapbooks
  • Photographs
  • Printed Items and Ephemera

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown

PREFERRED CITATION:

Hill Family Papers, Blandina Diedrich Collection, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

Hill family papers, 1841-1915 (majority within 1864-1907)
Total components 12
Last indexed 2025-02-09