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Delia Campbell Chapin family papers, 1829-1905, 1931-1936 (majority within 1847-1889)

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Summary

Creator:
Chapin, Delia Campbell, 1849-1902
Abstract:
This collection is made up of 240 letters, diaries, compositions, and other papers of the Delia Campbell Chapin family of Mansfield City, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, New York, dating largely between 1864 and 1889. The correspondence is largely incoming letters to Delia Campbell Chapin and her sister Eugenie Campbell from family members including Susie McCall Cushman, Gilbert Warren Chapin, and Sarah Gertrude Storrs. Later letters (1931-1936) were primarily addressed to Delia's daughter-in-law Avelina Chapin. Other papers include diaries of Eugenie and her mother Cynthia Storrs Campbell, penmanship and commonplace books, library catalogs from the South Mansfield Sunday School Library, a manuscript version of the Authors card game, school papers, and printed advertisements, visiting cards, invitations, and other ephemeral items.
Extent:
240 items
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Diana Baxter, January 2025

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection is made up of correspondence, diaries, compositions, documents, printed materials, and other papers pertaining to the Delia Campbell Chapin family of Mansfield Center, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, New York. The papers date from October 19, 1829, to August 31, 1936, with the bulk of the collection falling between September 26, 1864, and May 5, 1889.

The 240-item collection contains 110 letters, 15 diaries and compositions, two cabinet card photograph portraits of unidentified subjects, 46 documents and other manuscript materials (including notes, school exercises, recipes, lists, receipts, library catalogs, and the constitution and by-laws of two organizations of which Delia and Eugenie were members), 55 printed items (including visiting cards, printed invitations, advertisements, leaflets, booklets, and other ephemeral items), and 12 empty envelopes.

The bulk of the letters were addressed to Delia Campbell Chapin and her sister, Eugenie Campbell, from relations including Delia's husband Gilbert W. Chapin and maternal first cousins Susan McCall Cushman and Sarah Gertrude "Gertie" Storrs. The correspondence between July 6, 1931, and August 31, 1936, is primarily addressed to Avelina Parent Chapin, Delia and Gilbert's daughter-in-law and wife of Warren Storrs Chapin.

Selected examples from the collection include:
  • Three catalogs of books received by the South Mansfield Sunday School Library: two from October 1865 and one from July 1872.
  • A bundle of 102 slips of paper, each with (apparently) a book title written on them; with a hand-sewn wrapper made from the October 21, 1859, issue of the New York Times.
  • Manuscript version of Authors, an educational card game.
  • Cynthia Campbell's diary from 1838 and Eugenie Campbell's diaries from 1864, 1865, and 1866.
  • Annotated copy of The Improved Class-Book for Sunday-School Teachers' Minutes, Abridged (Philadelphia: American Sunday School Union). Handwriting on the front cover reads: "Library Register. H. B. Campbell."
  • By-laws, constitution, and minutes of the Gamma Nu Society, formed in Mansfield, Conn., in 1860 to promote public speaking and "the art of composition." Genie Campbell was a founding member and eventual chairwoman.
  • By-laws and constitution of Enterprise, a club formed by members of the 1st Congregational Church of South Mansfield--including Delia and Genie Campbell--to relieve the church of its debts.
  • Two cabinet card photographs of an unidentified man and woman produced by C. D. Fredericks and Co. of New York, New York.

Biographical / Historical:

Delia Persis Campbell was born in New York, New York, on February 4, 1849, to Cynthia Storrs Campbell and Herbert Barrows Campbell, and lived with her family in Mansfield Center, Connecticut. Her elder sister Eugenie Campbell (Cynthia Eugenie) was born on March 22, 1846, and died on July 31, 1895. They had a brother, Herbert Storrs Campbell, who was born on January 8, 1852, and died on March 27, 1852. Herbert Barrows Campbell, father to Delia and Eugenie, did business in New York City and the family traveled there often. The Campbell sisters frequently corresponded with maternal first cousins Susan McCall Cushman and Sarah Gertrude Storrs. The sisters were both involved with their church¬--the 1st Congregational Church in South Mansfield, Connecticut--and were founding members of Enterprise, a club formed to relieve the church of its debts. Eugenie was a founding member and eventual chairwoman of the Gamma Nu Society, formed in Mansfield, to promote rhetoric, public speaking, and the art of composition.

Delia Campbell married Gilbert Warren Chapin of Springfield, Connecticut, on October 22, 1874. Together they had one son, Warren Storrs Chapin, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 4, 1885. Gilbert worked in the financial department of a prominent shoe business in Brooklyn for 17 years and later as the actuary of the Society for Savings of Hartford, Connecticut. Delia Chapin died in Hartford on January 31, 1902. Warren S. Chapin married Avelina Gabrielle Parent on September 4, 1919, in Hartford, Connecticut. Avelina was born in Farnum, Quebec, on September 22, 1857, and died in Wethersfield, Connecticut, on January 23, 1951. Warren died in Wethersfield on February 11, 1954.

Acquisition Information:
2024. M-8373 .
Arrangement:

The Delia Campbell Chapin Family Papers have been organized into five series:
  • Correspondence
  • Diaries and compositions
  • Photographs
  • Documents and other manuscript materials
  • Printed items

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:

Delia Campbell Chapin Family Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan