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This collection contains materials relating to the Loomis family of Columbia, Connecticut, between the 1820s and 1890s, primarily concerning the education of the children Ormond P., Mary, Emily, Aurelia, and Dwight. Educational content includes penmanship exercises, cypher books, drawings, maps, and various mathematical and astronomical calculations.The collection also includes documentation of Ormond P. Loomis's teaching, classroom, and students for Fall-Winter 1829-1830. An estate inventory produced upon the death of their father, Elam Loomis, in 1855 is also present, as well as a partially completed family record. Several pieces of poetry, speech notes, and other writings by members of the Loomis family are also included.

This collection contains materials relating to the Loomis family of Columbia, Connecticut, between the 1820s and 1890s, primarily concerning the education of the children Ormond P., Mary, Emily, Aurelia, and Dwight. Educational content includes penmanship exercises, cypher books, drawings, maps, and various mathematical and astronomical calculations. Some of the illustrations and pen work are based on Eleazer Huntington's The American Penman and on "Aaron Yeomans Instructor." Two are datelined "Pine Swamp." The collection also includes documentation of Ormond P. Loomis's teaching, classroom, and students for Fall-Winter 1829-1830. An estate inventory produced upon the death of their father, Elam Loomis, in 1855 is also present, as well as a partially completed family record. Several pieces of poetry, speech notes, and other writings by members of the Loomis family are also included.

• Penmanship and Forms, beginning January 23, 1828 (11 pages) kept by Ormond P. Loomis, featuring elegant, different scripts and illustrations.
• Penmanship exercise by Ormond P. Loomis: "Duties of Men," February 21, 1828; with an illustration of an American eagle and shield, with an ornate oval border.
• "Miscellaneous Matters &c." cypher book with astronomical content by Ormond P. Loomis, March 20, 1828.
• Two loose sheets with illustrated projections and calculations for solar eclipses in 1831 and 1836, dated April 1 and 3, 1829, produced by Ormond P. Loomis.
• Penmanship exercise, with different versions of Ormond P. Loomis' name, phonetically spelled with Hebrew and Greek characters, May 31, 1828.
• Illustration of an American eagle with a shield and banner, made by Ormond P. Loomis 1828.
• Illustrations of modern winged cherubim, with a quotation beginning "O! Righteous! thou lovely thing!", made by Ormond P. Loomis on January 18, 1829.
• Sheet of penmanship practice by Ormond P. Loomis with quotations on verso respecting eloquence, and a statement "Andrew Jackson of Tennessee President!", June 1829.
• Illustrated projection drawn by Ormond P. Loomis of the moon's eclipse of September 2, 1830, dated March 20, 1829.
• Illustration of an eagle with a banner by Ormond P. Loomis in 1828.
• "Journal kept at the 3rd school District in the school society in Hebron", maintained by Ormond P. Loomis in 1829. Including a foldout of tabular information about daily school attendance by 10 students, and daily weather. Concludes with a statement about why Loomis decided to leave the profession of teacher. A separate list identifies male and female students in the School Society in Hebron by class status.
• Two sheets with miscellaneous astronomical calculations, canal lengths, and numerical Christian Bible information produced by Ormond P. Loomis in 1830 and 1831.
• Handmade, stab-sewn volume with poetry, literature, and biblical extracts kept by Aurelia Loomis between 1838-1841.
• "Appendix to Report on Free Schools," compiled in 1847, possibly by Dwight Loomis before his graduation from Yale Law School.
• Circa 1855 volume inventorying the estate of Elam Loomis.
• Letter from Dwight Loomis to Mary Loomis dated March 26, 1863, and a copy of correspondence between Dwight Loomis and Cyrus White including a riddle about white lies dated February 21, 1889.
• Circa 1890s bound volume of notes for a speech to the Burpee Post of the Grand Army of the Republic about the Civil War, possibly by Dwight Loomis, concerning memorialization of the Civil War dead, naturalization, suffrage, citizenship, patriotism and education.
• Undated manuscript map of England, Ireland, and Scotland drawn by Ormond P. Loomis.
• Newspaper clipping showing demographic information for the states and territories in the United States, [1822?].
• Two undated pencil sketches drawn by Emily Loomis of the exterior of buildings, including the "Mill at Hartford."
• Undated poem about Abraham Lincoln, "Hitch Your Wagon to a Star," possibly written by Dwight Loomis.
• Undated "Family Record" for the Loomis family with entries for family members and their birth dates. Includes record of Loomis P. Ormond's death.
• Undated cypher book kept by Mary Loomis with several patriotic and religious calligraphic exercises.

Between 1879 and 1895, M. A. Markham of Lakeville, New York, composed 21 volumes of illustrated problems and solutions for games of checkers.

Between 1879 and 1895, M. A. Markham of Lakeville, New York, composed at least 21 volumes of illustrated problems and solutions for games of checkers. Checkers originally had 25 volumes, of which 21 are present: volumes 1-6, 9-14, 16-19, and 21-25. Volume 1 is divided between two books, and volumes 3-4 are written in the same book. Most individual volumes contain between 100 and 200 pages of illustrated problems and solutions, which Markham collected from a variety of sources, including newspaper columns. Pictures of game boards with pieces in various positions are grouped together, and solutions frequently appear several pages later, written in the game's notation. Each volume has an index. Many volumes are subdivided into several parts, and headings are decorated with colored ink drawings of landscapes and buildings. Clippings with engraved portraits and biographical information about famous checkers players are pasted opposite most volumes' title pages.

Marion Shipley compiled this volume while a pre-adolescent and teenager in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She made collages and colored pencil drawings of domestic scenes, exteriors of residences and gardens, animals, and more. The volume also includes diary entries relating to her social life, humor, and experiences at a school at or near the Naval Academy in Portsmouth. She wrote about getting in trouble in class, passing notes, and flirtatious or romantic relationships. Shipley also pasted and laid in correspondence sent to her by young men courting her, and she added brief comments in the volume speaking to her current romantic interests. Several newspaper clippings also feature male actors and royalty, providing additional information about teenage romantic exploration.

Marion Shipley compiled this volume while a pre-adolescent and teenager in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She made collages and colored pencil drawings of domestic scenes, exteriors of residences and gardens, animals, and more. The volume also includes diary entries relating to her social life, humor, and experiences at a school at or near the Naval Academy in Portsmouth. She wrote about getting in trouble in class, passing notes, and flirtatious or romantic relationships. Shipley also pasted and laid in correspondence sent to her by young men courting her, and she added brief comments in the volume speaking to her current romantic interests. Several newspaper clippings also feature male actors and royalty, providing additional information about teenage romantic exploration.

The first page is inscribed "Marion Shipley's Picture Book. Naval Academy, November 1898," and is followed by a section of drawings and collaged scenes. The collages include colored pencil drawings of the exterior of residences and gardens; a river scene with boats, bridges, and monuments; a church; a tent (an exhibition tent?); a circus; a kitchen; and living rooms. These have printed clippings of animals, furniture, boats, women and children, crowds, circus entertainers, cars and wagons, and vegetation pasted in. One loose page tipped into the volume is titled "THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR!!!" and features clippings of young children crying, swearing, and being spanked, with added pencil annotations. Other pages are filled with colored pencil drawings of birds and animals, a fishing boat, a horse-drawn vehicle, buildings, a decorated tree, and faces.

Shipley also documented the social life of adolescent boys and girls in her circle, in particular their play at school and their emerging romantic interests. Page 35 is dated June 1, 1907, and is labelled "PRIVET. NO TRESPASSING. ALL RIGHTS RESERED [sic]. For Spelling & Writing." It is followed by a diary entry dated June 7, 1907, describing Shipley's day at school, where she commented on having a substitute teacher, getting in trouble, disliking spelling, and drawing pictures of each other's backs and passing it in the class. The passed note is laid into the volume, featuring six pencil drawings of the back of girls' heads to show their hairstyles, each identified by the girl's names and age. One is of Shipley. She used rebus drawings and numerical substitutes to replace foul language (e.g. "7734" for "Hell"). On page 39, Shipley recorded her favorite expression of 1907, "23 SKIDOO & STUNG," and noted students in her school passing slips pairing boys and girls who apparently liked each other. She claimed to not "like any of the boys in the whole school" of about 400 students. This is followed by two columns of names, one for boys and the other for girls.

Shipley included a number of love letters sent to her. On pages 37 and 38 she affixed five letters (by pasting in the envelopes) from Ralph Dana, sent during his stay at the Hawthorne Inn of Gloucester, Massachusetts, from July to September, 1906. He wrote of local entertainments, engagements with friends, his romantic interest in her, guarded concerns about her activities and who she was spending time with, and his suspicion that she did not reciprocate his feelings. Shipley wrote beneath the letters: "These are some letters I got from who was my best fellow. He is not now. My letter were just as bad to his as his were to me. Now I just love H. S. C. (His picture is in the back of my watch) & have every since June of 1907 & this is Jan. 1908." Shipley also laid in nine pieces of correspondence from a suitor named John, mostly dated from early February 1908. They profess his love for her, ask if she loves him, and request kisses. One is on a piece of paper cut in the shape of a heart, and three others include hearts and arrows painted in gold metallic paint. One letter signed "Fred" is addressed to "K," expressing excitement about her upcoming visit and requesting a photo of a beautiful girl. A doily and a page from a calendar with a quote from the Merchant of Venice is also tipped into the volume.

The final diary entry is written on page 41, where Shipley notes attending Hamlet, which she mentioned liking almost as much as Peter Pan. Elsewhere in the volume, Shipley tipped in newspaper clippings of the actor E. H. Sothern and Dom Manuel II, King of Portugal.