Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection documents the social life of rural Pennsylvania immediately after the Civil War through the correspondence of Tom Appleby and Mattie McNeal Appleby before their marriage.

This collection of Appleby family papers, which consists of approximately 350 items, documents the social life of rural Pennsylvania immediately after the Civil War as described by young people of marriageable age. In addition to documenting the re-entry into civil society of soldiers after the war, these papers show the writers' fascination and absorption with personal relationships, particularly with members of the opposite sex.

The courtship letters between Tom and Mattie comprise the bulk of the collection (roughly 110 pieces); Tom wrote a majority of these letters. All of their letters date between 1866 and 1870. The other letters in the collection are nearly all directed to either Tom or Mattie. Other letters to Tom include courtship letters from Annie Kelly during the war; courtship letters from Mattie McKibbin slightly after the war; letters from his brother, Daniel C. Montague Appleby; letters from Mattie's sister Kate; official and business letters; wartime letters from his grandfather, Daniel Montague; and wartime support letters from various girlfriends and acquaintances. Other letters to Mattie include letters from her sisters Kate and Dutton; letters from her mother, Mary; and letters from her girlfriends.

Tom Appleby was a morally upstanding, attractive young man, so courtship and marriage played a large part in his life after the civil war. His first girlfriend, Annie Kelly, was younger than Mattie. She supported the war effort in theory, and hated "copperheads," but was terribly unhappy about Tom's decision to volunteer for the Union Army. She encouraged Tom not to serve again when his term was up: "I never want to see you going Drafted while there is any honorable way of getting away with it" (1865 April 8). Even before the war Tom's romantic interests were shifting to Mattie McKibbin, as evidenced by a letter from his brother Dan, which mentioned that Tom was escorting Miss McKibbin (August 27, 1862). On May 9, 1866, a disgruntled Annie wrote Tom, "it might perhaps be interesting for you to know that your humble friend is still in existence." Although unhappy, Annie accepted Tom's informal breaking of their courtship, and she did not write him again until 1868, when she gave the news that she had married David Willes on April 28.

Tom's second girlfriend, Mattie McKibbin, was wiser and probably older than Annie Kelly. Mattie turned down a suitor, "Frank," and her letters reveal the pressure on women to marry. Frank wanted to know, "how that old maid of McKibbin's is getting along," she wrote to Tom on February 14, 1866. "He (Frank) is the same man who less than one year ago went to tell McKibbin's favorite daughter that she was the very star of his existence and also wondered how I could refuse, or rather slight, the undivided love of a man of his years for the friendship of a boy." Mattie, who was older than Tom, felt awkward about her age, and was uncomfortable turning down the suitor, but obviously hoped that Tom would consider her for marriage. "Let him go about McKibbin's old maid I can bear it as bravely as he can his disappointment" (February 18, 1866).

Like Mattie McNeal, Mattie McKibbin taught school and wrote intelligent, thoughtful letters. When no marriage proposal came from Tom, Mattie McKibbin became jealous of Mattie McNeal. Mattie McNeal, on the other hand, could not believe that Tom was not seriously involved with Mattie McKibbin. Tom declared in one letter to Mattie McNeal that he was fed up with women in general and sarcastically concluded, "Oh but after all women are a good institution, and have good hearts (i.e. when they have any at all)" (November 26, 1867). In his letter of December 12, 1867, Tom tried more seriously to explain his relationship with Mattie McKibbin, stating that he felt they corresponded "as brother and sister." Mattie McKibbin set her sights elsewhere, and in January 1868 married a Mr. Lefferty, ending her somewhat tempestuous relationship with Tom. "I suppose Lefferty will not allow me to send letters about his house," Tom predicted (January 30, 1868).

During the late 1860s, Tom corresponded often with Mattie McNeal, who wrote while teaching school at "Amberson's Valley." Although Tom had several girlfriends, he was fairly conservative in his thoughts and actions. Both he and Mattie McNeal felt a certain intellectual and moral superiority over some of their companions. Mattie turned down a date in Maryland because he was "as dumb as -- well a mule...I want somebody along who is intelligent" (October 28, 1866). Tom agreed with her, stating, "I know it is a pleasure indeed to talk to an intelligent, sensible lady, on subjects scientific or intellectual" (December 4, 1867). Tom felt that he should not allow his emotions to overwhelm his intellect, especially with love: "So I get in love, step by step and don't plunge head over heels in a day or week" (November 5, 1867). Additionally, Tom did not believe he should have more than one girlfriend while in a serious courtship: "That where there is an engagement; or an intention to bring on an engagement; that it is unwise and impolitic to receive the attentions of another" (January 12, 1868). Mattie agreed with Tom's caution against yielding to the emotions of love: "Hope neither of us may love an imaginary being of our own fancy, but each other as we are, with many faults and failings" (July 25, 1869). Mattie even considered being nicknamed "Miss Modesty" a compliment (January 4, 1868).

The two young adults focused more on morality as they became involved in evangelical Christianity. Both Tom and Mattie were Presbyterians, though Tom often went to Methodist services. Mattie once went to an immersion baptism ceremony, although she was not sure what she should make of the ritual: "I though it was quite gay to see the gentlemen dive under, but when it came to the ladies it made me shudder" (December 8, 1866). Both Mattie and Tom decided they wanted to make a public declaration of their faith in Christ. "The greatest desire of my heart is that I may love and serve God acceptably," Tom wrote Mattie (January 5, 1868). Mattie agreed, but showed a considerable amount of self-deprecation, stating, "I do so much want to be a Christian, a child of God but I am so sinful, so unworthy, and deserving only God's wrath and curse" (June 4, 1868). Tom, too, felt that he was lacking in goodness, but both persisted in their religious search, with guidance from the minister of the Presbyterian Church in Shade Gap, Mr. W.C. Kuhn. Mattie's letters to Tom often discuss her religious views and activities at length, including her opinions of sermons and preachers. She also discussed aspects of her work as a schoolteacher, such as her decision to hold evening spelling lessons in addition to regular classes.

If Tom was unhappy about his own impure thoughts and actions, he was doubly unhappy about his brother, Daniel. Dan was in many ways Tom's opposite. He was frivolous and carefree. While in the army, he wrote, "I have one or two sporting women, but I want one of respectability to go to church with" (March 24, 1865). He signed some of his letters "Blossom." Dan retained his wild ways while working with Tom in the dry goods store in Mount Union.

Both Mattie and Tom disapproved of Dan's behavior. As Tom experienced his religious revival and Dan became more seriously involved with his cousin Allie, Tom's disapproval grew: "I fear his precepts have not always been the most wholesome. He seems restrained by nothing save the restraints of society, and these he violates behind the curtains" (February 16, 1868). Allie's mother disapproved of their relationship, so Dan and Allie arranged "clandestine meetings." In her letter to Tom on April 10, 1869, Mattie was impressed and almost jealous of the disobedient behavior of Dan and Allie: "Dan and Jim brought them [Kate and Allie] home the old lady never dreaming that Dan was within 300 miles of her daughter. ha! ha!" Yet in her next letter, possibly because she was rebuked by Tom, Mattie wrote, "I don't approve any more of Allie's style than I do of Dan's" (April 14, 1869). In May 1869, Dan eloped with Allie, heading west to Quincy, Illinois. The last letter from Dan (January 21, 1870) described how he developed close business contacts and personal friendships with the Jewish community.

Early in their letters Tom and Mattie discussed politics frequently, although they were rarely in agreement. Tom was a moderate Republican while Mattie was more conservative, although she supported the Civil War. When she was invited to represent republican interests in Rohrersville, Maryland, she declined. "I think they are radicalized," she wrote Tom on October 13, 1866, "I see negro equality exemplified very often, last Sabbath I saw a white man walking beside the blackest negro I ever saw. Suppose he was an abolitionist." The Civil War was discussed infrequently, with emphasis being on the effects of war and not on battles. Tom's heart went out to the mothers who lost their sons in the war: "It is indeed a sacrifice to give an only son to one's county" (December 22, 1867).

Mattie and Tom particularly enjoyed discussing their relationship and the relationships of other people; Mattie often reported on social and leisure activities at Amberson's Valley. In their letters before 1868, Tom and Mattie wrote to each other in a teasing, somewhat guarded fashion. "I should like to say 'good evening Mattie' have a hand shake and just one sweet kiss. Of course I wouldn't get the latter," Tom wrote to Mattie on March 13, 1867. As they grew more at ease with each other, their letters became less guarded and more affectionate. Throughout their correspondence, Mattie never feared to speak her mind, and tended to be more forthright than Tom. When Tom offended her in his description of human nature, Mattie fired back at him, "Men do well term all their weaknesses 'woman like,' when women would scorn to employ their minds for a moment with the narrow thoughts that men confine themselves to, not speaking of their degrading habits and vulgar speeches" (January 4, 1870).

Mattie even felt free to ponder the differences between married and single life: "I often wonder which is happier, an independent maiden, or a loving and loved wife. But guess Paul is about right, in his conclusion that those who marry do well , but those who remain single do better" (September 12, 1868). Despite her conclusion, she did long to marry Tom, and began to get impatient. When giving Tom her birth date, she complained it was "enough to shock the nerves of a delicate, sensitive spinster" (April 10, 1869). Mattie brought up the words "spinster" and "old maid" frequently after she turned 26. Mattie's illness in 1869-1870 delayed their wedding, and at one point Tom was concerned that she would never recover. When she did recover, both looked forward to the happy date, although they tried to treat it with the seriousness they felt it deserved.

Mattie's sisters, Kate and Dutton, who wrote to Mattie while she was away teaching, offered their own views on marriage. Dutton, Mattie's senior by six years, was increasingly concerned with her single status. "I think on the whole an old maid is to be pittied, but instead of pity they may expect the sneers and jeers of the more favored ones" (January 7, 1869). Kate, on the other hand, felt perfectly happy with her single status, and found suitors to be a nuisance. In one letter to Mattie [late 1867], she wrote that she had a "Drake" to keep her company, but also wrote, "I do not care for him at all ... but some of the folks think we are deep in love and I make them believe so all I can. I don't care I am going to leave this neck of the woods soon not to return." When Dutton, in a shared letter with Kate, wrote that she wished that "some sensible man" would court her or Kate, like Tom courted Mattie, Kate disagreed: "Now I for my part do not want any of the low-lifed creatures that call themselves: Lord's of Creation. Pretty Lords indeed! Staying out nights until 12 o clock and then coming home to abuse there poor neglected wives" [October 1868].

Some time after Mattie's marriage, Dutton married James Elliot Harper. Kate, of course, remained single and did not leave Shade Gap as she had hoped. Before Mattie's death, she and Tom were friendly, exchanging letters and even visits, so it was natural for Tom to turn to Kate when seeking a second wife and mother for his children. The letters unfortunately provide scant information about Mattie's death or Kate's marriage to Tom.

The Crittenden family papers contain the letters of a Kentucky family living in the California and Nevada frontiers. The material centers on the family of Alexander Parker Crittenden and his wife Clara Churchill Jones, and includes letters from their parents, siblings, and children. The collection also contains diaries, documents and financial records, and family photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and other paper prints). The collection documents the murder of Alexander Parker Crittenden as well as family members who fought on the Confederate side of the Civil War and who participated in mining and prospecting in the West.

The Crittenden family papers contain the letters and documents of the family of Alexander Parker Crittenden and his wife Clara Churchill Jones Crittenden. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence between members of the extended family, including Mr. and Mrs. Crittenden, seven of their eight (surviving) children, Clara’s parents and siblings (the Jones family), and Mary Crittenden Robinson (Alexander's sister). In addition to correspondence, the collection contains diaries, documents and financial records, and 96 family photographs (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, cartes-de-visite, and other paper prints), including one carte-de-visite of Laura Hunt Fair.

The Correspondence series (approximately 1,280 items) covers several topics of interest. The letters by Clara and Alexander Parker Crittenden (hereafter A.P.C.) illustrate the passionate courtship and strained marriage of a couple living in California in the 19th century; Laura Crittenden Sanchez’ correspondence presents a picture of a woman’s life on the 1860s western frontier in California and Nevada; and Ann Northey Churchill Jones’s letters to her daughter Clara provide frank commentary on womanhood. The following summary is a brief description of the collection’s major correspondents and the content of their letters.

The collection includes over 260 letters from A.P.C.to his wife Clara, which span the length of their relationship, from their first meeting until his death. The courtship letters are full of expressions of youthful passion. Especially valuable are A.P.C.'s letters describing San Francisco in the early 1850s, which contain information about the Gold Rush and early statehood, and include discussions about women in California, and troubles he experienced from not having a wife present to care for him. The 1860s letters written from Nevada to Clara in California provide a good account of early Nevada, as well as insight into their deteriorating marriage. However, the twenty letters written during Clara's 1870 transcontinental trip to the East Coast, exhibit an apparently genuine change of heart in Crittenden, who had purchased and redecorated a lavish new home as a surprise for Clara on her return. Almost every letter begs her to cut the trip short and return.

A.P.C.'s eldest son, Churchill, is represented by 62 letters to him from his father, and 62 letters written by Churchill to his parents and siblings, largely from 1858 and 1861, while he was studying at Hanover College. While at Hanover, Churchill developed Union sympathies, which upset his Kentucky-born father. Of note is a letter from A.P.C., who at the time was the leader of the southern wing of the California Democratic Party, to Churchill defending southern rights for secession (December 10, 1860). Churchill wrote six letters while in the Confederate Army. The collection also contains 60 letters from James Love Crittenden. His early letters discuss school life, ante-bellum politics, and family relations. He wrote 10 letters while fighting with the Confederacy.

Clara Jones Crittenden wrote 19 letters in the collection: two to her husband, one to her eldest son, Churchill, and sixteen to her daughter Annie (“Nannie”). The letters to Annie are almost all dated November-December 1864, and reflect the deep gloom Clara felt following the murder of her son Churchill in October 1864.

Laura Crittenden Sanchez wrote 71 letters to her mother, 87 to her sister Nannie, and a few to other family members. They present a view of domestic life on the 1860s western frontier. Of note are Laura’s routine comments that reflect the values of a woman raised to believe in the Southern ideals of gentility and womanhood. However, she also held advanced ideas on women’s rights and divisions of duties in the home. Her husband, Ramon B. Sanchez, shared these beliefs and described his role in housework and his ideas of manhood, in his letter to Nannie Crittenden (July 25, 1862).

This series holds 16 letters from A.P.C. to his daughter Nannie, 6 to her husband Sidney Van Wyck, and many letters of condolence received by the family at the time of Parker’s murder. Van Wyck, who held evangelical beliefs, was deeply concerned about the well-being of his pregnant wife. He sent 117 letters to Nannie between January and May 1870, while she was in San Francisco and was he in Hamilton, Nevada, attempting to strike it rich prospecting for silver. He gave a rich account of life in a snowy Nevada mining town. The collection also includes approximately 40 business letters concerning Sidney's mining interests between 1879 and 1882. After 1874, the collection constitutes letters addressed largely to members of the Van Wyck family, including 8 letters from Nannie's daughter Clara Van Wyck to her brother Sydney Van Wyck, Jr.

Mary Crittenden Robinson, A.P.C.'s older sister, wrote 23 letters to Clara Crittenden, almost entirely in 1863. They are domestic in content, with occasional references to politics and society. Mary also wrote to A.P.C., and to various nieces and nephews, and her children are represented as well: Mary, Kate, and Tod, Jr.

The collection also contains letters from Clara Jones Crittenden's parents and siblings.

Clara's father Alexander Jones, Jr., wrote 5 letters to Clara, including one offering consolation on her husband's murder (November 7, 1870), and 3 to his granddaughter Nannie. Ann Northey Churchill Jones, Clara's mother, sent her seven letters from 1839-1841. She provided a frank commentary on womanhood and discussed childbirth, the proper preparation of breasts for nursing, a mother’s role in fixing children’s values, marital relations and what a wife could do to improve them, and how a woman should deal with an unworthy husband.

Clara's brother Alexander Jones III wrote 21 letters to A.P.C. and Clara (1849, and 1857-1870). These describe frontier Texas, news of the Civil War, and Confederate patriotism. In one notable letter, he described life in Brownsville, Texas, and advised using birth control (January 30, 1860). Clara's sister Mary "Mollie" Farquhar Jones Joliffe wrote 15 letters, 1858-1870, primarily made up of family news. Her wartime letters are a window onto the hardships of Confederate civilian life. William Marlborough Jones is represented by 13 Civil War and Reconstruction era letters, which reflect on the costs of the war to both the family and the nation. Of note is a 12-page account of the war near Jackson, Mississippi (November 7, 1870), and his report on the fall of Vicksburg (July 7, 1863). Sister Rebecca Churchill Jones Craighill, wrote 13 letters (1858-1899) to multiple recipients. In 1866, she composed excellent reflections on the war and criticized a Virginia friend who had eloped with a Yankee officer.

The collection also contains letters from two of Clara’s uncles: 8 from Marlborough Churchill and 2 from George Jones.

The Journals series (2 items) contains an official transcript of a journal of Elizabeth Van Wyck, and a diary kept by Sydney Van Wyck. The Elizabeth Van Wyck journal is a transcript of a reminiscence of her life from age 7 until November 12, 1808, when she was 26. The copy was made in 1925, at the request of Elizabeth's great-grandson, Sidney M. Van Wyck, Jr. The second item is a detailed journal kept by Sydney Van Wyck during his time at school in the 1840s. In it, he described his life at school and many of his family members.

The Documents and Financial Records series is made up of four subseries: Estate Papers, Insurance Papers, Legal and Financial Documents, and Account Books.

The Estate Papers subseries contains 11 items concerning the property of A.P.C. and 24 items related to Howard J. Crittenden. These include A.P.C.'s last will and testament and court records surrounding his murder and the handling of his estate (1870-1875). The Howard J. Crittenden items document Howard's financial holdings at his death and how his estate was divided.

The Insurance Papers subseries (3 items) includes a record of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company (1871) and a fire insurance policy from Pacific Insurance Company for Clara Crittenden (1872).

The Legal and Financial Documents subseries (16 items) consists of bank notes, telegraphs concerning business dealings, receipts for goods and payments, contracts, and personal tax bills. Of note are contracts signing over gold and silver claims in Nevada to Howard Crittenden. These include locations in White Pine, Nevada, such as "Lucky Boy Tunnel" and "Adele mining ground" (1869).

The Account Books subseries (3 items) contains a 12-page account book for A. Hemme (1873), a 20-page account book for S. M. Van Wyck (1873-1874), and a mostly empty National Granit State Bank account book of Thomas Crittenden (1874).

The Photographs and Illustrations series contains 106 photographs of Crittenden family members. These include cartes-de-visite, tintypes, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, cabinet cards, and several modern reproductions. They depict many of the Crittenden family members, including several Crittenden men in Confederate uniform, Clara Crittenden, Clara Van Wyck, and Laura Fair, among others. See Additional Descriptive Data for the complete list.

In addition to the photograph, this collection also contains an ink sketch of the floor plan of a San Francisco cottage (in the letter dated July 4, 1852).

The Miscellaneous series (9 items) contains school report cards, Laura Van Wyck's application to become a Daughter of the Confederacy (which includes a heroic account of Churchill Crittenden's death in the Civil War), Nannie Crittenden Van Wyck's address book (with contacts in Saint Louis, Chicago, Kentucky, New York, and Brooklyn), a newspaper clipping about mining in Nevada, and 3 unattributed writing fragments.

The folder of supplemental material relates to Robert E. Stewart's publication Aurora Ghost City of the Dawn, Las Vegas: Nevada Publications, 1996, including a copy of the book and 10 photographs taken by Stewart of Aurora and the Ruins of the Sanchez home.

This collection is made up of the papers of five generations of the Dwight, Willard, Alden, Allen, and Freeman families of the East Coast and (later) U.S. Midwest, between 1752 and 1937. Around 3/4 of the collection is incoming and outgoing correspondence of family members, friends, and colleagues. The primary persons represented are Lydia Dwight of Massachusetts and her husband John Willard, who served in the French and Indian War; Connecticut mother Abigail Willard along with her husband Samuel Alden, who ran an apothecary in Hanover, New Jersey; Allen Female Seminary School alumna and teacher Sarah J. Allen; American Civil War surgeon Otis Russell Freeman; Presbyterian minister and temperance advocate Rev. Samuel Alden Freeman; and prominent public librarian Marilla Waite Freeman. The papers also include diaries and journals, writings, school certificates, military and ecclesiastical documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, advertisements, business and name cards, invitations to events, and brochures for plays and other performances.

The collection is arranged first by family grouping, then by material type. These series roughly reflect the arrangement of the collection when it arrived at the William L. Clements Library.

The Dwight-Willard-Alden Family Papers are comprised of around 250 items, dating between 1752 and 1884. One fifth or so of this grouping is predominantly correspondence between Lydia Dwight/Lydia Dwight Willard, her father, stepmother, siblings, husband, and sons, 1752-1791. These intermarried families were based largely in Sheffield and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The letters include discussions about mending and cleaning clothing; feelings about their father/husband gone to serve in the French and Indian War; putting up a monument to replace faltering graves; the return of Elijah and Col. Williams from the field on account of sickness; coming and going of soldiers; moral and practical advice; teaching and boarding young students during the war; settling into (“no longer free”) married life; the death of Bathsheba Dwight; the meeting of local men in private homes and the training of minute men in Stockbridge; the prolonged case of smallpox experienced by Lydia’s son in 1785; and news of John Willard, Jr.’s admission to Harvard.

The remaining four fifths of this grouping are largely incoming correspondence of Abigail Willard Alden (1771-1832) and her daughter Abigail Alden (1809-1854). Their correspondents were located in Stafford, Connecticut; Hanover and Lancaster, New Hampshire; Lunenburg, Vermont; and elsewhere. They begin with letters from siblings and parents to the newly married Abigail Willard Alden (ca. 1800); Samuel Alden travel letters to New York City; and news of a Stafford doctor named Chandler who had promised marriage to a woman and then fleeced her for $500 before fleeing to parts unknown. A group of letters regard pharmacy matters, the burning of Samuel Willard’s drugstore (January-April 1802), and the state of Anti-Federalists and Federalists in Stafford (1802). A large portion the letters include content on sickness and health, with varying degrees of detail, including several family members sick and dying from measles in 1803. Other topics include Hanover, New Hampshire, gossip on local premarital sex; a debate on whether or not to hire a black female domestic laborer; comments on a local suicide attempt; a young woman deliberating on objections to women spending time reading novels (April 10, 1806); and treatment by a quack doctor. These papers also include two diaries, poetry and essays, two silhouettes, genealogical manuscripts, and miscellaneous printed items.

The Allen Family Papers are largely incoming letters to Sarah Jane Allen prior to her marriage to Samuel A. Freeman (around 300 items), and from her father-in-law Otis Russell Freeman (around 60 items) between 1860 and 1865. An abundance of the letters were written to Sarah while she attended the Allen Female Seminary in Rochester, New York, and afterward when she lived at Honeoye Falls, New York. They include letters from her parents, cousins, friends, and siblings. A sampling suggests that the bulk are letters by young women attempting to eke out a life for themselves through seminary education, teaching, and domestic labor. Among much else, they include content on Elmira Female Seminary, New York state travel, and female friendship and support.

The Otis Russell Freeman letters date between 1862 and 1865, while he served as a surgeon in the 10th and 14th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. He wrote about the everyday camp life with a focus on the health and sickness of the soldiers. His letters include content on the defenses of Washington, D.C., fighting at Cold Harbor and outside Richmond, Virginia, the surrender of Robert E. Lee, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln's body lying in state at Jersey City. Two carte-de-visite photographs of Otis Freeman are present.

A diary kept by Sarah J. Allen began on the day of her marriage, September 26, 1865, documents her honeymoon to Niagara Falls. It ends in November 1865. The remainder of the volume is filled with recipes for baked goods, pickles, and other foods. The printed items include ephemera from Sarah Jane Allen’s tenure at Elmira Female College five issues of the Callisophia Society’s newspaper The Callisophia (vol. 1, nos. 1, 3-6; March/April 1860-January/February 1861), as well as a Catalogue of Books in Callisophia Library, December 1862.

The Samuel Alden Freeman Family Papers include approximately 300 largely incoming letters to Presbyterian minister S. A. Freeman, plus printed materials, ephemera, photographs, and bound volumes, dating in the 1810s and from the 1860s to 1880s. Correspondence of his second wife Olive dates from the 1810s in central New York. The collection includes letters to S. A. Freeman from his first wife Sarah, daughter Abigail Alden Freeman (1873-1925), and Sara Harriet Freeman (1879-1946). These materials include courtship correspondence of Sarah Jane Allen and S. A. Freeman. A considerable portion relates to Presbyterianism and at least one temperance society pledge sheet is present. Approximately 50 photographs, about half of them identified, are largely of Samuel A. Freeman and the Freeman daughters Marilla and Abigail. Among the printed ephemeral items are advertisements for programming at Corinthian Hall (probably Rochester, New York), items related to a Sunday School Association (including a printed broadside catalog of books at a N.J. Sunday School), and pamphlets on Presbyterianism. A medicinal recipe book from the mid-19th century and a commonplace book of poetry are examples of the S. A. Freeman family bound volumes.

The collection concludes with letters, photographs, ephemera, and printed items comprising the Marilla Waite Freeman Papers. Around 600 letters are largely incoming to public librarian M. W. Freeman from female educators and librarians. They discussed their profession, books, reading, and intellectual topics. A small clutch of letters, about three dozen manuscript and typed poems, and a dozen or more newspaper clippings, 1900s-1910s, comprise poet Floyd Dell’s contributions to the collection. Marilla also corresponded with poets and writers Margaret Todd Ritter, Robert Frost and Mrs. Frost, and Marie Bullock about public and private recitations and lectures. Examples of subjects covered by the printed materials include orations, educational/school/college items, library-related items, newspapers and clippings, fliers, women's clubs, New York City theater, the American Library Association, Poetry Society of America, poems by various authors, such as Ina Robert and John Belknap, visiting and business cards, and travel.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Maxson collection provides a valuable resource for the study of 19th-century visual culture, commercial advertising, and humor in addition to the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in advertising. American businesses are the predominant focus of the collection, though many international businesses are also represented. While trade cards are by far the most prevalent type of ephemera found in this collection, an extensive array of genres are present including die cut scrapbook pieces, photographs, engravings, maps, serials, and manuscript materials.

The 23 binders that house the Maxson collection were arranged by the collectors themselves. Items are organized somewhat randomly in terms of topical arrangement. While pockets of related materials can be found here and there (for instance, the entirety of Volume 16 contains circus-related items while Volume 11 contains an extensive number of Shaker-related materials), for the most part any given subject may appear in any given volume. In some cases, items are clustered as a result of having been acquired together or due to a documented common provenance. Occasional typed annotations written by the Maxsons help provide additional context for certain items.

The Maxson Collection Subject Index serves as a volume-level subject index for materials found throughout the binders. The subjects indexed here are generally representative of both visual and commercial content. In addition to more general subjects, many names of specific people, places, buildings, events, and organizations that appear in the materials have also been listed. Researchers engaging with this collection should be aware that they will encounter numerous examples of racist caricatures, especially ones depicting African American, Native American, Irish, and Chinese people.

The Ingle family papers center around Olive Ingle, the daughter of a Free Methodist minister. The collection includes her diary and family record album, family correspondence, and photographs.

The papers include the diary of 16 year old Olive, which runs from 13 January to 14 March 1880. The collection also includes one letter from a boyfriend to Olive written in 1884, two letters written by members of the Ingle family in 1849, five other family letters, a funeral notice, notes for a funeral service, a family record album, and photographs of Olive, her father, her friends, and her husband, James Bortel.

In her diary Olive wrote about the things that were important to a young girl living in a rural area in the 1880s: home life, school, family, friends, and above all, boys. A young man who received much consideration in the early pages of her diary was a fellow named Frank. On Friday, January 16 Olive wrote, "Oh, I wish he would write for I want to hear from his so bad." On January 20 she did receive a letter from him and wrote, "I was fearful glad to hear from my darling once more."

One of Olive's recurring problems was how to handle competing suitors. On January 21, she considered one boy, Will Doll, who seemed to like her. "He thinks I like him but I do not it will never do him any good to think any thing of me." On January 25 she discussed two other boys, "Johnie Hartsell and Mr. Golden wanted to go home with me but I would not let them. Oh how I wish that they had not asked me for I did hate to say no but I would not let either go with me as long as I am corresponding with Frank he is all the one I care a bout at one time." It seems that Johnie Hartsell was persistent; Olive noted three occasions when he did serve as her escort. Soon, his name appears with frequency and there is no further mention of Frank. The relationship between Mr. Hartsell and Olive can be characterized as slightly competitive as well as affectionate. She wrote on February 6 of a social event that she and John Hartsell both attended, "he thought he was going to act so smart that evening but I did not care. I can act just as smart as he can." By February 13, Olive and her friend Esther were scheduling rendezvous with John H. and his friend Dan G.

Olive wrote about her young girl friends, Amy, Daisy, Nancy, Emma, and in particular, Esther. Olive and her girl friends spent their days in school or at home ironing, baking, cooking, and cleaning. Their social lives revolved around choir meetings, social functions, Church, Sunday school, and house calls. Their greatest thrills were being a little bit bad and flirting with boys. On February 18, Olive's school teacher had to separate her from Esther for talking too much during class. On February 28, Olive and Esther had an adventure together:

Esther and I went out calling went to Simptons and then to Uptergrass and while us was thair, thair was to tony fellows cam a long on the side walk they was a going to Fremont one he through a kiss at me and I through one back and then Esther and I both got to flirting with them (Oh we had a boss time).

In the same entry, Olive divulged, "Had my fortune told to night. She told me I would have an offer of marrage from a tall heavy set person light completion blue eyes dark brown hair She does not know everything."

In addition to news about boys and friends, Olive's diary also discussed her parents, especially when they were absent. Her parents were often away, presumably because of Thornton Ingle's work on the circuit. Olive did not write about her father's work. Instead, she discussed its impact on her, particularly her sadness about being left alone and in charge of the house keeping.

The Ingle collection also includes several letters. The first, written July 25 1849, is from Ann E Cowdrick, Olive's relative on her mother's side. Ann wrote home from Turkey, [New York] to her friend Sarah A. Clapp of Henry Co. Ohio. Ann apologized to Sarah for behaving badly before leaving Henry, regretting that they parted on such bad terms. "I am a great way from you I may take sick and die or perhaps a watery grave may be my doom on my return you know there is danger on the lake and on the land also. But I hope Sarah to return safe home to meet you in friendship for I am sure there is nothing else between us."

A later letter is directed to Olive Ingle from a suitor, known only as A.F.W. He wrote to Olive on September 22, 1884, relieved that she had written, as he thought she no longer wanted to correspond with him. A farmer, he seemed to want to convey a sense of his financial success, and discussed why his career was more promising than others. He responded to Olive's mention of attending a holiness meeting, which suggests that Olive was following the family tradition of religious involvement.

The last part of the Ingle family papers is Olive's family record album, in which she recorded the detailed history of her family. She recorded birth, marriage, and death dates for several generations. By the time that she recorded her family's history, she had married James Bortel and had two children; Doris, born in 1892, and Genevieve, born in 1894.

Olive's family record begins with an account of the life and death of her maternal grandparents, Joseph and Margrat Cowdrick, and her paternal grandparents, Isaac and Susan Ingle. Of her grandmother Cowdrick's death she wrote, "I remember when I stood beside her coffin, the peaceful smile that rested on her dear old face and the hands folded on her breast that had so often waited on me."

Religion is a recurring theme in Olive's album. Of her parents she wrote, "I have all way[s] had good Christian parents who tryed to raise us in the way of christians and the fear of the Lord. How thankful we aught all to be for good Christian parents, for how may children have drunken fathers and mother, who never speaks a pleasant word." Olive also described the conversion experiences of her father and mother, "My mother was converted when but a girl she was a good Baptist. She was baptized when thair was ice in the river. they cut a hole in the ice a baptize them."

The Jewett-Lee collection centers around Azubah Miller Jewett and her daughter Mary (Mollie) Jewett Lee, early settlers to the Saginaw Valley of Michigan.

Most of the Jewett-Lee collection centers around Azubah Miller Jewett and her daughter Mary (Mollie) Jewett Lee. Three letters from Azubah to her daughter were written in the 1850s; they contain family news and information about friends. Azubah wrote her reminiscences in 1888, about a year before she died, describing her early days in Michigan. The other letters are primarily to and from Mollie Jewett, and include a courtship correspondence with her future husband, Newton Lee. Most of these letters were written while she was away from Saginaw City visiting her father's family in New York in the summer and fall of 1853. The collection also includes three speeches, two for delivery on holidays to the people of Saginaw (1858 and 1861) and one addressed to a literary society. There are a couple newspapers and newspaper clippings as well.

The most important document in the Jewett-Lee collection is the reminiscences of Azubah Jewett. She wrote this manuscript upon the request of her brother Judge Albert Miller of Bay City, who asked her to record some of her memories of pioneer life. The document begins:

"Very many things have occorred in the fifty-seven years that I have been in Michigan that would be worthy of note but I hardly feel competant for the task; Suffice it to say that the present inhabitants would think it quite impossible to endure the privations and sacrifices that a few of the first have pass'd through; and in almost every instance without a word of complaint."

Azubah Jewett went on to outline her experiences as one of the first pioneers of the Saginaw Valley. She saw the first settlers arrive and establish industries, including lumbering. She witnessed the first steam boats in the area, the first roads and street cars, and the population explosion that occurred as the next wave of settlers arrived in the Saginaw Valley. The eighty-three year old closed her account with these words, "My bodily health is good, and unless this article indicates contrary, my mental faculties are unimpared, and I enjoy life as much at present as at any period on my existence." She died one year later.

There is a short series of courtship letters between Dr. Newton D. Lee and Molly Jewett while she was in New York. Lee fantasized a future life together: "when I would get tired of the office, I could go to you & be always greeted with a lovely smile & a sweet kiss, then you would sit down beside me and put both your hands in mine & lean your head upon my bosom as your support in this life, then look up in my face & talk to me. . ." (1853 August 7). These winning words won Molly's heart, and the two were married in November.

One letter stands apart from the main collection because it was written by a woman named Delia, who had no connection to the Jewett family except that she knew and possibly courted Dr. Lee before his marriage to Mollie. Delia's words provide insight into the social risks and responsibilities that women had to face when contemplating engaging in a courtship. Lee had apparently visited and written her, and expressed an interest in pursuing his suit. Delia's letter diplomatically expressed a certain amount of skepticism about the sincerity of Dr. Lee's gestures. While she would accept a sincere offer, she would not risk the injury and humiliation that might come from accepting an insincere offer: "It is still more gratifying to meet a worthy friend, prove him such and then feel that I share his thoughts and friendship, but as frankly confess, that a mere avowal of such a friendship is no convincing evidence to me that it exists" (1850 February 7).

The most chilling letter in the collection is from Mollie's friend Louisa. The tear-stained letter reported that a mutual friend of theirs had died of consumption. Susan Harris had been part of their group of six girls all the same age. Lousia, keeping vigil at Susan's bed side when she passed, wrote "I scarcely left that lifeless form until it was returned to mother earth helped to robe her for burial and dressed her hair for the last time which for so many weeks had been my care fearing to trust anyone else" (1853 October 16).

The three public address manuscripts are of unclear authorship. One is a Fourth of July speech that makes indirect but sustained references to the conflict between the North and the South, and the second is an address to citizens who have answered the call to defend the Union flag. The last is an address to the ladies and gentlemen of a literary society on the occasion of the last of the society's meetings.

The Langstroth Family papers document the activities and relationships of several generations of the Langstroth family, originally of Philadelphia, including the founding of several schools for women and African Americans, the experiences of a patient the Friends Asylum, and service in the Civil War.

The correspondence series comprises 600 items covering 1831-1955, and sheds light on the personal lives, careers, and activities of several generations of the Langstroth family. The bulk of the earliest letters, dating from the 1830s, are from Catharine Langstroth to her father and siblings. These letters concern the death of her sister Sarah, financial issues, and the health of several family members, including Margaretta, and refer to temperance (July 20, 1835 “It affords me much pleasure to know that you gathered in your hay on temperance principles”) and religious study. One letter of particular interest is dated January 3, 1839, and was written by Margaretta during a stay at the Friends Asylum in Philadelphia. It describes a harrowing series of treatments for unspecified mental problems: “My head has been cut open to the bone for 3 inches; and large [peas?] inserted; a lead placed over the slit and on the top of this a bread & milk poultice has been applied for two months… My hair has been shaved at least 6 times; and three times since the head was opened.” Margaretta also described the Asylum’s lectures, food, and other patients (“only deranged at intervals”).

Letters from the 1840s and 1850s were written by a variety of family members and document the founding of Mount Holly Institute for Young Ladies; the courtship of Thomas Langstroth, III, and Mary Hauss; and a range of religious attitudes, from Margaretta’s intense piety to Thomas’ doubt (December 12, 1853: “most all the young men in our church just before they got married have made a profession of religion, and how have they turned out! Look at them one half are as bad as they were before: but I have no right to judge.”). In early 1855, Margaretta wrote a series of letters from near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, describing her efforts at religious and educational outreach to slaves, for whom she felt sympathy (February 7, 1855: “Slaves! poor slaves! how my heart bleeds for them, they toil from night to morn, from morn to night--live and die here without knowledge enough to save the soul.”).

Little documentation of the family exists from the Civil War period, despite Edward and Thomas’ service on opposite sides, but Edward’s letter to Margaretta of July 14, 1865, indicates a rift between himself and his sisters, perhaps arising from his joining the Confederacy. Letters of the 1860s and 1870s are mainly incoming to Margaretta and concern teaching, finances, and advice. A number of letters to Thomas from the 1880s contain information about his brother Edward’s health. Approximately 25 folders of letters date from the 20th-century and were written between Hugh Tener Langstroth, his sister, Sara Paxson, and other relatives. These concern travel, social visits, health, and business matters.

The financial and legal documents series consists of 124 items relating to the Langstroth family, covering 1778-1913. It includes wills, records relating to milling, land indentures, an account book of 1814-1817 kept by Thomas Langstroth, Jr., paperwork related to loans, and other materials. Some materials relate to the bank failure which forced Langstroth to sell his mill in 1836. Only 15 items date from 1851-1913.

The diaries and journals series represents six volumes and a few fragments, covering the 1830s to the 1860s, all written by Margaretta Langstroth. The volumes dating from the 1830s contain biographies of historical figures and may have been used in school. Subsequent diaries recorded daily entries of varying length, covering parts of 1864-1868. The 1864 volume includes Margaretta’s memorials of deceased family members and is thus a good source of genealogical information. More commonly, her entries describe daily activities, religious meditations, and frequently seem to reflect a fragile mental state, as in this exceprt of April 15, 1865: “Abraham Lincoln shot in the Washington Theatre Secretary Sewar [sic] had this throat cut I hope Edwar [sic] has no hand in this what makes me fear that he had” or an entry of June 19, 1866, describing the death of a robin: “I felt very badly cannot describe my suffering poor bird…read hymns as it was dying wondering if it would live elsewhere[.] In bed all day so distressed so wretched…” In a number of passages, Margaretta noted the Sunday School classes that she taught, and commented on the number of students and the subjects of her lessons.

The Leighton-Mount family papers are made up of incoming correspondence to Pearl Leighton and her husband, John L. Mount, of Otsego, Michigan, as well as letters written by John Mount. In the latter, Mount discusses his work as a traveling salesman of "Royal Scrolls" for Powers, Higley, & Company (Valparaiso, Indiana).

The Leighton-Mount family papers are made up of incoming correspondence to Pearl Leighton and her husband, John L. Mount, of Otsego, Michigan. Other members of the Leighton and Mount families lived in various townships of southern Michigan, for the most part in and around Albion, Otsego, and Springport.

The collection also contains letters written by John Mount; by John Mount's father, George L. Mount (most from Concord, Michigan); by Pearl's father, Amos Leighton (a lumber manufacturer in Otsego, Michigan); by Pearl's cousin, Alva Sebring (in Utah and California); and by numerous Michigan friends of Pearl Leighton.

The most frequent writers in the Leighton-Mount family papers are John and his father, George Mount. John wrote about his relationship with Pearl, sermons and moral issues, work as a traveling salesman, and family-related topics, while George offered financial and family advice. Pearl's friend, Alice S. Beal, of Northville and Albion, Michigan, was a faithful correspondent, who discussed her own schooling and social topics.

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.

The Norton Strange Townshend Family papers include correspondence, diaries, essays, lectures, printed matter, clippings, financial and legal papers, photographs, daguerreotypes, ephemera, realia, maps, and books belonging to the Townshend and Dodge families, who were connected by the marriage of Margaret Wing (granddaughter of Norton Townshend) and Homer Levi Dodge (grandson of Levi Dodge) in 1917. Much of the collection documents the life and career of politician and agricultural educator Norton Strange Townshend, including his political, educational, and social reform activities.

The Norton Strange Townshend Family Papers consist of 20.5 linear feet of manuscripts, 66 cased photographs, 3 linear feet of paper photographs, 8 cubic feet of photographic slides, and 7 cubic feet of realia, arranged into 13 series. For more detail, see scope and content notes, below.

The Correspondence series (Boxes 1-10) contains all the collection’s letters, postcards, and telegrams (with the exception of official military correspondence, financial correspondence, and genealogy correspondence, which are under "Topical Files," "Financial Correspondence," and "Genealogical Correspondence," respectively). Correspondence spans the years 1827-1989 and makes up around one quarter of the collection. It is subdivided by family into the "Townshend Subseries" and "Dodge Subseries," and arranged chronologically, with undated items at the end. The series contains correspondence to and from prominent Ohio politicians, such as Salmon P. Chase; who wrote 34 letters to Townshend; William Medill; Rutherford B. Hayes; and notable agricultural educators, including James Sullivant and John Klippart. Correspondence among family members is also voluminous, and documents a wide variety of issues during the mid-19th to early-20th centuries, including social and family life, courtship, women’s work and viewpoints, travel, and attitudes toward education. For an index of correspondents, see "Additional Descriptive Data."

The Joel Townshend papers series (Box 10) brings together documents by and related to Norton Townshend’s father, Joel Townshend (1780-1864). It includes a few religious writings, as well as financial and legal documents that shed light on the family’s life in Northamptonshire, England, and Ohio. Most items date from 1810 to 1830, with the exception of a biography of Townshend written in the 1930s or 1940s by his great-grandson, H. Percy Boynton.

The Norton S. Townshend papers series (Boxes 10-26) is the largest series in the collection and contains diaries, published and unpublished writings, printed materials, clippings, broadsides, biographical materials, and other items relating to nearly every facet of Townshend’s adult life. These materials document Townshend’s political involvement, particularly in local and national antislavery, in agricultural movements, and in the U.S. House of Representatives. The series also includes papers about his educational career, family life, Civil War service, and religious views and work. Townshend frequently worked and reworked his ideas on paper, and both his published and unpublished writings are a rich source of intellectual and reform history. Townshend was also an inveterate collector and preserver of interesting items, including materials relating to northern Ohio’s Liberty Party, his admission tickets to medical courses and the World Anti-Slavery Convention, an application to the Ohio State Asylum for the Education of Idiotic and Imbecile Youth, of which he was a trustee, and dozens of fliers and handbills for lectures given by himself and others.

The Margaret Bailey Townshend papers series (Boxes 26-27) is comprised of two diaries, a rich autobiographical writing entitled "Genealogy," describing her childhood and education, a small number of clippings, and materials relating to her education and career as a teacher in Illinois and Ohio in the 1850s. Many items in the Realia series (below) also relate to Margaret Bailey Townshend.

The Other Townshend family members’ papers series (Boxes 28-30) contains materials relating mainly to Townshend’s children and their spouses, but also includes James B. Wood (Townshend’s father-in-law), Harriet Wood Townshend (Townshend’s first wife), Margaret Wing Dodge (Townshend’s granddaughter), and several other relatives. The bulk of this series is made up of their writings, which are autobiographical, religious, and cultural in subject. Also of interest is biographical information on family members, including articles on Townshend’s children, who were early students of Ohio State University, and a number of obituaries of these family members.

The Dodge family papers series (Boxes 30-34) consists of materials produced and collected by the Dodges of upstate New York, from 1839 to approximately 1970, and documenting their family life, travels, hobbies (in particular the outdoors and canoeing), financial and legal transactions, and civic engagement. Incorporated are some writings by various family members, including Levi R. Dodge, F. Isabella (Donaghue) Dodge, Homer Dodge, and family friend Lydia Sayer Hasbrouck; topical files, the bulk of which are 20th century; biographical materials such as obituaries and clippings; and periodicals on topics of interest to the Dodges.

The Genealogical research series (Boxes 35-37) reflects the family’s interest in its own history and consists of correspondence, family trees, historical essays, as well as commercially produced family histories for some lines. The materials reflect a particular interest in finding links between various family members and such prominent figures as the Townshends of Raynham Hall, the Green family of Vermont, and General Grenville Dodge. This series pertains mainly to the 20th century and is arranged by family, except for the correspondence, which is arranged chronologically.

The Collection-related materials series is made up of documents and articles that shed light on the outreach efforts made on behalf of the collection, particularly for the Easterly items, prior to their accessioning by the William L. Clements Library. The series is comprised of fliers, museum publicity materials, and articles on exhibits. Materials date from the late 20th century, particularly the 1990s.

The Books series contains three items that are housed with the collection: Sermons on Various Subjects by the Late Rev. Thomas Strange, Kilsby, Northamptonshire, with Some Memoirs of His Life (1807); the Townshend Family Bible (with manuscript notes on births, deaths and marriages); and Robert W. McCormick’s 1988 self-published biography of Townshend: Norton S. Townshend, M.D. Antislavery Politician and Agricultural Educator. The rest of the books, including books from the personal libraries of Norton Townshend, Joel Townshend, Margaret Bailey Townshend, and the Dodge family, are housed in the Book Division of the Clements Library; for the list of titles, search for "M-3437" in the University of Michigan's library catalog.

The Visual materials series is arranged by type of item and then by subject. This includes daguerreotypes by prominent daguerreotypist Thomas M. Easterly, other photographs, drawings/prints, and maps. The materials range from the 1840s to the 1970s. See also Realia series below.

The Realia series contains approximately 8 linear feet of objects, including items from the childhood and teaching career of Margaret Bailey Townshend, intricate hairwork jewelry and a hair wreath made with the locks of at least 16 family members, geological materials and fossils collected by Norton Townshend and possibly Thomas Easterly, and other three-dimensional objects such as a glass vial for medicine, ribbons from the Ohio State Fair, and decorative objects. Also noteworthy are a number of paper objects, such as Civil War era chromolithograph animal toys, a Japanese paper lantern, and an alphabet game for children.

The Dodge Photographic Slides series includes eight cubic feet of photographic slides, totaling approximately 22,000 slides, attributed to Homer L. Dodge. They document travels around the southwest United States and to countries such as Japan, Canada and Sweden.

The Miscellaneous series contains envelopes without accompanying letters, blank letterhead, and a binder of transcriptions of select letters from Harriet Wood Townshend to Sarah Wood Keffer.