Collections

This collection contains correspondence between Augusta Wolle Holland and Reverend Francis Raymond Holland, regarding missionary life in Jamaica in the 1840s.

The Augusta and Francis R. Holland papers are comprised of 55 letters, which focus on Augusta Wolle Holland's and Reverend Francis Raymond Holland's missionary life in Jamaica in the 1840s.

Series I: These 12 letters, some quite lengthy, are between Francis (2) and family friend Mary Steiner Denke (10). Mary's letters provide a diverse and well-written discussion of politics, plants, scenery, and society from her life in a Moravian settlement in Salem, North Carolina, and from travels to Macon, Georgia, in 1840, and to France in 1845. In addition to thoughtful discussions on the treatment and conditions of slaves in North Carolina and Georgia, she wrote of a May 1 celebration at Mr. Napier’s school in Macon, Georgia; stage travel in Georgia (during which the passengers had a political debate between Whigs and Locos); a Cherokee Indian Mission and the building of schools there; trans-Atlantic travel; Protestant versus Catholic churches and doctrine in France; and travel around the French countryside near Montauban. She was also interested in academic and religious teachings.

Series II: The August and Francis Holland Correspondence with Parents series, which comprises the bulk of the collection, contains 33 lengthy letters written between 1842 to 1849 and passed between the Hollands in Jamaica and their parents in the United States. Though Augusta was the more prolific of the writers, both wrote extensively about life as missionaries, thoroughly detailing their surroundings, food, health, gardening, religious education, and interactions with fellow missionaries and Jamaica’s inhabitants. Augusta’s letters focused on home and garden; she expressed great interest in the local flowers and edible plants. She also taught Sunday school classes, cared for her children, and kept up-to-date on current events in the United States. Francis' letters often mention national American politics, including national appointments and the ongoing Mexican War. Letters from their parents concern the family's well being, local events in the town, and religious activities and viewpoints. The Hollands kept servants while in Jamaica, and discussed them in their letters.

Series III: The Miscellaneous Correspondence series contains 10 items, primarily letters addressed to Holland from his colleagues in the church. A few letters were also written to Augusta and one to her father Jacob Wolle. Another item, sent from Bergen, Norway, to Philadelphia, is dated 1818 and is written in German.

This collection includes three illustrations: the letter from September 3, 1842, contains a sketch of a garden plan in Fairfield, Jamaica; the letter from January 31, 1845, has a small paper seal with a black floral image; and the November 26, 1845, item features a rough illustration of a flower.

The Beatty family papers consist of correspondence and diaries that document a Pennsylvanian family's activities from May 20, 1831, to June 1, 1886. Included is a set of diaries from Mary Assheton Beatty, a short diary from her son, Joseph Henry Beatty, and letters addressed to Joseph Henry concerning the family and his activities in business and service in the Civil War.

The Beatty papers date from May 20, 1831, to June 1, 1886, with the bulk falling between February 2, 1855, and November 18, 1878. The papers touch on subjects such as the Tuscarora Academy, Steubenville Female Seminary, child rearing, homemaking, everyday life, education, and religion.

The correspondence is almost exclusively addressed to Joseph Henry Beatty (J. Henry or Henry) though a few are addressed to his parents and to his brother Reading. Joseph Henry received letters from his brother-in-law George Curwen, and letters to and from various family members relating news, giving advice, and asking questions about his schooling, his work in oil well management, his service in the Civil War, and farming. The letters also give substantial information about Joseph Henry's sister, Fanny, and her husband, Robert Holmes. A letter from George F.Curwen to J. Henry Beatty, January 12, 1861, contains a rough sketch of the layout of a plot of land [Bucks or Montgomery County?].

The diaries series consists of two sets of diaries: one written by J. Henry's mother, Mary A. Beatty, dated 1850-1854, and a 16-page diary written by J. Henry Beatty in 1855 while in boarding school. Mary's diaries detail the family's daily life as well as their experiences with education, marriage, childbirth, employment, and travel.

The miscellaneous items include several pages from The Press, a Philadelphia newspaper, regarding the oil industry in Northern Pennsylvania, a Calling card for Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Wiegand, and empty envelopes.

This account book consists of financial documentation for a man (likely a merchant) who operated out of Baltimore and New York. The entries range from 1785 to 1793. Included in the volume are accounts relating to fabrics, household goods, seemingly high-end dishware and glasses, and occasional payments for tuition for Harry Blakely and Aurelia Blakely, including at a boarding school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Several references in the volume relate to African Americans (ex. p. 8, "pd. Yr. order to negro Tom," and engagements with the ship Adventure to South Carolina, St. Lucia, Curacoa, Lisbon, and others. Some accounts are pertinent to the New York Society Library (p. 82) and the purchase of books.

The bulk of the Boynton family papers consist of John Boynton's letters to his family in New England. While teaching in Mississippi from 1837 to 1839, he wrote about his impressions of southern culture and his disapproval of slavery.

Most of the letters (1-25) were written by John Boynton; 23 to his father Isaac, one each to brother-in-law Herman Huntington and sister Hannah. They cover his career as a student and teacher in various locales. The letters reveal Boynton to have been a perceptive, thoughtful young man with strong religious and temperance views and a New Englander's dislike of slavery. His rather strait-laced temperament was relieved by a light-hearted sense of humor and a love of boyish pursuits --hunting, fishing, playing ball. He was warmly appreciative of home and family, and one of his letters (14) muses on the imagined family scene he is missing, speculating on the activities and thoughts of each family member.

Boynton's letters from Mississippi (19-25) are the highlight of the collection. In them he expresses his disapproval of slavery and of southern culture in general (particularly its loose religious ways), while admitting a fondness for the weather, the hunting, the landscape, and the unaffected friendliness of southerners. It is interesting to note that, for one who voices such distaste of slavery, Boynton is clearly racially prejudiced, and does not seem to object to having a servant assigned to him. On a stop-over at a Maryland tobacco plantation, having arrived at night, he records his reactions of the next morning: "Creation. Niggers as thick as toads after a shower. ... Negroes among [the tobacco fields] in every direction. It reminded me, as I looked out upon his fields, of what I have witnessed at home -- a platter of baked beans with a large quantity of black ones among them. No reflections on baked beans by the way."

In Mississippi, he describes the scene from his bedroom window: "There are ten Negroes to every one white person. The labor here is done altogether by slaves. ... about 90 Negroes in the field picking cotton. About an equal number of men & women, some children. You would also see a white man with a whip in his hand following in the rear." Noting the comfort of his situation, he writes that "A Negro boy about 15 years old is at my command any moment. He comes into my room every night about 9 o'clock with his blanket, blacks my boots & shoes, sleeps on the floor in my room, builds me a fire, if I need one in the morning before I am up; brings a pitcher of fresh water, etc. While I am at breakfast he makes my bed, sweeps my room & puts all things in order." Still, Boynton expresses a repugnance of slavery, and looks forward to the day when " I may inhale the pure air of Freedom!" He tires of the constant talk of "land and Negroes," the mania for profit, the violence and lawlessness, and the disregard for religion and the Sabbath. "The sabbath in Mississippi is hell in minerature [sic]. All sorts of games from the horserace & cock-fight down to playing of marbles is engaged in upon Sunday." While he enjoyed his sojourn and much appreciated the high salaries paid to teachers, Boynton never intended to settle in the south. Sadly, he lived only a short while after returning to home and family.

The Boynton papers document the lives of other family members in far less detail. They are mentioned or addressed in John's letters, and are writers and recipients of the twelve letters in the collection which post-date his death. John addressed most letters to father Isaac, a brick-maker, but often inquired after or included messages for his mother, Sibyl; brothers David, Henry, and Royal; and sisters Hannah, Harriet, and Sibyl. A daughter of Hannah Boynton Haynes, Elmira Spaulding, is also represented in the collection.

The rest of the letters (26-38) are to and from other members of the Boynton family and relate largely to family matters, brother Henry's school teaching career, and religion. One poignant letter (30) records the grief of a mother at the death of her baby daughter, as she consoles herself with the thought of her child in heaven. An undated letter from Elmira Spaulding to her mother Hannah Boynton Haynes (36) discusses her life as a millworker in Leominster, Mass.

This collection contains the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Charlotte and Martha Wray, sisters who lived in Washington County, New York; Detroit, Michigan; and Iowa in the 19th century. The letters span Martha's time as a schoolteacher in Detroit, Michigan; Charlotte's work as a teacher in Albany, New York; and Charlotte's experiences in Iowa prior to the Civil War.

This collection contains approximately 110 letters, of which Charlotte Wray wrote about 90 to her sister Martha. Additionally, Martha and Mary Jane Wray each wrote 1 letter, and Charlotte and Martha Wray received about 18 letters from cousins and other family members. Charlotte's letters discuss her experience as a schoolteacher and her life in Albany, New York, and in Iowa, where she lived after the late 1840s. Charlotte's letters also include content on the arrival of new immigrants, her declining health, and her husband's medical practice during the Civil War.

The earliest items in the collection include a 1-page essay by Mary Jane Wray, Charlotte and Martha's sister, titled "of Solitude" and dated September 18, 1839, and a poem Charlotte wrote about her sister. The correspondence begins on May [15], 1842, with a letter from Martha about her arrival and teaching in Detroit. When Mary Jane traveled to Detroit in 1844, she wrote home about the birth and first weeks of her son Van (August 25, 1844).

Charlotte wrote approximately 20 letters to Martha after moving to Albany, New York, around October 1845, where she taught school. She gave news about her life and friends in Albany, such as her intent to turn down a marriage proposal (January 19, 1846) and student expenses at the New York State Normal School (March 15, 1846). In a later letter from Albany, written around the summer of 1846, she explained her reasons for leaving the school, based on the belief that she could earn more money sewing.

After June 22, 1847, Charlotte wrote approximately 70 letters to Martha describing her married life with Thomas. They moved to Garnavillo, Iowa, in the summer of 1847. She informed her sister about life in Iowa, including her travels, the experiences of other new immigrants, and her homes in Garnavillo, Farmersburg, and Monona. Charlotte also discussed married life and her husband's medical practice. She reflected on the Civil War in two letters, mentioning the draft, financial aspects of the war, and her husband's wartime medical practice (August 21, 1862, and February 1863). Following Charlotte's death around March 1863, Martha received 7 letters from her brother-in-law, who described Charlotte’s final sickness and death (March 31, 1863) and the devastating impact on the family.

Cooperative leader and liberal activist. Topical files and photographs relating to his work with an Americanization program for immigrants in Akron, Ohio in the 1920s; his involvement in the National Farmers Union, including radio transcripts of programs presented by the North Dakota Farmers Union; and his interest in the Danish folk school movement and the administration of Ashland College in Grant, Michigan; also material concerning the American Friends Service Committee, the Grant Community Church, pacifism, economic cooperatives, and other social and political liberal causes.

The papers of Chester Graham reflect the multifaceted activities of his career. The papers are arranged in a single alphabetical series, without regard to the chronological relationship between the various folders. Thus material from the late 1970s can be found next to material from the 1920s. In general, folder material begins whenever Graham first became involved with the subject and continues more or less to the present, although material becomes far more ephemeral as time passes and Graham's primary concerns shift to other subjects.

The largest bodies of material deal with Americanization in Akron, Ashland College, the National Farmers Union, and Graham's radio transcripts. There is also a body of material dealing with the Society of Friends and the organization's various political and social activities.

Grand Rapids, Michigan educator, principal of the Grand Rapids Kindergarten Training School, and advocate of kindergarten education. Correspondence, lecture and class notes, programs, photographs, and miscellaneous scrapbooks, ledgers, and account books.

The collection is comprised of correspondence and other papers largely concerning kindergarten education and her involvement in a parent and teacher organization. The series in the collection are Biographical / Personal materials, Correspondence; Kindergarten education; National Congress of Parents and Teachers; and Miscellaneous.

University of Michigan graduate, 1867, and lawyer in Macomb County, Michigan. Collection of pamphlets and other printed material relating to history of the university, the legal profession and other matters.

The Lowell pamphlet collection consists of 6 bound volumes of pamphlets and other publications relating primarily to the history of the University of Michigan, including reports and addresses of the presidents, commencement addresses, and reports on misappropriation of funds in the chemistry department; messages and reports of the Michigan governors, and a number of articles on law and the legal profession.

The Eaton-Shirley family papers consist of personal diaries, correspondence, military papers, legal and business documents, printed materials, and photographs. A primary figure in the collection, John Eaton, Jr., was Civil War Superintendent of the Freedmen and later Commissioner of Education under Grant. The papers also contains substantial material from other Eaton family members, including military papers and correspondence of his brother, Lucien B. Eaton, and papers of the Shirley family (the family of John Eaton, Jr.’s wife, Alice E. Shirley).

The Eaton papers consist of 1,903 items, dating from September 1790 to July 30, 1939. The bulk of the collection falls between 1850 and 1906. The papers contain 318 letters, 9 diaries/journals, 60 personal documents of John Eaton Jr., 275 legal documents and business papers, 112 military documents, 923 photographs, 84 printed items, and 122 miscellaneous items.

The majority of the correspondence is personal and relates to family matters. The 168 letters of John Eaton, Jr., contain extensive biographical information. Of particular interest are 44 Civil War-era letters including information about the freedmen, three letters pertaining to the publication of The Post, and two with content regarding the Ku Klux Klan. The collection also contains 22 letters to and from Alice (Shirley) Eaton, 31 letters to and from Lucien Eaton, and 32 miscellaneous letters from members of the Eaton family. Of the 30 letters written by Alice Eaton's parents (James and Adelaine Shirley), 10 letters regard compensation for the damage done to the Shirley House during the Civil War. Various other members of the Shirley family wrote 15 letters, and 20 letters are from other people unrelated to the Eaton and Shirley families.

John Eaton Jr.’s aunt, Ruth Dodge Eaton, wrote two diaries which consist almost entirely of Christian hymns and essays. John Eaton Jr.'s uncle, Horace Eaton, wrote one diary that contains Christian material written while he attended Dartmouth College. John Eaton, Jr., wrote two diaries, one of which he wrote as a youth, and the other as a student at Dartmouth. Other journals include two by John Eaton Jr.'s brothers, Frederick and Charles, and a household account book, kept by his sister Christina. Of particular importance is Alice Shirley’s diary, in which she described pre-civil war tensions between the north and the south, speculation on the upcoming Siege of Vicksburg, the early stages of the Siege of Vicksburg, and very personal feelings regarding her marriage to John Eaton, Jr.

The 60 personal papers of John Eaton Jr. include 17 documents regarding his appointments and titles, two documents about freedmen, and 41 miscellaneous address cards and invitations (including an invitation to the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge).

Of the 275 legal papers, 74 documents pertain to the sale of land in Mississippi; 7 concern Robert M. Jones’s claim to Choctaw Nation lands; and 25 relate to estate papers, deeds of trust and documents about the proceedings of Adelaine Shirley’s post-war relief claims; and a receipt for the sale of an African American woman. The remaining 176 legal papers are miscellaneous financial documents, such as tax documents, checks, and receipts.

Of the 112 military documents, 58 pertain to John Eaton, Jr., 7 of which are about freedmen. The military documents of Lucien B. Eaton number 54.

The 923 photographs consist of six photo albums, 31 cased daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, 144 cabinet cards, and 421 loose photographs and snapshots all depicting members of the Eaton and Shirley families, scenic locations, and the Shirley House.

Of the 84 printed items in the collection, 49 newspaper clippings pertain to the occupational and personal activities of John Eaton, Jr., and 9 miscellaneous clippings relate to the Eaton family. The remaining 26 items are published pamphlets, including addresses and reports concerning John Eaton, Jr.; a sermon written by Horace Eaton; a report of proceedings of an Ohio Brigade reunion; an Anti-Slavery Almanac from 1838; and an incomplete piece describing the history and restoration of the Shirley House.

The 122 miscellaneous papers of the John Eaton, Jr., collection consist of 53 recipes and 69 miscellaneous items including a partial autobiography of Alice Eaton.

University of Michigan department responsible in part for the development of materials for the teaching of English as a second language. The English Language Institute records contain correspondence, notes from staff meetings, publications, reports, photographs, and administrative records, especially records of South East Asia Regional English Program and the Ford-Japan Project. The records also include files of directors Charles C. Fries and Robert Lado and administrator George E. Luther. Also includes photos of Institute staff, students, and activities, including international students at the University of Michigan and the institute's South East Asia Regional English Project (1957-1965).

The records of the English Language Institute encompass the period, 1940-2012, and contain 11 series: Correspondence; C.C. Fries Correspondence; Books; Manuscripts and Publications; Scrapbooks; Project Files; Administrative Files; South East Asia Regional English Project (SEAREP); Ford-Japan Project; Publications; and Photographs. The bulk of the collection deals with routine business such as student requests for admission, inquiries from throughout the world regarding the operation of the Institute, requests for linguistic materials available from the Institute, and staff meeting minutes. There is an abundance of information on the relationship between the English Language Institute, its staff and similar institutions both at the University of Michigan and elsewhere; including the University of Michigan International Center, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the English Language Institute in Mexico, the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American Educational Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Linguistic Institute, Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Office of Education. Also in the collection are extensive files of directors Charles C. Fries and Robert Lado and administrator George E. Luther.