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

The Edward C. Randall papers are largely correspondence and writings of Buffalo, New York, attorney E. C. Randall, who studied and wrote extensively on spirit mediums, spiritualism, and eschatological subjects in the first decades of the 20th century. The collection includes complete, partial, and drafts of essays and books by Randall, around 250 incoming letters (many with retained copies of responses attached), materials by or belonging to Virginia and Mai Randall, and other items.

The Edward C. Randall Papers are largely correspondence and writings by Buffalo, New York, attorney E. C. Randall, who studied and wrote extensively on spirit mediums, spiritualism, and eschatological subjects in the first decades of the 20th century. The collection includes around 250 incoming letters to Randall, most of them accompanied by retained copies of his responses, 1908-1935 (bulk 1917-1935). Also present is a bundle of documents pertaining to Delaware Laundry, Inc., including its articles of incorporation and stockholder minutes, as well as materials pertinent to E. C. Randall's resignation from the Board of Directors, 1930-1934. Other documents include a bundle of seven items related to the estate of Edward Porter as probated by attorney E. C. Randall (including Porter's last will and testament), 1931-1932.

The bulk of the papers is drafts, partial, and complete writings by E. C. Randall; and a few items by/belonging to Mai Howard Randall and Virginia Randall. E. C. Randall's typescripts and drafts include the following works:

• "Frontiers of the Afterlife" (1922)
• "Philosophic Discussions with a Living Dead Man"/"Coloquy with an Etherian" (1923-1924)
• "Told in the After Life" (1927)
• "Mission Work" (April-May 1928)
• "Heritage of the Dead : Biographical Sketches of the Living Dead in the Earthbound Zone" (1928)
• "Taps and the Dawn" (1931)
• "The Living Dead" (1931-1932)
• "Miscellaneous Essays" and "Miscellaneous Psychic Memorandum" (early 1930s)
• "Nero's Redemption" (early 1930s)
• "Drama – Nero's Redemption" (early 1930s)
• "Memoirs of an Eschatologist" (four volumes plus additional chapters, circa 1934-1935?)
• Additional essays, book chapters, interviews, and notes. Many or most of these appear to be drafts, typed copies, or extracts from works listed above.

The collection includes two volumes pertinent to E. C. Randall's daughter Virginia Randall, who died at age 21 on February 3, 1925, after a week-long illness. A two-ring volume contains cuttings of printed artwork depicting Biblical scenes with manuscript scriptural passages written beneath them. Virginia apparently created the volume while attending the Dobbs Ferry school or Mrs. Wickham's school in New York, around 1920. The other volume is a typed collection of "Virginia Randall's Letters" with added supplementary newspaper articles. The original letters [not present] dated between 1922 and 1927—both before and after Virginia's death in 1925.

Two manuscript volumes in the collection apparently belonged to Mai Howard Randall, containing manuscript writing dating between 1904 and 1915, and around 1921. The papers also contain two circa 1920s-1930s typescripts sent to E. C. Randall by William Smith titled "Philosophic Teachings of Spirit People" and stated to have been received through automatic writing by Smith. One printed item accompanies the collection: The Origin of Life; or Where Man Comes From. The Evolution of the Spirit from Matter, through Organic Processes; or How the Spirit Body Grows. Fourth Edition. By M. Faraday . . . T. C. Budington, Medium. Springfield, Mass.: Star Publishing Company, 1887. This item has a round hole all the way through it, middle left.

This collection consists of letters that Stephen Edwin Wait of Traverse City, Michigan, exchanged with his second wife, Ellen Packard of Racine, Wisconsin, before and in the early years of their marriage, as well as additional letters to Wait and Packard from family members. The correspondence pertains to the couple's relationship; their views on the afterlife, marriage, and other subjects; Packard family news from Racine, Wisconsin; and life at the Michigan State Normal School in 1895.

This collection consists of 37 letters and 4 calling cards related to Stephen Edwin Wait of Traverse City, Michigan, and his second wife, Ellen Packard of Racine, Wisconsin.

The correspondence primarily consists of letters between Stephen E. Wait (S. E. Wait) and Ellen Packard, beginning after the death of Wait's first wife, Louisa, a childhood friend of Packard's, and continuing into the first year of their marriage. They discussed Louisa's death, their beliefs about the afterlife, their opinions on marriage, social norms, and other subjects. After proposing marriage in his letter of January 1, 1870, Wait attempted to describe himself in more detail and offered to travel to Racine, preferring to meet Packard before marrying her. After their marriage, he described his boat trips from Traverse City to Chicago along Lake Michigan and she shared family news from Wisconsin.

Additional correspondence includes a letter to S. E. Wait from Samuel and Sarah E. Scott in Clinton, Ohio, who discussed Samuel's teaching work and local schools (December 22, 1851); a letter from Ellen Packard to Louisa Wait (March 13, 1864); and several letters to Wait from his mother (1 item) and an aunt, Phoebe Hill (4 items). After 1871, Wait and Packard received a letter from Lewis G. Steven, a self-described "Indian medicine man" who wished to work in Wait's store (July 28, 1879), and several members of the Packard family, who reported on life in Racine and commented on the deaths and estates of Ellen Packard's parents, Roswell and Susan Packard.

The final item is a 10-page letter that Minnie [Wait] wrote to her brother Edmund about life at the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan (October 27, 1895). She described a "new woman" who adopted masculine habits and dress and discussed a day in her scholarly life at the school. The collection also contains 4 calling cards; one item consists of two cards tied together with a ribbon.