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

New York Harbor shipper John Wheelwright kept this receipt book, documenting money paid out in his deals with ships and cargoes between 1829 and 1834. Payments include purchases of ownership in vessels, ship chandlery, cleaning, molasses, pipes, nankeen, wages for sailors and captains, coal, beef, wood, pork, lifeboats, nails, wharfage, cod, whiting, mackerel, tobacco, flaxseed, blacksmiths, candles, joiners, provisions, a second hand fore-sail, main yard, sugar, blocks, cooperage, painting labor, house rent, newspaper subscriptions, and more. The receiving party signed each receipt. An anonymous, subsequent owner pasted 148 handwritten recipes and 129 printed recipes and formulas over sections of Wheelwright's receipts. Recipes cover or partially cover 110 of 212 pages of the receipt book.

New York Harbor shipper John Wheelwright kept this receipt book, documenting money paid out in his deals with ships and cargoes between 1829 and 1834. Ships mentioned include schooners Washington, 4th of July, Shamrock, Cambridge, Tribune, Gov. Clinton, Delta (Honduras), Active, John Ruggles, Mayflower, Caroline, Hero (Boston), Rufus, Harriet, Transport, and New York; and brigs Betsy, Albert, Henry, Calais Packet, Samaritan (Pictou, Nova Scotia), Levant (Cape Cod), Martha Ann, Only Son, Amazon, Montano (New Orleans), Trumbull, Napoleon, Brilliant, and Asoph. Payments include purchases of ownership in vessels, ship chandlery, cleaning, molasses, pipes, nankeen, wages for sailors and captains, coal, beef, wood, pork, lifeboats, nails, wharfage, cod, whiting, mackerel, tobacco, flaxseed, blacksmiths, candles, joiners, provisions, a second hand fore-sail, main yard, sugar, blocks, cooperage, painting labor, house rent, newspaper subscriptions, and more. The receiving party signed each receipt.

An anonymous, subsequent owner pasted 148 handwritten recipes and 129 printed recipes and formulas over sections of Wheelwright's receipts between the 1830s and 1860s. Recipes cover or partially cover 110 of 212 pages of the receipt book.

The bulk of this collection (24 items) is the incoming and outgoing correspondence of Lee Goodwin, of the New York City mercantile firm Fitch, Goodwin & Company. The letters are predominantly by Lee and his siblings, respecting local and family news, and health updates from East Hartford and New York City.

The bulk of this collection (24 items) is incoming and outgoing correspondence of Lee Goodwin, of the New York City mercantile firm Fitch, Goodwin & Company. The letters are predominantly by Lee and his siblings, respecting local and family news, and health updates from East Hartford and New York City.

Lee Goodwin wrote 17 letters and received 7. His incoming correspondence includes 2 letters from his sister Hester Waterhouse (née Goodwin), from East Hartford, Connecticut, in which she described her home, family members' health, local acquaintances, and attendance at the local Unitarian church (April 1843, and June 6, 1846). Lee's other incoming correspondence includes a letter from his brother Eli, who wrote of business affairs in New York City (April 1, 1825), and 2 from his brother-in-law, James Fitch, who provided family news from New York City, such as Emily's foot injury (September 16, 1823, and October 18, 1825). Goodwin also received a partially printed letter from the Farmer's Loan and Trust Company on August 8, 1868.

Lee Goodwin's 17 outgoing letters include two that he wrote to Andrew Milbray, a merchant from Edinburgh, Scotland. Goodwin wrote a brief letter of introduction for Samuel and James Fellows on February 25, 1836, to which Milbray responded on September 19, 1836, offering his apologies for having met them too late to give them assistance. In the same letter, Milbray introduced James Aikman, a young man seeking employment, and provided news of his imminent move to St. John's, Newfoundland, to take charge of a branch of the Bank of British North America. Goodwin wrote Milbray a second time, in June 1837, and discussed economic effects of the Panic of 1837, particularly on New York City.

The remaining 15 letters and drafts of letters by Lee Goodwin date from August 1, 1837, to October 1856. His brother Eli received most of them between 1848 and 1851; they provided Eli with local and family news, and mention several aspects of Lee's life in East Hartford, Connecticut. Lee often wrote about his sister Hester, with whom he lived after returning to his hometown, and, in one letter, discussed his discipline of a female housekeeper named Cecilia, whom he "shut in a chamber" for 24 hours following one of her outbursts of anger (March 14, 1850). Lee advised his nephew Richard about life and the business climate in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a draft dated April 29, 1851. He also wrote an unidentified sister about family news and sent a letter to Eli about his intent to purchase stock of the American Exchange Bank (October 30, 1856).

The final letter in the collection is from Hester (Goodwin) Waterhouse to her sister Emily, Mrs. James Fitch (July 2, 1822). In it, Hester described her boarding house and life in Albany, New York.

The Phoenix family papers contain correspondence and documents relating to the firm Phoenix, Ingraham & Nixon and its failure in 1811, resulting in Alexander Phoenix's imprisonment for debt. They also include 11 letters from Harriet Beecher to Elizabeth Phoenix, dating to the late 1820s and 1830s.

The Phoenix family papers consist of 67 letters, 32 legal documents, 10 financial records and receipts, 2 drawings of land lots, and a printed bill. The materials span 1776-1884, though the bulk centers on the periods between 1808 and 1814, and 1826 and 1833. Early letters and documents relate primarily to the firm Phoenix, Ingraham, & Nixon. They include a letter from Alexander Hamilton to Nathaniel G. Ingraham, denying him financial assistance because of other obligations (March 5, 1801); the firm's articles of agreement (February 15, 1803); and 27 letters written by Nathaniel Ingraham to Alexander Phoenix concerning business acquaintances and hardships faced by the company, and its eventual bankruptcy (1810-1811). A document of October 11, 1811, gives a full account of the firm's losses.

Between November 1811 and March 1813, nearly all of the 20 letters and documents relate to attempts to free Phoenix from debtors' prison; his attorney, Silvanus Miller, wrote many of them. Also of interest is a manuscript, dated November 1811, containing copied extracts from letters by Phoenix during his imprisonment. In several of the letters, he criticized Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury, and discussed other political matters. A copy of a congressional act of March 3, 1813, documents the release of Phoenix and several associates.

Of note is a series of 11 letters written to Phoenix's daughter, Elizabeth, by a young Harriet Beecher in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Many of the letters are undated, but can be traced to this period based on their postmarks. Beecher and Phoenix had been schoolmates at Hartford Female Seminary around 1823, and in her letters, Beecher frequently reminisced about their time at the school, including how strange she must have seemed to the other girls, and discussed mutual friends. Much of Beecher's correspondence is very introspective in nature, and consists of her religious and philosophical thoughts, including a recommendation that Phoenix read the works of Joseph Butler in order to develop her argumentation. Several of the later letters include postscripts written by Catharine Beecher, Elizabeth's teacher in Hartford. A letter of June 11, 1833, mentions their plans to open a "small school" in Cincinnati, where they had moved with their father, Lyman Beecher. Overall, the letters shed light on Harriet Beecher's intellectual and religious development during her young adulthood.

Several items postdate 1836; two of these relate to the estates of Alexander Phoenix and Shearjushub Bourne, a relative of Edgar Ketchum. Two other documents, located in the "Miscellany" series, illustrate land lots.