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

Lydia Brown compiled this notebook of copied poems, principally religious and moral in nature, sometime in the early nineteenth century. She often drew calligraphic titles and other embellishments, including borders, flowers, and leaves. Several times throughout the volume, Lydia Brown includes included "A E 12" after her name, possibly an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "aetatis," indicating she may have been 12 at the time of writing and the volume could have served as an educational exercise for learning penmanship.

Lydia Brown compiled this notebook of copied poems, principally religious and moral in nature, sometime in the early nineteenth century. She often drew calligraphic titles and other embellishments, including borders, flowers, and leaves. Several times throughout the volume, Lydia Brown included "A E 12" after her name, possibly an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "aetatis," indicating she may have been 12 at the time of writing and the volume could have served as an educational exercise for learning penmanship. A test sheet at the end of the volume includes several practice penmanship elements, and pencil lines throughout indicate how Lydia Brown was keeping her writing straight.

• To Hope
• A Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer
• Charity
• Safety in Christ
• Say Why!
• Childhood
• Life
• Content
• Faith
• Hope
• Charity
• Humility
• Friendship
• Fortitude
• Modesty
• Patience
• Inscription on a Clock
• Friendship
• Sunset and Sunrise
• Reputation
• A Request
• Hope
• The Rose
• Friendship
• Time
• Repentance
• Prayer
• Religion
• The Happy Cottage
• A Thought
• Evening Cloud
• Extract
• An Epitaph
• Time
• Modesty
• Extract
• Repentance
• Life
• Prayer
• The Tear
• Sympathy

The Polly C. Bishop Mansfield Collection contains poetry and sewing produced by Mansfield while a young woman during the mid-nineteenth century. Four poems entitled "Remembrance," "Nevermore," "Friendship," and "Persevere" are written on both sides of a slim sheet of paper. Mansfield hand-sewed a stuffed fabric fish, drawing scales, gills, and eyes on it with ink. The fish is affixed with thread to a manuscript note that reads, "Sarah Heaton Stiles and Polly Bishop Mansfield had a bet on and Polly was to give Sarah a shad, in payment. And she (Polly) made this shad, perhaps about 1850-2. They were young women."

The Polly C. Bishop Mansfield Collection contains poetry and sewing produced by Mansfield while a young woman during the mid-nineteenth century. Four poems entitled "Remembrance," "Nevermore," "Friendship," and "Persevere" are written on both sides of a slim sheet of paper. Mansfield hand-sewed a stuffed fabric fish, drawing scales, gills, and eyes on it with ink. The fish is affixed with thread to a manuscript note that reads, "Sarah Heaton Stiles and Polly Bishop Mansfield had a bet on and Polly was to give Sarah a shad, in payment. And she (Polly) made this shad, perhaps about 1850-2. They were young women."

This account book, kept by R. P. Van Deusen, documents 18 trips of the barge Berkshire on the Hudson River and Erie Canal carrying passengers and cargo.

The account book of the barge Berkshire contains records eighteen trips up and down the Hudson River and Erie Canal. Some passengers paid simply for passage, some for passage and board. The diverse cargo included hay, reams of paper, vinegar, cattle, potatoes, books and oats. There is much detail of barge expenses as well, including provisions and the cost of being towed up and down the river by various captains and steamboats. Deposits to the Mercantile and Exchange Bank are also noted. A later possessor of the account book filled thirty one pages at the opposite end of the book with notations on the life and death of many authors, and starts with the witty quote, "Woodsman spare that tree." There are a few pages of manuscript verse, and sadly, several pages of accounts are covered up with poems clipped out of newspapers. Some of these have been removed.