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The Hubert S. Smith Naval Letters and Documents collection is made up of individual manuscripts relating to naval and commercial maritime operations.

The Hubert S. Smith Naval Letters and Documents collection is made up of over 380 manuscript letters and documents relating to maritime military, commercial, financial, and legal subjects from the 15th to the 20th centuries, primarily concerning Great Britain and America. The collection includes materials relating to Continental European wars, the American Revolution, the African slave trade, the Civil War, and exploratory ventures. The collection also reflects day-to-day ship operations and naval employment, diplomacy, marine technology, the purchase and sale of ships, insurance, and publications and books relating to maritime affairs. While primarily focused on English and American navies, the contributors discuss a wide variety of places, including continental Europe, the Baltic region, Russia, Asia, Turkey, South America, and Africa.

This collection is made up of 64 letters, written primarily by James Morgan to his brother, George C. Morgan, between 1821 and 1840. They regard shipping concerns and political affairs.

This collection is made up of 64 letters, written primarily by James Morgan to his brother, George C. Morgan, between 1821 and 1840. They regard shipping concerns and political affairs. The letters from 1821 to 1824 and from February 1826 to 1829 relate to James Morgan's activities in Cuban, Jamaican, Mexican, and American ports, as he sold and purchased cargo, including sugar, molasses, coffee, corn, and other items.

Twenty-seven letters between January and March 1825 reflect James Morgan's efforts in Albany, New York, to court favor with Assemblymen in order to pass a marine bill and incorporate the New York State Marine Insurance Company. Ten letters from January-February 1831 cover James Morgan's service in the 54th New York State Legislature. This correspondence includes content on marine bills, charters, hospitals, and insurance.

The collection also includes one item by E. W. Morgan and a copy of the New York Journal of Commerce and Gazette (containing Morgan's obituary). See the Detailed Box and Folder Listing for more information about each item.

Civil servant with Chinese Maritime Customs Service, later professor of Far Eastern art at the University of Michigan. Letters to his mother describing his experiences in China, other related papers, and photographs from his years in China.

The Plumer collection has been arranged into the following series: Letters to his mother from China; Other Materials; and Photographs. The letters to his mother are bound together in seven volumes with occasional descriptive photographs. The letters describe his experiences in Nanking, Manchuria, Shanghai, and Hankow, and his vacation trip to India in 1928. Also included are typescripts of selective letters. The Photographs series consists of people, buildings, and views in China, especially in Nanking and Manchuria. There are also photos of visits to Hong Kong, India, Japan, and the Philippines.

This collection is made up of 46 business letters and financial records, which primarily relate to commerce in and between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Caribbean, 1795-1801. Early manuscripts primarily relate to fabrics, buttons, and similar materials traded by Philadelphia merchant John Imlay. Later business letters are addressed to his son, John Imlay, who lived in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and also participated in West Indian commerce.

This collection is made up of 46 business letters and financial records, which primarily relate to commerce in and between Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the Caribbean, 1795-1801. Early manuscripts primarily relate to fabrics, buttons, and similar materials traded by Philadelphia merchant John Imlay. Later business letters are addressed to his son, John Imlay, who lived in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and also participated in West Indian commerce.

The Imlay collection includes financial documents, such as receipts and accounts, related to the Imlays' shipping interests and to their involvement in the clothing trade between 1795 and 1796. Among other items, they dealt in ribbon, linen, and buttons. Later business correspondence (1795-1801) comprises the bulk of the collection, and is addressed to the elder John Imlay or to his son. Correspondents from locations such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Tortola, St. Thomas, and other Caribbean locations discussed the shipments of rum, sugar, and other goods. Some letters relate to the capture of merchant ships by privateers or allude to conflicts with France (May 22, 1799, and January 14, 1800, for example). Though most letters are purely financial in nature, correspondents occasionally provided local news. Some letters are addressed to other merchants operating in similar industries and regions. Post-1801 items include a financial document regarding the estate of Thomas Leavett, settled in 1817, and a 2-page manuscript of one-line notes about planting crops on an unidentified farm between May and October 1824.

This collection contains 4 letters that Boston merchant John Weir wrote to businessman Thomas Savage during a business trip to the Caribbean in 1760. Weir discussed shipments of molasses to Boston and commented on local prices and news in Monte Cristo, Santo Domingo.

This collection contains 4 letters (5 pages) that Boston merchant John Weir wrote to businessman Thomas Savage between March 20, 1760 and May 1, 1760, during a business trip to the Caribbean. The letters concern the shipment of molasses from the Spanish port of "Mounto Christo" (Monte Cristo, Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic) to Boston, and include Weir's system for labeling the barrels (March 20, 1760) and his reports on the amount of molasses shipped aboard particular vessels. Weir often reported prices in "pieces of eight" (Spanish dollars). He commented on price differences between Monte Cristo and Boston, as well as on his monetary affairs in Massachusetts, including financial support for his mother (April 28, 1760). Weir frequently mentioned merchant Josiah Newhall; one letter notes that Mrs. Newhall "has arrested Capt. Malcom" on account of undelivered molasses (May 1, 1760).

L. A. Brown kept this notebook and logbook between 1868 and 1869. He utilized the first portion of the volume to record transportation and delivery of coal to various steamers in the Hoboken, New Jersey, area in early 1868. Brown noted names of steamers, amounts of coal delivered or received, and the names of tugboats towing the vessels. The second portion of the volume is a logbook for the voyage of the schooner Thomas Fitch from New London to Eleuthera, Bahamas, between April 28, 1869, and June 3, 1869. Brown recorded wind, weather, latitude and longitude, sails, and picking up pineapples for cargo. Several pages of mathematical notations at the back of the volume are accompanied by an "Inventory of the Barge Constitution."

L. A. Brown kept this notebook and logbook between 1868 and 1869. He utilized the first portion of the volume to record transportation and delivery of coal to various steamers in the Hoboken, New Jersey, area in early 1868. Brown noted names of steamers, amounts of coal delivered or received, and the names of tugboats towing the vessel. The second portion of the volume is a logbook for the voyage of the schooner Thomas Fitch from New London to Eleuthera, Bahamas, between April 28, 1869, and June 3, 1869. Brown recorded wind, weather, latitude and longitude, sails, and picking up pineapples for cargo. Several pages of mathematical notations at the back of the volume are accompanied by an "Inventory of the Barge Constitution."

M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co. kept this pre-printed business ledger of detailed information about shipments of coal by this Fall River, Massachusetts, company (87 pages used out of 384 total). Each entry includes the date, No. of Pock., name of vessel, received/credited to, delivered/charged to, article (i.e. type of coal), No. of B. L., tons & 20th, price of freight, gross freight, advance to captain, discharging, net freight, invoice price, amount of invoice, and other remarks. The company's letterhead reads "M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in Delaware and Hudson Canal company's Lackawanna, 'Fulton,' Stout,' (Lehigh,) Scranton, Wilkesbarre and Bituminous Coal."

M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co. kept this pre-printed business ledger of detailed information about shipments of coal by this Fall River, Massachusetts, company (87 pages used out of 384 total). Each entry includes the date, No. of Pock., name of vessel, received/credited to, delivered/charged to, article (i.e. type of coal), No. of B. L., tons & 20th, price of freight, gross freight, advance to captain, discharging, net freight, invoice price, amount of invoice, and other remarks.

Laid into the volume is a partially printed receipt for "cargo" shipped aboard the schooner W. S. Mount, paid July 30, 1877. The printed header reads "M. T. Bennett, Jr. & Co., wholesale and retail dealers in Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Lackawanna, 'Fulton,' Stout,' (Lehigh,) Scranton, Wilkesbarre and Bituminous Coal."

The Philadelphia Merchant account book contains financial records for a Philadelphia merchant during the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. This merchant traded primarily in cloth and in finished clothing products, and held accounts with a number of women among his many customers.

The Philadelphia Merchant account book (168 pages) contains financial records for a Philadelphia merchant during the years leading up to the Revolutionary War (April 10, 1771-March 1, 1776). This merchant traded primarily in cloth and in finished clothing products, and held accounts with a number of women among his many customers. He primarily received goods from firms in London and the West Indies. Samuel Howell, also a merchant, was one customer, and the accounts also record the sale of several sets of gloves, among other items, to Lydia and Elizabeth Hyde, who had been active in the city's opposition to the Stamp Act. The account book reflects the deep ties North American merchants had to Great Britain, and often records accounts with firms operating out of London. Several of the book's entries also mention different cargo ships and their ports of call, including a number of locations in the West Indies. Though fabric dominates the accounts kept in this volume, at least one entry covered ordinary household expenses, including "Repairs pd. scraping the Rooms," "Expences pd. for 3 Pints black Sand," and "1 paper Ink powder" (June 29, 1771).

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.

St. Joseph, Berrien County, Michigan family. Papers of family members, primarily correspondence of Ann G. Loomis Preston with her father, Jonathan Loomis, and with her sons Wallace and Fowler, sailors in the Union navy during the Civil War; typescript of excerpt of Civil War diary of Wallace Preston; paper, 1978, of Harriet N. Preston based upon family Civil War experiences; photographs, clippings and miscellanea concerning family and St. Joseph, Michigan.

In 1972, a bundle of over forty Preston family letters, dating mainly from 1850 to 1870, were discovered in the attic of the family home in St. Joseph. Over the next few years, Harriet N. Preston, wife of Arthur G. Preston, Jr. (grandson of Wallace Preston), took an interest in these letters and the Preston family history. Mrs. Preston arranged the letters, compiled typed transcripts, and authored several papers based on the letters.

The Preston family papers document Great Lakes shipping in the nineteenth century, the Union Navy during the Civil War, and daily life in St. Joseph, Michigan during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The collection has been divided into five series: Correspondence; Legal Documents; Newspaper Clippings, Scrapbook and Miscellaneous Materials; Family Histories; and Photographs.