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

John Cornelius Lane of Frederick County, Maryland, used this volume as an account book and journal from 1835-1852. Lane recorded his accounts with individuals for farm produce and sundries, and composed daily diary entries about his life and work as a farmer in Frederick County.

John Cornelius Lane of Frederick County, Maryland, used this volume as an account book and journal from 1835-1852. He recorded his accounts with individuals for farm produce and sundries, and composed daily diary entries about his life and work as a farmer in Frederick County.

Pages 1-86 and 356-401 contain accounts for the sale of dry goods and agricultural products. The earlier accounts (May 1835-December 1837) are organized by customer, and record Lane's sales of sundries and enumerated items, such as a barouche. The later accounts (August 1841-March 1844) are organized by product, such as cattle, corn, wheat, and flour. Many pages in the second group of accounts are blank. Receipts addressed to Lane are laid into the volume.

The remainder of the volume (pp. 96-354) is comprised of John C. Lane's daily diary, which he kept from September 28, 1841-December 31, 1852. Lane reported on farm work, travel to Boonsboro and Frederick, and family matters. Lane grew corn, wheat, potatoes, rye, and oats; he also sold logs to a sawmill and slaughtered hogs. Lane occasionally mentioned family visits, the health of his wife and children, and the births and deaths of his children. Other entries pertain to Lane's purchases of slaves and to the births and deaths of slave children. The Lane family lived in Mount Pleasant, Maryland, from September 1841-November 1846, and in Harmony, Maryland, from November 1846-December 1852.

The Thomas Rutland letterbook consists of retained copies of Annapolis, Maryland merchant Thomas Rutland's outgoing correspondence.

The Rutland letterbook consists of retained copies of Thomas Rutland's outgoing correspondence between May 10, 1787 and August 28, 1789. Although the letters are usually brief and "routine," they form an important resource for the study of the commercial activities and attitudes of a substantial Annapolis merchant.

A major theme that emerges in Rutland's correspondence is the extremely contentious nature of his relationships with creditor, debtor, and neighbor alike, particularly with James Williams, Charles Ridgely, and Charles Carroll of Carollton. The letters provide relatively little detail on Rutland's mercantile activities, either in scope or in terms of goods traded, but they do create an impression of the tenuous financial foundation, built on a bedrock of indebtedness, that underlay his mercantile empire. Though Rutland held considerable interests in land and slaves, the letterbook documents the time and energy that he necessarily devoted to fending off creditors, as well as the extensive efforts he made to collect from his many debtors.