Search

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.

The papers of Dr. Rufus Degranza Pease are made up of 219 letters, documents, drafts, a diary, notes, broadsides and handbills, a printed journal, and ephemeral items dating between 1844 and 1890. The papers contain 195 incoming letters and drafts of outgoing letters focusing heavily on four main areas: itinerant teaching and lecturing on scientific and pseudoscientific subjects in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and other areas between the 1840s and 1860s; Dr. Pease's imprisonment at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in October-November 1863; Dr. Pease's work for and later litigation against the National Christian Association Opposed to Secret Societies, late 1860s-1870s; and his work as phrenologist and physiognomist in Philadelphia in the 1870s and 1880s. The collection also includes Dr. Pease's 1855 pocket diary, a copy of Pease's The Journal of Man (1871), and a variety of printed handbills, tickets, broadsides, business cards, and trade cards associated with Dr. Pease's lectures and occupations.

The papers of phrenologist and physiognomist Rufus Degranza Pease are made up of 219 letters, documents, drafts, a diary, speeches, notes, broadsides, a printed journal, and ephemeral items dating between 1844 and 1890.

The Correspondence and Documents series contains 195 incoming letters and drafts of outgoing letters focusing heavily on four main areas:

• Itinerant teaching and lecturing on scientific and pseudoscientific subjects in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and other areas between the 1840s and 1860s;
• Dr. Pease's imprisonment at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in October-November 1863;
• Dr. Pease's work for and later litigation against the National Christian Association Opposed to Secret Societies in the late 1860s and early 1870s; and
• His work as phrenologist and physiognomist in Philadelphia in the 1870s and 1880s (including several drafts pertinent to Dr. Pease's analysis of Charles Guiteau's "psycho-physiology," dated 1881 and 1882)

The collection also includes Dr. Pease's preprinted Pocket Diary for 1855. For Registering Events of Past or Present Occurrence ... Boston: Wm. J. Reynolds & Co., [1855]. Dr. Pease used this daily diary to document activities, notes, costs and purchases, medicinal recipes and more. It is unclear whether or not many of the entries correspond to the pre-printed dates on which they were written. He spent much of 1855 in Indiana (particularly Wayne County). Examples of his brief entries include: "Completed my large portfolio" (March 3); a recipe for broth taken from the Tribune (March 10). "Went to Indianapolis on cars . . . got cards printed . . . guitar strings. & saw Risher Linder in bookstore" (April 2); a rough pencil sketch of a "Puzzle box"; card printing and costs, and Silas Galespy's printer in Iowa (April 4-6); section headed "The Italian Lost Girl" with brief biographical notes about Amelia [Ettensberger?] (April 7-9); instructions for making "Webber's Plates" (for portrait painting) (April 22-23); reference to "Lectures to Ladies on Anatomy..." followed by a note "Mrs Lukens is said to be in sympathy with H.C. Wright." (April 24-25); an entry stating "a want of sensibility in the skin has been found in a vast number of cases of insanity" (June 18); a treatment for "Frozen flesh" (July 15-16 and November 27). Throughout are very brief notes or lists pertinent to articles and books, art, geographical locations, body measurements, names of people, professions, where they were from or where he met them, and places.

The papers include a single Photograph, a 3.5" x 2.5" tintype group portrait of three unidentified women, one standing behind two seated.

The collection's Printed Items include:

• R. D. Pease, The Journal of Man. Philadelphia: Wm. S. Rentoul, January 1872.
• Two business cards for "R. D. Pease, M. D., Editor of the Journal of Man," one with manuscript revisions.
• One trade card for R. D. Pease's services in Philadelphia.
• Eleven different handbills, broadsides, programs, and prospectuses for lectures and courses by Dr. Pease and others, plus fragments.
• Four tickets to lectures and courses by Dr. Pease (including one complimentary ticket for the Wagner Institute of Science).