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Collection documenting Custer, the 7th Cavalry, the Battle of the Little Bighorn and resulting National Park and Cemetery, Native Americans, Reno's court martial and reburial, monuments, memorials, Custer family member, Custer's horse, and related topics.

The George A. Custer Collection covers a wide variety of material documenting Gen. George A. Custer, members of the 7th Cavalry, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn National Park and Cemetery, and Native Americans involved in the battle, in articles, clippings from newspaper and periodicals, maps, organizational materials, newsletters, photographs, postcards, drawings, broadsides, manuscripts, drafts of publications, song lyrics, and other materials that Frost, Kuhlman, Luther, and other Custer authors wrote, collected, researched, and discussed in their personal correspondence with each other.

The major Custer authors are well documented in this collection, including: Fred Dustin, Lawrence A. Frost, Tal Luther, and Charles Kuhlman. Biographies, obituaries (when available), and lists of their books from the CMU catalog have been included in their biographical folders to assist researchers.

There are so many interesting items in the Custer Collection, that it is hard to select a few for further discussion here to benefit researchers. It must be said that the collection covers every possible aspect of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the roles of Custer and various Native Americans in it. Memorials, monuments, paintings, drawings, and plays about Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn are also documented. The materials in the collection varies from romantic, pro-Custer materials that are wholly to partially inaccurate, to book manuscripts and correspondence of authors offering a critical analysis of the actual facts as determined from personal observations of the battlefield and years of methodical research.

Some unique items of interest are a copy of the bill granting Mrs. Custer a pension, 1877 (from the Congressional Record); clippings on Custer Movies and TV Programs (for a laugh); articles about the artwork in the collection and the drawings and paintings (prints of) themselves; notes on and the Transcripts of the Reno Court of Inquiry, Stenographic Reports of Testimony (3 volumes in 3 folders); and various clippings and other materials regarding Custer’s horses, fellow officers and troopers, and Reno’s trial and eventual reburial. Manuscripts of books and the correspondence between Custer researchers and authors are also of interest to the serious Custer researcher.

An item of particular interest is the March 24, 1930 letter to Mr. Bruce from R.G. Custer, suggesting that Mr. Bruce not publish his “Comments” on the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Custer’s reason for this was that “Mrs. Custer is living-the same- Poor woman, she has suffered enough, “ It is obvious from this letter that serious Custer researchers knew by 1930, if not earlier, that the myths surrounding the Battle of the Little Big Horn were a joke. Yet, to avoid hurting Mrs. Custer feelings, and probably to avoid recriminations by the pro-Custer press and public, critical analysis of the battle and Custer’s role in it were, for the most part, suppressed until after Elizabeth Custer died in 1933.

Most of the Custer Collection in the Clarke Historical Library came from Tal Luther. His Custerania collection included: posters, drawings, prints, photographs, correspondence, notecards, the Kuhlman and Luther Papers, manuscripts and drafts of various publications by various authors, maps, periodicals, including oversized newspapers, and miscellaneous items. The vast majority of Custer-related books, now cataloged separately in the Clarke, also came from Luther.

Many of the newsletters and some periodicals in the Custer Collection were purchased separately by the Clarke on a subscription basis for a few years, after the bulk of the Luther collection had arrived.

Additional information on Custer related topics, not in this collection, may be found in the Clarke’s general vertical files and Lewis vertical files, and the postcards, photographs, and biographical portrait collections in the Clarke.

The collection is organized alphabetically and chronologically. Abbreviations and incorrect spellings in article titles are faithfully represented in the box and folder listing. For example, Little Bighorn is sometimes spelled Little Big Horn.

Processing Notes: Due to the extreme physical deterioration of many of the periodicals and articles in this collection, as well as some of the draft manuscripts of books and other materials, many items have been photocopied and the originals withdrawn from the collection.

A small collection of Mrs. George A. (Elizabeth) Custer’s was donated to the Clarke as part of Luther’s collection. When it was accessioned in 1983, the Elizabeth Custer collection was separately cataloged.

Most of the published books and serials that were part of the collection have been cataloged separately.

In 1863, Union soldier Stephen Metcalf posted a newspaper solicitation for correspondence with a Northern woman, and Carrie White, a supporter of the Union forces, was one of several who responded. All but a few letters in this collection are correspondence between the two that started with this advertisement and ended with their marriage in 1868. The letters span the first five years of the couple's relationship, offering detailed and intimate insight into courtship and other social practices of the Civil War period.

Approximately one third of the letters in this collection were written during the war, and much of the early correspondence centers around the battle and politics. The correspondence is almost entirely complete, with some of White's early letters missing. The bulk of the letters that discuss White's involvement with the aid society are between the beginning of the correspondence and May 25, 1865. As the war ends, topics begin to include Metcalf''s career, courtship and marriage.

The collection begins with a letter from "Eugene" thanking Carrie for her kind response to his advertisement. The letter includes a clipping of his newspaper solicitation. This first letter is almost a grand song of praise to the female sex, and her support of the Union cause: "I have scarcely withdrawn from the blood-stained battlefield when woman has made her appearance and by word, book and deed produced the balm of healing and consolation into every wound."

Metcalf directed most of their conversations, and he centered on two themes: first the war, and second, any social topic that was a little bit controversial. For example, in a letter dated 1863 November 1, Metcalf stated:

The day has come when it is no longer considered a disgrace for woman to appear in the capacity of teacher, lecturer, authoress, or physician. Slowly, yet surely, is the "better half" of the human race rising to the heights destined by the Creator. I believe that when our school houses, seminaries, colleges and Universities shall have become wholly or in part under the influence of female influences there will be greater intellectual advancement and a sounder code of morals inculcated, than characterizes our Educational institutions at the present time.

Metcalf asked for White's attitudes about topics such as co-education. Unfortunately, as is the case for much of the first year of their correspondence, we do not have her reply. One can gain some insight into the kinds of things that White was aware of by reading what Metcalf asked and told her.

Letters from both White and Metcalf during the war provide information about several military actions and the political state of the Nation. On November 1, 1863, Metcalf wrote to White that his company had joined the Pioneer Brigade and built two bridges across the Tennessee River near Chattanooga. One and a half years later, on April 12, 1865, Metcalf celebrated the capture of Richmond: "Yesterday the forces at this post celebrated the capture of Lee and his army by firing a salute of two hundred guns. With the Capital in our possession, the greatest general and best disciplined army of the enemy our prisoners, the conflict cannot continue much longer."

In a letter dated March 10, 1865, White reflected on the war, the condition of Union soldiers, and the future of the nation. She was mortified by the behavior of Andrew Johnson: "What a disgrace to the Nation. The vice-president being in a state of intoxication at the time of the inauguration, what will other nations think? What would become of us, if 'Uncle Abe' should chance to be taken from us?"

Within a year and a half of the first letters, Metcalf and White were very much friends, and their letters take on a comfortable, frank, and familiar tone. White's side of the correspondence is well represented from this point on. Ongoing conversations touched on topics as difficult as Lincoln's assassination and as banal as clothing. As their friendship grew and the war came to an end, topics got more personal, and the two began to tease one another and share their emotional experiences. For example, Metcalf revealed over the course of several letters that he had been fond of a young lady in his home town. While he was away fighting for the Union, she married a "Copperhead." White, also over the course of several letters, delicately consoled him, assuring him that the young lady was not deserving of his affection.

There are signs that by 1865, they each had significant influence over the other. White had particular influence over what Metcalf would do after the war. He discussed some of the career tracks that he could take, including medicine, teaching, or moving west and farming, and seemed to be fishing for White's opinion. In her response, White suggested that she was not fond of the teaching idea. Metcalf immediately qualified his remark, noting that education would only be something he would consider as a temporary form of employment.

White and Metcalf had corresponded for two years before they met in person. After meeting in Jersey in November of 1865, the courtship truly started to evolve and the reader gains an insight into the powerful yet precarious position that women could hold in this kind of interaction. White, for example, is the first to write after the two meet, and she worried that such an "aggressive" move might be too forward. Stephen teased her a bit, but was not put off by her boldness.

As the courtship developed, the two discussed social connections with the opposite sex. Both Metcalf and White deployed jealousy as a mild form of manipulation. On January 14, 1866, Metcalf wrote, "There are eight young ladies in attendance, and I must say that some of them are handsome, at least in a moderate acceptation of that word. But you know that teachers are supposed to occupy a neutral position of all questions relating to the good or bad looks of their female pupils."

In April of 1866 the two met again, and Metcalf declared his love to her. By July of 1866 he proposed marriage and she accepted, all by mail. After the two became engaged, White expressed several concerns about their marriage, often through indirect means. For example, she sent Metcalf a long poem entitled "A Woman's Question," by an unknown author. The first stanza reads:

Before I trust my fate to thee,

Or place my hand in thine;

Before I let thy future give

Color and form to mine,

Before I peril all for thee;

Question thy soul to-night for me.

The remainder of the poem lists the many concerns of a bride-to-be. White seemed to fear that there was a hidden nature within Metcalf that would be revealed after marriage, or that she would somehow fall short of his expectations.

Both parties expressed some concern that the fact that their friendship started as a correspondence based on a newspaper advertisement might violate a sense of propriety. White encountered such concerns among her friends in Jersey. One of her friends, not knowing about Metcalf, told White that this kind of letter writing was very low class. In a letter dated 1864 October 17, Metcalf responded to a question that White has posed about this concern: How would he feel if his sister were to correspond with a soldier? Metcalf admitted that he would not look upon such a situation favorably. On May 1, 1866, just after Metcalf had been presented to White's friends in Jersey, her aunt advised her on sharing publicly the origin of the friendship: "I don't want you to tell a story, neither do I want you to tell the truth..." Although White and Metcalf seemed to regret the way the relationship began, they also recognized that it was the only way the friendship could have started.