Collections

Collector of books, maps, artifacts primarily relating to the Harbor Springs area of Michigan. Artifacts include black ash baskets, porcupine quill and birch bark boxes, and miscellaneous stone and metal implements; and miscellaneous collected material.

This finding aid only describes the artifacts and historical documents collected by Earl De La Vergne. The many books he collected have been individually cataloged. The artifacts in the collection include Native American black ash baskets and quill boxes, as well as various stone and metal tools and hardware. The collected documents include a diary of an 1879 trip from Kent County, Michigan, to Emmet County, Michigan, by Etta Carpenter [mimeograph of typescript]; 1902 list of birds seen near Harbor Springs, by O. Widmann and Judge Stephenson; notes relating to Michigan history; photographs; and a citation.

Niles, Mich. businessman and officer in the Sixth and Nineteenth Michigan Infantry regiments during the Civil War. Includes correspondence, diaries, and photographs related to Griffin's personal life and military service in addition to genealogical information and miscellaneous materials.

The Eli A. Griffin papers are organized into a single Personal Papers series, which includes family genealogical information, correspondence, personal diaries, photographs, military records, and other materials. The collection documents Griffin's various travels (including trips to the California gold fields in 1849 and 1853 and other trips to Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, and Utah), service in the Union army during the Civil War, and information about his family.

Student at Hillsdale College, soldier during the Civil War with the 64th Illinois Volunteers. Diaries, 1860-1872, describing student life, wartime activities, trip to Europe and the Near East, and western trip containing impressions of Indians and Mormons; also correspondence, various writings, and commonplace book, 1872.

The Francis Wayland Dunn collection consists of diaries, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous personal materials.

Major general in the U.S. Army, physicist, and inventor. Correspondence, personal account books, reports, military orders, student notebooks (U.S. Military Academy and Johns Hopkins University), notes and other material largely related to his scientific interests, particularly in telegraphy and trans-oceanic cables; also diaries kept while a West Point cadet, one of which contains a family history and autobiography; Ph.D. thesis in physics from Johns Hopkins University; and photographs.

The George Owen Squier papers include correspondence, personal account books, reports, military orders, student notebooks (U.S. Military Academy and Johns Hopkins University), notes and other material largely related to his scientific interests, particularly in telegraphy and trans-oceanic cables; diaries kept while a West Point cadet, one of which contains a family history and autobiography; Squier's Ph.D. thesis in physics from Johns Hopkins University; and photographs.

The Squier collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Inventions and Research; Military Career; Miscellaneous / Personal; and Education (West Point and Johns Hopkins).

The George Philip Hooke journal is a 21-page officer roster and journal of the 1st Battalion of Grenadiers in the British army, which describes their travel from New York to South Carolina. The volume also contains copies of 30 catch tunes, many with lyrics.

The George Philip Hooke journal (21 pages) is comprised of an officer roster and a journal of the 1st Battalion of Grenadiers in the British army under Henry Clinton, from December 1779 to May 1780. Hooke described the battalion's voyage from New York to South Carolina; gave the movements of his battalion during the landing at St. Simons Island, Georgia; and provided eye-witness accounts of various scrimmages in the southern campaign, including the siege and surrender of Charleston. Hooke described sinking the damaged "Judith Transport" (January 16, 1780); meeting the British fleet under Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot, at Tybee Harbor, [Georgia] (February 3, 1780); and positioning and attacking the rebel forces at Charlestown, South Carolina, between March 29 and April 13, 1780.

At the back of the journal, after 48 blank pages, are copies of 30 catch tunes (comic rounds). The British baroque master Henry Purcell and popular composer Henry Harington wrote several of the songs, though many are unattributed, such as "The Quaker Wedding: A Catch for three voices," and "Come Honest Friends" (52 pages of music in total).

Professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and University of Michigan. Correspondence; notes and lectures on philosophical topics, notably ethics, political philosophy, logic and aesthetics; diary and journal, including account of European trip, 1866-1867; photographs; and later materials collected by Robert M. Wenley preparatory to writing a biography of George S. Morris, 1910-1915.

The collection consists of biographical information; correspondence; lectures, notes, and writings; miscellaneous materials from his student days at Dartmouth, Royalton Academy and Kimball Union Academy; diary and travel journals; and photographs.

This travel journal documents a journey from the Missouri River to California during the time of the California Gold Rush. The trek began on April 28, 1850, near Fort Leavenworth on the Missouri River, and ends on October 31, 1850, at Georgetown, California, on the edge of what is now the Eldorado National Forest, north of Sacramento.

The Gold Rush travel journal (44 pages) spans the period from April 28, 1850, to October 31, 1850, and details an overland journey from the Missouri River to California, during the time of the California Gold Rush. Of the diary's 44 pages, the last 9 contain lists of food purchased from stores and traders (buying tobacco and food and selling gold), and the final page concerns buying food in St. Louis (May 29, 1849).

The author made entries every few days and provided descriptions his location, total distance traveled, and, occasionally, of weather and temperature. While the party traveled mostly by horse and wagon, they also used rafts and ferries to cross rivers. Entries are short and generally provide only details of the scenery and the party's routes on their way west. The author began his journey on the Missouri River at Elizabeth Landing, and ended it at Georgetown, California. Several entries specify his location with names of rivers and landmarks, including the Little Blue River, "Grand Island" (north of Fort Kearney), the Platte River, Chimney Rock, Fort Laramie, the Sweetwater River, the Soda Springs, the Bear Creek River, Goose Creek, Mary River, "Hudspeth’s Cutoff," and the Humboldt River. The traveler also mentioned the killing of a buffalo by a William Hubbard, trading with the Sioux Indians on the North Platte River, signing Chimney Rock, and passing by a spring hot enough to boil coffee. He provided financial details such as the cost of particular ferry crossings and supplies. At one point, the author recorded being ill with mountain fever, but quickly recovered without further incident. On June 2nd, he noted that "the dust [was] very bad and the ground was covered with Alkali and the dust [on the] mountains looked like they had burned for a thousand years."

On October 1, 1850, the author left his company and traveled to Georgetown, California, and began working on a claim at Pools Bar on October 5, 1850. His last entry is from Georgetown, California, on the edge of what is now the Eldorado National Forest, north of Sacramento.

Letters to his wife, Mary Soule, written while serving as an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War; Civil War diary, 1863-1865; a letter from Byron Stoddard of the Sixth Michigan Infantry; correspondence, 1890-1904, with J. C. Leonard who collected materials for University of Michigan Museums throughout the western part of the United States; literary manuscript of Annah May Soule; and photographs.

Portraits and photographs of Soule and his wife, Maryy Soule; group photograph of the officers of Company D, Sixth Michigan Infantry, 1861; and album, ca. 1865, of Civil War soldiers, most of whom were members of the Sixth Michigan Infantry.

Resident in China from Farwell, Michigan; papers concern her family life in Farwell, and missionary activities; include letters, diaries, and accounts of father, Josiah L. Littlefield, Farwell lumber dealer and visitor to China, 1916-1917; letters, 1918-1928, of husband, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, medical missionary to China, describing in part Chinese politics and civil war, 1918-1920; letters and other papers of Hazel Littlefield Smith, including materials concerning various European travels, and manuscripts of writings about Irish author Lord Dunsany, her father, and Farwell, Michigan; and photographs. Other correspondents of Hazel Smith include world-renowed scientists (Edwin Hubble and William Beebe), from Chinese Princess Der Ling, and from distinguished European writers and actors (Pierre LaMure, Selma Lagerlof, Brian Aherne, and Ronald Colman).

This collection was accumulated by Hazel Littlefield Smith and consists of materials concerning her career and interests and those of her family, specifically her husband, Dr. Dennis Smith, and her father, Josiah Littlefield (1845-1935), a pioneer lumberman and businessman in Farwell, Michigan.

The collection is particularly valuable for three topics: early days (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) in Farwell, Michigan; missionary life in China in the period ca. 1915-1928; and the travels and writings of Hazel Littlefield Smith. The materials include correspondence, compositions and business-related materials of Josiah Littlefield; correspondence and other materials of Dr. Dennis Smith, Hazel Littlefield Smith (and Josiah Littlefield) concerning conditions in early republican China; and correspondence and other materials of Hazel Littlefield Smith concerning her travels in Europe (1920s-1950s), her management of the family farm near Farwell, Michigan (1940s), and her essays, poetry and other publications, including Lord Dunsany: King of Dreams.

The three principal figures in the collection--Hazel Littlefield Smith, Dennis Smith and Josiah Littlefield--were highly perceptive observers of persons and events. Their letters are rich in detail, whether describing travel experiences or everyday life in rural northern Michigan.

The collection is arranged into six series: Littlefield Family, China-related materials, Hazel Littlefield Smith, Miscellanea, Dr. Dennis V. Smith, and Visual Materials.

School teacher, Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction; correspondence, subject files, photographs.

The collection is comprised of three series: Correspondence, Other Papers; and Photographs. Included in the collection are scrapbooks, diaries, autograph books, and other materials relating to his public life and various travels. The photographs include portraits of Pattengill and Pattengill family members; group portraits of reunions of students taught by Pattengill in Ithaca, Michigan; and a photo of the Pattengill home in Lansing, Michigan.