Francis Wayland Dunn papers, 1856-1874
2 linear feet (20 volumes and 36 folders)
The Francis Wayland Dunn collection consists of diaries, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous personal materials.
2 linear feet (20 volumes and 36 folders)
The Francis Wayland Dunn collection consists of diaries, correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous personal materials.
2 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The James C. Watson collection consists of correspondence with astronomers, University of Michigan colleagues, and other scientists and inventors; professional papers, travel journals of trips to Alaska, China, Sicily, Egypt and Arabia; and files of astronomical observations and calculations, mainly pertaining to asteroids. The papers are organized into the following series: Correspondence and related; Professional papers; Travel and personal; Photographs; and Astronomical observations calculations.
14 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
The Reeves papers largely concern JSR's activities as professor (also chairman) of the University of Michigan Department of Political Science from his appointment in 1910 until his retirement in 1937. The great bulk of the collection consists of Reeves' correspondence. With this is a smaller series of such other materials as lectures, research materials, professional organizational materials. As an aid to accessing the correspondence, a selective index of correspondents and subjects has been prepared and is appended to the following containing listing.
0.3 linear feet — 1 microfilm
The Green papers concern his activities at the University of Michigan in the 1850s and his Civil War service. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, clippings, and miscellaneous. Of interest is a folder of line drawings depicting Civil War scenes.
2 microfilms
The papers of William H. Withington consist of correspondence, special orders, notes, and miscellaneous items relating to his Civil War service as Colonel of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry; business records of the Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company, correspondence and other material concerning his political career as Republican state legislator and state senator.
This collection is divided into four series: Civil War Activities, Personal Papers, Withington & Cooley Manufacturing Company Records, all of which are arranged chronologically, and Newspaper Clippings.
1 volume
The 79-page James A. Marshall diary covers July 5-August 27, 1853, during which time Marshall traveled around Mississippi before falling ill with yellow fever and dying on September 5. An unknown person removed 54 pages of writing preceding the July 5 entry. Marshall’s diary contains lengthy and opinionated daily entries, many of which probe Southern society, which, as a New Yorker, he found quite foreign. In one entry, Marshall criticized Southern women: “indulgence certainly is a distinguishing characteristic of the southern lady. Physical exercise they all are averse to and if they even drop their handkerchief upon the floor at their feet, if no servant or gallant is near to pick it up…it must lie there until one comes to restore it” (p. 73). In another entry, Marshall expressed surprise that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was available in Mississippi, writing, “it seems the people here are not ‘afraid’ of reading such books, or having them circulated” (p. 75).
Marshall had an interest in African Americans, and on several occasions, visited a “Colored People’s Church, Methodist I inferred,” but criticized the service for its loudness, comparing it to a “meeting of the shaking Quakers” (p. 85). On July 23, he gave details of a slave auction that he attended: “One girl was sold for eight hundred and eighty dollars, only 16 years old and quite good looking. The man who bought her made no scruple of telling his object in buying her” (p. 98). Despite his special interest in African Americans, his opinions were paternalistic, and he expressed support for slavery, even speculating about owning a plantation himself: “It really would be very interesting it seems to me to have, as all the large planters have, a family of several hundred at ones control: not because of the power allowed, but to feel the satisfaction of being a tender Master to them, and to feel that all their interest were united and to enjoy the pleasure of giving them pleasure” (p. 117).
At the end of the diary, Marshall mentioned the yellow fever epidemic that would kill him within weeks, writing, “I shall not stop at Natchez on account of the Quarantine which has been established both at N. and Vicksburg on account of the prevalence of yellow fever… I am convinced that there is little if any danger to any one who uses due caution in diet” (103).
The volume also contains a 7-page eulogy on Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke College, seemingly written by someone who knew her personally. The essay describes Lyon’s personality, manner of dress, and recounts things she said to her students. Also laid into the volume is a religious meditation.
2 linear feet — 1 oversize folder
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.
6 linear feet — 2 folders
The collection includes correspondence; files relating to his career as chief librarian of the University of Michigan; personal and biographical materials; and speeches, essays, and writings.
0.3 linear feet (3 volumes and 4 folders) — 1 oversize folder
Eight letters of recommendation for Fisher from fellow officers relating to his Civil War service; correspondents include Melvin Brewer (Sept. 18, 1863), John W. Geary (June 31, 1863), W. D. Mann (Aug. 27, 1863), Angelo Paldi (Oct. 7, 1863), C. H. Town (Oct. 17, 1863), and C. I. Walker (Aug. 13, 1861); also one letter (April 21, 1863) from George C. Gordon of Company I, 24th Michigan Infantry. Collection also includes a typescript of excerpts from Fisher's diary describing a Michigan boat trip from Detroit to Ontonagon via Sault Ste. Marie in 1850, and student days at the University of Michigan in 1860; also diary of an overland trip to California in search of gold and the return trip by sea, with comments on mining; three University of Michigan student notebooks on courses by James V. Campbell, Thomas M. Cooley, and Charles I. Walker; and notes on the James Fisher family by Max Fisher.
19 items
The John Mathiot papers contain 19 letters written between February 3, 1849, and April 15, 1851. Mathiot wrote 16 of the letters, his sister Kate Mathiot wrote one to him, and friends in San Francisco wrote two letters to Pennsylvania with news of his death.
John Mathiot wrote the first six letters during his sea travels; he give descriptions of life on the ship, scenery, other passengers, and natives of Panama. On March 6, 1849, he wrote a letter describing a Panamanian religious ritual involving a procession of women in white robes and an image of the Virgin Mary, “a most beautiful & most solemn ceremony.” After his arrival in California, he wrote 10 richly detailed letters on such topics as the growth of Sutter’s Mill, California (July 12, 1849: “This place is growing fast into a town. There are some 40 buildings...”), the hardships and disappointments of mining (March 2, 1850), and journeying through the California wilderness. His letter of June 23, 1850, notes that the “mines are fast filling up with people from all parts of the world…every part of the present gold country will soon be used up.” His letters of the fall of 1850 describe his brief restaurant venture, which he abandoned in November. Correspondence from friends in California to Mathiot’s family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, April 1851, concerns the circumstances of his death.