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

The collection consists of hand-made sketchbooks and loose sheets of paper featuring drawings likely made by children Edith, Jennie, and Theodore Pond while residing in Syria (present-day Lebanon) with their missionary parents, Theodore S. Pond and Julia Pond. Prominent imagery depicted includes domestic scenes, women and children at work and play, and women tending to the sick. The Ponds rarely specified locations in their drawings, and while they may have been generic or imagined scenes some may have been made to reflect the Pond family's residence or experience while in Syria (present-day Lebanon).

The collection consists of hand-made sketchbooks and loose sheets of paper featuring drawings likely made by children Edith, Jennie, and Theodore Pond while residing in Syria (present-day Lebanon) with their missionary parents, Theodore S. Pond and Julia Pond. Prominent imagery depicted includes domestic scenes, women and children at work and play, and women tending to the sick. The Ponds rarely specified locations in their drawings, and while they may have been generic or imagined scenes some may have been made to reflect the Pond family's residence or experience while in Syria (present-day Lebanon).

The bulk of the drawings were done in pencil, but several were made using pen and ink, pen and wash, and pastels. A large portion of the images depict interior domestic scenes of women and young girls reading, sewing, dining, visiting, sleeping, and at play with toys in parlors, living rooms, and bedrooms. These drawings include details like clothing, accessories, furniture, and decorations. Several show women wearing the Christian cross as jewelry, head coverings or veils, and chopines (a platformed shoe), possibly representing adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Several of the drawings feature women at work doing tasks like cooking, sewing, washing dishes or floors, sweeping, gardening, tending to the ill, or bathing children. Older women are represented alongside middle-aged women, young girls, and infants. Adult men and young boys appear occasionally in the scenes.

Several illustrations appear to show women laboring as domestic servants, and at least four of these images represent dark-skinned women. One additional drawing shows a family scene with three dark-skinned women knitting or resting in a hammock.

Outdoor scenes are also represented, showing women and children walking and travelling in the streets, playing games, visiting the beach, riding horses, shopping, sleighing, or picking fruit. One drawing depicts a family standing beside a sphinx with pyramids in the background. Other locales outside of the home are also featured, including a store, a church, a theater, a photographer's studio, and possibly a school.

Miscellaneous other topics were drawn, such as angels, Grecian women, a dream, a centaur statue, a shield with an American crest, and two singing girls who appear to be impoverished.

Only two of the drawings were signed, both landscapes by Theodore H. Pond, one dated 1882 shows a building in the countryside and the other depicts a village street scene leading towards a church. Two other unsigned landscapes are also present, one labelled "St. Augustines Canterbury." Two other illustrations -- one a portrait of a young woman and the other an interior scene with four children blowing bubbles-- have the name "Edith" inscribed with ink on the verso. Several of the drawings were labelled by a child in block letters. One of the drawings was made on a sheet of paper that had previously been used to write notes on the Letters of Paul.

The drawings were enclosed in an Upsala College envelope labeled: "'Drawings of Edith & Elsie Pond when they were little girls in Syria.' (Be Sure To Save These)"

This volume was produced by Peter McGivney as a gift for his sister, Julia A. McGivney. Its entries are largely copies of popular song lyrics and some poetry. Many focus on sentimental themes like remembrance, familial relationships, love, death, and religion. A few patriotic titles were included. Peter McGivney elaborately decorated and illustrated the volume with paintings, pencil drawings, pen-and-ink embellishments, printed scrapbook die-cuts, and calligraphic titles and borders. He drew numerous patriotic images, including American flags, shields, eagles, Union soldiers, and a portrait of George Washington. Flowers, leaves, birds, and landscapes feature prominently, along with depictions of women. He drew several illustrations of hands holding calling/visiting cards filled out with the names of friends and family members. One watercolor illustration of an African American man accompanies the lyrics of a minstrel song.

This volume was produced by Peter McGivney as a gift for his sister, Julia A. McGivney. Its entries are primarily copies of popular song lyrics and some poetry. Many focus on sentimental themes like remembrance, familial relationships, love, death, and religion. Some patriotic titles are also included. Titles like "Little Low Cabin" and "Half Way Doings" were likely minstrel songs, and include racist dialect. One is accompanied by a watercolor painting of an African American man in striped pants and a blue overcoat standing at a table with a Bible on it and a whitewash bucket on the floor.

Peter McGivney elaborately decorated and illustrated the volume with paintings, pencil drawings, pen-and-ink embellishments, printed scrapbook die-cuts, and calligraphic titles and borders. He drew numerous patriotic images, including American flags, shields, eagles, Union soldiers, and a portrait of George Washington. Flowers, leaves, birds, and landscapes feature prominently, along with depictions of women. He drew several illustrations of hands holding calling/visiting cards filled out with the names of friends and family members.

• "The Lady’s Yes," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• "Write Me a Letter [from] Home," by Will S. Hays
• "[Darling] Minnie Lee," by Dexter Smith
• "Ella Ree," by Charles E. Stewart
• "God Bless My Boy at Sea," by T. Brigham Bishop
• "Little Robin, Tell Kitty," by Frank Howard
• "Killarney," by E. Falconer
• "Sunny Days," by Edwin Ransford
• "Remember Me," by M. W. Balfe
• "We Parted by the River Side," by Will S. Hays
• "The Last Rose of Summer," by Thomas Moore
• "Lottie Lee," by C. T. Lockwood
• "Kiss the Little Ones," by W. F. Wellman, Jr.
• "Kiss Me Mother E'er I Die," by W. Dexter Smith, Jr.
• "To a Beloved Woman," translated from Sappho
• "Driven from Home," by Will S. Hays
• "Bessy O'er the Lea" [e.g. "Darling Bessie of the Lea"], by George Cooper
• "Our Own," by Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
• "[When] The Corn is Waving, Annie Dear," by Charles Blamphin
• "A Woman's Question," by Adelaide Anne Proctor
• "Daisy O'Lynn," by M. H. McChesney
• "I'll Remember You Love in my Prayers," by Will S. Hayes
• "Don't be Angry With Me, Darling," by W. L. Gardner
• "The Good Bye at the Door," by J. E. Carpenter
• "Love On," by Eliza Cook
• "Sweet Genevieve," by George Cooper
• "When the [Autumn] Leaves are Falling," by J. E. Carpenter
• "Mother, Is the Old Home Lonely," by Arthur W. French
• "The Golden Side," by Mary Ann Kidder
• "Wait Till the Moonlight Falls on the Water," by Sam Bagnall
• "The Bells of Shadow" [e.g. "The Shandon Bells"], by Francis Mahony
• "Annie of the Vale," by G. P. Morris
• "My Pretty Jane," by Edward Fitzball
• "Silver Threads among the Gold," by Eben E. Rexford
• "When I Saw Sweet Nellie Home," by John Fletcher
• "Come Like a Beautiful Dream," by George Cooper
• "What Will I Do Without Thee," by Elmer Ruan Coates
• "Star of the Evening," by James M. Sayles
• "The Good Bye at the Door," by J. E. Carpenter
• "Memory Bells," by Henry Tucker
• "I Love the Merry Sunshine," by J. W. Lake
• "Every Home has Lost a Darling," by George Cooper
• "Wilt thou say Farewell Love," by Thomas Moore
• "A Sweet Face at the Window," by W. C. Baker
• "Faded Flowers," by I. H. Brown
• "The Blind Girl," by Joshua Swan
• "What Will I Do Without Thee," by Elmer Ruan Coates
• "Why Was I Looking Out," by Claribel
• "God Save the Flag," by Oliver Wendell Holmes

• "Fair Maid of Perth"
• "Arabella Dolora"
• "A little Puss"
• "Rebecca at the Well"
• "E Pluribus Unum"
• "Excelsior"
• "The French Iron Clad Solferino"
• "Volcano of Turrialba (Mexico)."
• "View of Paknam on the Memam. Farther - India"
• "The Rose of Orleans"
• "The Queen of Flowers"
• "Marriot's Aerial Steam Carriage. 'Avitor.'"
• "Love in Winter"
• "Dressing for the Masquerade"
• "William Penn first Settler of Pennsylvania 1675"
• "The Tambourine Player"
• "Love in Summer"

Marion Shipley compiled this volume while a pre-adolescent and teenager in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She made collages and colored pencil drawings of domestic scenes, exteriors of residences and gardens, animals, and more. The volume also includes diary entries relating to her social life, humor, and experiences at a school at or near the Naval Academy in Portsmouth. She wrote about getting in trouble in class, passing notes, and flirtatious or romantic relationships. Shipley also pasted and laid in correspondence sent to her by young men courting her, and she added brief comments in the volume speaking to her current romantic interests. Several newspaper clippings also feature male actors and royalty, providing additional information about teenage romantic exploration.

Marion Shipley compiled this volume while a pre-adolescent and teenager in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She made collages and colored pencil drawings of domestic scenes, exteriors of residences and gardens, animals, and more. The volume also includes diary entries relating to her social life, humor, and experiences at a school at or near the Naval Academy in Portsmouth. She wrote about getting in trouble in class, passing notes, and flirtatious or romantic relationships. Shipley also pasted and laid in correspondence sent to her by young men courting her, and she added brief comments in the volume speaking to her current romantic interests. Several newspaper clippings also feature male actors and royalty, providing additional information about teenage romantic exploration.

The first page is inscribed "Marion Shipley's Picture Book. Naval Academy, November 1898," and is followed by a section of drawings and collaged scenes. The collages include colored pencil drawings of the exterior of residences and gardens; a river scene with boats, bridges, and monuments; a church; a tent (an exhibition tent?); a circus; a kitchen; and living rooms. These have printed clippings of animals, furniture, boats, women and children, crowds, circus entertainers, cars and wagons, and vegetation pasted in. One loose page tipped into the volume is titled "THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR!!!" and features clippings of young children crying, swearing, and being spanked, with added pencil annotations. Other pages are filled with colored pencil drawings of birds and animals, a fishing boat, a horse-drawn vehicle, buildings, a decorated tree, and faces.

Shipley also documented the social life of adolescent boys and girls in her circle, in particular their play at school and their emerging romantic interests. Page 35 is dated June 1, 1907, and is labelled "PRIVET. NO TRESPASSING. ALL RIGHTS RESERED [sic]. For Spelling & Writing." It is followed by a diary entry dated June 7, 1907, describing Shipley's day at school, where she commented on having a substitute teacher, getting in trouble, disliking spelling, and drawing pictures of each other's backs and passing it in the class. The passed note is laid into the volume, featuring six pencil drawings of the back of girls' heads to show their hairstyles, each identified by the girl's names and age. One is of Shipley. She used rebus drawings and numerical substitutes to replace foul language (e.g. "7734" for "Hell"). On page 39, Shipley recorded her favorite expression of 1907, "23 SKIDOO & STUNG," and noted students in her school passing slips pairing boys and girls who apparently liked each other. She claimed to not "like any of the boys in the whole school" of about 400 students. This is followed by two columns of names, one for boys and the other for girls.

Shipley included a number of love letters sent to her. On pages 37 and 38 she affixed five letters (by pasting in the envelopes) from Ralph Dana, sent during his stay at the Hawthorne Inn of Gloucester, Massachusetts, from July to September, 1906. He wrote of local entertainments, engagements with friends, his romantic interest in her, guarded concerns about her activities and who she was spending time with, and his suspicion that she did not reciprocate his feelings. Shipley wrote beneath the letters: "These are some letters I got from who was my best fellow. He is not now. My letter were just as bad to his as his were to me. Now I just love H. S. C. (His picture is in the back of my watch) & have every since June of 1907 & this is Jan. 1908." Shipley also laid in nine pieces of correspondence from a suitor named John, mostly dated from early February 1908. They profess his love for her, ask if she loves him, and request kisses. One is on a piece of paper cut in the shape of a heart, and three others include hearts and arrows painted in gold metallic paint. One letter signed "Fred" is addressed to "K," expressing excitement about her upcoming visit and requesting a photo of a beautiful girl. A doily and a page from a calendar with a quote from the Merchant of Venice is also tipped into the volume.

The final diary entry is written on page 41, where Shipley notes attending Hamlet, which she mentioned liking almost as much as Peter Pan. Elsewhere in the volume, Shipley tipped in newspaper clippings of the actor E. H. Sothern and Dom Manuel II, King of Portugal.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The content of these letters, sermons, documents, and other materials reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich (1903-1996), most prominently subjects pertinent to Christianity, home, and the family.

The Blandina Diedrich Collection is a selection of manuscript items compiled by her son Duane Norman Diedrich and dedicated to her memory. The manuscripts reflect the life and interests of Blandina Diedrich, most prominently Christianity, home, and the family. Items include sermons from prominent ministers or preachers of different Protestant denominations, documents related to church operations and discipline, letters by prominent and everyday persons respecting their faith and beliefs, correspondence of missionaries, and reflections on religion's role in all manner of human endeavor.

The collection is comprised of over 260 letters, manuscript sermons and hymns, documents, and other items. For a comprehensive inventory and details about each item in the collection, please see the box and folder listing below.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

The Letters, Documents, and Other Manuscripts of the Duane Norman Diedrich Collection is a selection of individual items compiled by manuscript collector Duane Norman Diedrich (1935-2018) and the William L. Clements Library. The content of these materials reflect the life and interests of D. N. Diedrich, most prominently subjects pertinent to intellectual, artistic, and social history, education, speech and elocution, the securing of speakers for events, advice from elders to younger persons, and many others.

For an item-level description of the collection, with information about each manuscript, please see the box and folder listing below.