Collections

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.

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.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American diplomat.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American chargé d'affaires.

The papers also include financial papers, military documents, property documentation, materials related to the San Pedro Company, writings, poetry, sketches, photographs, ephemera, and other printed items. Among the writings is an 1840 account of a visit by Christopher Hughes to physician Fru Jansen at Catherineberg for health care; 1842 travel writing by Margaret Hughes; and manuscript and printed poetry, including dinner toasts, a valentine poem, an acrostic on Margaret's name, translations, and more.

Other selected items include pencil sketches of four of the five peace commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent negotiations in Belgium, by Dutch artist P. van Huffel, January 1815. The portraits include John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Christopher Hughes (as secretary of the delegation). A group of 24 photographs from the early 1930s depict the grave of Laura Smith Hughes (1795-1832) and the church where she was buried, Bromme Church in Akershof, near Stockholm, Sweden, and a variety of other people and places.

Please see the Christopher Hughes Indices and Notes for an index of letter writers and inventories of non-correspondence materials.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. At least one volume was kept by an African American man, Lewis G. Mosebay. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Martha Leach Packard commonplace book contains inscriptions, correspondence, autographs, and ephemera that Packard collected from the 1850s to 1890s. Inscriptions and autographs are written directly into the volume; additional items are pasted or laid in. The volume represents prominent individuals such as politicians and academics, as well as Packard's personal acquaintances.

The Martha Leach Packard commonplace book (200 pages) contains inscriptions, correspondence, autographs, and ephemera that Packard collected from the 1850s to 1890s. Packard used about half of the pages; additional items are laid into the volume.

Most inscriptions and autographs are written directly into the volume, and many are dated at Poughkeepsie, New York. Most entries are dated from the 1850s-1890s, though some letters pasted into the book are dated as early as 1837. Prominent individuals such as politicians, artists, and writers contributed autographs (see list below), and historian Benson J. Lossing provided a personal inscription (p. 39). Packard's other contributors included academics and personal acquaintances, 5 of whom mentioned participating in the Civil War (pp. 77, 145).

Laid-in letters include items by famous persons and personal correspondence to Martha Leach Packard and E. W. Packard. The volume also includes visiting cards, a menu from a dinner at the Stevens House (p. 157), a lock of hair (p. 178), and a swatch of fabric (p. 198). The album was originally published with printed illustrations, mainly portraits of women; some later pages contain cut-out colored illustrations of flowers.

• Benson J. Lossing (inscription, p. 39; letter, p. 200)
• John Jay Hyde (inscription, p. 41; calling card, front endpaper)
• Henry P. Tappan (autograph, p. 45)
• Thomas Nast (autograph on card, p. 61)
• Samuel F. B. Morse (autograph, p. 97)
• William W. Belknap (autograph, p. 99)
• Henry Clay (autograph, p. 115)
• Lydia Huntley Sigourney (autograph, p. 115)
• DeWitt Clinton (autograph, p. 115)
• Francis Napier (letter, p. 193)
• P. T. Barnum (autograph, back endpaper)

The Irene Levis Roberts album, entitled "Flowers of Loveliness," contains poems by W. H. Green and A. H. Roberts of Smyrna, Delaware, and Edmund Brewster Green of New York, New York. A note about Roberts's baptism is also present.

The Irene Levis Roberts album, which has the title "Flowers of Loveliness" imprinted on the cover, includes 9 entries (17 total pages): 8 poems and 1 note. The poetry, mostly written by A. H. Roberts, concerns topics such as nature and the seasons, religion, travel, and death (see below for a full list of titles). The note by Thomas C. Murphy, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Smyrna, Delaware, pertains to the baptism of Irene L. Roberts on performed on March 11, 1855. Colorful crayon scribbles appear over one of the poems and on several of the later pages.

The book contains a series of colored prints show women dressed and decorated as flowers, each representative of a virtue.

• "To My Niece," by W. L. Green, November 25, 1852 (1 page)
• "The Flight of Time," by Edmund Brewster Green, September 7, 1844 (2 pages)
• "To My Friends," by A. H. Roberts, undated (2 pages)
• "On the Death of Mrs. S. M. of This Place," by A. H. Roberts, undated (2 pages)
• "Lines Suggested on Witnessing the Burial of Mr. D. Carr, Respectfully Addressed to His Widow," by A. H. Roberts, undated (2 pages)
• "The Home of the Christian," by A. H. Roberts, undated (2 pages)
• "The Hindoo Mother," by A. H. Roberts, undated (3 pages)
• "Reflections on My Past Visits to Cantwells Bridge, Addressed to E. D. Clark," by A. H. Roberts, copied by I. Roberts, May 1863 (2 pages)

The Joel Munsell collection contains two distinct groups of materials. The first series comprises letters and printed material related to printer and antiquarian Joel Munsell’s 1847-1850 investigation of the 1777 murder of Jane McCrea, and the second series consists of 19 letters from Munsell to Elias Nason, primarily concerning historical publications.

The Joel Munsell collection contains 26 letters, 2 essay fragments, a pamphlet, a clipping, and several transcriptions of letters, which the library acquired in two distinct groups. The groupings have been preserved as two series, within which items are arranged chronologically.

The Jane McCrea research series documents Munsell’s 1847-1850 investigation into the 1777 murder of Jane McCrea with correspondence, writings, and printed matter. The eight letters in the series concern the conflicting accounts of the murder by Epaphras Hoyt and Charles Neilson, including Munsell’s letters to each man, soliciting more information, and their responses. In his 9-page letter, dated January 30, 1849, Hoyt purported to describe the exact location of the murder, described the sources of his information, and gave his opinion on Neilson. Neilson’s much briefer letter of January 25, 1849, contradicts Hoyt’s claim that McCrea was "called by any other name than Jane" and describes gathering the information from his parents and other locals. Additionally, the collection contains a 1913 letter by J.T. Holmes that concerns reports of the McCrea murder. Also of interest are two short drafts that Munsell wrote; they shed light on his interest in the matter and express pity for McCrea, "consigned…to the tender mercies of the scribbles in all after ages, at whose hand she has been cruelly maltreated, for more than half a century." Rounding out the series is Hoyt’s version of the McCrea murder story, printed in the Proceedings of the New-York Historical Society (June 1847), and a newspaper clipping containing an 1851 eulogy for Hoyt by Luther B. Lincoln.

The Letters to Elias Nason series contains 19 letters written by Munsell to historian and Congregational minister Elias Nason between 1862 and 1866. Seven of the letters relate to various aspects of the New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, which Munsell published. Topics related to the serial include the inclusion of Dutch-Americans in the register (January 18, 1862), the publication's coverage of Boston (March 15, 1862), and the appropriateness of its commentary on current events (August 19, 1862). The remaining letters primarily concern the publication of two works by Nason, Sir Charles Henry Frankland, Baronet: or Boston in the Colonial Times (1865) and A Memoir of Mrs. Susannah Rowson (1870). Munsell wished to print the works but lamented the poor market for biographies, noting, "I have found it advantageous to disguise such books under some other name" (September 28, 1863). He also discussed errors in Nason's manuscripts (February 21, 1865), the financial concerns of printing Frankland (June 3, 1865), and the flaws in several atlases published by rival firms (November 2, 1865). Other subjects mentioned in Munsell's letters are the poor market for antiquarian books (January 18, 1862) and his views on social history: "I desire to rescue every man's memory from oblivion who has a history, and am garnering up names with facts attached to them…" (March 19, 1862).

The Uriah Lee family collection (39 items) contains 32 letters, 3 diaries, and 4 additional items related to Lyman Uriah Lee of Foxcroft, Maine. Uriah Lee wrote 27 letters to his family while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, his brother Leonard wrote 3 letters while serving with the Union Army at Fort Sumter, and family members exchanged 2 additional letters. Also included are 3 diaries that Elizabeth M. Lee kept between 1851 and 1878, a poem, Uriah Lee's discharge papers, and a photograph.

The Uriah Lee family collection (39 items) contains 32 letters, 3 diaries, and 4 additional items (1850-1912) related to Lyman Uriah Lee of Foxcroft, Maine. Uriah Lee wrote 27 letters to his family while serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, his brother Leonard wrote 3 letters while serving with the Union Army at Fort Sumter, and family members exchanged 2 additional letters. Also included are 3 diaries that Elizabeth M. Lee kept between 1851 and 1878, a poem, and Uriah Lee's discharge papers.

The Correspondence series (32 items) contains 27 letters that Uriah Lee wrote to his family while serving in North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D. C. Lee provided details about his daily life as a soldier, and discussed soldiers' attitudes toward officers, food, and clothing; encounters with former slaves; the weather; and political issues. He also mentioned specific battles, and his letter of May 18, 1863, includes a hand-drawn map of his company's route from New Berne, North Carolina, to Washington, D. C. Leonard Lee wrote 3 letters during his Civil War military service, and discussed similar topics. In his postwar letters, Uriah Lee offered advice to his younger siblings and discussed family affairs. Anne Lee wrote a letter to Lyman Lee in which she recounted the events surrounding the death of a man named Edward, and Chauncey received an unsigned letter about his wife Eva's visit to the writer.

Elizabeth Lee kept 3 Diaries between July 1851 and November 1878, concerning her thoughts and activities as a wife and mother. Among other topics, she discussed housework, the weather, her family, social engagements, and religion. Most of her entries are brief lines about the weather and the housework she was able to finish, with details of church meetings provided every few days.

The Documents, Poetry, and Miscellaneous series is comprised of 5 items. Fanny Hosier wrote Uriah Lee a poem that reflected positively on Southern rights and secession. Uriah Lee's military discharge papers from 1863 and 1865 are also included. A piece of ephemera illustrates 4 badges of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The Peter H. Musty papers are made up of two bound diaries, disbound diary entries, a letter book, ten loose illustrations, and two printed items belonging to Peter Henry "Hank" Musty of Greensburg, Ohio. In 1862, Musty enlisted in the 61st Ohio Infantry and served as a musician until his health-related discharge in 1864.

Peter H. Musty Bound Diaries. The earlier of the two bound diaries dates from Musty's enlistment and initial period of service in the army (January 1862- September 1862) and the later bound diary begins after Musty had been discharged and returned home (June 1864- February 1865). Throughout both diaries, Musty wrote personal names and the daily entries for July 2- September 16, 1864, in a numerical substitution code. Before enlisting, Musty made multiple visits to a gypsy camp near Greensburg, where he had his fortune told and received an invitation into a tent to sing for them (January 15-19, 1862). Shortly after his enlistment, Musty was appointed as a musician (drummer) and transferred to Field and Staff duty where his responsibilities included cooking and guarding prisoners. Musty described daily life at Camp Dennison and Camp Chase in Ohio, including mentions of petty thefts such as a soldier being placed in the guard house for stealing a pie as well as someone stealing his blanket.

Although not directly involved in combat with his unit at the second Battle of Manassas, Musty was impressed by the intensity of the heavy "cannonading and musketry," and mentioned the forced retreat with the entry: "Jackson after us. I run all night - no sleep at all - cold, cold." On July 31, 1862, he described flags flying at half-mast in their camp and "canons fireing in every direction," at the news of Martin Van Buren's death.

After being invalided out of the army in 1864, Musty's diary entries again focused on life in Greensburg, Ohio. Musty spent a large part of each day playing his violin, often for two or three different gatherings on the same day. He played at "apple cuttings," parties, school programs, and oyster dinners. He serenaded neighbors, often not returning home until well after midnight. Sometimes Musty was accompanied by friends on the "basse" and drums, and on several occasions they donned "blackface" by rubbing their faces with cork only to find that it was much easier to apply the cork than it was to remove it. Musty returned to helping his father with the coopering business and began working part time at the local post office, hoping to get well enough to return to Washington, D.C., to work for the Veteran's Relief Corp. On the local scene, the town of Greensburg worked actively to prevent the drafting of local men in 1864. Instead of individual men buying their way out of the draft by hiring replacements, a committee of Greensburg citizens went to Cleveland and hired replacements for all the Greensburg men subject to the new draft. The town then set about soliciting money from all the local families to cover this communally-incurred expense. Musty made a passing mention to visiting a photographic gallery in November 1864, where he saw "movements on negatives" and had his "picture taken with motion." The December 23, 1864, entry includes four small pencil sketches of a friend named Tom, showing his progression from civilian to soldier. Musty was fond of keeping lists, and in the back of his diaries he compiled the names of soldiers he served with, people who owed him money, letters he had received, and a six page chronological list ("Memorandum") of all the girls he had accompanied home from local events between April 1860 and February 1865.

Peter H. Musty Disbound Diaries. Pages disbound from diaries span from January 1, 1861, to August 7, 1863, with some ca. 1865 entries at the end. The early entries pre-date Musty's enlistment and describe his schooling, daily activities, and work. Musty occasionally mentioned topics like slavery (January 8, 1861; February 24, 1861), and by April 1861 he began to note military activity. Throughout the rest of 1861 Musty recorded local enlistments, drills, and military news alongside his daily work and activities, providing a glimpse of local reactions to the early war effort. Entries from January to September 1862 overlap with the bound diary for these dates, but with variant wording and occasionally more details. Musty described his enlistment on February 26, 1862, and his subsequent stay at Camp Dennison and Camp Chase, providing details about daily camp life. Musty commented on guarding Confederate prisoners at Camp Chase, some who were en route to Johnson's Island (April 26-May 27, 1862). Musty described the march through West Virginia, arriving in Strausburg, Virginia, on June 21. From June to November 1862, Musty wrote from Strausburg, Middleton, Sperrysville, Arlington Heights, Fairfax Court House, New Baltimore, and other Virginia encampments, describing marches, camp life, nearby Confederates and guerrillas, and recent military encounters. In his entry for September 10, 1862, he vividly recalled his first time in battle on August 22. From April to August 1863, the collection includes copies of letters Musty wrote while at the hospital at Brooks Station, Virginia, and convalescent camps near Alexandria, relaying news of nearby engagements and activity at the hospitals. In July 1863 he began working as a clerk at the Medical Head Quarters for the convalescent camp and subsequently the Invalid Corps Head Quarters. The entries for 1865 primarily detail his health complaints. Musty included occasional references to African Americans (May 4, 1862; May 28, 1862; July 30, 1862; June 9, 1863; June 25, 1863). Other items include lyrics to a song about alcohol, an extract from the Army Herald entitled "The Fruits of Rebellion," and several pages accounting for Ohio soldiers.

Musty's letter book contains eleven of his outgoing correspondences and eighteen incoming letters from friends (both male and female) during the Civil War. It also includes poems, songs, programs of performances at the local Greensburg school from 1859 to 1861, the constitution of the Tyrocinean Debating Society, and a list of other men from Greensburg who served in the Civil War. Among the copied letters is a formal letter of complaint against Captain Thomas Graham for being intoxicated on multiple occasions while stationed at the Invalid Corps Convalescent Camp in Virginia (November 7, 1863). A table of contents for the letter book appears between pages 101 and 104.

Ten illustrations drawn by Musty during his military service are present in this collection. He drew three of these sketches between February and April 1863, when his unit (61st Ohio Infantry) was stationed near Stafford Courthouse, Virginia. Of particular interest is a detailed drawing of General Adolph von Steinwehr's headquarters and the surrounding camp activities, with what appears to be a self-portrait of Musty sketching the scene in the foreground (March 6, 1863). The illustration is on the reverse side of a fragment of a letter in which Musty states that he and all of the soldiers he knows are not fighting for "the freedom of the collord race." Another drawing from around the same time shows a soldier carrying dispatches in front of a tent, with several wooden hitching posts in the foreground. The third illustration depicts a log cabin next to what appears to be an oven while two soldiers stand guard nearby. On the reverse side of this sketch is part of a letter to his brother Francis in which Musty mentions having received a valentine from a girl (whose name he rendered in code). The fourth sketch from this period is on the back of a letter dated May 28, 1863, and shows a long tent, possibly a field hospital, with a "No Admittance" sign over the entrance. A man is visible through the tent flap with a bucket at his side. The fifth sketch (undated) shows the fortifications at Aquia Bridge, Virginia, and the surrounding countryside. Two undated sketches depict women, one drawn in pencil with the title "Going By the Gate" and the other in black, blue, and red ink showing a woman with a striped hat. An undated pencil sketch, "The Signal Flag," shows soldiers atop a house waving the signal flag, an army encampment in the foreground, and soldiers marching in the background. A pen and ink drawing captioned "Near Cedar Mountain" shows three soldiers, one on horseback and two others cajoling a balking donkey. A dialog entitled "A Quaker on an argument" includes a pen and ink illustration of two men debating theology before a fireplace.

The last two items in this collection are printed items, a black and red print of Major General John C. Frémont torn from a letterhead and a Valentine containing an illustration of a man playing his guitar for a woman that includes the following poem:

"My song is mute, the strainWhich melodized each line,My sentiments conveyTo thee my Valentine."

The collection consists of two letters and five empty envelopes written between 1868 to 1879 by various businesses relating to human hair goods and services. They are addressed to C. E. Hartung & Company, hair importers and dealers of New York.

The collection consists of two letters and five empty envelopes written between 1868 to 1879 by various businesses relating to human hair goods and services. They are addressed to C. E. Hartung & Company, hair importers and dealers of New York. The two letters include one written on May 5, 1870, by H. Holcomb, "Manufacturer and Dealer in Human Hair Goods" of Galesburg, Illinois, on printed, illustrated stationery featuring a white woman with curled hair. He acknowledged he would not be able to pay his bill on time. The other was written by A. Domec, an importer of human hair from Louisville, Kentucky, ordering hair products. All of the envelopes in the collection are advertising covers for the various hair businesses.

The empty envelopes date from 1868 to 1879, with several undated.

• Madame Zwick of Cincinnati, Ohio, "Ladies' Wig Store, Braids, Fronts, Curls &c. All kinds of hair jewelry done to order. The Hair furnished by customers always used, and the Gold warranted."
• N. Demongeot of Washington, D.C., "Importer of Human Hair and Perfumery, Ladies Hair Dresser and Wig Maker."
• Mrs. M. Survey of Utica, New York, "Manufacturer of all kinds of Ornamental Hair Work."
• J. Y. Smyth of Peoria, Illinois, "Manufacturer and Dealer in Human Hair, at Wholesale and Retail."