Collections

This collection is made up of over 40 printed reports, manuscript letters, and manuscript notes related to Clements R. Markham, a British geographer who traveled in South America and India in the mid-19th century. Among other subjects, the material concerns Markham's attempt to cultivate cinchona plants in India, as well as the Amazon basin and rainforest.

This collection is made up of over 40 printed reports, manuscript letters, and manuscript notes related to Clements R. Markham, a British geographer who traveled in South America and India in the mid-19th century. Among other subjects, the manuscripts concern Markham's attempt to cultivate cinchona plants in India, and it contains notes on the Amazon basin and rainforest.

The bulk of the collection pertains to Markham's work with Great Britain's India Office in the 1860s, including a lengthy printed report and supplementary memoranda about his efforts to introduce the cinchona plant, native to Peru, to India. Other reports and memoranda concern Indian coffee plantations, cotton production, oyster fisheries, and irrigation projects. The volume also includes descriptions of the Suez region, Abyssinia, and Bombay. Manuscript notes and translations in the back of the volume largely pertain to South America, including letters to Markham from an acquaintance in Lima, Peru, and notes on the missionary work of Antonio Machoni. Other manuscripts concern the Amazon region, cocoa plantations, the Napo River, and an Arctic expedition. The documents are calendared and indexed.

This collection contains correspondence and printed advertisements related to the operation of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium in and around the year 1892.

This collection contains 3 letters and 8 printed advertisements related to the operation of the Clifton Springs Sanitarium in and around the year 1892. In 2 manuscript letters to Mrs. M. E. Donaldson of Charlestown, Ohio, superintendent Dr. Henry Foster, responded to queries about the sanitarium's services, prices, and room availability. "The Sanitarium" sent a similar printed letter to Mrs. S. E. Greenleaf, originally accompanied by advertising circulars. A pair of printed circulars provide room prices, discuss the composition of the sanitarium's healing waters, and mention the institution's commitment to prayer and religious devotion. Each has an illustration of the sanitarium's main building. Other items are 2 dinner menus, a newspaper article about "A Mid-summer Week at Clifton Springs," 2 blank bath tickets with prices for various water-based therapies, and a pamphlet about the history of the sanitarium, with endorsements from former patients.

This photograph album contains 19th-century carte-de-visite, photomechanical print, and tintype portraits of residents of Kent and Oakland Counties, Michigan.

This photograph album (14cm x 11cm) contains 18 cartes-de-visite, 4 halftone photomechanical prints, and 2 tintypes, which are portraits of residents of Kent and Oakland Counties, Michigan, taken during the 19th century. Most of the items are studio portraits of men, women, children, and infants. The halftone photomechanical prints are montages, including one portrait of a woman placed behind a drawn window. A number of the subjects are identified. A decorative design is embossed on the album's brown leather cover, and the title "Album" is stamped in gold on its spine; the volume also has a metal clasp.

The Daniel Morgan collection is made up of financial records, legal documents, correspondence, and other items related to General Daniel Morgan and to Willoughby Morgan, his son.

The Daniel Morgan collection is made up of 63 financial records, legal documents, correspondence, and other items related to General Daniel Morgan and to Willoughby Morgan, his son. The majority of the collection consists of accounts, bonds, promissory notes, and other documents pertaining to Daniel Morgan's financial affairs. Accounts and invoices record Morgan's purchases of clothing, wagon-related equipment and services, and other items. Some of the later items do not concern Morgan directly but have his legal endorsement. Also included are two outgoing letters by Morgan, a 9-page legal document about a lawsuit against Morgan, and a deposition that Morgan gave in a different dispute. Other items are a bond regarding Morgan's marriage to Abigail Curry (March 30, 1773) and Morgan's political address to the citizens of Allegheny County about politics and the militia (January 17, 1795). Three of the documents pertain to enslaved and free African Americans (November 6, 1773; June 13, 1789; and March 28, 1799). Later items mostly pertain to the estate of Willoughby Morgan, Daniel Morgan's son. James Graham wrote two letters to unknown recipients in 1847 and 1856 about his efforts to write Daniel Morgan's biography, which he subsequently published.

Printed items include a map of the surrender of Yorktown (undated), a newspaper article from a Winchester, Virginia, paper about the possible disinterment of Daniel Morgan's remains (August 18, 1951), and printed portraits of Daniel Morgan with manuscript and facsimile autographs.

The Electric railway engineer photograph album consists of approximately 235 photographs and 1 booklet documenting the professional and personal life of an unidentified railway engineer specializing in electric rail line infrastructure.

The Electric railway engineer photograph album consists of approximately 235 photographs and 1 booklet documenting the professional and personal life of an unidentified railway engineer specializing in electric rail line infrastructure.

The album (25.5 x 30.5 cm) has dark green cloth covers with “Photographs” stamped on the front cover. All of the album pages are loose and fairly brittle, but the images are in generally good condition.

The first page contains sixteen signatures from participants in the 30th reunion of the Union College class of 1885. Subsequent photographs include several views of Union College campus, aspects of student life (including dorm room interiors and a group of portraits showing crossdressing men captioned “Minstrels"), and formal portraits of members of the Kappa Alpha Society in the mid-1880s, presumably including some of the attendees at the reunion whose signatures are represented.

The unidentified presumed compiler of the album can be seen in several photographs. He appears to have been an engineer specializing in infrastructure projects for electric-powered rail systems and was active in the early stages of when railroads in the United States were moving towards electrification. Many of the smaller circular photographs found throughout in the album were likely produced by a Kodak No. 2 camera, while larger format prints and cyanotypes are also present.

Contents are arranged chronologically starting with the compiler's student days before focusing on various professional assignments and elements of his personal life. During the ten years following his graduation from Union College the compiler apparently participated in several railroad development projects, mainly in what would become Washington State but also in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Idaho. Photographs from this period of his life include views of survey camps along the Columbia River and other regional waterways, interior and exterior views of the compiler’s home in Tacoma, portraits of his growing family, and snapshots of Klickitat people (including a group portrait of three women picking hops). By 1896 the compiler and his family appear to have moved back east, settling in New Rochelle, New York. Photographs from this period include documentation of projects on intercity lines on Staten Island and other nearby boroughs, a project in upstate New York, and numerous images of friends and family. The Albany and Hudson Railway and Power Company’s new electric train line to various towns between Hudson and Albany required establishing power sources along the route. As a small group of photographs in this album show, this necessitated constructing a dam at Stuyvesant Falls on the Kinderhook Creek which would provide electric power to the rail line and various local businesses. The final pages of the album document the construction of Hudson Park Dock in New Rochelle as well as leisure activities such as the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup auto races and a naval review in Oyster Bay.

A total of 18 loose photographs are included towards the back of the album. Images include a group portrait of Union College students from the 1880s, a studio portrait of a young woman and infant taken in the mid-1890s in Tacoma, and a double exposure of a woman standing next to an automobile in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1918. Also present is a printed pamphlet replete with numerous halftone reproduction images titled “Letter from Mayor Clarke to the Voters of New Rochelle with Pictures of Improvements Under His Administration” which highlights several civic infrastructure projects (including the Hudson Park Dock) undertaken during the tenure of mayor Henry Clarke.

The European Tour, Yosemite, and Minnesota photograph album contains pictures of scenes in various European countries, reproductions of famous paintings, portraits of prominent Europeans, and comic strips. Many of the visual items are engravings and colored illustrations.

The European Tour, Yosemite, and Minnesota photograph album (27cm x 34cm) contains around 780 photographs, engravings, and illustrations of scenes, people, architecture and artwork from various European countries, Great Britain, and the United States. Newspaper clippings and comic strips appear at the end. Most of the photographs appear to be commercially produced prints of the type made for tourists, and many of the illustrations are in series related to a particular place. The images range in size from full page to smaller items pasted in as many as 11 or 12 to a page. Original covers are missing.

Countries represented in the photographs include present-day Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, France, and Great Britain around the 1870s. Bird's-eye views, street scenes, landmarks such as religious buildings and ancient structures (particularly in Athens and Rome), famous paintings and sculptures, bas reliefs, and other works of art predominate. Of interest are a group of pictures showing traditional Neapolitan funeral costume, and a photograph of Mount Vesuvius erupting in 1872. Portraits of local ethnic "types" in traditional dress, political and religious leaders, and royalty are also present. The engravings and other illustrations, sometimes colored, often depict similar scenes and landmarks.

The final pages contain photographs taken in present-day Yosemite National Park and Minnesota, a newspaper clipping showing a "dynamiter in [a] Los Angeles police station," electrical equipment related to the New York City Subway, and a group portrait of firefighters in Watertown, New York. A group of newspaper clippings of the comic strip "Sambo and his Funny Noises" are pasted on top of European views. The comic strip, by William F. Marriner, ran from 1905-1914 and chronicled the misadventures of "Sambo," later "Samuel Johnson," a racist stereotype caricature of an African American boy.

This collection contains correspondence related to the Fellows family of Richland, New York (30 items), as well as letters addressed to Walter Hollister of Mexico, New York, and other recipients (16 items). Charles A. Fellows wrote to his family in Richland after moving to the Midwest in the 1840s; Walter Hollister received letters from friends and family in New York and Iowa.

This collection contains correspondence related to the Fellows family of Richland, New York (30 items), as well as letters addressed to Walter Hollister of Mexico, New York, and other recipients (16 items). Charles A. Fellows wrote to his family in Richland after moving to the Midwest in the 1840s; Walter Hollister received letters from friends and family in New York and Iowa.

Charles A. Fellows wrote a series of letters to his parents, Amos and Lovina Fellows, and his brother, Ira G. Fellows, after moving to the Midwest around 1843. Fellows reported on life in Racine, Wisconsin, and Ottawa and Pontiac, Illinois. Fellows urged his parents to join him on the frontier, described local scenery, and occasionally commented on crop prices. He received letters from family members in New York, who reported on news from Richland, including epidemics, family health, and local deaths; Fellows's sister Louisa also provided updates from Pulaski, New York. During the late 1840s, Ira Fellows received letters from Albert West in Troy, New York, in which West reported on his social life and visits to the local museum. A letter to Amos Fellows dated August 27, 1849, pertains to Charles's death.

The second group of correspondence (14 items) contains letters that Walter Hollister of Mexico, New York, received from family and friends in New York, Illinois, and Iowa between 1856 and 1884. The collection also contains 2 letters Darius C. Broughton received from his wife, Bedee Broughton, in 1863, and a Christmas greeting Broughton received from his mother while serving with the 147th New York Infantry Regiment in 1892.

The Geneseo, Illinois family photograph album (28 x 21 cm) contains 32 formal studio portraits of men, women, and children taken in Geneseo, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa from the 1870s to 1890s.

The Geneseo, Illinois family photograph album is a 34 page card album (28 x 21 cm) containing 32 formal studio portraits of men, women, and children taken in Geneseo, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa from the 1870s to 1890s. There are 27 cabinet cards, 3 cartes de visite and 2 tin types. An envelope in the front contains two loose photographs. There are three graduation portraits of young women, indicated by the presence of their diplomas. Of note is a photograph of a man wearing a Knights Templar uniform.

The Gerta Gage family photograph album contains cabinet card portraits of men, women, and children taken in various Michigan cities around the mid-1880s to mid-1890s. Some of the pictured individuals posed in groups or with animals, and two men wore Shriners uniforms. The album likely belonged to Gerta Gage, of Big Rapids, Michigan.

The Gerta Gage family photograph album (22cm x 29cm) contains 80 cabinet card photographs of men, women, and children, few of whom are identified. The studio portraits were taken in Michigan towns and cities such as Muskegon, Big Rapids, Petoskey, Jackson, Allegan, Ovid, and Traverse City, as well as in other locales such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Decatur, Illinois; and Chicago, Illinois. Two men posed in Shriners hats, a few posed with dogs, and one man, photographed by A. S. Green of St. Thomas, Ontario, blew cigar smoke while having his picture taken. Though most items are individual portraits, some subjects posed in groups of two to four; one image is a group portrait of seven men. The volume's padded covers are bound in blue and yellow cloth. "Gerta Gage" and "Gerta Gage Big Rapids Michigan" are engraved on the album's large metal clasp. The pages of the album are decorated to resemble wood.

The Hair documents, ephemera, and prints collection is comprised of 103 items, mostly printed materials related to hair, shaving, and wigs. Included are ephemeral advertisements, trade cards and price lists, government acts relating to hair and wigs, manuscript letters and indentures, caricatures and cartoons, broadsides, sheet music, other miscellaneous prints, and one braided lock of hair.

The Hair Documents, Ephemera, and Prints collection is comprised of 103 items, mostly printed materials related to hair, shaving, and wigs. Included are ephemeral advertisements, trade cards and price lists, government acts from British monarchs George II and George III relating to hair and wigs, manuscript letters and indentures, caricatures and cartoons, broadsides, sheet music, other miscellaneous prints, and one braided lock of hair. The material spans from 1717 to the late 1980s, with the bulk of materials dating from the late eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century. A majority of the materials are from England, although some are from Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Scotland. Many of the items are satirical and are commentary on fashion and the idea that the local barber was the "jack of all trades." Two similar items, a comical manuscript resume of "Isaac Morgan" and a fictitious advertisement for the varied services of "Isaac Factotum" offer exaggerated illustrations of how a barber did more than cut hair. Of interest is a series of mid-nineteenth century Valentines which center around the love-lives of barbers. Also included is a letter from Alex Campbell to his relative John Campbell, the Cashier of the Royal Bank of Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1745. There is also sheet music from the composer (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), A Pastoral Song, better known as My Mother bids me bind my hair. Of note are prints by British satirists William Hogarth, Isaac and George Cruikshank, and Thomas Rowlandson.