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The Bartlett family papers contain correspondence, documents, photographs, and a scrapbook related to Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett of the United States Navy and to his descendants, including his granddaughter, author Lina Bartlett Ditson.

The Bartlett family papers contain correspondence, documents, photographs, and a scrapbook related to Lieutenant Washington A. Bartlett of the United States Navy and to his descendants, including author Lina Bartlett Ditson, his granddaughter.

The Correspondence series contains letters written to various members of the Bartlett family. The earliest items concern Washington A. Bartlett's naval career, including several letters between Bartlett and his wife Ruth. In a letter from May-June 1845, Washington Bartlett discussed political and military conflicts between the United States and Mexico. Much of his other correspondence is contained in a letter book, which covers the years 1835-1862.

Other items in the series are incoming personal and business letters to George L. Ditson, Bartlett's son-in-law. Some of these pertain to his appointment as United States Consul in Nuevitas, Cuba, a few of which are in Spanish. Later material includes a letter from Ronald Lodge to his mother, Oralie Ditson Lodge (Washington A. Bartlett's granddaughter) about his successful fitness examination for the United States Navy, enclosing a photograph of Lodge in uniform (April 17, 1917), and a letter on stationery from the White Star Line ocean liner Olympic (November 14, 1928).

The Documents and Financial Papers relate to several generations of the Bartlett family. Of note are a certificate about Washington A. Bartlett's qualification as a United States Navy midshipmen, signed by Martin Van Buren (November 20, 1839), and an authorized copy of Washington A. Bartlett and Ruth Budd Bloom's marriage certificate (June 17, 1861). The series also contains receipts and accounts.

The Writings series primarily contains typed copies of poems and stories composed by Lina Bartlett Ditson. Included are 8 poems, 1 group of poetry "Fragments," and 7 short stories. Two items, which may not be by Ditson, are in French, including an acrostic poem based on Ruth Budd Bartlett's name.

The collection's 8 Calling Cards and Invitations include manuscript and printed visiting cards for "Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett" and an invitation to the home of William H. and Frances Seward.

A single Illustration, dated August 1833, depicts the brig Mermaid at sea. A map of a portion of Albany, New York, shows the location of B. Lodge & Company.

The Photographs series has mounted and loose portraits, several cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards, a glass-plate positive of a young girl, and numerous snapshots. Early portraits depict Oralie Ditson Lodge and Lina Bartlett Ditson (occasionally in costume), and 130 20th-century snapshots were taken during a family vacation Eagle Lake in New York.

The Lena Bartlett Ditson Scrapbook contains newspaper articles, programs, and correspondence about Lina Bartlett Ditson, assembled by her sister Oralie after Lina's death. Most items pertain to Lina's artistic pursuits, such as vocal performances and published novels. Incoming correspondence to Lina and condolence letters to her family following her death are also present.

The Printed Items series is made up of postcards, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and other items. Newspaper Clippings pertain to numerous topics, such as William S. Lodge's political career, interstate commerce legislation, labor news, and members of the Bartlett family.

• Defence of Washington A. Bartlett, Ex-Lieutenant, United States Navy: Read and admitted to Record, by Naval Court of Inquiry... New York: Harper & Brothers, 1857.
• International Association for the Total Suppression of Vivisection. "The Woman" and the Age: A Letter Addressed to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., First Lord of the Treasury. London: E. W. Allen, 1881.
• Olcott, Henry S. The Spirit of the Zoroastrian Religion. Bombay: 1882.

Other printed material includes poems by Barrington Lodge; engravings of Washington A. Bartlett; a colored print showing a woman in a dress that Ruth Budd Bartlett wore during a royal reception; and a campaign poster for William S. Lodge's mayoral campaign in Albany, New York.

The Genealogy series contains information about Washington A. Bartlett's descendants and allied families, particularly the Lodge family.

The Billings family collection contains correspondence, invitations, ephemera, and other items related to Marcia Billings of Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania. Much of the material pertains to her social life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Billings family collection (2.5 linear feet) contains correspondence, invitations, ephemera, and other items related to Marcia Billings of Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania. Much of the material pertains to her social life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Correspondence series (551 items), which comprises the bulk of the collection, includes several Civil War-era letters to Mary Pearsall from her friend Emily Jewett, as well as other earlier items addressed to Marcia Billings. Most items concern the social lives of Billings's friends and family members in Denver, Colorado; Owego, New York; and Brookville, Pennsylvania, in the 1880s and 1890s. A series of 5 letters from September 1890 pertains to Colorado travel, including newspaper clippings with information for tourists. Two letters enclose photographs (January 19, 1909 and April 2, 1913) and one picture postcard shows a view of a town (August 14, 1911). Later items include letters by Marcia's husband, Benjamin Thomas, and letters to her mother, Gertrude Billings.

The Diaries series (4 items) is made up of a diary that Marcia Billings kept in 1870, the diary of an unidentified writer covering the year 1909, and 2 books containing records of correspondence and personal finances.

The School Papers series (17 items) consists of a Denver High School report card for Marcia Billings, 4 lists of examination questions from geography and grammar exams, 8 manuscript essays, and a card with the program from a "Friday Evening Club [Soiree]" held at Warren's Dancing Academy on November 30, 1882. The series also contains 3 sets of graded notes by Helen C. Jones, October 5-7, 1896, on arithmetic, history, and physiology.

The accounts and receipts in the Financial Records series (6 items) pertain to the personal finances of Marcia Billings and Benjamin Thomas.

The Photographs (6 items), taken in the early 20th century, show unidentified women. The series includes a group of photographs whose images are no longer discernible (counted as 1 item).

The Illustrations series (3 items) contains a colored drawing of a young girl sewing, a colored drawing of a woman holding flowers, and a sheet with sketches of farm animals and people.

Invitations, Responses to Invitations, Cards, and Ephemera (94 items), mainly addressed to Marcia Billings, concern events such as marriages, birthday celebrations, and casual outings. Ephemeral items include lists of dances from social events.

Printed Items (39 items) include over 30 newspaper clippings, most of which concern social events, elopements, and deaths; others contain poetry, cartoons, and news stories. Other printed items are advertisements, a poem entitled "The Mark of a Man-Child," and a poem entitled "The Type-Writer," which contains a printed illustration of a woman typing.

The Realia items are a ribbon, a sock, and an accompanying poem about a "Sock Social" held by the Ladies Aid Society.

The Brearley-Pingree collection consists of approximately 166 autographed photographs of notable individuals that were originally compiled by Detroit-based newspaperman William H. Brearley and later added to by Detroit mayor and Governor of Michigan Hazen S. Pingree. In addition to the photographic materials, 36 manuscript items and two bound volumes are also included in the collection.

The Brearley-Pingree collection consists of approximately 166 autographed photographs of notable individuals that were originally compiled by Detroit-based newspaperman William H. Brearley and later added to by Detroit mayor and Governor of Michigan Hazen S. Pingree. An additional 36 manuscript items and 2 bound volumes are also included in the collection.

The collection appears to have been first started by Brearley during the mid-1860s, possibly during or immediately after his Civil War service. He seems to have solicited the autographs of a variety of famous individuals (including authors, performers, musicians, scientists, spiritual leaders, politicians, foreign rulers, and military officers) primarily by mailing them photographs of themselves and requesting their signatures. Possession of the collection appears to have been transferred to Pingree at some point, and he continued to make further contributions. Pingree’s daughter Hazel retained possession of the collection after her father’s death before eventually donating it to the Clements Library. All components of the collection are stored together in one box.

While most portraits in the collection are original studio photographs taken by a variety of photographers including Mathew Brady and Napoleon Sarony, a relatively small number of photographic reproductions of non-photographic portraits are also present (including depictions of James Monroe, Stonewall Jackson, and Henry and Clara Ford).

Volume 1: Brearley collection reproduction souvenir album

This album (16.5 x 15 cm) has green leather covers with lines of poetry from Henry W. Longfellow’s A Psalm of Life stamped in gold on the front. An index included at the beginning lists the names of 96 individuals represented across the album’s 24 pages. After the index, a passage written by William H. Brearley and dated August 1st 1874 explains that he created a limited number of facsimile copies of his original autographed portrait collection at the “urgent solicitation” of many interested friends. Brearley also explains that he acquired the original photographs and autographs in his collection “by long and patient effort, & tending over a period of ten years, and involving an expense of several Hundred dollars.” Subsequent album pages each contain four individually pasted 5.5 x 4 cm albumen print photographic reproductions of original portraits found in Brearley’s collection. This item was acquired from a separate source and was not part of the original collection of materials donated to the Clements Library by Hazel Hope Pingree Mills.

Volume 2: Brearley-Pingree collection original album

This album (30 x 26 cm) has brown leather covers and the words “Portraits. Autographs” and “Brearley” stamped in gold on the spine. The original autographed portraits of the Brearley-Pingree collection were once housed in this album before Clements Library staff removed the original photographs and substituted them with photocopies in 2010 for conservation and preservation purposes. Manuscript captions were also added by Clements Library staff. The original photographs are housed separately in smaller boxes and have been arranged according to size/format and ordered alphabetically by subject surname. See below for a complete list of photographic subjects contained in each box.

Of additional interest are three manuscript items, including the clipped signature of Hyacinthe Loyson and an October 15th 1873 letter from Henry W. Longfellow containing the same lines of poetry from A Psalm of Life that appear on the cover of the Brearley collection souvenir album. Also present is a letter from Buckingham Palace sent to Brearley in 1873 by Sir Thomas Biddulph explaining that the “enclosed Photograph” of Queen Victoria is being returned but that “The Queen’s Autograph is never given away.” Three wax seals are also included in the volume including an “Imperial Chancellor’s seal” (associated with a portrait of Otto von Bismarck); “the Napoleon Seal” (associated with a portrait of Jérôme Bonaparte); and a Great Seal of the Realm attached to the 1873 letter from Buckingham Palace.

Box 1.1: Brearley-Pingree collection cartes de visite, A-E

This box contains 47 cartes de visite. Represented individuals include the following:

• Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886.
• Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873.
• Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888.
• Anderson, Richard Heron, 1821-1879.
• Anderson, Robert, 1805-1871.
• Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
• Bancroft, George, 1800-1891.
• Barnum, P. T. (Phineas Taylor), 1810-1891.
• Barrett, Lawrence, 1838-1891.
• Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant), 1818-1893.
• Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887.
• Billings, Josh, 1818-1885. [Henry Wheeler Shaw]
• Birney, David Bell, 1825-1864.
• Bishop, Anna, 1810-1884. [Anna Riviere Schultz]
• Bismarck, Otto, Fürst von, 1815-1898.
• Bonaparte, Jérôme, King of Westphalia, 1784-1860.
• Bonner, Robert, 1824-1899.
• Booth, Edwin, 1833-1893.
• Breckinridge, John C. (John Cabell), 1821-1875.
• Bright, John, 1811-1889.
• Bryant, William Cullen, 1794-1878.
• Buchanan, James, 1791-1868.
• Bülow, Hans von, 1830-1894.
• Bunker, Chang, 1811-1874. [in portrait with Eng Bunker]
• Bunker, Eng, 1811-1874. [in portrait with Chang Bunker]
• Burnside, Ambrose Everett, 1824-1881. [two portraits included]
• Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893.
• Carleton, Will, 1845-1912.
• Chapin, E. H. (Edwin Hubbell), 1814-1880.
• Clem, John Lincoln, 1851-1937.
• Clough, J. E. (John Everett), 1836-1910.
• Coan, Titus, 1801-1882.
• Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885.
• Collins, Wilkie, 1824-1889.
• Cook, Eliza, 1818-1889.
• Coombs, Jane, 1842- .
• Curtis, George William, 1824-1892.
• Cushman, Charlotte, 1816-1876.
• Dana, Charles A. (Charles Anderson), 1819-1897.
• Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882.
• Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889.
• Dickinson, Anna E. (Anna Elizabeth), 1842-1932.
• Dix, John A. (John Adams), 1798-1879.
• Doré, Gustave, 1832-1883.
• Doubleday, Abner, 1819-1893.
• Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895.
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882.
• Emory, William H. (William Hemsley), 1811-1887.

Box 1.2: Brearley-Pingree collection cartes de visite, F-N

This box contains 46 cartes de visite. Represented individuals include the following:

• Farragut, David Glasgow, 1801-1870.
• Ferrero, Edward, 1831-1899.
• Field, Cyrus W. (Cyrus West), 1819-1892.
• Field, Kate, 1838-1896. [Mary Katherine Keemle Field]
• Fillmore, Millard, 1800-1874.
• Forrest, Nathan Bedford, 1821-1877.
• Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887.
• Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879.
• Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart), 1809-1898.
• Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885.
• Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872.
• Greenwood, Grace, 1823-1904. [Sarah Jane Clarke Lippincott]
• Hall, John, 1829-1898.
• Halleck, H. W. (Henry Wager), 1815-1872.
• Hancock, Winfield Scott, 1824-1886.
• Hay, John, 1838-1905.
• Heintzelman, Samuel Peter, 1805-1880.
• Hoar, E. R. (Ebenezer Rockwood), 1816-1895.
• Holland, J. G. (Josiah Gilbert), 1819-1881.
• Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894.
• Hooker, Joseph, 1814-1879.
• Howard, O. O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909.
• Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885.
• Jackson, Stonewall, 1824-1863.
• Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875.
• Kirby-Smith, Edmund, 1824-1893.
• Lee, Fitzhugh, 1835-1905.
• Lee, Robert E. (Robert Edward), 1807-1870.
• Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
• Locke, David Ross, 1833-1888. [Petroleum V. Nasby]
• Logan, John Alexander, 1826-1886.
• Longstreet, James, 1821-1904.
• Loring, Charles G. (Charles Greely), 1794-1867.
• Loyson, Hyacinthe, 1827-1912.
• Lucca, Pauline, 1841-1908.
• Mario, Giovanni, 1810-1883. [Mario, T.]
• McClellan, George Brinton, 1826-1885.
• Mitchell, Maggie, 1837-1918.
• Moltke, Helmuth, Graf von, 1800-1891.
• Monroe, James, 1758-1831.
• Morse, Edward Sylvester, 1838-1925.
• Motley, John Lothrop, 1814-1877.
• Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh, Shah of Iran, 1831-1896.
• Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902.
• Nilsson, Christine, 1843-1921.
• Nutt, Commodore, 1848-1881. [group portrait with Minnie Warren]

Box 1.3: Brearley-Pingree collection cartes de visite, O-Z

This box contains 36 cartes de visite. Represented individuals include the following:

• Ord, Edward Otho Cresap, 1818-1883.
• Parepa-Rosa, Euphrosyne, 1836-1874.
• Patti, Adelina, 1843-1919.
• Phillipps, Adelaide, 1833-1882.
• Porter, David D. (David Dixon), 1813-1891.
• Rogers, Randolph, 1825-1892.
• Salvini, Tommaso, 1829-1915.
• Saxe, John Godfrey, 1816-1887.
• Schurz, Carl, 1829-1906.
• Scott-Siddons, Mary Frances, 1844-1896.
• Sheridan, Philip Henry, 1831-1888.
• Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891.
• Sothern, Edward Askew, 1826-1881.
• Spinner, Francis Elias, 1802-1890.
• Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon), 1834-1892.
• Stanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904.
• Stephens, Alexander H. (Alexander Hamilton), 1812-1883.
• Strakosch, Max, 1835-1892.
• Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874.
• Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892.
• Terry, Alfred Howe, 1827-1890.
• Thiers, Adolphe, 1797-1877.
• Thomas, George H. (George Henry), 1816-1870.
• Thomas, Theodore, 1835-1905.
• Thumb, Tom, 1838-1883. [Charles Sherwood Stratton; group portrait with Lavinia Warren]
• Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. [Samuel L. Clemens; both names signed on photograph]
• Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 1794-1877.
• Waite, Morrison R. (Morrison Remick), 1816-1888.
• Warren, G. K. (Gouverneur Kemble), 1830-1882.
• Welles, Gideon, 1802-1878.
• Willcox, Orlando B.
• Wilson, Henry, 1812-1875.
• Woodhull, Victoria C. (Victoria Claflin), 1838-1927.
• Wright, Horatio Gouverneur, 1820-1899.
• Yates, Edmund, 1831-1894.
• Young, Brigham, 1801-1877.

Box 2: Brearley-Pingree collection cabinet cards

This box contains 27 cabinet cards. Represented individuals include the following:

• Andrade, Ignacio, 1836-1925.
• Arthur, Chester Alan, 1829-1886.
• Bernhardt, Sarah, 1844-1923.
• Booth-Tucker, Emma, 1860-1903.
• Booth-Tucker, Frederick St. George de Lautour, 1853-1929.
• Bull, Ole, 1810-1880.
• Cable, George Washington, 1844-1925.
• Chamberlain, Joseph, 1836-1914.
• Dickinson, Donald McDonald, 1846-1917.
• Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881.
• Garfield, Lucretia Rudolph, 1832-1918.
• Hayes, Rutherford B., 1822-1893.
• Janauschek, Francesca Romana Magdalena, 1830-1904.
• Kellogg, Clara Louisa, 1842-1916.
• Kennan, George, 1845-1924.
• Kruger, Paul, 1825-1904.
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882.
• Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884.
• Ranavalona III, Queen of Madagascar, 1861-1917.
• Reed, Thomas B. (Thomas Brackett), 1839-1902.
• Stead, W. T. (William Thomas), 1849-1912. [three portraits included]
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896.
• Urso, Camilla, 1842-1902.
• Victoria, Queen of Britain, 1819-1901.
• Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892.

Box 3: Brearley-Pingree collection large photographs and manuscript materials

This box contains 9 large format mounted photographs and 33 manuscript items. Represented individuals among the photographs include the following:

• Cleveland, Frances Folsom, 1864-1947.
• Cleveland, Grover, 1837-1908.
• Ford, Clara Bryant, 1866-1950.
• Ford, Henry, 1863-1947.
• Gibbons, James, 1834-1921.
• Guzmán Blanco, Antonio, 1828-1899.
• Mace, Aurelia Gay, 1835-1910.
• Milles, Carl, 1875-1955.
• Wilder, Marshall P.

Manuscript materials of interest include a number of letters dating to the mid-1870s from various individuals (including John A. Dix, C. H. Spurgeon, H. W. Longfellow, and Lucretia R. Garfield) possibly sent to William H. Brearley in response to autograph solicitations and other requests; and numerous letters addressed to Hazen S. Pingree from various individuals (inlcuding William Thomas Stead, Ignacio Andrade, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley) dating to the 1890s. Other items of interest include a copy of "Special Order No. 166 'Extract' Head Quarters 2d Brigade 3d Div 2d A.I." dated June 15th 1865 stating that the 1st Mass Heavy Artillery had been ordered by Brig. Gen. Franklin Pierce to repost to General Hancock; calling cards for "Sixto Sanchez Director General de Coreeos - Postmaster" as well as "The Admiral of the Navy" George Dewey from "when he called on Gov. Pingree in Detroit"; a clipped signature of "Louis Botha Commandant General"; an undated note to poet Louise Chandler Moulton; a document dated August 1st 1892 detailing financial investment information related to the Michigan-Peninsular Car Company with pasted clippings of wealthy politicians and their net worths as well as annotations by Pingree; a letter dated Feb 19th 1892 from Don M. Dickinson to Pingree regarding the prospective visit of Grover Clevland to Detroit, Ann Arbor, and the University of Michigan; a letter dated March 9th 1949 from Hazel Hope Pingree Mills to Director of the William L. Clements Library Randolph G. Adams regarding progress being made on research regarding the life of William H. Brearley; and an undated typed copy of a short essay titled "Brearley - Man of Action, Started Many Important Detroit Activities" by historian George B. Catlin.

This Caspar F. Goodrich Papers contain correspondence, documents, ephemera, and other items related to Rear Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, who served in the United States Navy from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Many of the materials relate to his naval career, business and personal affairs, and his political interests after World War I.

The Caspar F. Goodrich Papers contain correspondence, documents, ephemera, and other items related to Rear Admiral Caspar F. Goodrich, who served in the United States Navy from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Many of the materials relate to his naval career, business and personal affairs, and his political interests after World War I. The collection documents Goodrich's various travels and naval campaigns as Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy and details his business, scholarship, and personal life.

The Correspondence series comprises the bulk of the collection. The Chronological Correspondence subseries (approximately 5 linear feet) contains incoming and outgoing letters to Caspar F. Goodrich. Approximately 2,535 letters to and from his wives Eleanor and Sarah and various family and friends, naval personnel, professional society members, businessmen, and academics document Goodrich's personal life and naval career. The series, arranged chronologically, ranges from the late 1860s until 1925, the year of his death. Goodrich, in his extensive naval and professional travels, wrote from many continents in the midst of wars and diplomatic negotiations. The letters detail his ongoing involvement in foreign policy, domestic and international politics, and naval and academic matters. Many pertain to his actions during the Spanish-American War and to aspects of naval administration and navy yards. Some correspondents discussed Goodrich's speaking engagements at the U.S. Naval War College and other venues, as well as his involvement in various naval societies and similar groups. The series also reveals the particulars of his intimate life and private thoughts.

This subseries includes, for example:

• Fifteen letters to his mother from the U.S.S. Portsmouth in South America at the beginning of his naval career in 1869.
• About eight hundred letters to and from his first wife Eleanor Milnor Goodrich from 1884 to 1899 about his travels, interactions with family acquaintances, their children's schooling, their home in Pomfret, Connecticut, and personal thoughts and sentiments. Two letters to her discuss the Suez Canal during the Anglo-Egyptian conflict in 1882. Approximately fifty ink and pencil drawings are enclosed in his correspondence to Eleanor, illustrating scenery and travel observations from around the world as well as mundane matters.
• Approximately fifteen pieces of correspondence during the 1898 Spanish-American Conflict in Cuba. Materials include letters from Goodrich aboard the U.S.S. Newark addressed to Cuban chief commanders demanding the unconditional surrender of Manzanillo, notes in Spanish to Goodrich from Cuban leaders, and military decorations from the Navy for his service.
• Approximately fifty letters from 1907 to 1914 to and from Frederick Winslow Taylor, an engineer and leader in the Efficiency Movement and Progressive era, on personal, commercial, and legal matters including their business with the Tabasco Company.
• Six letters from Charles Chaillé-Long written between 1906 to 1908.
• Twenty three letters from Secretary of the Navy Truman H. Newberry to Goodrich from 1907 to 1910 on naval matters.
• Approximately ten letters to Goodrich from the Secretary of the Navy Office on his delegate appointment to the 1908 International Historical Congress of the War of Independence in Saragossa, Spain.
• Over thirty letters on education, including letters written in 1916 to and from the Oneida Institute and a 14-year-old school boy, James Stidham, whose education Goodrich sponsored. Other letters discuss his children's schooling and etiquette training with his wife Eleanor.
• Two signed Franklin D. Roosevelt letters to Caspar F. Goodrich as Assistant Secretary of Navy (1913 and 1919).
• Orders that Goodrich received after being recalled to active duty during World War I and a letter that he wrote to United States Representative Gilbert A. Currie, criticizing the Justice Department's treatment of spies and foreign nationals.
• Letters to and from Goodrich and the Navy Athletic Association on the Army-Football Game in 1923.

Goodrich received personal letters from the 1910s until his death in 1925. Many of these letters concern the writers' political opinions prior to U.S. involvement in World War I and the progress of the war, often with a focus on naval engagements. Goodrich's correspondents discussed the possibility of U.S. intervention on behalf of the Allied powers and expressed their joy when the U.S. did enter the war. Following the war, they wrote about the peace process and other aspects of international politics. The collection includes letters that Goodrich wrote to newspaper editors about the treatment of German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war; he advocated a requirement that captured combatants repair all war damage to French and Belgian villages before being allowed to return home. Other drafts by Goodrich concern his opinions about the United States Navy, his opposition to anarchists and socialists, his desire for the United States to deport immigrants who commit crimes, and other political subjects.

Some of the late correspondence reflects Goodrich's ongoing interest and participation in naval organizations, including his involvement in naval academy veterans' efforts to sponsor the rebuilding of the library of the Catholic University of Leuven in Leuven, Belgium, after its destruction during World War I. He also received correspondence from newspaper and magazine editors rejecting articles and short stories.

The Letter Books subseries consists of 7 volumes and a series of letters written to his daughter Gladys that collectively span from 1876 to 1914. Volume 1 contains various copies of articles and letters, as well as a travel and historical account of the Suez Canal. Dating from Goodrich’s time aboard the U.S.S. Kearsarge as Lieutenant Commander, subjects range from copied articles on steel manufacturing from Mechanics Magazine to disciplinary reports for crew members. One letter complains of the presence of Commander F. V. McNair’s wife aboard the ship. Also included is an "analytical report" of the crew with detailed tables documenting nationalities, physical characteristics, and punishments, along with an evaluation of "desirable" or "undesirable" persons. There are several copies of personal letters including ones detailing Goodrich’s indignation after his promotion to Executive Officer on the U.S.S. Tennessee was denied. The volume includes a bookmark embroidered with "Remember."

Volumes 2-7 contain Caspar F. Goodrich's outgoing personal and professional correspondence, as well as a few stories and articles. Goodrich discussed navy business and personnel, his work at the U.S. Naval War College, his Spanish-American War service, naval history, naval funding, and other subjects. Several letters reflect Goodrich's attempts to win his son Caspar a place at the United States Naval Academy and his opinions about various academy policies. Many of the letters concern Goodrich's finances and the Gladwyn estate in Pomfret, Connecticut. Some correspondence pertains to his efforts to construct a memorial for the sailors killed in a boiler explosion on the U.S.S. Bennington in San Diego, California, in July 1905.

"Our Trip Around the World" consists of sequential letters written by Caspar F. Goodrich to his daughter, Gladys, documenting international travel from October 1910 to March 1911.

The Writings and Manuscripts series consists of over 270 items of personal notebooks and diaries, manuscripts (including typed and handwritten drafts), speeches, poems and short stories, and bound booklets of Goodrich's own writing from 1900 to 1925. Much of this encompasses biographical material on Goodrich, not only of his extensive travels and naval campaigns but also of a wide body of his scholarly work and lecture material during his time at the Naval War College. Many concern topics related to the United States Navy's history, organization, vessels, and personnel. Some writings reflect his support of policies promoting the use of English as the primary language of the United States, his belief that criminals and others should be prohibited from having children, and his opposition to anarchist political philosophies. Some of his works were published in Army and Navy journals, literary magazines, major newspapers, and by the colleges and societies in which he held teaching positions. A selection of works includes:

• "Battle of Santiago Bay," featuring a poem and account of the battle in 1898.
• "Some Unbeaten Paths in India" includes matte photographs, original watercolors by Captain C.J. Davis of the Indian army, and handwritten and revised drafts produced during Goodrich's business and personal travel in India in 1914.
• "Piracy in the West Indies a Hundred Years ago," a loose-leaf undated three-part series of writings.
• "The Traditions of the Navy," a multiple part 1921 manuscript typed and handwritten, bound by loose string.
• "The Taxpayer and the Schools," a 1923 manuscript.

The Printed Items series includes bound booklets produced by figures other than Goodrich, pamphlets, memos, reports, and newspaper clippings. Printed annual membership lists (bulk post-1911) for various societies like the Naval History Society and the Naval Academy are also present. Notable selections include:

• Thirty materials from 1911 to 1915 on the Tata-Hydro-Electric Project in Bombay, India, including booklets, printed reports, maps, and articles. One set of nine booklets contain the ceremony program guide, photographs of the plant's opening in February 1911, and a printed speech from the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
• Twenty-five bound books, booklets, and pamphlets dating from 1912 to 1923 detailing Communism and the "conditions of Russia." Some titles of note include New York World's staff correspondent Lincoln Eyre's Russia Analyzed (1920), Eugene Richter's Pictures of the Socialist Future (1912), and Lee Alexander Stone's Pacifists and Reds (1924).
• Five bound pamphlets from 1917 to 1920 covering the American constitutional government: Constitution of the National Association for Constitutional Government; How The Constitution Saved the Revolution; The Americanism of the Constitution of the United States; and Experiments in Government and the Essentials of the Constitution I & II.
• Three Congressional Record daily reports from the 68th Congress (1923-1925), First Sessions.
• General Orders No. 260-303 from January to June, 1917, with several missing.
• Approximately 150 newspaper clippings from 1904 to 1925. They are mostly comprised of letters to editors, news pertaining to Goodrich's naval campaigns and accomplishments, political cartoons, material in Spanish, and short stories in various newspaper publications.

The Documents series contains various certificates, special passports, driving test passes, committee reports, and memoranda. This series features certificates honoring Goodrich's participation as a delegate to the International Historical Congress of the War of Independence in Saragossa, Spain (1908), a memorandum with Clarence E. Warren, who agreed to look after the Goodrich home during the admiral's absence (1913), and a typed "Act of March 4th, 1909" stipulating punishment for conspiracy against the United States. It also includes bills, receipts, memorandum of expenses, and minor finance sheets which reflect Goodrich's various travels and personal and naval accounts.

The Ephemera series includes program guides, menus, brochures, calling cards, and printed and engraved invitations, many for gatherings sponsored by naval and patriotic organizations. Included are a large selection of visiting cards from his 1908 visit to Saragossa for the International Historical Congress of the War of Independence The series spans nearly twenty years from 1904 onwards (bulk ca. 1909) with additional undated materials.

The Photographs series contains six photographs of various subject matters ranging from naval business to domestic scenes, such as a military encampment, a sitting room, and a portrait of Goodrich.

TheNotes, Fragments, and Miscellaneous series is comprised of loose, fragmented, or miscellaneous materials. Included are portions of writings, partial letters, illustrations, recipes and lists, and small flat trinkets. A notable item is the engraving plate used for Mrs. Goodrich's calling card.

The Chapman family papers consist primarily of letters between John W. Chapman of Brooklyn, New York, and his immediate family, written around the turn of the 20th century. Most of the letters relate to his daughter, Sarah Dimon Chapman ("Sallie"), including a series of letters written to her by her mother, Mary C. Chapman, with advice for Sallie's European travels, as well as later letters to John and Mary from Sallie's husband, Lewis Witherbee Francis.

The Chapman family papers contain about 98 items, of which 85 are letters exchanged by members of the Chapman family around the turn of the 20th century. John W. Chapman and his wife, Mary Dimon Chapman, received incoming letters from numerous family members and other acquaintances, such as Mary's father, Charles Dimon. Of the 85 letters, 42 pertain to their daughter Sallie and her husband, Lewis Witherbee Francis. In 1896, Mary Chapman wrote 12 letters to Sallie in which she offered her opinions about several European countries while Sallie was traveling abroad. Her letters occasionally enclose newspaper clippings. Sallie also received letters from her father, grandparents, and other relatives and acquaintances throughout the late 1800s. She and her husband occasionally wrote to her parents, reporting on their health and news from New York City. In one letter, Lewis commented on the stock market and the assassination of President William McKinley (September 15, 1901). A woman who signed herself "Aunt Cordelia" also wrote to John and Mary Chapman on the same subject, sharing her feelings about the shooting and about anarchists (September 8, 1901). Many of these letters are written on stationery with printed letterheads from hotels and businesses, including two of John W. Chapman's professional letterheads.

The collection also contains receipts from Sallie Chapman's purchases in France in July 1896, calling cards, a printed report on the expenses of the Union Pacific System (July 30, 1901), some cat fur kept as a souvenir, and an illustrated newspaper clipping on the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.

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 lithographed portrait of Christopher Hughes, by Jean Baptiste Madou, from 1829 is also present in the collection's oversize materials, with a lithograph image of "le capitole a Washington" below the portrait of Hughes. It features an autograph presentation from Christopher Hughes to Prince Henry of the Netherlands, July 12, 1845. 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.

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, maps, and ephemera related to the descendants and extended family of Dr. Joseph Cole of Sharon, Connecticut; Auburn, New York; and Albion, New York. Among many represented subjects are the educational and social lives of women in New York during the early 1800s, legal aspects of land ownership and estate administration, and land along Long Pond in Rome, Maine.

This collection is made up of correspondence, legal documents, financial records, maps, and ephemera related to the descendants and extended family of Dr. Joseph Cole of Sharon, Connecticut; Auburn, New York; and Albion, New York.

The collection's correspondence includes letters from the children and other descendants of Dr. Joseph Cole of Sharon, Connecticut, and Auburn, New York, between 1817 and 1942. Most of the early letters in the collection are addressed to sisters Laura Altie and Mary Parsons Cole from female friends in New York. Several correspondents, including Mary Ann Kellogg and Chloe Hyde, were students at Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York, in the 1820s and 1830s. Kellogg provided a detailed description of the school before its main building was constructed (June 24, 1821), and Chloe Hyde later shared information about her coursework and the lives of fellow students. Other acquaintances told the sisters of their religious and social lives in different areas of New York, including Lanesborough, Buffalo, and Albany.

Almeron and Dan Cole received letters from friends, family, and business acquaintances, including their brother-in-law, Hiram Foote Mather. These include 7 letters by Frances M. Elliott, who wrote Dan, her future husband, in 1835 and 1836 about her life in Scottsville, New York, and her anticipation of their upcoming marriage. Letters from the 1840s to mid-1860s are most frequently addressed to the Cole brothers and to their brother-in-law, Hiram Foote Mather, about business affairs. Many regard legal matters in Niles and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

After the mid-1860s, much of the correspondence is composed of personal and business letters between David Hyde Mather, his brother-in-law George McClure Welles, and his brothers Joseph and John Mather, who moved out West in the late 1800s. Mather also received many personal letters from his niece, Harriet Prentiss Welles, during her time as postmistress of Great Bend, Kansas, who discussed her personal finances and loans. The papers also contain some of Daniel H. Cole's business correspondence. Other correspondence from this period includes letters between George McClure Welles and Lewis Hunt about Harriet Prentiss Welles's share of Almeron Cole's estate, and personal correspondence addressed to Mary Jane Cole of Albion, New York. She received letters from many female acquaintances and a series from her cousin, D. Williams Patterson, tracing the genealogy of the Hyde family to the mid-18th century.

A selection of letters from the 20th century relate to Marston Taylor Bogert, Morrison McMath, and Lizette Harrison. Between 1912 and the 1920s, Bogert corresponded with several people in Maine, regarding property along Long Pond near Rome, Maine. Other letters relate to the family of Morrison H. McMath, a lawyer from Rochester, New York. A late series of letters by Elizabeth ("Lizette") P. Harrison of Portland, Oregon, to Ada Howe Kent of California, reflects her financial troubles and emotional state during the early years of the Great Depression.

Legal documents include papers relating to the Newton and North Hempstead Plank Road Company; New York Supreme Court Cases heard between 1848 and 1894; estate administration papers; and financial documents and records. The Cole family papers contain documents concerning taxes paid on land holdings in Rome, Maine, in the early 20th century, including property held by Edward F. Bragg in Belgrade, Maine.

Materials relating to education include six checks from the 1860s made out to Phipps' U. Seminary, a 1906 report card for a student at the United States Naval Academy, and an undated "Report Book" containing two essays. An assortment of ephemeral items and manuscript maps of Marston T. Bogert's property along Long Pond in Rome, Maine, also appear in the collection.

The Cole family papers also contain essays, notes, and poetry. Items of note include an 1850s manuscript response of the County of Orleans, New York, to recent actions of slaveholding states, calling for attendance at a Republican Party convention in Syracuse; a 1925 essay entitled "The Beginnings of Modern Spiritualism in and Near Rochester," by Adelbert Cronised; a lengthy typed travelogue of India; and an essay on the history of the Isthmus of Panama and the Panama Canal.

This collection is made up of the papers of five generations of the Dwight, Willard, Alden, Allen, and Freeman families of the East Coast and (later) U.S. Midwest, between 1752 and 1937. Around 3/4 of the collection is incoming and outgoing correspondence of family members, friends, and colleagues. The primary persons represented are Lydia Dwight of Massachusetts and her husband John Willard, who served in the French and Indian War; Connecticut mother Abigail Willard along with her husband Samuel Alden, who ran an apothecary in Hanover, New Jersey; Allen Female Seminary School alumna and teacher Sarah J. Allen; American Civil War surgeon Otis Russell Freeman; Presbyterian minister and temperance advocate Rev. Samuel Alden Freeman; and prominent public librarian Marilla Waite Freeman. The papers also include diaries and journals, writings, school certificates, military and ecclesiastical documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, advertisements, business and name cards, invitations to events, and brochures for plays and other performances.

The collection is arranged first by family grouping, then by material type. These series roughly reflect the arrangement of the collection when it arrived at the William L. Clements Library.

The Dwight-Willard-Alden Family Papers are comprised of around 250 items, dating between 1752 and 1884. One fifth or so of this grouping is predominantly correspondence between Lydia Dwight/Lydia Dwight Willard, her father, stepmother, siblings, husband, and sons, 1752-1791. These intermarried families were based largely in Sheffield and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The letters include discussions about mending and cleaning clothing; feelings about their father/husband gone to serve in the French and Indian War; putting up a monument to replace faltering graves; the return of Elijah and Col. Williams from the field on account of sickness; coming and going of soldiers; moral and practical advice; teaching and boarding young students during the war; settling into (“no longer free”) married life; the death of Bathsheba Dwight; the meeting of local men in private homes and the training of minute men in Stockbridge; the prolonged case of smallpox experienced by Lydia’s son in 1785; and news of John Willard, Jr.’s admission to Harvard.

The remaining four fifths of this grouping are largely incoming correspondence of Abigail Willard Alden (1771-1832) and her daughter Abigail Alden (1809-1854). Their correspondents were located in Stafford, Connecticut; Hanover and Lancaster, New Hampshire; Lunenburg, Vermont; and elsewhere. They begin with letters from siblings and parents to the newly married Abigail Willard Alden (ca. 1800); Samuel Alden travel letters to New York City; and news of a Stafford doctor named Chandler who had promised marriage to a woman and then fleeced her for $500 before fleeing to parts unknown. A group of letters regard pharmacy matters, the burning of Samuel Willard’s drugstore (January-April 1802), and the state of Anti-Federalists and Federalists in Stafford (1802). A large portion the letters include content on sickness and health, with varying degrees of detail, including several family members sick and dying from measles in 1803. Other topics include Hanover, New Hampshire, gossip on local premarital sex; a debate on whether or not to hire a black female domestic laborer; comments on a local suicide attempt; a young woman deliberating on objections to women spending time reading novels (April 10, 1806); and treatment by a quack doctor. These papers also include two diaries, poetry and essays, two silhouettes, genealogical manuscripts, and miscellaneous printed items.

The Allen Family Papers are largely incoming letters to Sarah Jane Allen prior to her marriage to Samuel A. Freeman (around 300 items), and from her father-in-law Otis Russell Freeman (around 60 items) between 1860 and 1865. An abundance of the letters were written to Sarah while she attended the Allen Female Seminary in Rochester, New York, and afterward when she lived at Honeoye Falls, New York. They include letters from her parents, cousins, friends, and siblings. A sampling suggests that the bulk are letters by young women attempting to eke out a life for themselves through seminary education, teaching, and domestic labor. Among much else, they include content on Elmira Female Seminary, New York state travel, and female friendship and support.

The Otis Russell Freeman letters date between 1862 and 1865, while he served as a surgeon in the 10th and 14th Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers. He wrote about the everyday camp life with a focus on the health and sickness of the soldiers. His letters include content on the defenses of Washington, D.C., fighting at Cold Harbor and outside Richmond, Virginia, the surrender of Robert E. Lee, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln's body lying in state at Jersey City. Two carte-de-visite photographs of Otis Freeman are present.

A diary kept by Sarah J. Allen began on the day of her marriage, September 26, 1865, documents her honeymoon to Niagara Falls. It ends in November 1865. The remainder of the volume is filled with recipes for baked goods, pickles, and other foods. The printed items include ephemera from Sarah Jane Allen’s tenure at Elmira Female College five issues of the Callisophia Society’s newspaper The Callisophia (vol. 1, nos. 1, 3-6; March/April 1860-January/February 1861), as well as a Catalogue of Books in Callisophia Library, December 1862.

The Samuel Alden Freeman Family Papers include approximately 300 largely incoming letters to Presbyterian minister S. A. Freeman, plus printed materials, ephemera, photographs, and bound volumes, dating in the 1810s and from the 1860s to 1880s. Correspondence of his second wife Olive dates from the 1810s in central New York. The collection includes letters to S. A. Freeman from his first wife Sarah, daughter Abigail Alden Freeman (1873-1925), and Sara Harriet Freeman (1879-1946). These materials include courtship correspondence of Sarah Jane Allen and S. A. Freeman. A considerable portion relates to Presbyterianism and at least one temperance society pledge sheet is present. Approximately 50 photographs, about half of them identified, are largely of Samuel A. Freeman and the Freeman daughters Marilla and Abigail. Among the printed ephemeral items are advertisements for programming at Corinthian Hall (probably Rochester, New York), items related to a Sunday School Association (including a printed broadside catalog of books at a N.J. Sunday School), and pamphlets on Presbyterianism. A medicinal recipe book from the mid-19th century and a commonplace book of poetry are examples of the S. A. Freeman family bound volumes.

The collection concludes with letters, photographs, ephemera, and printed items comprising the Marilla Waite Freeman Papers. Around 600 letters are largely incoming to public librarian M. W. Freeman from female educators and librarians. They discussed their profession, books, reading, and intellectual topics. A small clutch of letters, about three dozen manuscript and typed poems, and a dozen or more newspaper clippings, 1900s-1910s, comprise poet Floyd Dell’s contributions to the collection. Marilla also corresponded with poets and writers Margaret Todd Ritter, Robert Frost and Mrs. Frost, and Marie Bullock about public and private recitations and lectures. Examples of subjects covered by the printed materials include orations, educational/school/college items, library-related items, newspapers and clippings, fliers, women's clubs, New York City theater, the American Library Association, Poetry Society of America, poems by various authors, such as Ina Robert and John Belknap, visiting and business cards, and travel.

This collection consists of letters, manuscript maps, embroidery, and a photograph and calling card produced by or relating to the young Emily Hockaday Blair of Columbia, Missouri. The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters Emily wrote to her parents, Frank and Florence Blair, often addressed using nicknames "Faver" and "Murgee" or "Mudgie," and sent to them at various places like New York, Illinois, Missouri, and Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). In addition to commentary about Emily's daily experiences, hopes for visits, education, and acknowledgment of gifts, the letters also demonstrate her evolving handwriting.

This collection consists of letters, manuscript maps, embroidery, and a photograph and calling card produced by or relating to the young Emily Hockaday Blair of Columbia, Missouri. The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters Emily wrote to her parents, Frank and Florence Blair, often addressed using nicknames "Faver" and "Murgee" or "Mudgie," and sent to them at various places like New York, Illinois, Missouri, and Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). In addition to commentary about Emily's daily experiences, hopes for visits, education, and acknowledgment of gifts, the letters also demonstrate her evolving handwriting. In her letter of November 11, 1892, Emily mentioned visiting local asylums and acquiring souvenirs from them. An undated letter includes several drawings of figures, including one of a Native American woman, and another includes a copy of a Rose Hartwick Thorpe's poem, "The Queen's Gift." Two maps that Emily drew as school exercises are also present--one of the United States of America (March 13, 1893), and another of New England (March 20, 1893). On occasion, other family members who were helping to care for Emily wrote brief notes within the correspondence, and an Aunt Lizabeth penned some letters dictated by Emily.

• One of Emily Hockaday Blair's calling cards, inscribed "To Mudgie & Faver"
• A cabinet studio portrait of Emily as a young child, taken by the photographer Douglass in Columbia, Missouri
• A handkerchief embroidered by Emily as a New Year's gift for her parents in 1892

The Fish Family papers contain the personal letters of Harry S. Fish of Williamson, New York, and his children who, over the course of the 19th century, scattered throughout the United States, fought in the Civil War, and suffered sickness and poverty during the postwar period. Also present are letters to J. Clifford Robinson from his mother and sister, and letters written annually from Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to her friend Maud Bradley Robinson, from 1887 to 1933.

The Fish family papers (417 items) contain the personal letters and writings of a family from Williamson, New York, whose members, over the course of the 19th century, scattered throughout the United States, fought in the Civil War, and suffered though sickness and poverty during the postwar period. The bulk of the letters (336 in all) concern Harry S. Fish and his children: Dan, Carlton, Selby, and Julia Fish. Also present are letters to J. Clifford Robinson from his mother and sister, and 47 letters written annually from Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to her friend Maud Bradley Robinson, spanning 1887 to 1933. The collection also contains 25 calling cards, 9 social invitations, 2 documents, 1 essay, 13 miscellaneous items, and one lock of hair.

Correspondence series :

The Fish family letters subseries (336 items) largely document the lives of Dan, Carlton, Selby, and Julia Fish. Throughout, the siblings discuss their deep animosity toward their father. The first four letters (1847-1850) are between Wright R. Fish, in Poughkeepsie, New York, and his father Isaac Fish, in Williamson, New York. Letters written during the Civil War-era include 18 letters from Carlton, 27 from Selby, 14 from Daniel, 9 from Judson Rice (all addressed to Julia), and 49 letters from Julia to Carlton (with 3 additional, post-war letters). These include descriptions of the Peninsular Campaign (Yorktown and the Seven Days Battles, particularly Gaines's Mills) by Selby, and Judson Rice's account of 1st Winchester. Both Selby and Carlton commented on their regiment’s occasional ill discipline and low morale. Selby described his experience in army hospitals and sometimes reflected on death, war, and the hard life of a soldier.

Dan’s letters, written mostly from California and Oregon, provide commentary on the life of an itinerant (and sometimes vagrant) traveler in the gold fields of the Far West. Julia described local events and family news, frequently discussing family strife. She occasionally discussed the politics and society in Williamson. In a particularly notable incident onJuly 17, 1864, Julia consulted a psychic to diagnose Carlton’s mysterious illness, which appeared during the siege of Yorktown in May 1862. Many Civil War era letters contain illustrated letterheads.

The collection contains material concerning southern perspectives of the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras, including 59 letters written to Julia Fish by Selby Fish and/or his wife, Josephine, from New Orleans (1864-1871); 7 letters from Selby to Carlton (1867-1869); and letters from Carlton to Julia: 7 written from Grant City, Missouri, (1868-1869); 27 from New Orleans, Louisiana (1869-1883); and 3 from San Antonio, Texas (1883). Of note are two letters written by Carlton from Grant City, Missouri, in which he described the surge of population in a "back woods" town in northwestern Missouri, as post-war westward expansion peaked (October 18, 1868 and October 24, 1869). Also of interest are Carlton’s accounts of his struggles with poverty and unemployment (November 8, 1889), and Dan’s report on joining the Good Templars in 1867; he described a wild ceremony that featured riding a goat backwards and climbing a greased pole with bare feet.

The J. Clifford Robinson letters consist of 63 letters and postcards, written to J. Clifford Robinson by his mother and sister Gertrude in 1895 and 1896. These offer a perspective on an intensely close mother-son relationship in the 1890's, and contain many remarks of motherly advice.

The Fish family letters subseries ends with 13 condolence letters addressed to Maud Bradley, comforting her on the death of her mother, Julia Fish Bradley, in 1905.

The Arnold-Robinson letters subseries contains 47 letters written annually, on New Year's Day, by Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to Maud Bradley Robinson, reflecting on the events of the year, and reminiscing about their childhood together in Pultneyville, New York (1887-1933). These letters were written every year from 1887-1933, from their teenage years through retirement. In these, Arnold discussed her concerns about remaining unmarried, her inability to have children, and her desire to adopt a child.

The Ephemera, Photographs, and Miscellaneous series (55 items) is comprised of 5 items of ephemera concerning Julia Fish Bradley and her relatives; 25 calling cards from friends of Julia Fish Bradley; 9 invitations to parties and balls addressed to J. Clifford Robinson, (1890's); 13 miscellaneous writing fragments; and 3 cartes-de-visite of Selby Fish (c. 1869), Joseph E. Johnston (c.1863), and Nathaniel Lyon (c.1861).