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

The Sarah R. Parry autograph book contains prose and poetic contributions from Parry's friends and cousins, who wrote about topics such as friendship, religion, and beauty.

The Sarah R. Parry autograph album contains 17 poems and 3 prose contributions by Parry's friends and cousins. Some of the original poems are dedicated to Parry, and an entry by "Juvenis" uses the first letters of her first name and surname in an acrostic poem. Most of the entries concern friendship, though others often pertain to religious topics such as faith and the afterlife. The entry by S. C. Demuth, which is a copied poem entitled "Beauty Transient," is accompanied by a pencil drawing of a young woman. Contributors often dated their entries in the Quaker style and wrote from places such as Lancaster County, Muskingum, and Zanesville, Ohio. Very brief pencil notes mention Martha T. Amos and Josephine P. Amos.

• Delaware Water Gap
• Catskill Mountains
• Weehawken
• Sawkill Falls
• Fort Putnam

The collection focuses primarily on John Tailyour, a Scottish merchant who traveled to North America and Jamaica in the 1770s and 1780s to conduct business, before finally returning to his home in Scotland in 1792. His correspondence is heavily business related, centering especially on his trading of slaves, foodstuffs, and sundry goods. It also chronicles the current events in both Jamaica and the Empire. Many of Tailyour's correspondents debate the meaning and merit of the cessation of the slave trade in the late 18th century, as well as the military events of the American and Haitian revolutions, and of the Maroon rebellion of 1795. The papers also include letters between John and his family in Scotland regarding John's mixed-race Jamaican children. He sent three of his children to Britain to be educated, which caused much family concern. Tailyour's account books and financial papers relate both to his Jamaican estate and business, and to his Scottish estate, from which he received added income from rents. The accounts for this estate continue for several decades after Tailyour’s death in 1815. A number of disparate and miscellaneous letters, war records, photographs, and realia that belonged to various members of the extended Tailyour family date mainly from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.

The collection has three substantial parts. The most comprehensive and cohesive section is the one concerning John Tailyour, until his death in 1815. The second part contains business papers and accounts related to the Tailyour estate. The third part is the least integrated, and consists of a variety of family papers, photographs, military memorabilia, and other miscellanea.

The Tailyour papers date from 1743 to 2003, with the majority of the collection concentrating in the period from 1780 to 1840. Within these bulk dates, are the two largest portions of the collection: the correspondence and accounts of John Tailyour until his death in 1815, and the account records of the Tailyour estate after 1815.

Seven boxes contain John Tailyour's personal and business correspondence of 3757 letters. The letters focus on Tailyour's mercantile activities in the Atlantic market, especially on the slave trade, its profitability, and the threat posed by abolitionists. Tailyour's correspondence also chronicles personal and family matters, including the education and provision for his mixed-race children from Jamaica. In addition, the collection contains four of Tailyour's letter books of 1116 copies of retained letters that cover the period from 1780 to 1810, with the exception of the years 1786-7 and 1793-1803. In these letters, Tailyour's focus is business, particularly as it relates to the slave trade, but he also includes personal messages to his friends and family.

Tailyour's business papers contain 32 loose account records, as well as five account books documenting the years between 1789-90 and 1798-1816. These primarily concern his Kingston and Scottish estates, including the expense accounts and balance sheets for each, as well as the finances of his merchant activities during the period. Finally, 38 documents of probate records for John Tailyour mainly relate to his landed estate.

The latter portion of collection within these bulk years (1815-1840) also contains correspondence and accounts, although the 228 letters are almost entirely concerned with business accounts. These focus on Tailyour's estate after his death, with John's brother Robert as the main correspondent. Additional materials include 1761 business papers that chronicle the finances of the estate, 11 account books, and 6 hunting books. The business letters and account books detail the estate's expense accounts and receipts, as well as the balances for their annual crops, salmon fishing business, and profits derived from the rents collected on their land. The hunting books contain descriptive accounts of the family's hunts and inventories of their hunting dogs.

The third, and final, part of the collection consists of Tailyour family records (bulk post-1815), including 49 letters from various family members in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries and five letterbooks, kept by Alexander Renny Tailyour and Thomas Renny Tailyour. 4 account books are also present kept by Alexander Renny Tailyour and others. Some of the records concern the First World War, including a group of prisoner-of-war records sent from Germany, and journals kept at home that detail news of the war, and daily domestic activities.

The family history documents include 64 genealogical records and 58 probate records. Many of the genealogical items are brief notes on family history, and sketches of the family tree, including a large family tree that spans several hundred years to the present day. The probate records contain one will from the late-nineteenth century, but are otherwise entirely concerned with John Tailyour's estate in the years immediately after his death.

Of the printed records, Memoirs of my Ancestors (1884), by Hardy McCall is a genealogy of the McCall family, and Tailyour's Marykirk and Kirktonhill's estates are described in two printed booklets, one of which is an advertisement for Kirktonhill's sale in the early-twentieth century. Other printed material includes 14 various newspaper clippings concerning the family over the years, and 12 miscellaneous items.

The illustrations, artwork, and poetry comprise 14 fashion engravings, 12 sailing illustrations, a picture of a hunting cabin, two silhouettes, and a royal sketch, all of which date from the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Kenneth R. H. Tailyour's sketches are represented in two sketch books created in his younger years (1917 and 1920). Loose records of poetry, as well as a book of poems from George Taylor, are in this section.

The 221 photographs are of the Tailyour family from the late-nineteenth to the twentieth century, with the majority falling in the early decades of the twentieth century. Most are portraits of the Tailyour family from the early twentieth century, particularly Kenneth R. H. Tailyour.

The 138 pieces of ephemera are, for the most part, postcards of foxhunts during the nineteenth century. These announce the almost-weekly family foxhunts during the middle years of the nineteenth century. The 19 items of realia, include Robert Taylor's quill pen from 1826.

The audio-visual portion of the collection contains three items: a compact disc with an audio interview of John Dann, Director of the Clements Library, on National Public Radio's "The Todd Mundt Show;" a compact disc with photos of the West Indies; and a collection of photographs of the Tailyour papers in their uncatalogued state, and of the festivities surrounding the acquisition of the collection.

Finally, miscellaneous material of 18 pieces includes Robert Taylor's commonplace book of short stories, letters, and poems; the catalogue of Robert Taylor's books; James Tailyour's 1771 style and form book; and a communion book.

The papers of the Talcott family of Vernon, Connecticut, and Rockville, Connecticut, are comprised largely of correspondence among various extended family members and friends. Two Talcott women, Martha and Sarah, attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

The collection consists of 312 items:

217 letters, largely to and from the Talcott family;

69 school essays, mostly written by Martha and Sarah Talcott at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary;

2 engravings, of John B. Talcott.

24 miscellaneous items, including the Last Will and Testament of Amelia Talcott, items relating to the family business, and a detailed biographical sketch of John Talcott and his descendants.

Although much of the correspondence concerns the domestic life of the extended Talcott family, twenty-seven of the letters relate to the Talcott women’s education, and the lives and careers of fellow students. Martha Goodrich Robbins (later Talcott) received some level of schooling in the 1820s. In a letter of September 18, 1823, her brother Chauncey gives his view of the subject: "When you are down on your hands and knees, dressed in old tow cloth, weeding onions, it will be of but little service to you to know what are the fashions in New York, or how many parts of speech there are, or whether the earth is round or flat as a toad. It will not make the weeds come up any faster." In spite of this, two of Martha’s daughters attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.

One undated letter fragment, from a Mt. Holyoke instructor, Grace Stanton, to Sarah Talcott, describes in detail the reaction of a new student (Sarah Talcott) upon arrival at Mt. Holyoke -- how homesickness and the strangeness of her surroundings were soon transformed into affection and then love for the beautiful landscape, dedicated teachers and schoolmates. A letter (unsigned, dated May 1862) updates the class on current happenings in the lives of several of the women who graduated from Mt. Holyoke, some of whom were actively teaching, others who had married and were raising families, and several who were ill or taking care of ailing family members.

Another letter provides a description of a school mistress as imagined by Mt. Holyoke graduate Mary Perry, and reveals something of the bond that unites these women: "We, who are set apart from the rest of Eve's daughters as the 'Eddicators' of Papa's hopefuls and Mama's darlings. Who are neither married, nor given in marriage, whose black alpaca dresses always bear about a sprinkle of chalk dust -- whose second finger on the right bears the indelible ink stain, whose voices are always pitched on the sharps and minor keys, as being more euphonious to the sensitive ear -- weep for us...every step, motion and breath bespeaks her profession, stern, stiff, staid, prim & precise schoolmistress. This is a picture of our sisterhood, myself included, if the Fates so decree. I whisper amen, and Echo brings back the same word." (June 7, 1870, Lizzie L. to Mattie)

Religion was a strong influence at Mt. Holyoke and often appeared in the letters of its graduates. Mary Mclean wrote to Sarah Talcott, that "there are many who have learned 'the better way' within those hallowed walls, and have gone out from there with hearts devoted to the service of Christ, and vast, vast is the influence they are now exerting in this world of ours." (November 26, 1852) Another Mt. Holyoke classmate, deterred by ill health from pursuing a teaching career, resigned herself to passive endurance: "I doubt not, however, that I have a lesson to learn that could be learned in no other way; may God grant to be my instructor in this matter." (Mary Fitch to Sarah Talcott, December 21, 1858) Two undated letters refer to a prayer association, of which Martha Talcott is a member, formed of mothers and children in search of divine protection in the face of the ever-present threat of serious illness and early death.

The school essays reveal the thoughts of intelligent mid-nineteenth century young women on subjects of historic, religious, moral, and scientific interest, as well as descriptions of contemporary events. Many are mature reflections, written by Martha and Sarah Talcott in their late teens and twenties.

Only scattered references mention the family business, the Civil War, or other political or economic issues of the period. Domestic matters carry the day: family visits, illness and death, poultry reports, and the making of molasses candy (Martha Talcott school essay, March 3, 1866), to mention a few.

This collection is made up of correspondence, newspaper clippings, and ephemera related to multiple generations of the Parker, Thorington, and Nash families, particularly James Thorington (1816-1887), his daughter Ella, and Ella's daughter Louise. The materials pertain to life in Davenport, Iowa; Colón, Panama; Staten Island, New York; and other locations in the 1870s to 1900s.

This collection (0.75 linear feet) is made up of correspondence, newspaper clippings, and ephemera related to multiple generations of the Parker, Thorington, and Nash families, particularly James Thorington (1816-1887), his daughter Ella, and Ella's daughter Louise.

The bulk of the collection consists of letters and newspaper clippings once housed in a 147-page scrapbook (now disassembled). Louise Nash Sanger compiled the volume and occasionally made notes on the materials, sometimes including brief biographical or contextual information. She contributed additional genealogical information, such as family death registers. The earliest materials include prayers written by Asa Rogers in the early 1800s and correspondence regarding the Parker family. One letter from Jonathan Parker to his sister Mary warns her about an unknown man, possibly her future husband, James Thorington (February 1, 1842).

Many scrapbook items relate to James and Mary Parker Thorington and their children, particularly Ella, Jessie, and Monroe. Ella received letters from members of her immediate family and from aunts, cousins, and friends, who provided family and local news from Davenport, Iowa, and other locales. Monroe Thorington discussed his experiences while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in the early to mid-1870s. Some of his acquaintances wrote to the Thorington family after his death at Fort Keogh, Montana Territory, in 1878. Members of the Thorington family also wrote to Ella about their lives at Aspinwall (Colón), Panama, where the elder James Thorington served as United States consul.

Other materials from the late 19th century relate to the family of Francis B. and Ella Thorington Nash, including many letters to their daughter Louise. Louise's correspondents included "Flora" and "Brette." Flora lived in Staten Island, New York; several items, including telegrams, pertain to her death. Brette wrote about life in Florence, Nebraska, and later discussed his life in New York City, where he became an adherent of the Bahá'i faith. Louise received additional letters from aunts, uncles, and other family members and acquaintances, often concerning personal news such as family news and deaths. Louise Nash Sanger and other family members collected newspaper clippings relating news of births, marriages, and deaths in the Parker, Thorington, and Nash families, including those of James Thorington's children and grandchildren. Some articles pertain to palmistry and to Ella Thorington Nash's instructional lectures in cooking, which she gave in Chicago in the late 19th century. One group contains printed letters from members of the Thorington family living in Panama. Additional scrapbook materials include fine pencil drawings of unidentified homes and incomplete family death registers.

Loose (non-scrapbook) items include letters and telegrams related to members of the Thorington and Nash families, and genealogical registers tracing Sanger family ancestors into the early 18th century. A small number of military commissions pertain to the career of Henry Sanger in the mid-19th century. The collection includes poems, an engraved portrait of James Thorington, invitations, programs, and a manuscript map of a quartz mine. Other items of note are a clipping from a Davenport paper regarding the capture and death of John Wilkes Booth (April 28, [1865]) and a letter from "Burdett" to an unidentified recipient about a journey from Galena, Illinois, to Mackinac Island (August 5, 1844).

The Watkins and Livingston family scrapbook contains letters between members of the Watkins, Livingston, and Jay families; genealogical data recorded by Lucretia Elizabeth Hamersley Rylance; and miscellaneous drawings and newspaper clippings related to the families.

The Watkins and Livingston family scrapbook includes 94 items relating to the Watkins and Livingston families. Lucretia E. Hamersely Rylance created the scrapbook in 1882 and included family correspondence retrieved from her Aunt Beebee's attic as well as her own genealogical research.

The bulk of the collection consists of 69 letters, with many written between sisters Susan Symmes and Judith Watkins. The letters primarily regard family news and concerns, noting health, marriages, and social visits. Additional topics mentioned include the American Revolution, the death of Governor Dewitt Clinton, the Peggy Eaton scandal, Cherokee removal, the nullification crisis, bank and tariff struggles, the anniversary of Andrew Jackson's Battle of New Orleans, the Panic of 1837, African American servants, Fanny Kemble Butler, and Austrian exile Giovanni Albinola. Letters from John Jay and his descendants are also represented in the collection. With women from prominent families penning many of the letters, the correspondence also highlights women's relationships, reading habits, engagement with financial matters, and occasionally thoughts on political affairs.

The Watkins and Livingston family scrapbook also includes newspaper clippings, a family tree, a cabinet card, a pen and ink drawing of a scene from a fairy tale, and colored pen and ink drawings of family coats of arms. See the Detailed Box and Folder Listing for more information about each item.

The William H. Anderson Family Papers are made up of 177 letters, one manuscript map, 28 printed items, two photographs, and other materials of this Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Lowell, Massachusetts family. William Anderson wrote around 150 letters to his family and friends while at primary school in Londonderry, New Hampshire; Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, New Hampshire; Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire; and Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut. Anderson's correspondence includes 12 descriptive letters home from the Sligo cotton plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as a teacher from 1859 to 1860, with content on plantation life, the enslaved workers, cotton processing, and educational matters. The remainder of the collection is William Anderson's post-Civil War letters, written while a lawyer in Lowell, and letters of Anderson's aunts Annis Nesmith Davidson and Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes from Londonderry and Wyoming County, New York.

The William H. Anderson Family Papers are made up of 177 letters, one manuscript map, 27 printed items, two photographs, and other materials of this Londonderry, New Hampshire, and Lowell, Massachusetts family.

The Correspondence Series. William Anderson wrote around 150 letters to his family and friends while at primary school in Londonderry, New Hampshire (5 letters, 1849-1850); Pembroke Academy at Pembroke, New Hampshire (15 letters, 1852-1853); Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts (3 letters, 1853); Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, New Hampshire (19 letters, 1854-1855); and Yale College at New Haven, Connecticut (60 letters). The letters from Londonderry, Pembroke, Andover, and Meriden are filled with details about his curricula, course work, school uniforms, teachers, boarding houses, school uniforms, secret societies, local politics and political events (Whig and Democratic; he ran into Franklin Pierce on October 25, 1852), updates on friends and family, visits to nearby towns, and more. Anderson helped offset the cost of his education by taking on various farm jobs. Detailed letters to his parents, brother, and friend Mary A. Hine from Yale College similarly include content on curricula, course work, professors, societies, examinations, graduation, finances, and other aspects of being a student in higher education.

Upon graduation from Yale, he began work at the Sligo Plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, where he taught a school comprised of students from Sligo and the nearby Retirement Plantation, from 1859 to 1860. During this time, he wrote 12 letters home to his parents and to his future wife Mary A. Hine. He arrived at Bennett's Retirement Plantation in early September 1859, and shortly thereafter settled in at David P. Williams' Sligo Plantation. He described his relative isolation, loneliness, teaching and wages, corporal punishment, thoughts on slavery and the enslaved men and women on the plantation, games he played with his scholars, travel between the Sligo and Retirement plantations, and leisure activities such as hunting and horseback riding. In late December 1859, he provided a lengthy description of a (largely) steamboat trip to New Orleans with his students for Christmas.

Anderson noted that no poor white people lived between Sligo and Natchez; he was uncomfortable with the aristocratic lifestyle of white people living in the south, and expressed this view on multiple occasions in his correspondence (see especially September 30, [1859]). Although his father appears on list of members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, William H. Anderson did not write with disgust at slavery, but rather used racist epithets, accepted the "servants" who assisted him in various ways, and wrote unmoved about abuse doled out to children (see especially June 9, 1860). In one instance, he wrote about enslaved women who gathered near to the house in the evenings before supper to sing and dance (October 25, 1859). One of the highly detailed letters in the collection is William H. Anderson's description of the use of the cotton gin on the Sligo Plantation, which includes remarks on its history, its functioning, the various jobs performed by enslaved laborers, and the rooms in which the jobs took place. He included calls made by enslaved workers between floors of the "gin house" and the roles of elderly men and women in the grueling labor ([October 1859]). In 1860, Anderson planned to take a summer break in Tennessee and then teach another year, but on the death of his oldest scholar Susie (14 years old) by diphtheria, Williams decided against having a school the next year (July 4, 1860).

The remaining letters by William H. Anderson, dated 1861-1887, contain scattered information on family matters, such as visits and health. He wrote little of his law practice or his life in Lowell, Massachusetts. Anderson's correspondence includes a variety of printed letterheads and one inset map: a rough floorplan of the Brother's Society Hall (January 14, 1856); the printed letterhead "INGENIUM LABORE PERFECTUM" "YALE" of Sigma Delta (ca. August/September 1856 and July 10, 1858); a partially printed letter sheet beginning "IN order to secure the regular attendance...", respecting Anderson's discipline (July 20, 1857); and the printed letterhead "STEVENS & ANDERSON, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law" Lowell, Massachusetts (August 16 and September 27, 1872).

The collection includes around 25 letters by William Anderson's aunts Annis Nesmith Davidson (1801-1877) and Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes (1798-1875). Anna wrote alternately to her sister Jane Davidson Anderson and her sister-in-law Annis Davidson, from Londonderry, New Hampshire; Pike, New York; and Genesee Falls, New York, between 1828 and 1874. Her letters pertain largely to domestic life, boarders, troubles keeping hired girls (including Irish girls) to help with housework, news of family births, marriages, and deaths, local ministers, and her children's schooling. The few letters by Annis Davidson from Pike and Genesee Falls, New York, regard family updates and visiting.

The collection's Map, Receipt, and Photographs include a partially printed receipt for William Anderson's tuition and fees for the term ending April 14, 1857. The pencil map identifies particular buildings in New Haven, Connecticut, around where College, Temple, Church, Orange, and State streets intersect with Chapel and Crown streets. The photographs are cartes-de-visite of William Henry Anderson and "Annis Davidson Anderson Holmes" [most likely Anna B. Davidson Anderson Holmes].

The Printed Items are made up of materials largely pertaining to William Anderson's time at Yale College. These include:

• BROTHERS IN UNITY. Prize Debate in the Class of 1859, January 12, 1856. William H. Anderson listed as a participant.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION. Class of 1859, April 6, 1858, invitation to Mary Hine, with William H. Anderson listed as a speaker.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION. YALE COLLEGE, April 6, 1858 (E. Hayes, printer), program.
• INITIATION, June 11, 1858, program, with manuscript annotations identifying an oration delivered by W. H. Anderson.
• James Robinson & Co. (Boston, Mass.) printed letter requesting information about academies, [1858].
• FIFTY-NINE. 'Oυ δοκέιν αλλ' είναι. Presentation Songs, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, printers).
• YALE COLLEGE. PRESENTATION OF THE CLASS OF 1859, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, steam printers).
• "Esto Perpetua." '62. Pow-wow OF THE CLASS OF '62, June 15, 1859 (Morehouse & Taylor, printers).
• '59. OWLS FROM THE NORTH!, July 17, 1859, flier/advertisement.
• DE FOREST ORATIONS, June 17, 1859, flier.
• CATALOGUE OF THE OFFICERS AND STUDENTS IN YALE COLLEGE . . . 1859-60. New Haven: E. Hayes, 1859.
• JUNIOR EXHIBITION, April 3, 1860, order of exercises. New Haven: E. Hayes, 1860.
• '61's INITIATION OF '62, pink heavy-stock card with a printed image of two anthropomorphic donkeys boxing.
• CLASS CIRCULAR, March 20, 1862, seeking feedback from 1859 graduates in anticipation of their triennial meeting.
• Class '63 Day, June 19, 1863, heavy-stock card invitation.
• SONGS FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL SUPPER OF THE Yale Alumni Association, January 27, 1868.
• "INGENIUM LABORE PERFECTUM" Sigma Delta symbol of a wreath surrounding a crown.
• Annis Davidson visiting card.

The remaining printed items include four copies of an engraved portrait of William H. Anderson by W. T. Bather of N.Y. and published by The Lewis Publishing Co., and five newspaper clippings.