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This collection contains approximately 430 items, nearly all of which are incoming letters addressed to Artemas Hale, a cotton gin manufacturer and politician from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Hale received correspondence from acquaintances and political contacts throughout southeastern Massachusetts, as well as from politicians serving in Washington, D. C., and from family members who resided in Mississippi. Most letters concern mid-19th century politics on both national and local levels, and writers address issues such as the Whig Party, education, the Mexican War, and slavery. Approximately 10 items are letters by Artemas Hale, invitations, and a manuscript poem.

This collection contains approximately 430 items, nearly all of which are incoming letters addressed to Artemas Hale, an agent for a cotton gin manufacturer and a politician from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Hale received correspondence from acquaintances and political contacts throughout southeastern Massachusetts, as well as from politicians serving in Washington, D. C., and from family members residing in Mississippi. Most letters concern mid-19th century politics on both national and local levels, and writers address issues such as the Whig Party, education, the Mexican War, and slavery. Approximately 10 items are letters by Artemas Hale, invitations, and a manuscript poem.

The majority of Hale's incoming letters concern political matters in Massachusetts and throughout the United States, particularly between 1839 and 1860. Most authors wrote from the area near Hale's home in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, or from Washington, D. C. Several politicians were frequent correspondents, and many discussed their involvement with the Whig Party, as well as other aspects of party politics. Others commented on local and national elections; the collection contains commentary on each presidential election between 1844 and 1860. Additional frequent topics include the Mexican War, slavery and sectionalism, and the affairs of the United States Congress. Early letters often concerned the budget and workings of the Massachusetts State Normal School (now Framingham State University), as well as national affairs. Notable contributors include Julius Rockwell, Horace Mann, Samuel Hoar, Samuel J. May, John S. Pendleton, Robert C. Winthrop, Daniel P. King, and Joseph Grinnell.

Personal letters Hale received from family and friends are interspersed throughout the collection, including family letters written before 1839 and 2 letters written in 1840 by Thophilus P. Doggett, a minister in Bridgewater, regarding his travels to Florida and throughout the Caribbean. Hale's brother Moses wrote of his life as a farmer in Westport, Mississippi (June 5, 1843). Another relative, Harrison Hale, wrote 4 letters between 1847 and 1851, providing his impressions of southern life and, particularly in his letters dated April 8, 1859, and February 3, 1861, about the upcoming Civil War. In addition, 2 of Thomas B. Lincoln’s letters concern railroad construction in Texas (December 23, 1855) and the outbreak of military hostilities (December 11, 1860), and [Keith A.] Bartlett wrote 1 letter about his Union Army service at Camp Brightwood (October 8, [1861]). The collection also holds two pages of indexes, possibly taken from a letter book, and a patriotic poem entitled "Sleeping for the Flag" (undated).

This collection is made up of 50 incoming letters to George Underwood of Auburn, New York, as well as cartes-de-visite and other card photographs. Underwood's acquaintances wrote about college preparation, political issues, and their lives in northern New York.

This collection is made up of 50 incoming letters to George Underwood of Auburn, New York, as well as cartes-de-visite and other card photographs. The Correspondence series is comprised of Underwood's incoming personal letters, written from January 30, 1835-January 2, 1837, and from May 5, 1838-December 26, 1838. J. S. Sherwood, Underwood's friend and most frequent correspondent, often discussed educational issues in his early letters, particularly related to his preparations for college. Sherwood mentioned his current studies in Canandaigua, New York, anticipated a round of examinations, and reported the collegiate plans of mutual friends. Underwood also received letters from Joel Whitney, a friend who lived in New Woodstock and Clinton, New York, and from other acquaintances, most of whom discussed secondary education. He received a printed invitation to the exhibition of Hamilton College's junior class on May 18, 1836 (April 11, 1836) and wrote a letter to John H. Lathrop about his intention to return to Hamilton College as a junior in the fall of 1836 following a period of ill health (July 11, 1836). Jane Underwood, George's sister, and A. Underwood, his father, provided news from Auburn, New York, after George's enrollment at Hamilton College.

After a break in correspondence from 1837-1837, Underwood continued to receive letters from family and friends. J. S. Sherwood and other acquaintances usually concentrated on local political issues, especially related to the Whig Party and to a recent election. They discussed the Locofoco movement, a states' rights party, and abolitionists' voting habits, among other issues. On November 28, 1838, a friend commented on recent military disturbances near Prescott, Canada.

The Photographs series contains 6 cartes-de-visite, 10 card photographs (4" x 6.5"), and 1 photographic print. Most are formal studio portraits of men, women, and children, and many are labeled. Other photographs depict a horse-drawn carriage and a house belonging to "General Dimon."

The Henry A. S. Dearborn collection (176 items) contains the correspondence of the Massachusetts politician and author Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn, son of the Revolutionary War General, Henry Dearborn. The papers largely document his career as the collector of the Boston Customs House and include letters from prominent government officials in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. The papers also include 16 speeches, orations, and documents pertinent to Dearborn's horticultural interests, Grecian architecture, politics, and other subjects.

The Henry A. S. Dearborn collection contains correspondence (160 items) and speeches, reports, and documents (16 items) of the Massachusetts politician, and author, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn. The bulk of the Correspondence Series documents Dearborn's career as the collector at the Boston Customs House. Dearborn corresponded with government officials in Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. These letters largely concern his management of the customs department and political matters. Of particular interest are 22 letters from the French émigré, Louis Dampus, which constitute a case history of customs problems (May to November 1814). Most of these are in French. Also of interest are 11 letters between Dearborn and Thomas Aspinwall, United States consul to London. They discussed exchanging political favors, purchasing books in London, and, in the July 11, 1817 letter, President James Monroe's tour of New England and the North West Territory.

• James Leander Cathcart, United States diplomat, on the state of commerce on the Black Sea and his career as a diplomat with the Ottomans (June 8 and 12, 1818).
• Fiction writer and scholar William S. Cardell, regarding his election as member of American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres (October 30, 1821).
• Colonel Nathan Towson, paymaster general of the United States, on John C. Calhoun's political fortunes as a presidential candidate and the political ramifications of raising taxes (December 22, 1821).
• Harvard University Overseer and Massachusetts Senator, Harrison Gray Otis, on "St. Domingo's" (Hispaniola) terrain, agriculture, export potential, its white and black populations, and its importance, as a trade partner, to the French. Otis supported bolstering the United States' trade relationship with the island (January 17, 1823).
• Nathaniel Austin, regarding an enclosed sketch of "Mr. Sullivan's land," located near Charlestown, Massachusetts (April 13, 1825).
• Federalist pamphlet writer, John Lowell, about his illness that him unable to contribute to [Massachusetts Agricultural Society] meetings (June 5, 1825).
• Massachusetts Senator, James Lloyd, concerning funding the building of light houses in the harbor at Ipswich, Massachusetts (April 11, 1826).
• H. A. S. Dearborn to state senator and later Massachusetts governor, Emory Washburn, regarding the American aristocracy. He accused the Jackson administration of putting "the Union in jeopardy,” and dishonoring the Republic with an “unprincipled, ignorant and imbecile administration" (May 22, 1831). Dearborn also summarized many of his ideas on the political and social state of the Union.
• Abraham Eustis, commander of the school for Artillery Practice at Fort Monroe, commenting that the "dissolution of the Union is almost inevitable. Unless you in Congress adopt some very decided measures to counteract the federal doctrines of the Proclamation, Virginia will array herself by the side of South Carolina, & then the other southern States join at once" (December 27, 1832).
• The botanist John Lewis Russell, about a charity request for support of the Norfolk Agricultural Society (February 6, 1850).

The collection contains several personal letters from family members, including three from Dearborn's mother, Sarah Bowdoin Dearborn, while she was in Lisbon, Portugal (January 29 and 30, 1823, and January 27, 1824); two letters from his father, General Henry Dearborn (May 25, 1814, and undated); and one from his nephew William F. Hobart (November 8, 1822).

The collection's Speeches, Reports, and Documents Series includes 15 of Henry A. S. Dearborn's orations, city or society reports, and a copy of the Revolutionary War roll of Col. John Glover's 21st Regiment. Most of them were not published in Dearborn's lifetime. The topics of these works include the art of printing (1803), Independence Day (4th of July, 1808 and 1831), discussion about the establishment of Mount Auburn Cemetery (1830), education, religion, horticulture, Whig politics, and the state of the country. See the box and folder listing below for more details about each item in this series.

This collection is made up of letters that Isaac Fletcher wrote to Epaphras Bull of Lyndon, Vermont, while serving in the United States House of Representatives in 1839 and 1840. He discussed party politics, the presidential election of 1840, and other subjects.

This collection is made up of 13 letters that Isaac Fletcher wrote to Epaphras Bull of Lyndon, Vermont, while serving in the United States House of Representatives in 1839 and 1840. Fletcher discussed Whig party politics and political issues, such as the difficulty (and process) of electing a Speaker of the House, a contested election in New Jersey, state political conventions, and the presidential election of 1840, which he mistakenly assumed would result in Martin Van Buren's comfortable reelection (August 9, 1840). Some of the letters refer to prominent politicians such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster.

This collection includes one letter by sea captain Joshua Gray (1788-1841) respecting a ship of emigrants from Rotterdam to New York City on September 5, 1840; one letter by Joshua Gray's son, captain Joshua A. Gray (1817-1853), on difficult sea conditions during a voyage from Cedar Keys, Florida, to New Orleans on December 26, 1841; and one letter by Joshua Gray's brother, Adams Gray (1791-1865), on presidential and party politics in Baltimore in 1841.

Please see the box and folder listing below for detailed information about each letter in the collection.

This collection contains nineteen letters sent to Carlton Heath and one letter sent to Ruth Heath between 1828 and 1854. The bulk of the letters were written by Amos and Emily Pilsbury of Weathersfield, Connecticut, mostly from the Connecticut State Prison where Amos Pilsbury worked as deputy warden and warden. Amos Pilsbury discussed prison management and provided glimpses into prisoners' experiences. He wrote frankly about his political and ideological disputes with his brother-in-law, opposing his positions on the Whig party and abolitionism. Amos Pilsbury commented on his religious practices and beliefs, family news, Thanksgiving celebrations and meals, and disgruntlement over the Heath family's failures to write and visit. Five additional members of the extended Heath family wrote portions or entire letters present in the collection, mostly weighing in on family news.

This collection contains nineteen letters sent to Carlton Heath and one letter sent to Ruth Heath between 1828 and 1854. The bulk of the letters were written by Amos and Emily Pilsbury of Weathersfield, Connecticut, mostly from the Connecticut State Prison, where Amos Pilsbury worked as deputy warden and warden. Amos Pilsbury discussed prison management and provided glimpses into prisoners' experiences. He wrote frankly about his political and ideological disputes with his brother-in-law, opposing his positions on the Whig party and abolitionism. Amos Pilsbury commented on his religious practices and beliefs, family news, Thanksgiving celebrations and meals, and disgruntlement over the Heath family's failures to write and visit. Five additional members of the extended Heath family wrote portions or entire letters present in the collection, mostly weighing in on family news.

Amos Pilsbury's letters include references to his work in prison management, with detailed descriptions of religious services in the Connecticut State Prison (April 28, 1829) and various projects contracting out the labor of imprisoned people, including for the production of shoes (November 9, 1828), rifle pistols (November 24, 1837), and cane chairs (February 18, 1842). One letter was written during Pilsbury's tenure at the Albany penitentiary, where he lamented a business being lost to fire as it impacted his ability to dispose of a large order of chair seats (August 30, 1854). In several letters, Pilsbury commented on prison discipline, African American prisoners (April 28, 1829; June 20, 1836; February 18, 1842), and the high demands wardenship placed on him.

Several of Pilsbury's letters indicate the challenges political and interpersonal conflict posed for him as a prison warden at Weathersfield. He wrote on February 20, 1832, of the "Powerful efforts [that] have been made to injure me, and destroy publick confidence in the administration of the affairs of the Prison," preceding his removal from office based on accusations of misconduct by Connecticut politician Martin Welles. He wrote again on July 27, 1833, acknowledging his reinstatement, anxiety about returning, and the decline in discipline at the Connecticut State Prison during his absence. Reflecting further on the incident on December 9, 1833, he mused, "How things have changed in one short year? At that time I was spending my time in idleness having been 'reformed' out of office. At that time no report had been made concerning things charged upon me by a personal enemy and persecutor." Following a Whig victory, Pilsbury acknowledged the possibility of political shifts impacting his employment, writing, "as I was before the election, so I am now, & trust I ever shall be, a Democrat. You ask 'wheter we expect to be removed & when?' In answer I can only say, that the Whigs have the power to remove me, whether they will or not remains to be seen" (April 21, 1838).

Amos Pilsbury and Carlton Heath appeared to have had a fraught relationship, and Amos's letters reveal frustration with Heath's failure to write and visit as well as strong opposition to Heath's support of Whig politics and abolition. Amos Pilsbury acknowledged his conviction of African American inferiority, the impossibility of immediate abolition, and the impropriety of New Englanders weighing in on slavery (June 20, 1836; April 21, 1838; September 4, 1838). One relative even joked that Pilsbury's opinions had changed. "They now wish to have all former difficulties which have arisen between you in consequence of not agreeing in Party feelings put an end to … Do excuse my sad mistake ... It must be I did not look at the right words in the Dictionary… it is the reverse" (March 1, 1841). Tensions between these family members based on strongly felt political and ideological positions appear throughout the letters.

Five additional members of the extended Heath family wrote portions or entire letters present in the collection, mostly weighing in on family news, visiting Weathersfield, and disagreeing about the duration of Ruth Heath's stays with the Pilsbury family.

The Preston Woodward correspondence contains letters by Paul S. Preston and Jackson Woodward, mainly discussing political topics such as the Mexican-American War, the Locofocos, and elections.

The Preston-Woodward correspondence contains letters written to Jackson Woodward by Paul S. Preston and business letters addressed to Woodward. The earliest items in the collection relate to Nathaniel A. Woodward of Bethany, Pennsylvania. Of these early letters, two from 1836 (also addressed to Jacob Faatz and Lucius Collins) discuss the election of delegates to amend the Pennsylvania state constitution and, to a lesser extent, national politics prior to the 1836 presidential election. The bulk of the collection pertains to Jackson Woodward, a lawyer from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, including incoming business-related correspondence and a personal letter from his brother, W. Woodward. Of particular interest within the collection are 58 letters composed by Paul S. Preston, as well as two by Jackson Woodward, discussing contemporary politics and prominent national and local political figures. Preston, who lived in Stockport, Pennsylvania, often took a scathing and humorous tone, as in his letter of November 29, 1845, in which he claimed that "since the day that the iron willed Tennessean, your illustrious namesake [Andrew Jackson] dressed despotism in the garb of Democracy, there is very little difference between an Emperor and a President."

A number of Preston's letters criticize the Locofocos, a radical wing of the Democratic Party founded in 1835 to protect the interests of workers and oppose monopolies and tariffs. Preston frequently characterized them as hypocritical, as in a letter of February 18, 1847, in which he compared the high salaries paid to Locofocoism's "panderers" and low wages earned by American soldiers fighting in Mexico. Preston also praised the Whig generals in the Mexican-American war as aggressive fighters (October 28, 1847), and included political poetry in several of his letters. His letter of January 2, 1850, contains a humorous petition in verse. Scattered letters concern presidential and midterm elections, and a lengthy letter of January 22, 1851, compares the attitudes of Yankees and Southerners, offering the opinion that the Southerners underestimate their dependence on slaves. On January 7, 1851, Preston criticized the Fugitive Slave Law and expressed his unwillingness "to be turned into a hound to run down a runaway negro."

Although the letters provide a much clearer picture of Preston than Woodward, the two men seemed to have held differing opinions on many issues, including slavery. In one of the two items he wrote, dated September 23, 1852, Woodward defended the Fugitive Slave Law and called abolitionism a "most mischievous, damnable doctrine."

This scrapbook contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other material related to Samuel P. Lyman, a lawyer from Utica, New York. Most items are incoming letters to Lyman about his involvement with the Anti-Masonic Party and Whig Party in the 1820s and 1830s.

This scrapbook (10" x 14") contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other material related to Samuel P. Lyman, a lawyer from Utica, New York. The volume's primary contents consist of around 230 letters, newspaper clippings, and documents about Samuel P. Lyman's political interests and professional career. Lyman frequently received letters from New York residents such as Robert H. Backus, Thomas Beekman, and William N. Maynard, and his nationally prominent correspondents included Thurlow Weed, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Millard Fillmore, William H. Seward, Henry Clay, and Rufus Choate. Most of the correspondence pertains to the Anti-Masonic Party, the Whig Party, and New York state politics. Some letters from the mid-1830s concern national elections and the careers of John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster.

Other manuscript items include speech notes and occasional diary entries. Newspaper clippings often reprint accounts of Anti-Masonic Party conventions, in which Lyman frequently participated. Other clippings, circular letters, and reports relate to temperance societies, the Utica Female Academy, and the New York and Erie Railroad. Also included are invitations, menus, certificates, a political cartoon, a ribbon, and numerous calling cards.

This collection is made up of correspondence, documents, and essays related to Seth A. B. Keeney. The materials pertain to politics, education, the legal profession, and religion.

This collection (24 items) is made up of correspondence, documents, and essays related to Seth A. B. Keeney. The Correspondence and Documents series (19 items) includes letters that Keeney received from acquaintances in Massachusetts and Connecticut during the 1840s and 1850s. Many of his correspondents discussed political issues, sharing their opinions about Zachary Taylor, the Connecticut state Democratic Party, and European politics, particularly around 1848. One letter refers to the author's desire to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Other writers mentioned aspects of the legal profession and the law school at Ballston Spa, New York. One of the documents pertains to Keeney's standing within his class at the Wesleyan Academy of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in 1846.

The Essays series (5 items) contains Seth A. B. Keeney's writings about national character, the Whig Party, Protestantism and Catholicism, slander, and political figures such as Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay.

The Solomon G. Haven family papers contain the business and personal letters of Solomon Haven, a Buffalo, New York, lawyer and politician, as well as many letters concerning his wife, Harriet Newell Scott, and daughters Mary and Ida Haven.

The Solomon G. Haven family papers contain the business and personal letters of Solomon Haven, as well as many letters of his wife and daughters. The collection holds 185 letters.

The Solomon Haven Correspondence series consists of 103 letters written from Haven to James Smith, his law partner in Buffalo, New York; 33 letters to his wife; and several letters addressed to various political acquaintances. Most of the letters were written during the period of Haven's congressional career, with the heaviest concentration being from 1853 to 1856.

The letters to Smith contain scattered commentary on the Supreme Court, before which Haven argued three times, on Erie County politics, and on their legal practice in Buffalo. These also offer extensive commentary on New York state politics, including discussions of most of the major figures in the state at the time; references to the various intraparty factions; and discussion of the role of political newspapers during this period of political volatility. Of particular note is the detailed commentary on congressional politics surrounding the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the election of the Speaker of the House (1855-56), and a description of various party conventions in 1856, especially the Know Nothing convention in Philadelphia. By this time, Haven had become a fierce American Party supporter, a fiscal conservative, and an ardent critic of the political games being played by most of the Democratic, Whig, and Republican schemers in Washington and Albany. In a letter to his friend James Osborne Putnam (1818-1903), Haven wrote: "You ask for the Whig party. You would as yet ask in vain for any party here -- there is but little doing effective here for the future -- Cass and Douglass are playing high at the game of Weasel" (December 20, 1851).

Solomon’s letters to his wife Harriett (Hatty) were written between 1839 and 1858, and have an affectionate tone; their focus is largely on the many Washington, D.C., social events, such as parties, celebrations, balls, dinners, and other social/political gatherings, which he typically found tiresome. He was a regular guest for dinner at the White House. His letters relay information about who attended the parties, such as the wives of generals, congressmen, and the President, what the ladies’ were wearing and how they interacted with the men. An 1856 letter mentions the reaction of Elizabeth Spencer Cass (wife of lawyer and politician Lewis Cass) to the caning of Charles Sumner (1856).

The Mary and Ida Haven Correspondence series (39 items) documents two trips taken by Mary Haven to Europe. The first commenced sometime before December 1877 and ended in 1879. Mary spent her time primarily in Paris, leaving only for short excursions to Cannes, France, and Geneva, Switzerland. Her second trip began in June 1884, and lasted until sometime after August of the same year. This trip started with short visits to several cities in Germany and Switzerland, and, by August 29, 1884 (the last letter of her correspondence), she had returned to Paris.

Mary, also known as Ninnie, wrote her letters to her sisters, Ida and Antoinette, and to her mother, all of whom lived at the same address in Buffalo, New York. She traveled with other Americans including a traveler named “Puss,” who, as internal evidence suggests, is her husband, Charles Day. She often discussed her activities in Paris and the differences between life at home and life in Paris, her membership in an Art club, other social engagements, and her trips to other European countries. Her letters show, however, that she spent much of her time socializing with other Americans and British friends. While in Europe, she attended “English church.” As a member of an Art Club, Mary spent some of her time painting and taking art classes.

In two letters from Paris (April 29 and May 16, 1878), Mary wrote about attending the opening of the Exposition Universelle: she waited amidst hordes of other people and saw celebrities who passed near her, such as Queen Isabella and her daughter; the Prince of Wales; the Prince of Denmark; foreign ambassadors and generals of the French Army; and many others. Mary wrote a particularly interesting anecdote about a dressmaker, Madame Connelly from New York, who, in a state of drunkenness, told her that she purchased dresses and belts in France very cheaply and re-sold them in New York for an enormous profit (March 26, 1878). A letter from May 16, 1878, mentions the divorce of a woman whose husband cannot support her, possibly because he was an alcoholic. When traveling to Europe in 1884, Mary noted that writer Mariana Griswold Schuyler Van Rensselaer was on the same ship.

Seven incoming letters to Mary and a single miscellaneous item complete the series. Her sister Ida wrote two letters while she traveled abroad in Germany in the summer of 1880. At this time, Mary was living in New York. Alice Craven Jones, a family friend in Hampstead, London, wrote five letters in the 1890s. Alice offered hopes that her family would come to visit them overseas, offered condolences for the death of a loved one in 1890 (likely Mary’s sister, Antoinette), and related the news of Minnie Jones’ marriage to a lawyer by the name of Perks (1895). Finally, an 8-page unsigned letter to Ida Haven describes visits to small villages in Italy; the writer worked with the Red Cross and commented extensively on the manner, dress, and religion (Catholic) of the citizens.

Two items contain decorated letterheads: the letter from August, 24, 1879, has scenic pictures of famous locations on stationary from a hotel in Zurich, and an undated item (marked only July 15) features printed pictures of the buildings Sprudel-Colonnade and Muhlbrunn-Colonnade.