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The Cuba collection contains around 91 individual manuscripts (mostly documents) related to the economic, racial, and political history of Cuba largely from the early to the late 19th century. The collection primarily focuses on the indentured servitude of Chinese workers, as well as Cuba's enslavement, trade, and manumission of largely African people. Another subset of the materials relates to 19th century insurrections and filibusters on the Island, including the López Expedition and Cuban resistance pertinent to the Ten Years' War.

The Cuba collection contains around 91 individual manuscripts (mostly documents) related to the economic, racial, and political history of Cuba largely from the early to the late 19th century. The collection primarily focuses on the indentured servitude of Chinese workers, as well as Cuba's enslavement, slave trading, and manumission of largely African people. Another subset of the materials relates to 19th century insurrections and filibusters on the Island, including the López Expedition and Cuban resistance pertinent to the Ten Years' War. The collection includes correspondence, documents, business records, citizenship certificates, death records, and contracts. The bulk of the materials were created in or relate to activities or people in Havana. Others relate to Santiago de Cuba.

Please see the box and folder listing below for details about each item in the collection.

This collection documents the activities of David Baldwin, a prominent Connecticut merchant, free mason, and Revolutionary War militia general, and his heirs, from 1790 to 1870. Included are legal documents relating to land sales, associated correspondence, and a short diary accounting a trip from Milwaukie to Chicago in 1836. Many of the later documents are letters and deeds related to his son, David Van Brooks Baldwin.

The David Baldwin papers contains correspondence, legal documents, financial records, and a diary, with the bulk of the material dating from just after the Revolutionary War through the 1820s.

The Correspondence series (26 items) contains four lengthy letters from Flora Jewett, David Baldwin's newly married daughter, from Galway New York (1807-1811). Topics range from furniture and housekeeping to details the loss of a child (April 14, 1808); consolation to Baldwin, who is seriously ill (February 1811); and business matters (Jan 3, 1812).

The bulk of the correspondence after Baldwin's death are business letters to Baldwin's son, David Van Brooks Baldwin, that deal with the sale of land and collections of debts.

The Document series consists largely of items documenting transfers of land and contracts for merchandizing, buying, selling, and vending. Included are a land deed transfer from Philo Norton to David Baldwin, 1794, and deeds of land purchased in Kentucky (1795) and Virginia in (1796); and a deed of gift for land in Connecticut to his son (1809). This series also contains official signed documents appointing Baldwin to Surveyor of Revenue and Assessors for Newton and Brookfield. Most post-1812 documents are deeds from Connecticut and New York concerning David Van Brooks Baldwin.

The Financial Records series contains items documenting payments of debts to David Baldwin and his descendants. Many of these items are brief (half a page or less) and some have descriptions of the loan.

The Financial Reports series holds records of the transactions of David Van Brooks Baldwin. Also included are receipts for purchased items such as hot air heaters, wood, coal, water, and local taxes.

The Diary series contains a 24-page notebook, that recounts a trip from Milwaukie to Chicago and the points in-between. Written by a descendent of David Baldwin in 1836 (possible David V. Baldwin), the journal mentions the Indians at Prarie-du-Chien:

"out of some 5000 Indians there are left only some 3 or 400, 200 remains lie unburied, the smallpox occasioned the mortality among them- the Indians steam the patient & plunge him into cold water..."

The Miscellaneous series holds a 1855 pay book and a 1856 exchange account book belonging to David Van Brooks Baldwin, a ticket to a Banquet for the Utica Continentals, various notes, and a folder of empty envelopes separated from the Correspondence series.

The Hill Family papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.

The Hill Family Papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.

Correspondence Series: The earliest correspondence in the collection is between Nathaniel Hill and Alice Hill during his research and business trips to England and Colorado in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Alice Hill wrote of family and social news in Providence, Rhode Island, while Nathaniel Hill discussed his travels, particularly on the frontier in Colorado. The Colorado letters include detailed accounts of geography, daily life, and cultural practices of the local Native Americans and Mexican settlers. Later letters, after the family's move to Colorado in 1867, include those between Alice Hill and her daughter Isabel at school in Providence. The collection includes substantial correspondence between Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, Alice Hill, and family friend Kate Slaymaker from the 1870s through the 1900s, while living and travelling in Colorado, California, New York, Washington, D.C., and in Europe. Family and friend updates, social events, travel, theatrical and musical performances, and current news were frequent topics of discussion. They often described food, especially meals served at various events.

The papers also include a small number of letters to and from various members of the Hale Family (Alice's mother, siblings, and cousins). These include a transcript of extracts from an 1832 letter by Nathan Hale, two 1841 letters by Harriet Johnson Hale to her sister Nancy, 1857 and 1858 letters from Harriet Johnson Hale to George Johnson, an 1858 letter from Alice Hale to her parents and siblings, and an 1863 letter from Bell Borland to Nathaniel P. Hill and Alice Hale Hill.

The Diaries Series spans 1879 to 1895 and is comprised of Isabel Hill's daily journals during her time living in Providence, Denver, and Washington, D.C., as well as trips abroad to Europe. She discussed social calls, daily activities, meals, sightseeing, Congregational Church services, books read, and performances attended. Also included are her typed notes from a 1915 YWCA National Board Meeting and two academic notebooks. Isabel Hill's diaries include the following:

• 1879-1884 of 1885. Daily life in Denver, Providence, and Washington, D.C.; includes lecture notes on history of English literature. Return voyage from England by way of Queenstown, Ireland, to New York City.
• 1880, "Letters Written by Isabel Hill from Europe." Letters written to parents and siblings during trip to Europe: England, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Germany. Includes one letter written from Denver by Isabel to a Mrs. Guy.
• 1883-1885. Winter in Washington, D.C., trips to New York City, summer in Charlottesville, Virginia (including a day trip to Luray Caverns).
• 1887-1888. Denver, Colorado. Travels through Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Includes log of calls made and received while in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C.
• 1889. Denver, Colorado, and Trip to Europe via New York City: England (Handel Festival at Crystal Palace), Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France. Contains dried plant specimens. List of Albany acquaintances and calls made in New York (Dec. '85 and Jan '86) in back.
• 1890-1893. Denver, Colorado. "The Doll Fair" clipping and Mrs. Ella C. Benton calling card. Contains plant specimens
• June 9-September 26, [1891]. European Travel Diary. Trans-Atlantic crossing to Liverpool with trip culminating at New York City. Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, and Ireland. Discusses sights within context of current events. Originally enclosed in the 1890-1893 Diary.
• April 1893-November 1895. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Boston, Washington, D.C., New York.
• 1896-1897. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (Italy, France, Monaco, and Switzerland). Includes clothing accounts, books read, and list of people and European addresses in back. Partial newspaper clipping and name card in front of volume.
• April 16, 1897-June 12, 1899. Denver, Colorado. Trip to New York and Rhode Island.
• June 1899-July 1901. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (England. France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Germany). Drink recipes, seating diagram, and list of names with addresses in back.
• July 1901-July 1904. Trip to Europe (England, Scotland, France, returning via New York City and Chicago, Illinois), Denver, Colorado, summering in Maine and Canada. List of presents for 1902, names with addresses, copied epitaphs, and two recipes written in the back of the book. Contains plant specimens.
• May 5-10, [1915]. YWCA Association National Meeting Notes, Los Angeles, California.
• Notebook, 1882. Zoology Lecture Notes (Professor Fairchild) and German Exercises.
• Kitchen Garden Class Notebook, 1897. Sample colors for linens with instructions for use and styling

Three Scrapbooks spanning the years 1892 to 1904 are filled with newspaper clippings, programs, and ephemera chronicling the activities of the Tuesday Musical Club in Denver. Isabel Hill was an active member who served as president of the Club. The organization was a group of amateur female musicians who hosted concerts by professional performers and held their own performances.

The collection's 68 Photographs include landscape views and group and solo portraits of Nathaniel P. Hill, Alice Hale Hill, Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, and family members and friends from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. They are largely card-mounted paper photographs.

The Printed Items and Ephemera Series includes business cards for the English Church in Milan and hotels including Charles Justin's The Shakespeare (Stratford on Avon), Hôtel de Flandre (Bruges), and Hotel Schweizerhof. Also included is a scrap of paper with address of Mary Cabell, a card for Caledonia Mills, and newspaper clippings chronicling the Knott's 1909 automobile tour of France, Mrs. J. H. P. Voorhies death, and a United States Legation reception. One envelope contains a lock of Isabel's hair. Additional items include Tuesday Musical Club ephemera, Brown University entrance examination schedule and English text, Cook's Tour railroad ticket (Milan to Chiasso), Crawford Hill's 1881 Classical Department (English and Classical School) report card, a telegram from N. P. Hill to Isabel Hill, a programme for Seamen's Orphanage Benefit Concert, and receipts from Chicago wholesalers. Two books include James Alexander Semple's Representative Women of Colorado (Denver, 1914) and Susan Fenimore Cooper's Mount Vernon: A Letter to the Children of America (New York, 1859).

This collection contains 10 letters written by James Buchanan, an attorney in Tidioute, Pennsylvania. Composed over a three-year period and all addressed to Philadelphia attorney John Samuel, Buchanan commented on politics and literature, as well as concerns related to his profession.

This collection contains 10 letters written by James Buchanan, an attorney in Tidioute, Pennsylvania. Composed over a three-year period and all addressed to Philadelphia attorney John Samuel, Buchanan commented on politics and literature, as well as concerns related to his profession.

The first two letters, written in January and March of 1866 from Tionesta, Pennsylvania, reveals that Buchanan's struggle with "isolation" was tempered by reading Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend and remaining abreast of current political events, despite the fact that, by the time news reached his area, "the waves of political excitement [were] gentle ripples." In his March 1, 1866, letter, Buchannan described President Andrew Johnson as having "the traits of character which belong so often to men of mind who rise from obscurity." He also suggested that Johnson had "imagined slights" and emphasized the president's "first rate" abilities as a speaker.

Beginning in October of 1866, Buchanan, then living in Tidioute, struggled to decide if he should return to Philadelphia on account of the lack of clients for his law practice. Later letters reveal his thoughts on judicial appointments in Warren County, his inquiry "with regard to the prospects of Democratic success," and a prospective marriage between him and "a young lady of 18." He continued to lament the life of a "countryman." In May 1869, he requested that Samuel inquire into the possibility of having a lecture, previously delivered by him, published. He hoped to see "some profit" given that the "subject is one in which many thousands of persons are interested." In June 1869, he decried the "exorbitant price" that the publisher charged for "so small a pamphlet." His final letter relayed his desire to leave the law practice because of health concerns.

The Native American collection contains miscellaneous letters and documents concerning Native American Indians in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies, and their interactions with British and American settlers.

The Native American collection is comprised of approximately 125 miscellaneous letters and documents concerning Native American Indians in the United States, Canada, and the West Indies, and their interactions with British and American settlers (1689-1921). Topics range from land agreements, legal issues, treaties, descriptions of travel through Indian Territory, Indian uprisings and conflicts, Indian captivities, prisoners of war, Indian enslavement, and interactions with Quaker and Moravian missionaries. Tribes include the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cree, Iroquois, Ojibwa, Oneida, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Seneca, Shawnee, Sioux, among others, and concern activities in Canada, New England, the Midwest, the South, and the western frontier. Also present are items written in Cherokee, Mohawk, and Ojibwa.