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This collection consists of the correspondence, diaries, writings, documents, sermon notes, and other items produced by or related to Samuel D. Bates, a Free Will Baptist preacher and educator in Ohio in the mid-nineteenth century. The correspondence spans from 1847 to 1892 and includes letters to and from his wife Lodeemy Brockett. Documents in the collection reflect S. D. Bates' engagement with religious groups and schools, featuring teacher's reports, subscription lists, financial records, and more. Several manuscript writings are also present, including essays and two editions of his 1850 manuscript newspaper, "The Human Elevater." Three volumes and 16 fragments of Samuel D. Bates's diaries span from 1850 to 1857, and two volumes of autobiographical writings are also present. Several hundred sermon notes date from 1851 to mid-1870s, with some numbered by Bates and annotated about different locations where they were delivered.

This collection consists of the correspondence, diaries, writings, documents, sermon notes, and other items produced by or related to Samuel D. Bates, a Free Will Baptist preacher and educator in Ohio in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as material relating to his son, Harley A. Bates, and his spouse Harriette (Hattie) E. Rice. The correspondence spans from 1847 to 1899, with the bulk dating from 1849 to 1892 for Samuel D. Bates and from 1889 to 1899 for Harley A. Bates. The personal correspondence reflects family dynamics, courtship, events in Marion and Hillsdale, Ohio, and matters relating to college fraternities due to Hattie Rice's heavy involvement in that field.

Documents in the collection reflect Samuel D. Bates's engagement with religious groups and schools, featuring teacher's reports, subscription lists, financial records, and more. Various financial and estate documents as well as certificates and other items provide additional insight into the family's affairs. Several manuscript writings are also present, including essays and two editions of Samuel D. Bates's 1850 manuscript newspaper, "The Human Elevater." Three volumes and 16 fragments of Samuel D. Bates's diaries span from 1850 to 1857, and two volumes of his autobiographical writings are also present.

Several hundred of Samuel D. Bates's sermon notes date from 1851 to mid-1870s, with some numbered by Bates and annotated about different locations where they were delivered.

Invitations, printed materials, and ephemeral materials further reflect on the family's social and intellectual life. Printed items include items such as funeral notices, the program for Samuel D. Bates's memorial service, newspaper clippings, among others.

This collection contains correspondence and other materials related to the family of Samuel Prioleau Ravenel and his wife, Margaretta Fleming Parker Ravenel. Many of the letters concern life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina, before, during, and after the Civil War (particularly during Reconstruction). Other items pertain to family news, European travel, and other subjects.

This collection is made up of correspondence, photographs, and other materials related to the family of Samuel Prioleau Ravenel and his wife Margaretta Fleming Parker Ravenel. Many of the letters concern life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina, before, during, and after the Civil War.

The Correspondence series (215 items) comprises the bulk of the collection. Many of the earliest items are incoming personal letters to Clarissa Walton and Thomas Fleming from friends, their son. These and other early items largely pertain to everyday life and social activities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Charleston, South Carolina. The series includes a group of letters that Thomas and Margaretta Fleming Parker wrote to the Flemings, his in-laws and her parents, about life in Charleston in 1861; Margaretta occasionally referred to the war. James McCarter wrote two letters from Charleston in June 1862 about the flight of civilians from the city and other effects of the war.

Ravenel family correspondence begins in the late 1850s with letters that Samuel Prioleau Ravenel received from a correspondent in Philadelphia; at the time, he lived in Pendleton, South Carolina. Ravenel began to correspond with Margaretta Parker in 1862, and they discussed their courtship, plans to marry, and daily lives until 1865. In letters to Margaretta and, in the late 1860s, to his father, Daniel, Samuel Prioleau Ravenel often wrote about Reconstruction policies, freedmen, and other political topics. Daniel Ravenel wrote to his son and his daughter-in-law about life in Charleston.

Samuel Prioleau and Margaretta Ravenel spent much of the late 1860s in Switzerland and in Paris, France, which Margaretta described in letters to her mother Clarissa Walton Fleming. Fleming responded with news from home, including comments about the 1868 presidential election and her life in Philadelphia. Throughout the 1870s, Samuel and Margaretta corresponded with their families about Charleston socialites and family news from South Carolina and their home in Highlands, North Carolina. They often discussed the births and growth of their children. A group of letters written in 1902 concerns the death of Samuel Prioleau Ravenel. Additional items from the early 20th century concern the Ravenel family's interest in a sugar mill and other topics.

The Photographs series (5 items) contains carte-de-visite portraits of S. Prioleau Ravenel in a military overcoat (1 item), Arthur Parker (1 item), and a woman, tentatively identified as Margaretta Ravenel or "Annie" (2 items), as well as a cabinet card photograph of three men around a table, taken in Mexico.

The Printed Items series (7 items) includes copies of a Supplement to Charleston Mercury (November 30, 1867), the Charleston Daily Courier-Extra (December 3, 1867), and The Charleston Mercury (May 2, 1868). Also included are a page from The Tri-Weekly Courier (December 9, 1867), a playbill for a production of Ten Nights in a Barroom at the Wardman Park theatre (April 23, 1929), a newspaper clipping containing a copy of "Mother Shipton's Prophecy" (undated), a calling card for "Miss Loat" of Balham Hill (undated); and a single book: Mason Smith Family Letters, 1860-1868, edited by Daniel E. Huger Smith, Alice R. Huger Smith, and Arney R. Childs (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1950).

The Simonetti family papers contain correspondence, documents, photographs, printed material, and ephemera related to the family, who emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1920. The bulk of the material relates to Pius (Pio) and Gaetano (Nino) Simonetti and their service in the United States Army during the Second World War.

The Simonetti family papers contain correspondence, documents, photographs, printed material, and ephemera related to the family, who emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1920. The bulk of the material relates to Pius (Pio) and Gaetano (Nino) Simonetti and their service in the United States Army during the Second World War.

The Correspondence series , which comprises the bulk of the collection, covers the years 1909-1921 and 1942-1945 and includes approximately 1,000 letters and pieces of V-mail; Letters, V-mail, and Telegrams are housed in separate subseries. Roughly two-thirds of the correspondence is written in Italian, with the remainder of the material in English and a handful of items in French. Alberto Simonetti wrote the earliest items in the Letters subseries to his wife Angelica, and his letters often contain pressed flowers; these letters are in Italian. The later run of correspondence, including the V-mail subseries, consists of letters composed by and addressed to Pio Simonetti during his World War II service in Algeria, Italy, and France; these are written in both Italian and English. In his letters to his son, Alberto reported family news, and often discussed rationing as well as his personal opinions of the United States government and of the war. His son sent home news of friends and relatives, and often described his leisure activities and military life, though he seldom mentioned combat. During 1945, he frequently wrote of his upcoming marriage and of his efforts to secure a visa for his new wife. By 1945, Pio expressed his frustration at remaining in Europe despite the official conclusion of combat operations. The Telegrams subseries primarily consists of messages sent between Alberto and Angelica Simonetti in the 1940s.

The Photographs and Negatives series has 41 photographs and 10 negatives. Pio Simonetti took the majority of the photographs, which depict army life in France and Italy during World War II and include several pictures of Pio and his friends. Other material in the collection belonged to Alberto Simonetti during World War I or to friends of Pio and Nino.

The Receipts series contains 9 items, the majority of which are related to goods ordered by and sent to Pio Simonetti during his European tour of duty. One item, dated 1934, is in Italian.

The Army Informational Materials series features material owned by Pio Simonetti during his World War II service. Pio collected his notes, quizzes, and exercises in Italian and English, and wrote English-language notes in a spiral notebook during training. He also saved GI pamphlets on banking, real estate, and sexual health. Other materials relate to interrogation tactics and the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Maps series consists of maps of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Picardy Region, France ("Triville"), which Pio Simonetti acquired during his military intelligence training. The series contains additional map overlays, as well as two maps of Palermo, Sicily.

Printed material includes newspaper clippings in English, French, and Italian; the English and French clippings date from World War II and the Italian clippings from 1918. Among the later materials are several satirical cartoons by William Henry Mauldin ("Bill"). In addition to these, the series also holds two pamphlets, A Total Moral Defense (1941) and a Pocket Guide to France (undated), as well as a book, P. C. Wren's The Wages of Virtue (undated).

The Ephemera series incorporates a variety of materials collected by Pio Simonetti during World War II, including holiday greeting cards, postcards, prayer cards, schedules, programs, stamps, and Italian and French currency.

The Sumner H. Cater collection contains materials related to a University of Illinois student's employment as a stereoview salesman during the summer of 1913.

The Sumner H. Cater collection contains materials related to a University of Illinois student's employment as a stereoview salesman during the summer of 1913.

The collection includes the original salesman case used by Sumner H. Cater which contains 1 stereoviewer, 24 sample stereographs (3 by Keystone View Company and 21 by Underwood & Underwood), and 3 explanation cards that help demonstrate how stereographs work. Photographic content includes 4 foreign views showing "Picking lemons" at an orchard in Sicily, "The Japanese hillside trenches," "A hospitable home in old Ireland," and "Concrete Arches" at the Panama Canal; 4 domestic views showing "A mountain of petrified water" and "'Old Faithful' geyser in action at Yellowstone National Park, the "Famous trotting ostrich 'Oliver W.'" in Jacksonville, Florida, and "Feeding the Chickens" on a New Jersey farm; and 16 views from the Underwood & Underwood "Holy Land" series mainly showing scenes from Jerusalem.

• “Keystone World Tours” by J. Paul Goode, Keystone View Company, Portland, Oregon (1 item)
• “A Pilgrimage Through Palestine,” Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1907 (1 item)
• “The Stereoscope, The Stereograph, Sun-Painting” Sun-Sculpture” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1910 (1 item)
• “The Underwood Travel System,” Underwood & Underwood, New York, 1913 (1 item)
• “Manual of Instruction,” Underwood & Underwood, New York, 1908 (1 item)
• “Old Mother Earth’s Babies,” Keystone View Company, New York 1907 (1 item)
• “Key to 72 Travel-Tour of the World Through Stereoscope” by J. Paul Goode, Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania (1 item)
• “Keystone Cabinets and cases,” Keystone View Company, Meadville, Pennsylvania, 1905 (1 item)
• Underwood & Underwood stereoview listings (2 items)
• Two editions of "The Underwood Travel System Newsletter" listing totals from completed sales by various salesmen as well as best practices regarding sales strategies, announcements, and new photographic subjects in stock (2 items)
• Two editions of "U.T.S. [Underwood Travel System] Selling Aids" (2 items)
• Unused envelopes addressed to Keystone View Company and Prof. Ira O. Baker (5 items)
• Contract between Sumner H. Cater and Keystone View Company agreeing to terms of employment between June 10th and September 10th 1913 (1 item)
• Unused "Salesman's Weekly Report to Keystone View Company" template forms (3 items)
• Letter from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater dated April 2nd 1913 notifying Cater that a duplicate of his contract with Keystone is attached, insisting that Keystone will assist him in making the “largest amount possible from your vacation work,” and urging him to study the products on offer (1 item)
• Letter from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater dated April 19th 1913 notifying Cater that Keystone had received his "Letter of Credit" and that they were sending stereographs his way, with Panama Canal views emphasized as products he should try especially hard to sell during his pending window of employment (1 item)
• Letters from Keystone View Company to Sumner H. Cater (originally addressed to Princeton, Illinois, but remarked for general delivery in Garrison, Iowa) dated June 16th and 17th 1913 notifying Cater that records indicate they have not yet heard from him despite his window of employment having officially begun while also positing to Cater that this summer will prove to be the "best season that Keystone college men have ever known," before listing off names of other salesmen alongside how many hours they have worked and how many orders they have successfully procured (2 items)
• Letter from Underwood & Underwood to Sumner H. Cater dated June 14th 1913 and addressed to Benton, Iowa, notifying Cater that the Benton area has been reserved for himself and "Mr. Hey" and encouraging him to work thoroughly in such a large area (1 item)
• Letter from Underwood & Underwood to Sumner H. Cater dated June 16th 1913 and addressed to Garrison, Iowa, notifying Cater that they have sent him an outfit and a "Canvass and Delivery Instruction" booklet (1 item)
• Letter from the treasurer of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Y.M.C.A. to Sumner H. Cater indicating that while he made a subscription payment of $2.00 the previous fall there was still a remaining unpaid balance of $1.50 (1 item)

The United States Presidents collection contains materials authored by, signed by, or related to presidents of the United States of America.

The United States Presidents collection consists of single items authored by, signed by, or related to presidents of the United States of America. Including personal correspondence, land deeds, official appointments, and various manuscript and printed documents, the United States Presidents collection touches broadly on presidential politics, social activity, and national affairs from 1784 to 1992.

• A manuscript description of an exchange between a Revolutionary War soldier and Andrew Jackson in 1832, in which Jackson was presented with a candle originally used to commemorate General Charles Cornwallis's defeat, intending that he should now use it to honor the victory at the Battle of New Orleans
• A handwritten eulogy for President Benjamin Henry Harrison, describing his life, career, and character
• Three letters by William Howard Taft, documenting the legal dispute over whiskey production in 1909
• Nine letters written by Herbert Hoover to Wilson W. Mills between 1923 and 1952, relating to Michigan banks, and state and national politics
• Eight Associated Press teletypes reporting on the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963

The United States Presidents collection contains a diverse array of materials that reflects broadly on personal, presidential, and national affairs. See the Detailed Box and Folder Listing for more information about each item.