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This collection is made up six volumes pertinent to the Civil War service of Captain later Major Alonzo M. Keeler of the 22nd Michigan Infantry. They include an autograph album kept by Captain Keeler while a Confederate prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond and at Roper Hospital prison in Charleston between May 1864 and February 1865. Also present is the Book of Common Prayer carried by Keeler during his time as prisoner of war, including marginalia related to Sunday services. The remainder of the collection is a block of wood in a custom case purported to be from the original flooring of Libby Prison, Keeler's copy of Silas Casey's Infantry Tactics (3 vols., 1862-1863), and five South Carolina newspapers from 1864.

This collection is made up six volumes pertinent to the Civil War service of Captain later Major Alonzo M. Keeler of the 22nd Michigan Infantry. They include an autograph album kept by Captain Keeler while a Confederate prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond and at Roper Hospital prison in Charleston between May 1864 and February 1865. Also present is the Book of Common Prayer carried by Keeler during his time as prisoner of war, including marginalia related to Sunday services. The remainder of the collection is a block of wood in custom case purported to be from the original flooring of Libby Prison, Keeler's copy of Silas Casey's Infantry Tactics (3 vols., 1862-1863), and five South Carolina newspapers from 1864.

Alonzo Keeler kept an autograph album of prisoner of war officers over the course of his imprisonment at Libby Prison, the Charleston Jail Yard, Roper Hospital Prison in Charleston, and the "Asylum Camp" in Columbia. The volume has an illustrated title page bearing multiple forms for calligraphic lettering, and a watercolor illustration of the Libby Prison building with two crossed, furled American flags. The full title is "AUTOGRAPHS. US OFFICERS Prisoners of war" and below, "Libby Prison Richmond Va Capt A M. Keeler." Most pages include 4-5 autographs, and the signatures are variously accompanied by the signer's rank, military unit, and home city or state. The contributors to the album were almost entirely infantrymen, though at least two Navy officers, one Veteran Cavalry officer, and one chaplain signed. Their home States included Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Rhode Island, Kansas, Iowa, Tennessee, and Vermont. Michigan soldiers in Libby Prison were from Ypsilanti, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Jackson, Coldwater, Chelsea, and Mount Clemens; Michigan soldiers in the Roper Prison were from Battle Creek, Marshall, Mount Clemens, Lapeer, Saginaw City, and Adrian.

• Pages 1-73: Contains 343 numbered autographs of prisoners.
• Pages 74-75: A brief history of the movement of 600 officers from Macon, Georgia, July 28; to Charleston City Jail Yard July 29; on August 10, the placement of 177 in prison for "confining convict laborers and runaway neg[ros]"; and movement to Roper Hospital building on August 13, 1864. This is followed by a history of the Roper Hospital copied from a piece of marble at the head of the stairs over the library, on the second story.
• Pages 76-86: Contains prisoner autographs numbered 344-390.
• Pages 81-82: Between autograph entries 368 and 369 is a gap containing tabular election returns headed "Official returns of the Presidential Election held in the U.S. Military Prison near Columbia S.C. among the Federal prisoners, Oct 17th. 1864." The columns are States, Lincoln, Johnson, McClellan, Pendleton, Total for President, L. Maj.; total votes cast are present.
• Unnumbered pages: Twenty-four pages intended to be an index of the autograph album, but not completed. Each page has a state name at the top, but only Connecticut has any index information present.
• Laid into the volume is: A. Martin Keeler ALS to "grand father" with appended L. A. Knight ANS, June 9, [?]; Utica. Respecting the sickness/fever of A. Martin Keeler's father; Dr. Knight described the treatments given, effect, and remarks on family.
• Also laid into the volume is a periodical clipping showing an oval portrait of Major and Mrs. A. M. Keeler; and a The Detroit Journal clipping about the Keelers' 58th wedding anniversary and the 35th year of their wedding tradition of a New Years' Eve family party (January 2, 1908).

The collection includes Alonzo M. Keeler's copy of The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments; and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church . . . Together with the Psalter, or Psalms of David. Philadelphia: King & Baird, 9 Sansom Street, [ca. 1852-1856]. It contains an inscription, "A.M. Keeler Libby Prison Richmond Va, 1864." On many Sundays, Keeler wrote the date or other notes in the margins beside the scripture(s) of the day. For, example, he noted that he was in Macon Prison beside various passages on May 22, June 12, 19, 26, and July 3, 10, 17, and 24, 1864. On pages 294-303, beside Articles of Religion, he wrote "Must buy a Bible containing these" next to list of canonical biblical books; then after the 39th article, "In prison at Macon Ga July 10 1864 – Sunday – How different from home – But since its all for the best it is tolerable." Beside Selections from the Psalms of David (page 58-59) he wrote "A good hymn" (Hymn 10. C.M.) and "I subscribe this" (Hymn 11. III.1).

On July 31 and August 7, he made annotations from the Charleston City Jail Yard. On August 7, 1864, he noted, "Shells flying over," and, marking Selection 55 C.M. "approves my heart" (Selections from the Psalms of David, page 18). By the following Sunday, he attended service in the Roper Hospital Prison, Charleston, and again on August 21, 28, and into September. After his move to Columbia, he wrote from the Asylum Prison (February 12, 1865), "A beautiful day – One wishes to join his congregation in public praise at home – How long shall this separation from home & friends last?" (Selections from the Psalms of David, page 43).

On February 26, 1865, Alonzo Keeler reflected on his impending release from Camp Holmes, Raleigh, North Carolina. "A beautiful sabbath day A prisoner still but on parole for exchange Over anxious to be at home yet trusting fully that He who has kept me so carefully these 17 months while in the hands of my enemies, will soon restore to home & friends" (Selections from the Psalms of David, page 5). The same day, "The mind in high expectation of being released from imprisonment by an unfriendly power is quite illustrative of the soul in anxious hope of final deliverance from the power of Satan – too buoyant to entertain deep study & meditation – too joyful to be dismayed from fear – the future is all powerful to charm, the present is powerless to torture or annoy – All packed up waiting for transportation – paroled ready to pass through the lines – All supplied & stored with Christian graces, waiting to be borne away, name in the book of life" (Selections from the Psalms of David, page 104).

The Keeler collection also includes 5.6 x 6.2 x 1.2 cm block of wood in a modern custom traycase. Pasted onto the wood is an eight-edged printed label with a red border: "This piece of wood is a part of the original floor of Libby Prison Building. Jno. L. Ransom, Manager." Also present is Silas Casey's 3-volume Infantry Tactics, for the Instruction, Exercise, and Manœuvres of the Soldier, a Company, Line of Skirmishers, Battalion, Brigade, or Corps d'Armée. New York, D. Van Nostrand, 1862-63. Each of the volumes has a stenciled owner inscription in the front endpapers, "Alonzo M. Keeler, Capt. Co. B. 22nd. M.I."

• The Charleston Mercury, v. 85, no. 12,150. Charleston, South Carolina. Saturday, August 27, 1864.
• Charleston Daily Courier, v. 63, no. 19,857. Charleston, South Carolina. Thursday Morning, September 1, 1864.
• The Charleston Mercury, v. 85, no. 12,160. Charleston, South Carolina. Friday, September 9, 1864.
• Charleston Daily Courier, v. 63, no. 19,875. Charleston, South Carolina. Thursday Morning, September 22, 1864.
• The Daily South Carolinian, v. 15, no. 250. F. G. DeFontaine & Co., Columbia, South Carolina. Tuesday Morning, October 18, 1864.

[NB: This is a TEMPORARY finding aid for an IN-PROCESS collection; some restrictions apply]. The Handy Papers document the lives and professional activities of four generations of the Handy Family of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The collection largely revolves around James Henry Handy (1789-1832), Isaac William Ker Handy (1815-1878), Moses Purnell Handy (1847-1898), Sarah Matthews Handy (1845-1933), Frederick Algernon Graham Handy (1842-1912), Egbert G. Handy (1858-1938), Rozelle Purnell Handy (1871-1920), Sarah V. C. Handy (1876-1963), and H. Jamison Handy "Jam Handy" (1886-1983). The Handy family were largely educated, politically active, literary southerners, who were a part of many of the social and intellectual currents of especially the mid- and late-19th century. The papers offer resources for study of the Civil War, particularly its effect on Virginia civilians and southern prisoners of war at Fort Delaware; the history of southern families; late nineteenth-century American politics; Presbyterian history; late nineteenth-century newspaper journalism; the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1892-93; and genealogy. In its current, temporary housing, the papers include 30 boxes of correspondence, 27 boxes of family papers and topics files, six boxes of World's Columbian Exposition papers; eight boxes of photographs, plus separately housed images; four boxes of newspapers and newspaper clippings; 12 boxes of Jam Handy and Jam Handy Organization papers; 60 boxes of scrapbooks; and six boxes of books and serials (plus many loose books and other printed items).

[NB: This is a TEMPORARY finding aid for an IN-PROCESS collection. This current scope note pertains almost entirely to Handy family papers acquisitions of the 1980s (an estimated 60-65 boxes of the total 153 boxes). Among the in-process materials are 60 boxes of scrapbooks, largely kept by Rozelle P. Handy and Sarah V. C. Handy].

The Handy Papers document the lives and professional activities of four generations of the Handy Family of Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. The collection largely revolves around James Henry Handy (1789-1832), Isaac William Ker Handy (1815-1878), Moses Purnell Handy (1847-1898), Sarah Matthews Handy (1845-1933), Frederick Algernon Graham Handy (1842-1912), Egbert G. Handy (1858-1938), Rozelle Purnell Handy (1871-1920), Sarah V. C. Handy (1876-1963), and H. Jamison Handy "Jam Handy" (1886-1983). The Handy family were largely educated, politically active, literary southerners, who were a part of many of the social and intellectual currents of especially the mid- and late-19th century. The papers offer resources for study of the Civil War, particularly its effect on Virginia civilians and southern prisoners of war at Fort Delaware; the history of southern families; late nineteenth-century American politics; Presbyterian history; late nineteenth-century newspaper journalism; the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1892-93; and genealogy.

In its current, temporary housing (see the box listing in this finding aid), the papers include 50 boxes of correspondence, 26 boxes of family papers and topics files, six boxes of World's Columbian Exposition papers; eight boxes of photographs, plus separately housed cased images; four boxes of newspapers and newspaper clippings; 12 boxes of Jam Handy and Jam Handy Organization papers; 60 boxes of scrapbooks; and six boxes of books and serials (plus many loose books and other printed items).

The following is a former description by Curator of Manuscripts Galen Wilson, for the Handy Family Papers acquisitions of the 1980s (50-60 boxes of materials):

"Isaac Handy's fondness for history led him to the belief that he lived at an important moment in the life of the nation, and every wrinkle of the sectional crisis of the 1850s and 60s seemed to confirm. His correspondence and diaries from the eve of the war through its conclusion are a reflection of a well-educated southerner's reaction to the events unfolding about him and provide insight into the development of his political sympathies. Even after his arrest in July 1863 and his incarceration at Fort Delaware, Handy remained conscious of being part of "history in the making," not only continuing his twenty-five-year habit of keeping a diary, but in planning for a future book on Fort Delaware, soliciting memoirs of war service from his fellow prisoners. Handy saved these manuscripts, plus the correspondence he received while in prison (much of it from Confederate civilians), pasting them into two large scrapbooks. These have been disbound and the material cataloged item-by-item and interfiled chronologically in the collection's correspondence. Drafts and copies of the book which Handy wrote about his confinement, United States Bonds, are present in the collection.

Among the many individual areas of American Civil War interest are Isaac W. K. Handy's description of the battle between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac, and the journal which Moses Handy kept during his service in the Confederate army in 1865. The soldiers' reminiscences collected by Isaac Handy at Fort Delaware include several exceptional accounts, including biographical and autobiographical sketches of M. Jeff Thompson, the mayor of St. Joseph, Missouri, turned "Swamp Rat" militia commander. Thompson played a major role during the summer of 1861 in defending Missouri's slave system from John C. Frémont's emancipation proclamation.

Other Civil War war-related materials include Isaac Handy's 1861 sermon on "Our National Sins" and fast-day sermons from the same year. The reminiscences of a myriad of former Confederate officers are scattered throughout Handy's correspondence of the late 1870s, all intended to be used in a history of the war planned by the Philadelphia Times. Also present is some documentation of Frederick A. G. Handy's father-in-law, Edwin Festus Cowherd, a Confederate soldier.

While the Handy collection provides thorough documentation of life among the eastern Handys, it also contains a significant body of correspondence from the westward sojourn of Isaac and Mary Jane Handy from 1844 to 1848. Isaac and his wife wrote over 100 letters from Missouri, in which they described the powerful ideological lure of the west, their family's adjustment to new surroundings, and the social and political climate of the old southwest. An index to these letters, prepared by Isaac Handy, is present, along with an original binding. Isaac's diary for the years spent in Missouri provides a valuable point of comparison for the letters.

Political and social commentary flows throughout most of the collection, from Jesse Higgins' campaign for reform of the federal legal and judicial systems, 1805-1806, through the fin de siècle political interests and involvements of Moses Handy.

The political impact of Reconstruction plays a major role in the collection, particularly in the letters of Congressman Samuel Jackson Randall (1828-1890) of Pennsylvania. The election of 1896 is well documented and the collection includes much correspondence with the Republican President-maker Mark Hanna. For his efforts on behalf of the Republican Party in this election, Moses Handy had hoped to net a foreign consulate through Hannah but was disappointed. Handy's transition from Confederate soldier to Republican politico is subtly documented and provides an interesting case study in political opportunism.

The Handy Family Papers are an important resource for the history of the Presbyterian Church during the 19th century. The 2nd Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., was a major focus of James Henry Handy's life, and the early history of this congregation is well documented in correspondence dating from the 1820s. Rev. Daniel Baker was the first pastor of the congregation, and although Baker's tenure was controversial, James remained a close friend of Baker's for the rest of their lives. The collection thus contains items concerning Baker and his relationship with the 2nd Church, and several letters written by him after he left to assume a pastorate in Savannah, Georgia.

Isaac Handy's vocation as a Presbyterian minister and his avocation as an historical researcher merge in this collection, deepening the documentation of the church. Perhaps spurred by being asked to contribute some biographical sketches to William B. Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, Handy sought out primary documents relating to the colonial Presbyterian clergy and congregations. Aspects of his own career in the church is documented through a scattered series of letters from former parishioners--many of which were received during his imprisonment at Fort Delaware--and in letters written by Isaac to his sons. A thick file of Isaac's sermons is present, several of which were published. Among these sermons is "The Terrible Doings of God" (23:31), which concerns the Yellow Fever Epidemic near Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1855. He delivered this eulogy at a Baptist church for members of several different Portsmouth churches. Handy earned acclaim during the crisis by staying to help the victims rather than fleeing to safer ground.

Isaac Handy's literary flair was inherited by Frederick and Moses, and both pursued careers in newspapers. Moses' career is more thoroughly documented than Frederick's, and much of the correspondence written between 1869 and 1890 concerns Moses' efforts in the newspaper business. There are several folders of general newspaper correspondence dating from 1865 to 1897, an entire box of unsorted clippings by and about the Handys, and boxes of mounted clippings of Moses, Sarah, and Rozelle Handy's published writings. Journalistic endeavors of other family members are also present.

One of Moses Handy's greatest claims to fame was his role as chair of Department O (Publicity and Promotion) for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. His involvement with the Exposition is documented in correspondence, reports, financial papers, brochures, photographs, and memorabilia. The advertising campaign begun in 1890 has been cited as the prototype of modern publicity strategies, and the Handy Papers offer an unparalleled view into the inner workings of the key department. The collection also contains information about the San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition (1893), a sort of subsidiary event to the main Chicago attraction, and the general correspondence for 1891-93 contains some references to the World's Fair.

Isaac Handy's lifelong ambition was to publish "The Annals and Memorials of the Handys and their Kindred." Beginning in the 1850s, he gathered genealogical data on all descendants of "Samuel Handy, the Progenitor," an Englishman who emigrated to Maryland to farm tobacco. Three drafts of this work, in increasing thickness, were completed in 1857, 1865, and the 1870s. Isaac was prepared to publish the work in the 1870s and had an advertising flier printed, but when subscriptions did not meet expectations and Handy died in 1878, the project foundered. The manuscript then passed to Moses Handy, whose own intentions for publishing the book never reached fruition, possibly due to his untimely death at the age of fifty. In 1904, Isaac's youngest surviving son, Egbert, acquired the manuscript from Moses's widow, Sarah Matthews Handy, but his publication plans did not gather momentum until 1932.

With a great deal of vigor, Egbert attempted to update the manuscript, now sixty years out of date, and had a new advertising circular printed. Again, death removed the Annals' main advocate. The manuscript remained in the possession of Egbert's widow, Minerva Spencer Handy, and in the 1940s she gave it to Frederick A. G. Handy's widow, Lelia Cowherd Handy, then living in Arlington, Virginia. Before her death in 1949, Leila entrusted the material to her granddaughter Mildred Ritchie. The Clements Library acquired the manuscript from Mrs. Ritchie along with other family papers. A century and a third after Isaac began the project, the Annals were published by the Clements Library in 1992. The Handy Family Papers contain various drafts of the manuscript, plus many notes and letters concerning its publication."

[NB: This is a TEMPORARY finding aid for an IN-PROCESS collection. This current scope note pertains almost entirely to Handy family papers acquisitions of the 1980s (an estimated 60-65 boxes of the total 153 boxes). Among the in-process materials are 60 boxes of scrapbooks, largely kept by Rozelle P. Handy and Sarah V. C. Handy].