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The Eggleston family collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other items related to Ambrose Eggleston, Nathaniel Hillyer Eggleston (or Egleston), Melville Eggleston (or Egleston), and Samuel Eggleston. The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters to Ambrose Eggleston from family members, who responded to genealogical inquiries about their family histories.

The Eggleston family collection (0.5 linear feet) contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other items related to Ambrose Eggleston, Nathaniel Hillyer Eggleston (or Egleston), Melville Eggleston (or Egleston), and Samuel Eggleston. The bulk of the collection is comprised of letters to Ambrose Eggleston from family members, who responded to his genealogical inquiries about family history.

The bulk of the collection is made up of items collected by Ambrose Eggleston . The Ambrose Eggleston Correspondence subseries contains around 250 letters to Eggleston, dated September 14, 1850-December 13, 1864, and May 2, 1900. The bulk of the correspondence is dated 1859-1864. Eggleston received letters from over 131 family members, who provided information on Eggleston (and Egleston) family history. Eggleston regularly corresponded with Elijah Eggleston of Hartford, Connecticut, who shared news of his genealogical findings. One late letter pertains to Murray E. Poole's genealogical research, which he conducted after Ambrose Eggleston's death.

The Ambrose Eggleston Genealogies subseries (16 items) contains undated biographical sketches of, and notes about, various members of the Eggleston family and allied families. Two items pertain to Nathaniel Hillyer Eggleston.

The Ambrose Eggleston Newspaper Clippings subseries (4 items) is made up of newspaper articles attributed to Elijah Eggleston, dated July 19, 1859-October 7, 1859. The articles concern historical publications, patent medicine, a murder case, and the Putnam Phalanx, a military unit.

The Nathaniel and Melville Eggleston series pertains to Nathaniel Hillyer Eggleston (or Egleston) and his son Melville. The Nathaniel and Melville Eggleston Correspondence subseries (17 items) contains 5 letters by Nathaniel H. Eggleston (December 20, 1841-September 5, 1859); 9 letters to Melville Eggleston (July 9, 1886-November 9, 1924), and a letter to "Mama" about a leg injury, including 2 diagrams (February 9, 1898); the series also contains 2 undated items. Nathaniel Eggleston and his wife Sarah wrote to family members and an acquaintance about life in Hartford, Connecticut, and in Madison, Wisconsin, after the family relocated in the 1850s. A letter to Eggleston's mother includes an announcement of Melville Eggleston's birth (July 27, 1845); one letter includes a newspaper clipping mentioning Nathaniel Eggleston's admission to the Union Congregational Church in Madison (July 22, 1859). Melville Eggleston received letters relating to subjects including his master's degree from Yale College (July 9, 1886), genealogical inquiries and family history, and club membership. Two undated items are a German-language postcard from "Lilian" to an uncle, and a typed extract of a letter by Nathaniel H. Eggleston.

Nathaniel and Melville Eggleston Newspaper Clippings (12 unique items) include 10 unique obituaries for Reverend Nathaniel Hillyer Egleston, published during the week after his death in August 1912. Burrell's Press Clipping Bureau collected and mounted 8 of the clippings. The other articles relate to the death of William H. Sheldon (undated) and to a performance of Oedipus Rex at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City (April 28, 1914).

The Nathaniel and Melville Eggleston Ephemera and Report Card (3 items) relate to Williams College. Items include an invitation to a "Class Day," a grade report for Nathaniel H. Egleston, and a commencement program for the class of 1906, which included Nathaniel Hillyer Egleston.

The Samuel Eggleston Documents series contains 13 land deeds and indentures (April 16, 1772-July 18, 1850) pertaining to land that Eggleston owned in Dutchess County, New York.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Gerald T. and Charlotte B. Maxson printed ephemera collection contains over 5,000 pieces of assorted ephemera, the majority of which were commercially printed in the United States during the mid to late 19th-century.

The Maxson collection provides a valuable resource for the study of 19th-century visual culture, commercial advertising, and humor in addition to the role of gender, ethnicity, and race in advertising. American businesses are the predominant focus of the collection, though many international businesses are also represented. While trade cards are by far the most prevalent type of ephemera found in this collection, an extensive array of genres are present including die cut scrapbook pieces, photographs, engravings, maps, serials, and manuscript materials.

The 23 binders that house the Maxson collection were arranged by the collectors themselves. Items are organized somewhat randomly in terms of topical arrangement. While pockets of related materials can be found here and there (for instance, the entirety of Volume 16 contains circus-related items while Volume 11 contains an extensive number of Shaker-related materials), for the most part any given subject may appear in any given volume. In some cases, items are clustered as a result of having been acquired together or due to a documented common provenance. Occasional typed annotations written by the Maxsons help provide additional context for certain items.

The Maxson Collection Subject Index serves as a volume-level subject index for materials found throughout the binders. The subjects indexed here are generally representative of both visual and commercial content. In addition to more general subjects, many names of specific people, places, buildings, events, and organizations that appear in the materials have also been listed. Researchers engaging with this collection should be aware that they will encounter numerous examples of racist caricatures, especially ones depicting African American, Native American, Irish, and Chinese people.

This collection is made up of correspondence, documents, financial records, newspaper clippings, and other items related to Salem, New York, and its residents, primarily from the 1780s-1890s.

This collection is made up of correspondence, documents, financial records, newspaper clippings, and other items related to Salem, New York, and its residents, primarily from the 1780s-1890s. Many of the items were once bound together.

The Correspondence series is comprised of around 60 incoming and outgoing letters related to Salem, New York, and to the history of the state of New York. Early letters between residents of Salem and other locales concern a wide range of topics including education, political offices and appointments, and legal cases. After 1856, most items are incoming letters to James Gibson, a native of Salem who was state senator, judge, and president of the Washington Academy. Three letters written during the Civil War concern military commissions and officers. Many of Gibson's incoming letters, particularly later items, relate to his genealogical work; some correspondents offered or requested information about their ancestors.

The Documents series contains over 140 indentures, financial records, petitions, and other items, primarily related to residents of Salem, New York, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of the indentures concern land ownership in Washington, County, New York, and personal financial agreements. Other material relates to the Washington Academy, including a list of pupils. Legal orders largely concern private debts, and one document pertains to a local election. Some documents have newspaper clippings pasted onto them, and others were once bound together. One item is a diploma that the Washington Academy issued to James McEl. A group of land indentures is housed in a large bound volume.

The collection's Printed Items include articles, programs, and newspaper clippings. The majority of newspaper clippings concern the Washington Academy in Salem, New York. Other articles concern the "Bench and Bar of Washington County," the Bancroft Public Library, and the family of William Williams. Some clippings are pasted onto large sheets of paper, with manuscript annotations; a small number of complete newspapers are present. The series also has several copies of a program from the dedication ceremony of the Bancroft Public Library in July 1890.

The Photograph, Essay, Notes, and Fragments series is made up of items pertaining to Salem, New York. The carte-de-visite photograph depicts J. B. Steele. The various notes, essay, and fragments pertain to genealogy.

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.