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The Abigail Clark Farley collection is made up of essays, poetry, letters, and fiction that Farley wrote around the 1860s and 1870s. Topics include slavery, the Civil War, Seventh-day Adventists, and the state of Wisconsin.

The Abigail Clark Farley collection is made up of approximately 150 pages of essays, poetry, letters, and fiction that Farley wrote around the 1860s and 1870s. Some individual items contain more than one work, and she occasionally practiced decorated penmanship. The lengthiest item is a story entitled "Slander," a 52-page work (pages 5-8 are not present), and other essays or letters are as long as 4 pages. Though most items are attributed to Abigail Clark (later Abigail Farley), some are excerpts from other sources, such as "The Narative of Lewis Clark" [sic].

Around the time of the Civil War, Farley wrote essays expressing her opposition to slavery and her feelings about the war's high death toll. In many letters, poems, and essays, she commented on Seventh-day Adventism, various religious and moral topics, and friendship. Other essays and copied poems concern nature and the geography of Wisconsin. A group of elegiac poems are accompanied by genealogical notes. The collection includes a brief biographical note about Queen Victoria.

Abigail Farley's letters include an item written under a male pseudonym chastising a female acquaintance for unbecoming behavior (October 7, 1865) and a letter to Ellen G. White about her new husband's abusive behavior (March 28, 1871). One manuscript concerns a prophecy that came to Quaker minister Joseph Hoag. Small ink drawings of birds appear on one page of poems. One item documents partial terms for Abigail Clark's employment as a penmanship instructor. The collection includes recipes for lemon pies, rheumatic drops, several kinds of cake, and nerve ointment.

The Joseph W. Hall diary (160 pages) contains the daily reflections of a member of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery from May 15, 1864, to July 29, 1865.

The Joseph W. Hall diary (160 pages) contains the daily reflections of a member of the 7th New York Heavy Artillery, from May 15, 1864, to July 29, 1865. His typical entries are one or two sentences long. Hall noted his company's locations, daily activities, and food (rations and foraging). He also provided details on his company's role in skirmishes and battles, including the Battle of Cold Harbor (pages 8-10), the Battle of Petersburg (pages 18-20), the Siege of Petersburg (pages 43-44), and the Battle of Ream's Station (page 60-61). The following entry is a typical description of a skirmish:

"[August] 22 We laid about in our work until about noon when we advanced about a mile in the woods and halted in line of Battle[.] The Rebels crept around us and got in our rear and opened on us a galling fire[.] Everything was in confusion[.] the whole corps broke for the Breastworks and were not a moment too soon, for the Rebels were close on our works but our men rallied and repulsed them with heavy loss and held the works[.] Two of our company were taken Prisoner." (page 55)

In addition to fighting, Hall records entries on various other topics. On August 19, 1864, Hall described "talking and trading" with the Rebels instead of firing on them (page 55), and pages 62-73 cover details on army hospitals. The entry from August 18, 1864, contains a brief description of the 10th Corps, of which soldiers "were mostly negroes" (page 55). Hall discussed the Presidential election of 1864 (pages 78-79), and Lincoln's assassination (p. 132-135). Pages 128 through 155 cover the events between the fall of Richmond and Hall's eventual discharge at the end of July 1865.

At the end of the volume, after many blank pages, Hall copied recipes for medicine, including a "Diarrhea Cordial," and a cure for consumption, and listed the 82 men in the 7th New York Heavy Artillery, Battery B, along with their ranks when they enlisted in the regiment in August 1862.

This collection contains correspondence, diaries, ephemera, photographs, and other material related to Vashti Detwiler Garwood, a schoolteacher and physician in Ohio, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Michigan. The collection documents her experiences teaching school in Ohio and Massachusetts, as well as her coursework at the Boston University School of Medicine. Also included are additional photographs of her family and a published history of the Novy-Garwood families.

This collection (0.5 linear feet) contains correspondence, diaries, ephemera, photographs, and other material related to Vashti Detwiler Garwood. The material documents her experiences teaching school in Ohio and Massachusetts, as well as her coursework at the Boston University School of Medicine. Also included are additional photographs of her family and a published history of the Novy and Garwood families.

The Correspondence series is comprised of 16 personal letters between members of the Cannon family of Pennsylvania and members of the Detwiler and Garwood families. The Cannon siblings wrote and received three letters between 1862 and 1864, sharing recent news such as local deaths. Isaiah Cannon also informed his brother, D. H. Cannon, of his intention to enlist in the Union Army (February 1, 1864).

The remaining 13 letters relate to Vashti Detwiler Garwood, including several from her mother-in-law, Angeline Garwood (1805-1881), who reported family news from Lewisburg, Ohio. Vashti received a letter from Spencer Willard Garwood, her future husband, written while he served in the 132nd Ohio Infantry Regiment during the Civil War; he provided some of his impressions of the South and shared updates about his regiment (July 7, 1864). In one late letter, W. H. Berkey, editor of the Vigilant, responded to her letter concerning conditions within the Cassopolis Jail in Cassopolis, Michigan; the Women's Christian Temperance Union believed Garwood's previously printed letter a fraud, though a clipping attached to the letter respects the Vigilant's verification of her identity (September 19, 1896).

Vashti Detwiler Garwood kept 5 Diaries and Journals between 1858 and 1868, most of which concern her experiences as a schoolteacher in Ohio and Massachusetts, as well as the early years of her married life in Fort Scott, Kansas. She wrote sporadically until the fall of 1864, when she began composing entries more frequently. Some of the journals document overlapping periods of time. Along with her experiences, she often recorded her thoughts and emotions, frequently related to her religious beliefs and her relationships. Her small pocket journal, kept throughout 1860, also contains quotations, algebra problems, and financial accounts. One late, undated entry in the journal, written between January 1, 1859, and December 31, 1864, is a lament composed after her failed attempt to win admission to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Her final journal, kept between January 2, 1865, and September 8, 1868, occasionally refers to military developments during the Civil War, and contains a brief allusion to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (April 15, 1865). The series also holds a typescript of diary entries written between January 16, 1864, and September 27, 1864, made from a diary in the collection.

The Writings are 4 jokes and humorous anecdotes, including 1 referencing Native Americans; 6 poems, often sentimental in nature; a list of quotations and a set of notes; an 8-page lesson on "The Rainbow," composed in a question-and-answer format; and 2 essays on writing compositions, totaling around 3 and a half pages. One of the latter compositions is signed by Vashti Detwiler Garwood.

The first subseries of Documents and Ephemera holds items related to Vashti Detwiler Garwood's studies at the Boston University School of Medicine between 1880 and 1881, including tickets verifying her membership in the class and permission to attend lectures, an order of lectures for 1880-1881, 2 commencement tickets, and several items attesting to her successful completion of individual courses. Other material includes a printed circular addressed to students, which states the faculty's commitment to the fair treatment of women (February 5, 1882); tuition receipts; and an event program, printed in Latin. Other Documents and Ephemera are three manuscript slips attesting to Hiram Garwood's good conduct in school, funeral notices, invitations, and 3 printed, colorful cards presented to Martha and Vashti Detwiler as "reward[s] of merit."

The Recipes series (5 items) contains several recipes, including 2 individual items and a three-page sheet containing many recipes, a fragment from a food-related account, and a bill of fare.

Visual Material (22 items) includes photographic portraits and snapshots of members of the Detwiler and Garwood families, both identified and anonymous; a photograph of President James A. Garfield; a postcard depicting the University of Michigan's 1908 commencement exercises, with Vashti Detwiler Garwood marked; and a colored illustration of a woman. The collection also contains a cased ambrotype portrait of Christian Detwiler and Vashti, his daughter, taken in the fall of 1853, and a bound "Souvenir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania" containing several views of the town.

Printed Material (22 items) consists of 16 newspaper clippings, most of which contain poetry or recipes; an educational pamphlet entitled The Family Bible Teacher, number 18 in a series; a newsletter from the Greenwich Academy, which mentions an upcoming visit by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; 1 of Vashti Detwiler Garwood’s calling cards; and 2 small cards printed with memory- and friendship-themed mottos.

Also included is a copy of the Novy-Garwood Family Record and Connections, a book published in 1990.

Artifacts include a leather wallet purchased by Christian Detwiler in 1827, a circular wooden box, a paper doll, and several outfits for the doll.

The collection also holds 6 pages of Genealogy notes.