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The Alexander family papers document the family, life, and early career of pianist Margaret June Alexander (also known as Vonya Alexandre) throughout the early 1900s. The collection is made up of two journals kept by her mother, Myrilla M. Anderson, plus letters, writings, artwork, family photographs, printed programs, sheet music, and other materials related to this Decatur County and Indianapolis, Indiana, family.

The Alexander family papers document the family, life, and early career of pianist Margaret June Alexander (also known as Vonya Alexandre) throughout the early 1900s. The collection consists of two journals kept by her mother, Myrilla M. Anderson, plus approximately 1 linear foot of letters, writings, artwork, family photographs, printed programs, sheet music, books, newspaper clippings, and other materials related to this Decatur County and Indianapolis, Indiana, family.

Margaret's mother, Myrilla Anderson Alexander, wrote two journals during Margaret's early life and stages of her musical career. The first, kept between 1894 and 1896, documents Myrilla's experiences during Margaret's infancy and a list of musical lessons, associated fees, and required books. The second journal covers 1907 to 1917, and focuses primarily on Margaret's musical performances, complemented by enclosed newspaper clippings, correspondence, and programs.

The Alexander family papers include Myrilla M. Anderson Alexander's sketchbook of ink, watercolor, and charcoal illustrations. A hand bound book appears in the collection, written for Myrilla Alexander by R. E. Sylvester, which contains poetry and sketches.

The collection includes 4 letters by Myrilla Alexander, picture postcards, calling cards, 2 blank living wills from the state of Florida, and a 1945 marriage certificate for Carl F. Grouleff and Vonya Kurzhene. A typed document titled "Remembrances of Anna Stover and Edith Surbey" recounts the friends' lives from their early education through their ongoing religious charity work. Other items include a handwritten description of Margaret June Alexander's 1913 performance at Carnegie Hall, a list of quotations, and a certificate regarding the eligibility of Mary Alexander Tarkington and Caroline Anderson Haugh to join the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Approximately 110 photographs depict Margaret June Alexander, her performance partner Mischel Kurzene, and members of the Alexander, Anderson, and Tarkington families. An address book kept by Myrilla Alexander includes addresses and birthdays of family and friends.

The collection's printed items include programs for musical events, sheet music, newspaper clippings, and two books. Approximately 50 programs reflect Margaret June Alexander's musical career between 1907 and 1927. Obituaries for members of the Alexander and Tarkington families appear within the collection's newspaper clippings. Multiple copies of an undated, printed advertisement for "Dr. Alexander's Effervescing Headache Powders" are also present. The collection's 2 books are G. W. H. Kemper's A Medical History of the State of Indiana (Chicago: American Medical Association Press, 1911) and Joseph Tarkington's Autobiography of Rev. Joseph Tarkington (Cincinnati: Curts & Jennings, 1899).

The Harry A. Simmons journal and sketchbook contain diary entries and sketches relating to the Union Navy service of Simmons onboard the schooner Sophronia, particularly his involvement in the New Orleans and Vicksburg campaigns.

The Harry A. Simmons journal contains 58 pages of entries, and his sketchbook includes 117 individual sketches on 57 pages. The journal, which is entitled "Journal of a Cruise on the U.S. Schr. 'Sophronia'," contains lengthy and informative entries covering December 30, 1861-July 30, 1862. Simmons sent it home in several parts to his wife, in order to keep her abreast his activities and wartime experiences. The journal describes Simmons' adjustment to life on the sea, his duties on the ship, various locales in Florida and Mississippi, and several naval engagements, including participation in the New Orleans and Vicksburg campaigns.

Early entries reflect Simmons' initiation into life on the sea and his interest in the marine life that he and his shipmates encountered. On February 7, 1862, he wrote that he lacked "acquired or even instinctive 'sea larnin'," but noted the "fine qualities" of the Sophronia. A few days later, he described fishing for kingfish and seeing dolphins, coral, and sponges from the ship (February 11, 1862). He also described the hardships of life on the sea, including the sky-high prices of produce, eggs, and milk, which the sailors bought from sea-faring merchants (June 10, 1862); the dangers caused by drunken shipmates (February 19, 1862; March 15, 1862); and several outbreaks of illness. In another entry, he noted that he was glad to see a group of dolphins because they made good food, but unlike his shipmates, refused to eat sharks because he held a "prejudice" against them (July 27, 1862).

Simmons also wrote entries concerning the Sophronia's movements and engagements. On February 19, 1862, he noted that "gradually our end of the harbour is filling up" as the ships gathered to form a mortar flotilla under Captain David Dixon Porter near Key West, Florida. On their way west, the crew captured a southern ship with 400 bales of cotton and took a frightening-looking prisoner onboard (March 16, 1862). Around this time, Simmons also noted an overwhelming feeling among his shipmates that "we are the victims of a system of poor generalship" and commented that many of them spoke of resigning from the service (March 23, 1862). By the time the Sophronia reached the Mississippi River, engagements became increasingly common. On April 16, 1862, Simmons described a Confederate "fire raft," which had been filled with combustibles and sent downstream "to drift against our vessels & if possible encircle some of them in a warm embrace." Several days later, he gave an account of the bombardment of Forts St. Philip and Jackson, noting the glow in the sky from widespread burning and estimating that the flotilla had fired a total of 2000 shells (April 18, 1862). The next day, he described seeing a shell hit the Winona and several men die from the explosion. Simmons also described his participation in the Siege of Vicksburg, including rumors of raging fires (June 28, 1862), skirmishes and picket fighting (July 2, 1862), and his being constantly on guard. On July 6, 1862, he noted that he had grown so accustomed to the sound of firing that he no longer noticed it.

Simmons gave detailed descriptions of a number of locales. On March 21, 1862, he described Pilottown, Louisiana, as generally deserted, but noted that one house contained a family claiming to be loyal to the Union. Shortly after the bombardment of Fort Jackson, he and a few other officers were able to observe the wreck of Fort Jackson, which he called the "most terrible destruction." On a second visit to Ship Island, Mississippi, he noted that it had grown, with many new storehouses, workshops, and hospital sheds (May 8, 1862).

The diary also provides insight into the duties of a surgeon's steward and the medical issues that arose onboard the Sophronia. These included the difficulty of obtaining certain kinds of medicines (February 16, 1862), the problem of treating outbreaks of illnesses (July 13, 1862), and a description of a funeral and the burial of a sailor at sea, wrapped in his hammock (July 22, 1862). By July 29, 1862, Simmons noted that 15 of the 32 crew members, including himself, had become ill and he reluctantly tendered his resignation and went to the hospital. The diary closes with an entry noting that he had arrived at home with his family and that he hoped "to recover my lost health" (August 26, 1862).

Accompanying the journal is Simmons' sketchbook, containing 57 pages and 117 individual pencil and watercolor sketches. Subjects include ships he encountered, military activities, southern scenery, sailors, civilians, and buildings. The locations that Simmons drew include plantations and homes in Baton Rouge, numerous views of Vicksburg, Fort Adams, and the U.S. Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. In several drawings, he depicted African Americans, including a contraband escaping from Vicksburg by riding a log down the Mississippi, a dog and a soldier playing together (labeled "Cuffee & Sambo"), a man in a sailor suit, and a group of women laundering clothes over a fire in Baton Rouge. Simmons also drew numerous military scenes, frequently teeming with detail. He depicted "fire rafts," a shelling by the Union Navy, the Sophronia "in fighting costume," an interior view of Fort Jackson, and the entrance to Fort St. Philip. Pasted into the sketchbook is a printed version of a sketch by Simmons, entitled "Attack on Vicksburg, Miss., by the Gun Boats and Mortar Fleet…"

The John V. Lansing papers document the life of Lansing, particularly his medical education and work in New York State Asylums.

Although a small collection, the Lansing papers contain a varied array of materials: 38 pieces of correspondence between Lansing and various family members, journals of his trips to Europe and to South America, journals of his medical training, assorted poems and Valentine poems by Lansing, his sketchbook and several loose pencil sketches, the text of his graduation speech from Rutgers, a lecture on "thought and thinking" which he delivered in 1848, his estate inventory, a few receipts and business letters, miscellaneous correspondence between other family members, an autograph book and theme book which probably belonged to a niece, 11 unidentified photographs, part of a magazine article depicting the Lansing family homestead, and a few pieces of peripheral miscellany. (The sketch book, autograph book, and European diary have been removed to a separate pamphlet box.) Also included in an introductory folder are obituaries of Lansing, his article on frogs, and published proceedings of the Albany Medical Society which record his participation.

This collection is not as rich in research potential as one would hope, given the subject's varied travels and career changes as documented in the manuscripts. Most of the correspondence and journals are revealing of Lansing's personality, opinions, and philosophy rather than abundant with details on places, people, and activities. One comes to know the man intimately, but not to be able to place him very confidently in a social and professional context.

Probably the greatest value of the papers is in the information which can be gleaned from them on medical education and practice in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Lansing's medical school journals, especially the section covering his training at Bellevue Hospital in New York City (1853 June 27-December 17), are full of details on medical lectures, learning how to diagnose and treat various diseases and conditions, the performance of autopsies, surgical procedures (especially gynecological operations), and pharmacology. Given Lansing's analytical and opinionated nature, these depictions are often both informative and insightful as to the nature of medical science during this era. He writes on August 2, 1853: "I attended a part of Motts Clinique at the University and saw some noteworthy cases. He ordered a plaster over a sore breast and said when the patient had retired that was always his way when he didn't know what a thing was to cover it up with plaster and spoke of it as a rule to be adopted in life to cover up what we don't understand with plasters. I don't exactly like the principle." Lansing also includes in this journal segment a horrifying description of a woman's death of gangrene of the intestines after surgery for an ovarian tumor -- highly evocative of the primitive nature of surgery and infection prevention in this period.

The European and South American journals also contain some material on hospital conditions and medical training and practice, specifically in Paris, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. There is an interesting account of Lansing's unsuccessful treatment of a tuberculosis patient while ship's physician on the "Seaman," and of the man's subsequent death and burial at sea. The correspondence covering Lansing's years of practice as physician at two insane asylums and at Clinton State Prison are disappointing in their lack of detail on medical practice; only a few general descriptions and anecdotes on patients and incidents are provided. Published accounts of his participation in the Albany County Medical Society, however, are more informative, for they present case studies which illustrate typical diagnoses and treatments of various illnesses.

Interesting minor sidelights of the collection are descriptions of the manufacture of an artificial arm for Lansing's brother-in-law, and some technical details about a candle making process involving lard-oil which, through his studies in chemistry, he was helping a friend to develop. Lansing's poetry also constitutes a minor but entertaining resource, for it exemplifies the sentimental nature of social and literary expression in this era, as well as revealing the author's wit and style.

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.