Collections

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia.

The Smith College, Hampton, Va., area and Connecticut photographs consist of approximately 300 photographs in 1 album and 1 folder. Images include photographs of Smith College as well as scenes from Connecticut and southeastern Virginia. Smith College photographs include dorm room interiors, women on campus, and a college basketball game. Connecticut scenes show a Connecticut River ferry, women boating and swimming in Bantam Lake, and St. Margaret's School in Waterbury, Connecticut. Also depicted are buildings at Hampton Institute in Virginia, a variety of boats and warships, likely on the Chesapeake Bay, winter fishing, "oyster canoes" (skipjacks) and men unloading crabs at the factory. Other Virginia photographs show buildings in pre-restoration Williamsburg and rural life, possibly in the Williamsburg area, with rundown shacks, African Americans, ox-drawn carts, and a group of African American school children. Views from unidentified locales include rural scenes, streams and country roads, beaches, dwellings, family life photos with children in a variety of settings, posed Grecian tableaux, and a studio portrait of a man dressed in Native American clothing holding a la crosse ball and stick. Additional photographs include Jamestown church ruins, Deerfield Memorial Hall with several interior views, 7 photographs of interior rooms in an unidentified house, and canal views, possibly of the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Identified individuals include: Grace Collins Lathrop, Sue Boss, Sue Gardner, Alice Bishop, Fanny Coit, Emma Kelsey, Arthur Eggleston, Percy Eggleston, Henrietta Spear, Nellie Spear, Theodate Pope, Ethel Fiefield, and Mary Lewis.

The album is half bound in burgundy leather and is stored in a three part wrap with green cloth spine

The Southwestern automobile travel photograph album (14.5 x 20.25 cm) contains 102 snapshots, most of which document an automobile trip in the United States and Mexico. The images feature bullfighting, camping, fishing and picnicking.

The Southwestern automobile travel photograph album (14.5 x 20.25 cm) contains 102 snapshots, most of which document an automobile trip in the United States and Mexico. The images feature bullfighting, camping, fishing and picnicking. Also included are images of hot springs and a fence made entirely of antlers.

The Stephen D. Brown diaries (approximately 2,000 pages) pertain to the Pennsylvania soldier's service in the United States Army during the First World War. Daily entries are reconstructed from Brown's letters, notes, and ephemera, and cover his entire time in the army.

The Stephen D. Brown diaries (4 volumes; approximately 2,000 pages) pertain to the Pennsylvania soldier's service in the United States Army during the First World War. Daily entries are reconstructed from Brown's letters, notes, and ephemera, and cover his entire time in the army, from his enlistment in the Pennsylvania National Guard (July 13, 1917) to his return from France (July 1919).

Volume 1 (July 13, 1917-June 26, 1918) includes stories of camp life and of Brown's training at the Philadelphia Armory and Camp Hancock, Georgia. While in camp, he wrote of both military and non-military experiences and frequently expressed his opinions about the army. In the spring of 1918, Brown's unit embarked for Europe, where they continued to train prior to approaching the front lines.

Volume 2 (June 27-November 10, 1918) chronicles Brown's experiences near the front. Though he never participated in direct combat, he was subjected to heavy artillery fire and occasional gas attacks and took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of September-November 1918. Brown detailed various aspects of military life and front-line warfare, such as shells passing overhead and the presence of vermin in captured German trenches.

Volume 3 (November 11, 1918-April 2, 1919) and Volume 4 (April 9-July 31, 1919) cover Brown's final months of military service, which he spent taking classes at the University of Toulouse (covered more thoroughly in Volume 4). On July 1, 1918, he left for the United States, and he reached Philadelphia on July 26, 1919.

This collection is mainly comprised of letters that Sergeant Stewart F. Laurent wrote to his wife and other family members while serving in France during World War I. The collection also includes documents, postcards, photographs, and ephemera.

This collection (0.5 linear feet) is mainly comprised of letters that Sergeant Stewart F. Laurent wrote to his wife and other family members while serving in France during World War I. The collection also includes documents, postcards, photographs, and ephemera.

The Correspondence series (67 items) contains 65 letters that Laurent wrote about his service in France from March 10, 1918-May 18, 1919; 1 letter that he wrote on January 10, 1918; and 1 letter by other military personnel confirming Laurent's good record as an automobile driver (April 30, 1918). Laurent most frequently wrote to his wife Alice, discussing their separation and anticipating their life together after the war. In other letters to Alice and to his mother, aunt, uncle, and siblings, he described his travels around the French countryside and reported military rumors, particularly those related to the end of the war. He vacationed at Aix-les-Bains in September 1918 and was stationed in Abainville and Haussimont after the Armistice; he also visited Nice and Paris. On Thanksgiving Day, 1918, after the relaxation of censorship requirements, he recounted his passage to France on the USS President Lincoln and enclosed a dinner menu from the journey. Other enclosures include a photographic postcard; snapshots of Laurent, other soldiers, tanks, and places in France; a booklet celebrating Mother's Day; and a political cartoon of an American soldier awaiting his return home. In 2 letters from March 1919, Laurent drew pictures of artillery shells that had been turned into vases.

The Postcards series (11 items) is divided into 3 groups. Stewart F. Laurent sent 3 postcards to his wife Alice between January 8, 1919, and February 17, 1919, of which 2 show the interior and exterior of the Château de Valençay; the third informs Alice of her husband's reassignment to Haussimont, France. The second group of postcards depicts soldiers and scenes from Paris, France, during World War I. The final group of 4 postcards pertains to the Laurents' candy store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1940s.

Items in the Documents series (9 items) mostly relate to Stewart Laurent's military service, including 4 items about his discharge (May 1919), a Treasury Department document about the War Risk Insurance Act and related financial allotments (undated), and instructions for troops sailing from the United States to France onboard the USS President Lincoln [February 1918]. Three items, 2 of which are dated November 18, 1914, concern the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

Printed Items and Ephemera (15 items) pertain to Stewart F. Laurent's military service and personal life. A 1908 program for an event at Glenolden Grammar School and an unidentified photograph from 1907 are enclosed with an invitation to Laurent's wedding. The remaining items are from the World War I era, including 2 newsletters about the French Riviera in the spring of 1919, a group of ticket stubs with a parody song ("Silver Threads Among the Black"), Laurent's pay book, a program for a variety performance in Aix-les-Bains, and 3 booklets: a guide to the French Riviera, a history of and guide to Paris, and a soldier's French phrasebook. This collection also includes 2 realia items: a string of beads and a private's chevron.

The Summer 1894 snapshot album contains 68 outdoor photographs of various scenes including a militia camp, a lake, Central Park, and a sawmill under construction.

The Summer 1894 snapshot album contains 68 outdoor photographs of various scenes including a militia camp, a lake, Central Park, and a sawmill under construction.

The album (18 x 26.5 cm) is lacking covers but the spine remains partially intact. Images of note include views of a militia camp showing men in uniform relaxing and completing drills, the Bethesda Fountain and the John Quincy Adams Ward Seventh Regiment National Guard, State of New York Memorial in Central Park, men in a store selling hosiery, a group of people in front of a series of changing rooms on a dock, the construction of a sawmill, and a trip in the summer of 1894 to an unidentified lake.

The Thomas M. Bridges Crow Creek and Fort Hall Reservations collection contains approximately 242 photographs in 5 albums, 13 loose photographs, a Catlinite pipe bowl, and a ball headed war club. These materials were associated with Dr. Thomas Miller Bridges, a physician and surgeon who was employed on Native American reservations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Thomas M. Bridges Crow Creek and Fort Hall Reservations collection contains approximately 242 photographs in 5 albums, 13 loose photographs, a Catlinite pipe bowl, and a ball headed war club. These materials were associated with Dr. Thomas Miller Bridges, a physician and surgeon who was employed on Native American reservations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Photographs

Volume 1: This album (18.5 x 29.5 cm) has pebbled black faux leather covers with “Photographs” stamped in gold on the front and contains 51 photographs, all of which pertain to Crow Creek Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1892-1896. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath every image in the album. Several captions have dates that were crossed out for unknown reasons. A handful of images also have numbers inscribed next to them. It is uncertain who took the majority of these photographs, though at least one photograph included in this album (a studio portrait of “White Ghost,” Yanktonai chief) has shown up elsewhere on mounts produced by a photographer based in Chamberlain, South Dakota, named H. B. Perry. It is possible that Perry produced a substantial number of the photographs in this album. Dr. Bridges may have also contributed many photographs.

• Portrait of Anna Lee Bridges at 18 months old
• Group portrait captioned “With the Sioux, an Indian’s home” that shows Dr. Bridges standing outside of a home next to a Native American family
• Group portrait of Crow Creek Agency employees including William Fuller (carpenter), R. Ryerson (blacksmith, miscaptioned as “N. Ryerson”), Joseph Wertz (miller), S. M. Childers (farmer), and Dr. Bridges
• Multiple views of Crow Creek Agency buildings including the physician’s residence, Grace Howard Mission School, church and parsonage (William Fuller also appears in this image), hospital, aspects of the Crow Creek Indian School complex (including the girl’s and boy’s buildings, school rooms building, and dining room), and trader’s store
• Group portrait of five men holding various tools captioned “the blacksmith and his helpers”
• Two photographic reproductions of oil-on-canvas paintings by agency carpenter William Fuller, including a depiction of a scaffold burial overlooking Lower Brule Reservation painted ca. 1882 and a bird’s-eye view of the Crow Creek Reservation painted in 1893
• Image captioned “A war party of Sioux Indians, So. Dak., 1893” that is possibly related to Sun Dance-Fourth of July celebrations
• At least four images related to beef issue on Crow Creek Reservation
• Three images documenting the transportation and assemblage of 500 wagons that were granted for issue at Crow Creek Reservation
• Group portrait of members of the Crow Creek Indian Police
• Group portrait of three men identified as “Burned Prairie,” “Robt. Philbrick” (Robert Philbrick, also known as Tahcaduzahan/Swift Deer), and “Wounded Knee” who are described as “Judges of the Court of Indian Offenses, Crow Creek Indian Agency, S.D.”
• Group portrait of Crow Creek Agency employees including Robert Smith (blacksmith), Iron Shield (policeman), Dr. Bridges, Joseph Sutton (farmer), J. F. Geigoldt (issue clerk), J. C. Fitzpatrick (chief clerk), Fred Treon (U.S. Indian agent), and Thomas Stevens (assistant clerk)
• Studio portraits of “‘White Ghost’, Chief of the Yanktonai Sioux” and “‘Iron Nation’, Chief of the Brule Sioux,” both of whom can be seen wearing mixtures of western and traditional clothing and holding objects such as a turkey feather fan, rifle, and pipes
• Group portrait of two women wearing dentalium shell earrings (one of whom carries a child on her back) identified as “Fire Tail” and “Visible Lightning” posing outside of a tipi next to an empty chair draped with a blanket
• Outdoor portrait of a man identified as “Two Crow” seated outside of his log cabin home
• Outdoor portrait of a man identified as “Talking Crow” holding a rifle and wearing a feather headdress, arm bands, and otter fur breastplate fitted with mirror discs while sitting on a horse dressed in a buffalo scalp horse mask (images of horses wearing these masks are exceedingly rare)
• Outdoor portrait of “‘Bull Ghost’, a sub-chief of the Yanktonai Sioux” seated before a tipi on a blanketed chair wearing a mixture of western and traditional clothing including an otter fur turban, hair feather, moccasins, and wool leggings while holding a tobacco bag, tomahawk, and pipe
• Group portrait of ten schoolgirls posing with teacher Mary A. Reason
• Photograph taken outside the home of a medicine man named “Eagle Dog” (possibly the man standing at left wearing a grizzly bear claw necklace) showing pots, pans, chairs, and animal skins drying
• Group portrait captioned “A dancing party of Sioux Indians” showing nine men gathered around a drum while dressed in traditional clothing including otter fur bandoliers, moccasins, leg garters affixed with dance bells, an otter fur breastplate, and a split horn war bonnet
• Photograph showing several men on horseback captioned “A band of Sioux, at the Agency, July 4th 1895?” with the year listed in the caption crossed out.

Volume 2:This album (18 x 30 cm) has pebbled black leather covers and contains 5 photographs. While no captions or dates are provided, most of these images were likely taken ca. 1910. Four of the images are outdoor group portraits that appear to have been taken during a lakeside cottage trip to an unidentified location, possibly somewhere near Idaho Falls or Yellowstone National Park. A young girl (likely Berenice Bridges) appears in three photos wearing a white dress, while Dr. Bridges likely appears in two photos sporting a long beard. Several other unidentified individuals (likely including Maggie and Anna Lee Bridges) are also present in these images. The fifth photograph in this album is a group portrait of four unidentified individuals, including three Native American people (two older adults and one child) and a white woman, standing outside of a tipi.

Volume 3: This album (19 x 26 cm) has red string-bound cloth covers with “Photographs” stamped in gold on the front cover and contains 47 photographs, the majority of which document aspects of Fort Hall Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath most images in the album. A handful of images also have numbers inscribed next to them. While some images may have been produced by Dr. Bridges himself, many of these photographs (especially images from regions outside of Fort Hall Reservation) were likely taken by other photographers.

• Group portrait of the “Conn. Indian Association Scholars and others,” with missionary, educator, and close friend of the Bridges family Amelia J. Frost identified in the lineup
• Images of various Fort Hall Agency buildings such as the Fort Hall Indian School, the physician’s and agent’s residences, main office
• Several pictures of Fort Hall Indian School employees and students including a group portrait of the Fort Hall Indian School brass band
• Photograph showing a well being bored
• Several images documenting a train wreck on the O.S.L.R.R. at Ross Fork, Idaho
• Outdoor portrait of Cahuilla basket maker Ramona Lubo captioned “Ramona at Cahuilla”
• Photograph of human remains inside of a coffin captioned “Sioux grave, method of bur-ial in the sixties, after the Government stopped bur-ial in trees or on scaffolds”
• Two photographs, including one captioned “Dress Parade,” that show two unidentified Native American men wearing traditional clothing (the man wearing a bone hairpipe breastplate may possibly be Levi Levering, also known as He’-con-thin’ke or White Horn, an Omaha Indian teacher at Fort Hall Indian School)
• Three images showing US Army 4th Cavalry Troop F performing drills
• Group portrait of Anna Lee Bridges with friends “Eulia Churchill” and “Maggie Funkhouser”
• Group portrait of two white girls identified as “Maggie & Bertie Funkhouser” wearing Native American costumes
• Group portrait of Fort Hall Agency employees taken in 1899 including W. H. Reeder (carpenter), C. M. Bumgarner (farmer), Dr. Bridges, P. J. Johnson (blacksmith), M. Timsanico (interpreter), Paul Bannock (stableman), W. H. Evans (farmer), E. C. Godwin (clerk), Lieut. F. G. Irwin (acting agent), C. M. Robinson (issue clerk), and Ed. Lavatta (farmer)
• Four images related to the Warm Springs Indian Agency in Oregon
• Two views of the San Gabriel Mission Church, one of which was produced by Warren Bros.
• Two views of Mt. Putnam
• Group portrait of Native American boys of various ages wearing military-style uniforms captioned “School boys, Ft. Hall Indian School, Idaho”
• Group portrait showing the family of Old Ocean (Bannock guide said to have aided Lewis and Clark) aged “112 yrs old.”

Volume 4: This album (23 x 26 cm) was produced by the Eastman Kodak Company and has string-bound black cloth covers with “Photographs” embossed in gold on the front cover. It contains 85 photographs, the majority of which document aspects of Fort Hall Reservation and primarily date to ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions have been cut and pasted beneath many images in the album. Dr. Bridges possibly produced all or most of these images and captions himself.

• Several views of various Fort Hall Agency buildings
• Several views related to travels in Teton Pass, Jackson Hole, and Snake River in Wyoming
• View of the “Conn. Indian Association Mission School” with an additional manuscript caption stating “Miss [Amelia] Frost’s first mission"
• Several group portraits of Native American and white cowboys
• Outdoor portrait of an unidentified Native American man on horseback wearing a split horn bonnet
• Two images related to Fort Hall Agency beef issue
• Image showing several people examining an older Native American woman captioned “Granny Pokibro, on parade”
• Multiple images that include Anna Lee Bridges
• Several images showing members and officers (including Lieut. Holbrook and Capt. Hatfield) of US Army 4th Cavalry Troop F
• Three photos of Omaha Indians including two portraits of an unidentified Omaha man (possibly Levi Levering) wearing a feather headdress as well as a group portrait showing Levi Levering sitting beside his wife Vena Bartlett Levering while she holds their infant child
• Group portrait of three members of the Fort Hall Reservation Police crossing Snake River
• Images of geysers, waterfalls, and other scenery likely taken at Yellowstone National Park
• Two solo portraits (including a man identified as “F. M. Parsons”) of men standing at the top of the Malad Divide
• Portrait of a young child identified as “Little Bill Mo-cats Jr.”

Volume 5: This album (18 x 29 cm) has black pebbled faux leather covers and contains 54 photographs primarily related to Fort Hall Reservation ca. 1896-1899. Detailed printed captions often including sequential numbers have been cut and pasted beneath most images in the album. Some album pages have missing photographs with captions still present. Dr. Bridges may have produced many of these images and captions himself.

• Three group portraits of a Fort Hall Agency employee picnic held near the head of Ross Fork Creek in 1898
• Image showing “Bannock and Shoshoni Indians horse racing” far in the distance
• Image of hay being stacked at Fort Hall Agency
• Several views of various Fort Hall Agency buildings including the carpenter’s residence, physician’s residence, and agent’s office
• Outdoor portrait of an unidentified Bannock girl on horseback captioned “No. 67. Bannock Indian Girl, showing squaw saddle”
• Group portrait taken in 1899 of Levi Levering (far right) and Rueben P. Wolfe (far left), both Omaha Indian teachers employed at Fort Hall Indian School, posing with their wives Vena Bartlett Levering (second from right holding infant) and Rose E. Cordier (second from left, also known as Rose Wolf Setter and Rose C. Setter)
• Group portrait of two white girls dressed as “Imitation Indians”
• Group portrait of several Omaha Indian men likely visiting Fort Hall Reservation dressed in “handsome native dress of buck-skin & beads”
• Two halftone reproductions of photographs taken by Lee Moorhouse in October 1898 of infant Cayuse twins Emma and Edna Jones (also known as Tax-a-Lax and Alompum) in cradleboards (miscaptioned in album as “Umatilla Indian twins”)
• Image of a scaffold burial captioned “a man and his wife buried in 1872, this negative was made in 1886”
• Photos of a Chinese merchant and a Chinese grave at Fort Hall Agency
• Eight images documenting a rabbit drive
• Portrait of Old Ocean “age 112”
• Three images of buildings in Salt Lake City, Utah, identified as the “Mormon temple,” the “Bee-hive,” and “Eagle Gate”
• Portrait of an unidentified man standing inside of the dispensary at Cheyenne River Agency, South Dakota
• View of an uncovered sweat house
• Six images showing various buildings, issue day, and hay work scenes at San Carlos Agency, Arizona
• Photograph showing a man and dog outside of a building captioned “Pump house, Lower Brule, S.D.”
• Image of a building with a sign above the front entrance reading “Govt. Trading Post.”

Loose Images: Also present are 13 loose photographs. Items of interest include an unmounted photographic reproduction of a ca. 1880 lithograph depicting a group of Native Americans preparing a scaffold burial with a typed caption on the verso reading “Scaffold burial, as practiced by the Crow Indians, elevating the corpse to the scaffold. (Copied by permission, from the 1st annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology)”; an unmounted group portrait of several Mohave people including two women and seven children; an unmounted portrait of an unidentified Native American man seated outside of a dwelling made of mud and straw captioned “An old time medicine man and his hut”; an unmounted group portrait taken outside a Fort Hall Reservation building captioned “School House, teacher & pupils at Ross Fork”; an unmounted view of a building captioned “Fort Hall. Location. The old adobes”; a studio portrait of an adult Anna Lee Bridges wearing a nurses uniform taken by F. R. Lambrecht, likely ca. 1918; and a studio portrait of Berenice Bridges as a child.

Realia

The first piece of realia is a pipe bowl (7.5 x 3.5 x 3 cm) made from Catlinite that likely dates to the 1850s and is most probably of Lakota/Dakota origin.

The second piece of realia is a ball headed war club (54 x 15 x 6 cm) that likely dates to the 1860s and is most probably of Lakota/Dakota origin. The club is made entirely of carved wood. The ball head is painted black and is lacking a spike while the main body is decorated with brass upholstery tacks on one side.

Both of these items were likely acquired by Dr. Bridges as a result of his personal interest in Native American material culture.

The Thomas O'Brien photograph album contains approximately 136 snapshots of people from the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, American soldiers, and U.S. military facilities taken by U.S. Army infantryman Thomas O’Brien.

The Thomas O'Brien photograph album contains approximately 136 snapshots of people from the Marshall and Gilbert Islands, American soldiers, and U.S. military facilities taken by U.S. Army infantryman Thomas O’Brien.

The album (30 x 30 cm) is a modern green three-ring binder with plastic sleeves. Images of note include pictures of women from the Marshall Islands (including numerous topless portraits of young women); performers attached to the Bob Hope show such as June Brunner, Patty Thomas, and Carol Landis; copies of Japanese photographs of causalities; Kauai and other Hawaiian locations; and a monument to the 323rd U.S. Army Infantry Regiment. Many images have handwritten captions on their versos. O’Brien is present and identified in several photographs. Also present is a copy of a card that O’Brien sent to his mother Helen O’Brien.

This collection is made up of the papers of Arba U. Thompson and his wife Frances Warner Thompson of Farmington and Avon, Hartford County, Connecticut, as well as the correspondence of their children Herbert, William, Lewis, Leila, Charles, and Frances May Thompson. The collection also includes the correspondence of Lucelia "Leila" U. Thompson, an educator who traveled with her husband William P. Baker to India in 1853 to serve for a decade as a missionary and teacher.

This collection is made up of the papers of Arba U. Thompson and his wife Frances Warner Thompson of Farmington and Avon, Hartford, Connecticut, as well as the correspondence of their children Herbert, William, Lewis, Leila, Charles, and Frances May Thompson. The papers include 2,713 letters, plus one linear foot of diaries, legal and financial documents, school papers, a commonplace book, a notebook, poems and writings, photographs, ephemeral materials, and printed items.

The Thompson Family Papers correspondence includes a wide range of writers and recipients. A temporary, rudimentary selection of them is as follows:

• The earliest portion of the collection is largely comprised of the incoming correspondence of Frances "Frankie" Warner / Frances Warner Thompson, 1850-1851, and the often lengthy, journal-like letters of Lucelia "Leila" U. Thompson who traveled with her husband William P. Baker to India in 1853, where she served as a missionary and teacher until her death in 1864. Lucelia's letters begin with correspondence from Dwight Place Seminary, New Haven, in 1850. By 1852, she served as a teacher at Germantown in a school of Mary Fales, then in 1853 determined to travel as a missionary abroad. From 1853 to 1864, she wrote lengthy, at times journal-like letters from different locations in India, including "Ahmednuggur," "Khokar," Bhingar, "Shingvay" (illustrated letter from Bombay, January 1, 1855). Her recipients included Emmie Gallup (in Essex, Conn.), Lottie R. Andrew, and Emily Hubbard.
• After Lucelia's death, her husband William P. Barker wrote letters to their parents, daughter Mary, and niece Leila Anna. Barker wrote from Minneapolis and Cottage Grove in the 1860s and 1870s, and from Carbon, Wyoming Territory, in the early 1880s.
• Early 1850s courtship correspondence of Arba Thompson and Frances Warner.
• Early 1850s letters from Mary E. Hubbell of Ipswich, Massachusetts; Avon, Connecticut; Baltimore, Maryland; and North Stonington, Connecticut, to Abigail "Nabby" Thompson.
• Correspondence of Frances Thompson's brother "Baxter" at Yale College, beginning in 1854.
• Letters by Flora Thompson in Avon, Connecticut, to her siblings beginning in the 1850s, then from Carthage, Ohio, by the 1870s.
• Letters of Abel M. Thompson of Rockville mid-1850s
• Correspondence of Pliny F. Warner of Aledo, Illinois, a job printer and publisher of the weekly Aledo Banner, editor of the Mason County Republican out of Havana, Illinois, and then the Havana Republican.
• Letters by Frances Warner's father Milo Warner of Strykersville, New York, 1850s-1860s.
• Letters by Frances Warner's sister Cordelia Morrill of Brooklyn, Strykersville, "Shadow Nook," and Java Village, New York, 1860s-1890s.
• Post-Civil War correspondence to Frances, Abigail "Nabby", and Herbert Wilson Thompson.
• Letters to Frances and Arba from cousin Dr. C. D. Woodruff of Lima, New York.
• Letters of E. G. Warner in Amherst, Massachusetts, to cousin Leila Thompson, 1880s.
• Letters from Charles and Anna Thompson to Frances Thompson from Bridgeport, Connecticut, late 1880s. Charles K. Thompson worked for the American Gramophone Company at Bridgeport.
• Letters of H. W. Thompson, working at C. H. Smith & Co., loan brokers and western real estate out of Hartford, Connecticut, late 1880s.
• Correspondence of Edith A. Warner of Brooklyn, New York, while teaching at Granville Female College, Granville, Ohio, in the 1880s.
• By 1890, the volume of letters to Frances May Thompson, known as May, from siblings and cousins increased dramatically. In the early 1890s, May took a job as a teacher at a schoolhouse in Washington, Connecticut. While there, she received letters from Helen M. Webster (1860-1905), a supervisor at the American Asylum at Hartford, Connecticut; later, Helen married to a man named George Reed and wrote from Hill City, South Dakota, in 1896 and 1897. By the late 1890s, May received letters from her husband, who worked at Harvey & Lewis, opticians and photographic supplies. He also used New York Life Insurance Company stationery.
• Correspondence between siblings Lewis and Leila Thompson, 1900s.
• Incoming letters to Leila Thompson from Alice P. Warner of Beloit, Wisconsin, early 1900s.
• Letters between Leila and Alice H. "Claire" Alderman in Clarkston, Georgia; St. Petersburg, Florida; and elsewhere, 1900s-1910s.
• Later letters between Beatrice A. Hoskins and her mother Frances Hoskins.

The collection includes two small, unsigned diaries, dated 1848 and 1923. Legal and financial documents include 57 accounts, tax receipts, land indentures, loan receipts, four account books (1824-1927), and other papers, largely from Avon and Farmington, Connecticut. One account book, kept by Guy Thomson in 1824, includes accounts for sawing, mending a halter, plowing, mowing, planting, picking apples, making cider, shoeing horses, mending fences, and other labor, plus monies taken in from a boarder.

School papers include 10 rewards of merit, report cards, school programs, a student's notebook, and a teacher's notebook, all dating from 1851-1925. A commonplace book by Leila U. Thompson dates from the 1840s and includes poetry and excerpts, including a multi-page poem, "The Missionary's Call." A notebook, marked "O.V. Brainerd" contains page after page of scribbles.

Poems and other writings include 42 loose leaf copies of poems on subjects such as temperance, resignation, death and bereavement, friendship, sentimental and religious topics, Christmas, and other subjects. Seventeen photographs include a CDV of Fannie Warner as a young girl, and a selection of snapshots, apparently of members of the Hoskins family.

The Thompson Family Papers include a variety of ephemera and printed items, including 12 visiting cards; 33 invitations and announcements; 46 birthday, valentine, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, and other holiday cards; genealogical notes; newspaper clippings, pamphlets, programs, and other items.

The Traveling circus photograph album contains approximately 70 photographs plus 6 additional loose images related to traveling performers.

The Traveling circus photograph album contains approximately 70 photographs plus 6 additional loose images related to traveling performers. The album (14.5 x 21 cm) has black paper covers, and some photographs include handwritten captions. Images include group portraits of a dancing group called "Philip's Girls"; performers in costume for a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Mason Bros.; the Mason Bros. band outside of a circus tent; the interior of a tent with folding chairs; a makeshift stage set up in a grocer's storefront; members of "Baylors Comedians"; the exterior of the Waverly Hippodrome labeled, "Empire Players, Lansing Park Theatre, 1917"; and people relaxing at the beach posing with swimwear and automobiles. One loose image (mount 21 x 26 cm) shows a group of six performers in costume including a clown, a devil, a cowboy, and a man in blackface standing in front of a horse-drawn wagon.

The Upper Michigan vacation photograph album contains approximately 125 photographs and 1 program related to summer vacations in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula.

The Upper Michigan vacation photograph album contains approximately 125 photographs and 1 program related to summer vacations in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. The album (25.2 x 21 cm) is half bound in burgundy leather with black cloth boards. Photographs of interest include views of tent camping on the shores of Brevort Lake in Mackinac County, with outdoor cooking, picnics, local Ojibwa guides operating a boat named the "John Boucher", fishing and boating, berry picking, and a group of Ojibwa Indians including "Chief Tail Feather" performing for the camera; snapshots of "Old Mr. Massey, the Blacksmith of Brevoort," inside his log cabin; and the exterior of the cabin of Frank Budney, trapper and guide, with snow shoes and a hand-made grinding wheel. Mackinac Island-related photos show the fort and Arch Rock. Also included are photographs taken on the Detroit River showing a revenue cutter (the USS Yantic) and a sailing ship loaded with lumber; there is one photograph of the railroad ferry Saint Marie, and one photograph of the locks at Sault Ste. Marie. Many photos have manuscript captions and are dated.

Also present is a laid in program from the 1890 Columbus (Ohio) High School Graduation ceremony.