Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Wilson S. Beckley papers consist of 19 letters written by Beckley to his mother, Sarah Beckley, and other family members during the Civil War, along with one carte de visite. Beckley was originally from Cascade, Michigan, and fought in the 21st Michigan Volunteer Infantry. His letters mainly describe military life within the infantry.

The Wilson S. Beckley papers include dated material from April 12, 1862, through November 16, 1864. Consisting of 19 letters and one carte de visite, the collection provides a great deal of information on camp life in the 21st Michigan Volunteer Infantry as well as views towards the “rebels.” With the exception of one letter from a cousin named Julia and a discarded letter of a Confederate soldier that he found at a rebel camp describing the battle of Shiloh, all letters were written by Beckley to his mother and other family members.

In his correspondence Beckley describes the march from Camp Siegel in Ionia, Michigan, to various sites in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. He keeps his mother apprised of not only his activities, but also of the movements of the brigade and other news pertaining to the Union army. He also includes some descriptions of weaponry and of the foods available to the soldiers.

The Confederate letter which Beckley also sent to his mother vividly describes the battle of Shiloh, and briefly mentions Generals Wood, Beauregard, Hardee, Bragg, and others. The unknown soldier wrote of the tragic battle, “…we rested until morning of the 6th it was holy Sabbath & the sun rose fair & beautiful over the field that was about to be drenched in blood…” (April 12, 1862). In his letter from November 20, 1862 Beckley includes passing references to African Americans servants, a description of a suicide, and several pen and ink illustrations of soldiers. Beckley's letter of December 19, 1862, describes frustrations about officers providing African American servants with rations for the regiment. The letter is illustrated with several vignettes relating to his irritation that African Americans were better treated than white soldiers. Fragments "of our tattered flag under which one of the bearers was mortally wounded and another lost an arm at Chickamauga" are enclosed in the letter of July 16, 1864.

Despite some of the hardships he endured, Beckley’s tone is highly optimistic. He incorporates many drawings into his letters, including a hand-drawn map of Bridgeport, Alabama. Beckley also had the role of being a “bugler” in the Infantry, and frequently wrote sheet music, which he claimed to have published and sold. His last letter dated November 16, 1864, was written from Cumberland Hospital in Tennessee, where he was hospitalized for what appears to be dysentery.

The carte de visite was produced in Louisville, Kentucky, and depicts a seated man with a beard in a Union Army uniform, possibly Wilson S. Beckley.

The William Howe orderly book contains copies of orders for a brigade under British Commander-in-Chief Sir William Howe, from March 9, 1776, to May 1, 1778. Entries record the progress of Howe's army, from their embarkation at Portsmouth, England, through New York and New Jersey, to the end of their occupation Philadelphia.

The William Howe orderly book (554 pages) contains copies of orders for a brigade under British Commander-in-Chief Sir William Howe, from March 9, 1776, to May 1, 1778. Entries record the progress of the British Army under Howe from their embarkation at Portsmouth, England, through New York and New Jersey, to the end of their occupation of Philadelphia. Included are general orders from a moving headquarters, standing orders, brigade orders, regimental orders, morning orders, after orders, and memoranda. The orders contain reports on the following: troop movements and the activities of specific units; the planning and execution of attacks, including troop formations and details on command decisions; courts martial deserters and rebel prisoners; surgeons, hospitals, and accounting for the sick and wounded; instructions for working parties and recruiting troops; and promotions. Also present are detail lists with counts of troops and officers and information on food, water, liquor, arms, bedding, and other provisions. The memoranda are typically records of lost or stolen goods. Though the anonymous clerk recorded entries daily, no orders were kept from April 28 to August 2, 1776.

The volume has three sections of orders. The first section contains embarkation orders from the Earl of Loudoun and other commanders, given before the army left England. The battalion boarded the Royal George transport in April 1776, and arrived at Staten Island almost 4 months later in August 1776.

The second section consists of orders from various headquarters in Boston (January 27-February 12, 1776), Halifax (April 26, 1776), and finally, from on board the HMS Greyhound at Sandy Hook, New Jersey (June 29, 1776).

The third section, which comprises the bulk of the volume, documents the activities of Howe's army in America, including their landing on Staten Island, preparations at New Utrecht for the advance on New York, occupation of Manhattan, battles in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the taking of Philadelphia. Of note is a copy of a November 3, 1777, letter from Burgoyne to Howe relating his account of the Battle of Saratoga and his surrender to General Gates, with a detail of each article of the terms of surrender (dated October 20, 1777). The volume ends on May 1, 1778, when Howe was still headquartered at Philadelphia. See additional descriptive data for a list of headquarters throughout the volume.

The back of the volume contains returns of a detachment from the brigade of foot guards commanded by Brigadier General Edward Mathew (March 22-August 13, 1776), a list of casualties from the summer of 1776, and 44 memoranda of general orders issued while the British were in Philadelphia (December 31, 1777-April 6, 1778).

William Harrison Barber was a private in the 47th Pennsylvania Regiment of Volunteers (1862-1865), who wrote letters during and after the Civil War documenting his military and personal life and his business activities. Of particular interest is a letter describing a railroad trip between Allentown and Baltimore, and letters to his sons explaining his views on fatherhood and business.

The William Harrison Barber papers is a small collection of correspondence and documents from during and after the Civil War. The Civil War material includes personal letters to his mother; a 15-page letter to a friend that describes a railroad trip from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Baltimore; Barber's discharge letter, which has a drop of blood on it from a fist fight with another solder; and a letter of dishonorable discharge for three men (Barber is not one of them) for cowardice in battle. Of special interest is a letter to William from his brother Joseph, December 10, 1861, which includes a full-page pencil sketch of the layout of Fort Ethan Allen in Arlington, Virginia.

The post-war papers document Barber's personal life and business activities, primarily through letters to his family. Letters to his sons, including a farewell letter written on his deathbed, contain explanations of his ideals of fatherhood and the values of business in life.

The Documents series consists of an essay entitled The Ideal Manager, a speech to his employees called Words to Working Men, and documents granting Barber power of attorney from sisters Matilda and Hannah.

• Sketch of Camp Sedwick, signed by Tom Barber, [1870s]
• Page 1 of an unfinished autobiography started by Barber
• Prayers (3 items)
• Inheritance law extracts (3 items)
• Poem: "Charity"
• List of flowers and their meanings

Dr. Vine Utley compiled his Observations on Old People 80 Years of Age while interviewing octogenarians and older individuals in New London County, Connecticut, from 1809-1818. He reported on their ages, families, dietary habits, and physical and mental health.

Dr. Vine Utley compiled most of his Observations on Old People 80 Years of Age (87 pages) while interviewing octogenarians and older individuals in New London County, Connecticut, from September 9, 1809-June 17, 1818; one entry is dated April 15, 1827. Utley recorded biographical information about each person he interviewed, including their name, age, hometown or place of residence, marital status, occupation, previous illnesses and medical treatments, number of children, and sometimes their date of death. He commented on interviewees' habits and diets, particularly with regard to alcohol and tobacco, and on their parents' longevity.

Utley wrote about physical health and mental acuity, and noted some trends amongst his subjects, such as octogenarians' tendency to have few, if any, remaining teeth (p. 25). He interviewed men and women from Waterford, Lyme, and New London, Connecticut, including David Harris, a native of Paris who had been held captive by Native Americans (pp. 22-25); E. Jeffry, a Native American woman (pp. 30-33); Celia, an enslaved woman who had been born in Africa (pp. 60-62); and John Utley, his father (pp. 81-84). The volume's cover is a repurposed section of The Witness (June 25, 1806), a newspaper published in Litchfield, Connecticut.

The minute book of the United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society describes the business proceedings of a mid-19th century African American self-help organization. A hybrid of an insurance agency and charitable operation, the United Sons bound together members of the African American community of Salem, New Jersey, providing a social network, a financial safety net, and support in the event of illness or death.

The minute book of the United Sons of Salem Benevolent Society is a rare survival of a mid-19th century African American self-help organization. A hybrid of an insurance agency and charitable operation, the United Sons bound together members of the African American community of Salem, New Jersey, providing a social network, a financial safety net, and support in the event of illness or death. The Society also made small, usually short-term loans to its members to assist in their business endeavors.

The first 18 pages of the minute book contain the constitution of the United Sons, including a preamble and 25 articles, plus the signatures of eighteen founding members. Six of these men appear to have signed, the other twelve making marks. Thereafter, typical entries in the minute book are very brief, including notice that meetings began with "singing and prays," and tersely summarizing the business at hand -- the election of officers, the induction of new members, society discipline, and the disbursement of funds to compensate sickness and death.

The constitution of the Society is of considerable historical value in explicitly laying out the reasons for forming the Society and providing a highly detailed overview of its structure, ideology, and operations. Providing the names of many of its members and their contributions and roles within the organization, the remainder of the book is a valuable key to examining the social and financial relationships among members of the African American community during a critical period of history.

The Thomas Leyland Company account books are two volumes of records for the slave ships Hannah (1789-90) and Jenny (1792-1793), traveling from Liverpool to Africa, then across the Atlantic to Jamaica and other West Indian Islands. The books record the goods sold in each port, such as slaves, fabric, and sugar, and contain details on seamen's wages and instructions to the captain for the treatment of slaves.

The Thomas Leyland Company account books are two volumes of records for the slave ships Hannah (1789-90) and Jenny (1792-1793), which made trips from Liverpool to Africa, then across the Atlantic to Jamaica and other West Indian Islands. These record the goods (sugar, food, arms, and cloth) and slaves sold in each port, and contain details on seamen's wages and instructions to ship captains for the treatment of slaves.

The first volume documents the 2nd voyage of the Ship Hannah, captained by Charles Wilson (39 pages). The ship sailed from Liverpool on July 3, 1789, to the Calabar River in Africa (present day Nigeria), then to Barbadoes; Dominica; and Kingston, Jamaica; and finally back to Liverpool in December 1790.

The account book opens with directions to the captain, instructing him on the ship's itinerary and what to sell and purchase on the journey. The note also cautioned the captain to treat his crew with humanity and to show the "utmost tenderness to the Negroes" (page 1). The next item is the shipment invoice, which includes food (white barley, corn, rice, peas, beans, beef, salt, and bread), liquor (brandy, port, sherry), china, fabric and clothing (hats, trousers, jackets, silk, cotton, romal and photaes), arms (gunpowder, muskets, French guns, and knives), and purchased items including tobacco, wine, rum, sugar, raisins, cotton, sailcloth, iron, and gunpowder (pages 5-13). Page 15 contains a list of the 30 officers and seamen on board the Hannah, with their names, rank or profession, wages per month, and total pay. Professions included master, mate, carpenter, cooper, steward, surgeon, cook, and seaman. Pages 16-20 contain lists of trader's names along with notes on disbursements and what they purchased. Pages 22-24 cover accounts for the 294 slaves sold at Kingston, Jamaica, with details on the purchasers, prices, and types of slaves sold (privileged men, privileged women, cargo men, cargo women, men boys, women girls, boys, and girls). Finally, pages 25-32 provide information about the total amount of sugar purchased in Jamaica for Thomas Leyland, and the accounts of goods sold to various traders in the West Indies, including William Daggers of Kingston, Jamaica; Barton and Gibbald of Barbados; and Neilson and Heathcote of Dominica.

The second volume documents the first voyage of the Ship Jenny, captained by William Stringer (29 pages). The Jenny left Liverpool on November 27, 1792, and arrived at the Zaire River (Congo) off the coast of Angola on February 18, 1793. They arrived at the port town of Emboma (today Boma, Kongo Central) on February 23, 1793, then at Barbadoes (May 6, 1793), St. Vincent (May 7, 1793), Grenada (May 8, 1793), and finally Kingston, Jamaica (May 18, 1793).

The record keeping for both volumes is similar. The account book opens with an itinerary of the trade mission and instructions for the captain on selling and purchasing cargo (pages 1-3). Following that are the invoice for goods shipped and purchased (page 5-14), a list of the 29 officers and seamen on board (page 15), tradesmen's notes and disbursements (pages 16-20), sales for 250 slaves (pages 21-23), and accounts with Thomas Leyland, who funded the expedition (pages 24-29).

The Thomas Clarkson manuscript, arranged in 13 letters, addresses various aspects of the slave trade in the region that lies between the Gambia and Senegal Rivers.

The manuscript, arranged in 13 letters, addresses various aspects of the slave trade in the region that lies between the Gambia and Senegal Rivers, the region that historically comprised the three "Kingdoms" of Cayor, Sin and Sallum, and bordered by the "Kingdoms" of the Wolof (Oualo) and Bambara. From this region, Clarkson estimated an annual trade of 2,240 slaves, of whom approximately 1,790 passed through the French Fort St. Louis and 450 through Gorée. Like Mungo Park, Clarkson found that the most common method employed to capture slaves is "pillage," or the organization of forces by the King of a region for secret raids on neighboring villages from which men and women are kidnapped.

Clarkson's letters include geographic and, to a degree, ethnographic notes on the region, plus detailed information on the means of acquisition, transport, and handling of enslaved individuals in Africa and on the Middle Passage. While Clarkson is strongly concerned with the moral issues raised by the slave-trade, the manuscript is designed partially to sway the opinion of politicians and often assumes an informational tone. He constructs his narrative so that the moral issues arise "naturally" from a consideration of the "facts" presented.

The manuscript contains nine illustrations, including a map of the region under study, several illustrations of implements used to restrain captives, two hand colored copper-plate engravings of African scenes, and a printed version of Clarkson's well-known diagrammatic cross section of a slave ship. There is at least one reference in the text to an illustration no longer present.

The association of this manuscript with Mirabeau is primarily circumstantial, and there are a number of differences between this version and the loose translation published in 1791. On the supporting side, however, a slip of paper in contemporary hand notes "title and table of contents in the hand of Mentelle," referring to Edmé Mentelle, close associate of Mirabeau. Secondly, one page of notes (p. 1) appears to indicate "cet oeuvrage appartient au Citoyen Mentelle," though Mentelle is strongly effaced, and makes reference to comments on the text by Geoffroy de Villeneuve. In the published English language version of his letters to Mirabeau, Clarkson cites Villeneuve, aide-de-camp to the Governor of Gorée, as his source of information for the African sections.

The Thomas C. Dudley papers are comprised of 83 letters written by Dudley to his young sister, Fanny, during the Caribbean cruises of the USS Powhatan in 1852 and Matthew Calbraith Perry's expedition to Japan, 1853-1854, and a 219 page memoir of his experiences during the United States Navel Expedition to Japan, written in 1855.

The Dudley papers contain 83 letters written by Dudley to his young sister, Fanny, during the Caribbean cruises of the Powhatan in 1852 and Perry's expedition to Japan, 1853-1854, plus a 219 page memoir of his experiences during the Japan expedition written in 1855. Dudley's letters are long, well-written and highly informative, and provide a fascinating insight into the personality of young American sailor who finds himself in a foreign land for the first time.

Dudley's letters contain valuable information on the U.S. Naval Expedition to Japan, written from the perspective of a common sailor. His accounts cover every facet of the expedition from embarkation and port calls, to the meeting with the Japanese delegation at Yokohama and the return from Asia. Dudley provides clear and concise, frequently lengthy accounts of even the most mundane aspects of naval life. Whether discussing shipboard accommodations, phosphorescent plankton, or the shellbacks ceremony, his letters are always entertaining and packed with detail. His letters from the Caribbean, and from Madeira, Saint Helena, South Africa, southeast Asia and China provide abundant "local color" and create a fleshed out vision of the racial (pre)conceptions of a middle class northerner shortly before the Civil War and some interesting insight into one of the early attempts at the projection of American imperial power abroad.

The true heart of the collection relates to the Naval Expedition itself, particularly from the time of its arrival at the Ryukyu Islands in August, 1853, through its departure from Japan one year later. Dudley assiduously records his impressions of Japanese culture, language, and products, and the fascination with the performative aspects of the political negotiations from both sides. His letters are also a valuable resource for studying shipboard dynamics during the expedition, and they include discussions of everything from entertainment to the disdain with which Perry was held by the crew.

The memoir is a thoughtful piece, written in a consciously literary style, apparently with an eye toward publication. It appears, in fact, to be two separate narratives pieced together, the two being distinguished by the type of paper on which they are written, blue versus white. Though it is clear that there are breaks between the two narratives, they are paginated in a single, continuous sequence. It is possible that the narrative written on blue paper represents the journal as actually maintained by Dudley during the Japan expedition, however the narrative written on white paper was clearly written after the fact. The "blue narrative," like Dudley's letters, is written in a more personal style in epistolary form, addressed to "you" (Fanny?), with letters bearing dates November, 1853; 31 December 1853; 30 January 1854; 3 February 1854; 12 February 1854; 19 February 1854; 26 February 1854; 24 March 1854; 7 April 1854; and 23 [May] 1854. In contrast, the "white narrative" is more polished and more clearly literary in tone. In any circumstance, it is also clear that the narrative as a whole is incomplete. The last page, numbered 219, ends in the middle of a sentence, and the context would suggest either that several pages of the narrative have been lost, or that Dudley never managed to complete his work.

Dudley was also an accomplished artist who decorated his letters with small, delicate pen and ink sketches. There are seven illustrations in all, four by Dudley, two by a shipmate, Mac, and the last a collage.

The Stephen Smith papers are a partial record of the business transactions of a Boston cabinetmaker and furniture dealer, concentrated in the years 1834-1853.

The Stephen Smith papers are a partial record of the business transactions of a Boston cabinetmaker and furniture dealer, concentrated in the years 1834-1853. Despite its incompleteness, the collection provides a good overview of the trade, and includes some detailed information on cabinetry, iron stoves, retail operations, clock making, apprenticing, and business practices, and gives some minor insight into the lives of an upwardly mobile member of the skilled artisan class.

The most informative series of letters in the collection are the more than ninety letters between Smith and his brothers-in-law, Thomas and John L. Lothrop, relating to the manufacture and sale of iron stoves, and the twenty letters written by a Concord, N.H., clockmaker, Abiel Chandler, discussing clock manufacturing and the consignment of his goods through Smith. Chandler's letters provide details on the prices, design and distribution of clocks. Labor arrangement are not a major topic in the collection, however, there are several letter relating to efforts to arrange apprenticeships for boys entering the cabinetmaking trade, and one regarding a boy named Henry, possibly a relative of the Lothrops, who wanted to become an apothecary (3:34). According to the Lothrops, Henry was a difficult case, and suffered from the serious fault of a short attention span and an interest only in things when they were new. One letter, written in 1842, includes notice of a convention for cabinetmakers in Boston (2:45).

The Smith papers contain ten letters relating to the California Gold Rush, six written by Stephen Smith's brother, George L. Smith, in 1849 and 1850, and two by a ship captain who transported them to California from Boston. George's letters include literate, optimistic descriptions of the voyage around the horn and of conditions in San Francisco and Sacramento during the first year of the Gold Rush. They are especially interesting in that George was a minor success at gold mining.

Among the miscellaneous items in the collection are two unusual, brief letters of some note. The first is a letter from a recent widower, Kimbal Smith (3:13), discussing the death of his wife and the emotional hardships he has faced, and the second is a plea from a young man in prison, John Daly (3:51), pleading with his father to get him out and providing a vivid, though very brief sketch of the horrifying conditions.

The Starbird family papers contain the incoming and outgoing correspondence of three of the Starbird siblings: Solomon and George, who served in the Civil War in the 127th New York Infantry and 1st New York Mounted Rifles respectively, and Marianne, who operated a struggling art school in New York City.

The Starbird family papers contain approximately 345 items, spanning ca. 1845 to 1864. The Correspondence series contains approximately 331 letters, arranged chronologically, with undated items at the end; the letters cover 1848 to 1864. Thirty letters in the collection predate the Civil War; these primarily concern the schooling and careers of the Starbird siblings, Marianne Starbird's health, social visits, religious observations, and various family matters. The bulk of the collection centers on the years 1862 to 1864, when Solomon and George served with the 127th New York Infantry and the 1st New York Mounted Rifles, respectively. George wrote to Marianne quite frequently during his service, at which time he was mainly stationed in Virginia and North Carolina. He participated in a number of skirmishes in southern Virginia, as well as the Siege of Suffolk, but otherwise did not see much heavy fighting. His outgoing letters, as well as those he received from fellow soldiers, are notable for their frankness about camp life and the war experience, as well as for their content regarding African Americans. Solomon Starbird wrote less frequently to his siblings, but produced very lengthy letters, which cover numerous topics, including the war camp activities, and duties.

The war-era letters open with a discussion of George's enlistment in the 1st New York Mounted Rifles, including his own rationale for enlisting (July 30, 1862). George's early letters primarily document his daily activities at Camp Dodge in Suffolk, Virginia, and a few skirmishes nearby. He frequently gave accounts of his participation in scouting parties and pickets, as well as his pastimes during quiet periods. Among the skirmishes in which he participated are one near Blackwater, Virginia (October 5, 1862); an attack by "bushwhackers" (December 28, 1862); and a skirmish at Providence Church (December 29, 1862) near Windsor, Virginia. He also gave a lengthy description of being fired on during a picket, when, at the same time, a sergeant was mortally wounded (January 15, 1863). In a letter of September 2, 1862, he described the capture of 112 Confederate prisoners on their way to Richmond, and noted that they were given coffee and generally treated well by their Union captors. He also mentioned the explosion of ordnance stored at Yorktown, Virginia, (December 17, 1863) and the search for a Confederate spy near Williamsburg (January 16, 1864).

George's letters are especially significant for the attention that they give to African Americans. He found himself in frequent proximity to slaves near Suffolk, Virginia, where he recorded their stories and noted the assistance that they provided to his company. On October 10, 1862, he recounted a conversation with the slave whom he paid to wash his clothes and cook sweet potatoes for him. The "old negro" told Starbird about his master, Nathaniel Redden, a member of the Congress of the Confederate States. Redden had left Suffolk, but tried to persuade his slaves to stay on his plantation by telling them that northerners would work them three times as hard as southerners and deny them food. According to the unnamed slave, Redden also told him, "Lincoln is going to take you to Cuba and sell you off to pay off his soldiers." In another letter, dated October 25, 1862, Starbird told his sister about a slave Tom, who "lays awake nights heaps worrying for fear the rebels have carried off his wife he left down in Carolina." Starbird also noted the work performed by contraband, such as building stables (January 15, 1863), and the assistance given to Union troops by African Americans, which included giving them corn and making them coffee (October 14, 1862).

George provided descriptions of camp life, including the soldiers' enjoyment of the barracks at Camp Suffolk, their roughhousing, and their heavy drinking. In a letter of January 1, 1863, he noted that the officers got "beastly drunk" and could barely stay on their horses; indeed, several had fallen and could not perform their duties later in the day. He also described a soldier who was nearly 60 years old and had dyed his hair and beard to appear young enough to enlist (February 9, 1863). Other topics covered in his letters include the lack of pay to the soldiers (January 18, 1863), his duties (which included compiling the monthly returns, November 5, 1863), and the hiring of substitutes (August 18, 1863). He also called his fellow soldiers a "Hard Crowd" and described their vicious brawls with one another (August 9, 1862).

George received correspondence from friends in other regiments. One man in particular, Jesse Kimball, who called himself "Barnes," wrote very frankly about the sex available to soldiers from white and black women. He mentioned rampant venereal disease (March 3, 1863), whores in Virginia (November 17, 1863), and sex with girls in his hometown (March 11, 1864).

Solomon Starbird wrote less frequently, but his letters tended to be long, rambling, and filled with details of camp life. On January 23, 1863, he wrote to Marianne concerning the lack of pay to soldiers and the slovenliness of the privates. In his letter of August 21, 1863, he described a military gathering on Folly Island and Union positions in South Carolina. In other letters he gave accounts of being fired on during picket duty (September 30, 1863) and Christmas celebrations in camp (December 22, 1863). A talented sketcher, he included in a letter of October 8, 1863, a penciled map of Cole's Island, South Carolina, labeled with the "old fort;" the 127th Regiment's camp; and the surrounding marshes.

Marianne's letters to her brothers are notable for their accounts of the administration of a struggling art school in New York City during the period. On March 8, 1863, she described her studio and enclosed a flier for the school. In another letter, she shared the necessity of supporting herself by painting portraits, though her greater talent lay in other areas (March 29, 1863). Her later letters reveal increasing health problems, and the difficulty of attracting pupils (February 22, 1864), as well as her attendance at a Sanitary Commission Fair in Brooklyn (February 7, 1864).

The Essays and Poetry series contains 14 essays and poems covering 92 pages. Marianne wrote many of these items, and submitted them in the 1840s to a Norridgewock, Maine, journal called the Social Repository. Of particular interest is an essay, likely written by Marianne, entitled "My School Days," which describes the small schoolhouse that she had attended as a girl. Also included are poems on the topics of love, autumn, the death of a mother, and friendship, and a piece by "C.B.E." entitled "The Mission of Woman." The latter defends the education and ambitions of women and notes that their rightful place in life is as "the equal, not the toy of men," but urges them to dismiss "the sneers, the prejudice, the conventionalities of the world."

The Samuel L. Mitchill papers consists of 522 letters or fragments dating between 1801 and 1829, but largely dating between 1801 and 1813. Most of the letters are from Samuel Latham Mitchill to his wife, Catharine Akerly Cock Mitchill, with the exception of four letters written by him to other recipients and 15 letters written by other senders. These letters touch on a wide variety of topics, including domestic national and state politics; relations with European powers; the Barbary Wars and other naval matters; the Aaron Burr conspiracy; Washington, D. C., society; Mitchill's scientific endeavors and sample collection; and his family life and travel plans. In addition to this finding aid, the Clements Library has created two other research aids: a Partial Subject Index and a Chronological Inventory.

The Samuel L. Mitchill papers consist of 522 letters or fragments dating between 1801 and 1829 (bulk 1801-1813). Most of the letters are from Samuel Latham Mitchill to his wife, Catharine Akerly Cock Mitchill, with the exception of four letters written by him to other recipients and 15 letters written by other senders. Mitchill's detailed letters cover a wide variety of topics, including domestic national and state politics; relations with European powers; the Barbary Wars and other naval matters; the Aaron Burr conspiracy; Washington, D. C., society; Mitchill's scientific endeavors and sample collection; and his family life and travel plans.

In addition to the letters from Samuel L. Mitchill to his wife, the collection includes:

• Four letters written by Samuel Mitchill: one each to Priscilla Akerly, his mother-in-law; T. H. Gallaudet, a pioneer in deaf education; La Cépède, a French naturalist; and Mary Latham Mitchill, his mother
• Four letters written by Catherine Mitchill to her sister Margaret Miller
• Nine letters written by Margaret Miller: four to her husband Silvanus Miller and five to Catherine Mitchill
• Two letters received by Samuel Mitchill: one from Hugh Williamson and one from a Miss Coates of Charleston, South Carolina

In addition to this finding aid, the Clements Library has created two other research aids: a Partial Subject Index and a Chronological Inventory.

The Samson Adams papers are the estate and business documents of Adams, a free African American man living and working in Trenton, New Jersey in the late 18th century. Adams worked as a carpenter and laborer, and produced and traded in a variety of items, including soap, milk, corn, and construction materials.

The Samson Adams Papers is comprised of over one hundred items that offer a rare glimpse into the economic and personal life of a free African-American resident of the mid-Atlantic states during the last quarter of the 18th century. The collection is divided into two series, the first consisting mainly of materials dating between 1780 and 1792, with a few earlier items, and the second containing all materials specifically related to the settlement of Adams' estate. The first series is arranged chronologically, but the second is arranged with the intention of representing the progression of the estate settlement, in an attempt to reconstitute the order placed on the materials by the executors.

The first series of Adams' papers (folders 1-11) contains bills and receipts issued by and to Adams for items ranging from milk and soap to building materials. Also included in this series are a work pass for his sister, Violet, and two important and highly unusual subscription letters seeking assistance for Adams in completing the building of his house. The second series (folders 12-30) includes Adams' will, an inventory and a complete breakdown of the distribution of his estate, bills submitted to the estate with numbered receipts showing their payment, and numerous other estate-related items. This series appears to contain nearly complete documentation of the progress of the estate, and the inventories, evaluations, and itemized list of the distribution of the estate offer an extremely detailed portrait of Adams' financial holdings and personal and business relationships

This collection is made up of letters that Lieutenant Russell G. Schlagal wrote to his wife Margery while serving in the United States Army during World War II. Schlagal discussed his experiences in India and on the island of Tinian, and he often illustrated his letters with ink sketches and watercolor paintings.

This collection is made up of letters that Lieutenant Russell G. Schlagal wrote to his wife Margery while serving in the United States Army during World War II. Schlagal discussed his experiences in India and on the island of Tinian, and he often illustrated his letters with ink sketches and watercolor paintings.

Russell G. Schlagal regularly wrote letters home to Margery, who remained in Dayton, Ohio, during the war. He responded to news of family members and acquaintances, and shared his love for Margery. Most letters concern Schlagal's daily experiences with the 28th Air Service Group in India (December 1944-April 1945) and on the island of Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands (June 1945-March 1946). In India, he occasionally mentioned his encounters with local residents, and he described the wildlife, the scenery, and local customs. He frequently attended USO shows and movies. Schlagal later discussed his life on Tinian, where he remained until the spring of 1946. He continued to attend performances and films, and also participated in underwater sightseeing. After the end of the war, Schlagal wrote about the possibility and timing of his return home.

Schlagal illustrated some of his letters with ink sketches, ink drawings, and watercolor paintings. These depict buildings, objects, and scenery from India and Tinian. Occasionally, he used stationery with pre-printed scenes, and his letter of December 29, 1945, has a manuscript map of Tinian. On February 24, 1946, Schlagal composed a partially pictographic letter about his anticipated return home. He alternated words with pictures of animals, his wife, himself, and the island of Tinian.

The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society papers consist of documents generated by the society as well as correspondence to and from various members of the society about slavery, the conditions of freemen, and other progressive issues.

The Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society papers contain only a small portion of what must at one time have been a much larger collection. As a society devoted to the immediate abolition of slavery, the antislavery movement forms the context of most of the correspondence in the collection, but the members of the society were individually and collectively involved in the education of freedmen and in other movements, including women's rights. As a result, the collection offers a broad perspective on the mentality and activity of a small group of progressive northern women involved in the reform of what they saw as the worst inequities in American society.

The Society maintained contact with several national-level leaders of the antislavery movements, and provided important financial support to Frederick Douglass, in particular. The nine letters from Douglass in the collection all relate to the assistance provided for publication of his newspaper or are requests from him for direct aid to fugitive slaves en route to Canada. A particularly affecting letter is one that he wrote from England in 1860, while on an antislavery tour. Harriet Tubman, Beriah Green, Lewis Tappan, George B. Cheever, and Gerrit Smith also appear in the collection, either as correspondents or subjects of letters. Among the more interesting of these letters is one from John Stewart, probably a free black man, addressed to Harriet Tubman; a letter from Moses Anderson, also African-American, writing about the importance of Uncle Tom's Cabin in shaping his political consciousness; Jacob Gibb's letter of introduction for a fugitive slave; and William Watkins' report on the number of fugitive slaves that have passed through Rochester into Canada in the year 1857.

British support for the Society was crucial in keeping it viable in the late 1850s, and is documented through the letters of Julia Griffiths Crofts (Leeds, England); Sarah Plummer (Dalkeith, Scotland), and Maria Webb (Dublin, Ireland). The fund-raising efforts of the society can be tracked partly through the list of goods donated for a Festival (1:77), a small collection of ephemera relating to British antislavery societies (1:82), and a list of donations from those British societies (1:28). The most significant item for tracking finances, however, is the account book for the Society (2:20), which covers its entire history. The secretaries of the Society recorded the complete finances of the organization, and provided lists of speakers at their annual events, and carefully delineated money remitted to individual fugitive slaves. Included at the end of the collection are a set of photocopies of the manuscripts (2:21) and supplemental information about the Society and its members, provided by the University of Rochester (2:22).

Freedmen's education was a major concern of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society, and is discussed extensively by several correspondents. The single most frequent correspondent in the collection is Julia A. Wilbur, writing while working with freedmen in Alexandria, Va., 1862-1865. Wilbur writes long and vivid letters describing the miserable living conditions found among the freedmen, their want of clothing and shelter, and she describes several individual cases. Wilbur also met and became familiar with the renowned ex-slave and author, Harriet Jacobs. The situation that Wilbur describes in Virginia verges on the chaotic, with corruption at the highest levels, dissension among those in charge of contraband matters, and many in the military reluctant or unwilling to take any responsibility. She was a perceptive observer of the progress of the war, Southern citizenry, and of the destruction that the war had inflicted upon Virginia. Her official reports to the Society, which are more general and less pointed than her private correspondence, were published in the Society's published annual reports (2:1-13).

In addition to Wilbur's letters, there are six other items pertaining to freedmen's education. Three letters from G. W. Gardiner and one document signed by Lewis Overton, 1862-63, relate to the work of the Colored School, founded for freedmen at Leavenworth, Kansas, and both letters from Daniel Breed, 1863-64, include discussions of the Rochester School for Freedmen in Washington, D.C., named for the Society whose money founded it.

The printed items in the collection include fourteen of the seventeen known annual reports of the Society, a report from the Toronto Ladies' Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored fugitives (2:14), and circulars from two British societies (2:15-16). Three issues of Frederick Douglass' Paper (October 2, 1851, February 19 1858, and July 1, 1859) and one issue of The North Star (April 14, 1848) are included in Oversize Manuscripts. An issue of the Christian Inquirer (New York, July 24, 1858), having no direct relation to the Rochester Society, was transferred to the Newspapers Division. Finally, in two letters written in 1859 and 1861, Rebecca Bailey discusses her father William Bailey's newspaper, The Free South.

This is a miscellaneous collection of letters to and from members of the Howe family, including British army officer William Howe, British naval officer Richard Howe, and their families.

The Richard and William Howe collection contains 48 miscellaneous single letters and documents, spanning 1758 to 1812. The correspondents were various members of the Howe family, including William Howe, Richard Howe, Mary Hartopp Howe, Mary Juliana Howe, and Louisa Catherine Howe. Brought together over several decades, the group of materials includes miscellaneous items related to military operations, as well as a number of family letters. A handful of items concern the Seven Years War and American Revolution, and over half of the collection postdates 1783. See "Detailed Box and Folder Listing" for a full inventory of the items, including abstracts of each letter.

The Reed-Blackmer family papers consist of the correspondence from an extended family including many settlers in New York, Michigan, and Western America.

This collection consists of the correspondence of the Reed and Blackmer families spanning a period from the mid-19th century to shortly after World War I. The greatest strengths of this collection are the early letters pertaining to education in New York State, and the letters written from family members in the west to their New York State relations. Letters from Michigan in the 1850s, Kansas and Indian Territory in the 1880s and 90s, and the smattering from Illinois and Wisconsin, all give expression to the emigrants' specific experiences.

Many of the early letters are from students and young teachers in New York State, where there were many pockets of culture and education. Lucinda Green, a student at the academy in East Bloomfield, was taking intellectual philosophy in 1849. One of the lectures she described was delivered by photographer John Moran, who "exhibited some pictures with the magic lanterns some of which were very comical" (1850 January 26). Another correspondent, James Bigelow, detailed his professors, particularly the female ones, and activities at Alfred University in Allegany County. James Cole, a medical student, taught school in Ontario County, and Scott Hicks was a student at the Buffalo Medical College. Lizzie, Martha, and Marshall Reed attended the seminary and academy in Canandaigua, and Lizzie described such highlights as the infant drummer's concert: "he drummed beautifully, he was only three years old," and hearing a Jew preach: "His dialect was so different from ours that I could scarcely understand a word he said" (1851 [November] 7, 1852 November 21). Harriet Pennell's cousin Paul taught in Naples, and Harriet herself probably attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in Lima, Livingston County.

Of all the letters from the west, the handful from Lynus Tyler to Dudley Reed are the most entertaining. Tyler was an enthusiastic, but less-than-eloquent correspondent from rural Macomb County, where he had a 200 acre farm. He tried to entice Reed to migrate with descriptions of the abundance of women and deer: "Mary Bennet is not married yet but she wants to bea dud come and get her for you cannot doo enny better her post adress is Romeo Macomb Co. Mich" (1851 June 22). He assured Dud he would "keep the girls from a hurting you" when he came out (1851 February 9). After Dudley married "Miss Anna," Tyler, who now had an 80 acre farm in Barry County, toned down his enthusiasms for the local women, but still tried to get his friend to come farm in Michigan by praising the land as well as the game (1852 August 1).

The other Michigan correspondents also urged their relations to join them, and discussed farming, hunting, and family news in great detail. During their early years in Michigan, enthusiasm for their adopted home flowed through every line, but this waned somewhat after 1857, when a barn burned, a child died, and crops failed. Samuel even spent some time in the Jackson jail in the 1870s.

Frank Blackmer's letters written while he worked as a sheep drover in 1880 are unfortunately brief, but his brother John's fairly regular letters over a twelve-year span provide an excellent portrait of a man permanently poised between home and the great unknown. For over a decade, he worked in Kansas and the Indian Territory, never making quite enough money, and never making up his mind whether to head further west, as he dearly wanted to, or to head home to New York, which was also a powerful draw. He wrote repeatedly that he had been "a blamed fool for staying around these parts for the last two years when I might have seen a good deal of country last spring I started out & went several counties west when I might have gone to California just as well..." (1886 November 7). Even as he complained about the hardships of his peripatetic, single life, and berated himself for not moving, he continued to linger in that part of the world.

The letters written back home by New Yorkers visiting western relations are as important as those written by the transplants themselves. In the mid-1880s, Bess Blackmer spent her school holidays visiting her Michigan relatives -- Pennells, Wilmarths, and Clarks -- in Grand Rapids and the surrounding area. By writing to her mother about her trip, she reacquainted her with people whose images had undoubtedly dimmed over the years. In 1891, Harriet took her own first trip west, stopping in Kansas, Illinois, and Michigan to spend time with family she had not seen in decades. She might have thought this first trip would also be her last, but her daughter Hattie was stricken with typhoid in Grand Rapids two years later, and her mother again traveled west, to nurse her and escort her home. These visits reaffirmed the bonds between long distance kin that otherwise might have withered, as letters full of local news grew less and less relevant to those far away.

One of the many fascinating single letters in this collection was written by Orren Short, from Michigan. In the 1850s, there was a fairly commonly held view that handwriting analysis was a means of diagnosing health complaints. After receiving -- and analyzing -- a letter from his sister Anna, Orren wrote to her husband Dudley Reed, and effectively requested that they stop having sex.

I also should judge by her writing that she is very poor. that there is difficulty by irregularity of the female organs. Great care should be taken to avoid overworking, or to great an excess of any indulgence that might irritate the female private organs. But few females ever recover wholly after becoming irregular in their monthly purgations, or by to great a flow, without abstaining wholly from sexual intercourse with their husbands for a length of time. Perhaps my views are not right in regard to Anna's case, if not please pardon me. If correct, please give it a trial (1856 September 7).

Reverting to his true calling, farmer Orren went on to discuss his wheat crop.

Other caches of correspondence include the letters Bess wrote home to her mother from Ohio-Wesleyan (1884-1886), detailing her classes, activities, and clothing needs; Lizzie Reed's sporadic letters to her brother Dudley, exhorting him to strop drinking and save his soul; and the 20th century material. This last portion of the collection consists of letters written to (the somehow related) Newton C. Rogers (A.E.F. Air Corps, France) from family members in New York and air corps friends in France. In patriotic and optimistic tones, these letters discuss news of friends and family "over here" and a bit of bravado and news of the fates of comrades from elsewhere "over there."

The Pulteney Malcolm papers contain correspondence and logbooks related to the Royal Navy service of Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm. The correspondence is composed primarily of letters Malcolm wrote home to his wife and sisters, while he was stationed in America during the War of 1812. The logbooks contain records of his service in America, in the Napoleonic wars, and at St. Helena, where he was in charge of the blockade of the island during Napoleon’s exile.

The Pulteney Malcolm papers contain 46 items relating to the service of British admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, including 43 letters, 3 logbooks bound together in one volume, Malcolm’s service statement, and a miscellaneous document with descriptions of the British attempt to take New Orleans. Most of the items date from 1814-1817.

The correspondence series primarily consists of letters Malcolm wrote to his wife Clementina (and a few to his sisters) from 1814 to 1815. At the beginning of this period, Malcolm was stationed with his fleet at Bordeaux, during the immediate aftermath of Napoleon’s initial abdication and exile. In his letters, he discussed the end of the war with the French, his opinions of the city, major events, and important people. He wrote about his attempts to pacify his captains, who were angry about discovering their assignment to America by reading about it in the newspapers and by hearing about it from other officers (Letters #4 and #5 [May 1814]). By June 1814, Malcolm and his flagship, the Royal Oak, had set out for America, where they would provide naval support for the British forces. His letters from this period document major events from the last part of the war, including the capture and burning of Washington, the Battles of Baltimore and New Orleans, and the peace negotiations. His letters also document his opinions of fellow officers, including Admiral Alexander Cochrane; his desire for peace and to return home; and his views on America. While sailing from Bermuda to the United States, Malcolm wrote: “the Americans will be inclined to Peace, but there is a set of turbulent men amongst them, that will not listen to reason. I believe that a Republick to be great must like the Romans be always at War in order to find employ for the disquiet spirits” (Letter #19, 3 August [1814]). The last letter from this period is from 1815, written onboard the Royal Oak as Malcolm sailed home from America. During the voyage Malcolm learned that Napoleon had just returned from exile on Elba and was once again in France.

The three logbooks in the collection are bound together into one volume. The first logbook, kept from June 1, 1814-May 28, 1816 on the H.M.S. Royal Oak, includes accounts of the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore, and provides a daily record of naval support for the British army during the Battle of New Orleans. The second logbook, kept from June 13-July 25, 1815 on the H.M.S. Tartarus, documents the period Malcolm spent commanding a squadron in the North Sea, while giving naval support to the Duke of Wellington before Napoleon’s final defeat. The final logbook, from the H.M.S. Newcastle, March 28, 1815-August 16, 1817, deals primarily with the blockade of St. Helena, during Napoleon’s exile to that island. The volume also contains two watercolor drawings, two pen and ink drawings, a pencil sketch, five charts, two plans and four maps. Maps within the collection include several maps of the Chesapeake Bay region, as well as two maps of St. Helena. A map of the island of St. Michael, and a second of the American coastline are housed separately within the Map Division.

Other documents include an 1812 supply order from Rear Admiral George Cockburn to Captain Ross of the H.M.S. Marlborough; an incomplete document entitled “Chapter 21” that concerns the British attempt to capture New Orleans; an 1830 letter from Malcolm to Secretary to the Admiralty John W. Croker, in which Malcolm addressed the situation, pay, and unemployment of secretaries to admirals; and a service statement for Malcolm, which details his entire career in the Royal Navy from 1778 to 1837, including ranks, dates, ships, and notes on actions.

The Puffer-Markham family papers (1,875 items) is comprised of business letters, personal letters, legal documents, and financial records related to an extended family with business and agricultural interests in Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and South Carolina. Also present are letters from five Civil War soldiers, containing descriptions of their wartime experiences.

The Puffer-Markham family papers (1875 items) is comprised of business letters, personal letters, legal documents, and financial records related to an extended family with business and agricultural interests in Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and South Carolina. Also present are letters from five Civil War soldiers, containing descriptions of their wartime experiences.

The Correspondence series (1535 items) contains family business and personal letters. These largely document William G. Markham's business activities in selling wheat, cattle, and sheep, as well as personal letters from Guy Markham's children, grandchildren, spouses, and friends from upstate New York. The family letters report on news, daily life, sickness, and courtship. Also present are letters related to Charles C. Puffer's business activities: as a banker in Massachusetts before the war, and as a plantation manager in Reconstruction-era South Carolina. Among the personal papers are many Civil War-era letters, involving both business carried on during the war and letters from Union soldiers on the frontlines.

The papers concerning Guy Markham and his son William Guy Markham are almost exclusively related to business matters. Guy was involved with farming in and around Rush, New York. William G. Markham, who inherited much of his father's land, established himself in the cattle industry. Throughout the 1870s, he received orders for Durham cattle (shorthorn heifers) from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, and as far as Denver, Colorado, and Walla Walla, Washington Territory. Letters concerning his interest in cotton are also represented. He was president of the Sea Island Cotton Company, trustee of the Port Royal Cotton Company, and an associate with the United States Cotton Company. Beginning around1880, Markham became heavily involved with wool production and corresponded with other national and international woolgrowers, including the National Wool Growers Association, headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, which lobbied the House of Representatives against a congressional act that would lift overseas wool tariffs. He had multiple dealings with selling sheep and wool in Australia and South Africa.

Other Markham letters relate to William's siblings Wayne and Mary. Wayne Markham described his agricultural activities and his life in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Mary wrote of her experiences at the Music Institute of New London, Connecticut, and frequently requested money to cover her school expenses.

The Charles Puffer letters cover his business interactions with the Shelburne Falls Bank, and the Puffer-Markham partnership, which purchased plantations in Beaufort and Hilton Head, South Carolina (summer of 1865). In 15 letters to his wife Emma Puffer (1870-1876), Charles, while living in Columbia, South Carolina, described managing plantations for his family, working as an activist for the state’s Republican party (particularly in the 4th congressional district), and his relationship with Governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain. He reported on a disorderly state convention in 1870, and of receiving $16,000 from Governor Chamberlain to distribute to county convention attendees with the promise that Charles would become county treasurer (September 4, 1874). By 1876, Charles had declared that he had left politics.

• January 2, 1870
• January 13, 1870
• March 11, 1870
• June 2, 1870
• July 27, 1870
• August 1, 1870
• January 1, 1871
• February 10, 1871
• August 22, 1874
• September 4, 1874
• October 7, 1874
• December 1874
• January 14, 1876
• April 12, 1876
• [1870s]

Between 1887 and 1890, the collection focuses on the lives of sisters Linda and Isabel ("Belle") Puffer, daughters of Charles and Emma Puffer. These comprise 12 items sent from and 39 items addressed to the sisters, while they were attending Wellesley College.

The collection contains 22 letters from five Civil War soldiers: Horace Boughton (9th and 143rd New York Infantry), Morris R. Darrohn (108th New York Infantry), Isaac R. Gibbard (143rd New York Infantry), Charles W. Daily (50th New York Engineers), and Samuel P. Wakelee (54th New York National Guard). Horace Boughton, who wrote eleven of these letters, described his regiment's activities and instructed his friend William Guy Markham on how to allocate his paychecks to his family and business interests. Below is a list of Civil War soldiers' letters.

• October 27, 1861: Horace Boughton at Fort Corcoran
• December 1, 1861: Horace Boughton at Fort Cass
• May 4, 1862: Horace Boughton at a camp near Fort Davis, Virginia
• July 27, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia, concerning recruitment problems and arguing that seasoned troops are much more valuable than new recruits
• July 27, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia
• August 6, 1862: Horace Boughton at Westover, Virginia
• October 28, 1862: Morris R. Darrohn on picket duty near Harper's Ferry; at Bolivar Heights he had a view of the house where John Brown took Louis Washington prisoner; he mentioned meeting the enemy at the battle of Antietam; that day he milked a stray cow so they could have cream in their coffee
• November 14, 1862: Horace Boughton now with the 143rd New York Infantry stationed at Upton Hill, Virginia, and president of a court martial
• February 25, 1863: Horace Boughton at New York 143rd Infantry headquarters, to Susan Emma Markham, discussing his ideas on womanhood and "the yoke of matrimony"
• March 27, 1863: Morris R. Darrohn at Falmouth, Virginia, concerning drills, dreaming of home, and being trapped along the Rappahannock River at the Battle of Fredericksburg
• March 29, 1863: Horace Boughton requesting photographs of the Markham family for his album
• June 5, 1863: Morris R. Darrohn near Falmouth, Virginia
• June 13, 1763: Isaac R. Gibbard near Williamsburg, Virginia, concerning leaving Yorktown with a division led by General Gordon; notes that "miasmas and diseases at West Point came very near whipping our regiment out…the Rebels said they would not attack us but let the diseases do it."
• July 30, 1863: Isaac R. Gibbard sick at the Seminary Hospital at Georgetown, mentioned starting a band of musicians
• August 16, 1863: Horace Houghton at New York 143rd Infantry headquarters, advising William not to join the war if possible
• January 3, 1864: Morris R. Darrohn near Stevensburg, Virginia, cautioning against joining the Masons or the military
• January 31, 1864: Horace Boughton at Bridgeport, Alabama
• April 16, 1864: Charles W. Daily at Rappahannock Station, Virginia, expecting a march on Richmond that may be "the greatest battle of the war within 10 days"
• [1864]: Samuel P. Wakelee to Puffer while guarding "Johnnys at Elmira" prison; he paid a prisoner tobacco to mould a Delta Kappa Epsilon ring in silver; he described the prison and wrote: "We have 10,600 Rebs in the Pen [,] Dirty, Lousy, Godforesakin crew[.] The majority of them are stalwart & robust…"
• January 19, 1865: Horace Boughton on board the ship St. Patrick and discussed traveling by railroad
• February 7, 1865: Horace Boughton at Bridgeport, Alabama
• February 26, [1860s]: Cousin William reported on visiting various corps and hearing members of Congress, "the negro minstrels have a dance" and meeting General Fitzgerald

• July 1, 1842: School essays by Margaret G. Greenman
• September 19, 1853: Homer Broughton to Guy Markham concerning picking out a tombstone for their grandmother
• June 7, 1855: Horace Boughton's description of a trip from Rush, New York, to St. Paul, Minnesota, with details on the town
• October 14 and 25, 1855: Wayne Markham in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to his brother, discussing moving into a new house, noting the price of meat in Michigan, and reflecting on the moral and industrious character of the citizens of the town
• December 4, 1860: Mary Markham to her father describing visiting family in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Ionia, Michigan
• November 6, 1763: Certificate for William Markham joining the Lima, New York, chapter of Freemasons
• August 18, 1864: A letter from Mt. Morris, New York, concerning a lawsuit over a $50 cow killed at an Avon railroad crossing
• September 5, 1864: Henry Puffer to Charles Puffer concerning purchasing land in Hilton Head, South Carolina
• January 15, 1865: This letter from Henry M. Puffer and Company contains a drawing of a house on Gardner Plantation
• February 11, 1865: News sent to Charles Puffer concerning land purchased for plantation farming in Beaufort, South Carolina
• March 1, 1865: William Markham concerning returning soldiers purchasing land that is interest free for three years, and other news from South Carolina
• June 19, 1765: Robert C. Clark to William Markham regarding visiting Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, and noting the failure of the Genesee Valley Oil Well
• January 6, 1866: George Fisher of Rochester, New York, concerning the state of the local Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter
• September 13, 1866: Letter from the Cook and Martin Music Dealer in Rochester, New York, concerning the sale of a piano, on letterhead featuring a picture of a piano
• August 26, 1868: From a St. Louis member of Delta Kappa Epsilon providing for a member who can write in shorthand
• April 15, 1869: Brooklyn photographer E. Bookhout gives prices for his services
• [1860s]: M.F. Randolph to William Guy Markham detailing the price of cotton before the Civil War
• January 5, 1870: Homer Broughton in Topeka, Kansas, to his family in New York concerning his productive new farm on an "old Indian field" and the many new settlers in the area purchasing land at "government prices"
• January 13, 1871: A pencil sketch of people standing at podiums
• June 1891: Papers related to shipping ewes and rams to Cape Town, South Africa
• 1892: Print of an Atwood Ram named Wooly Bill, 1549, bred by C.W. Mason in Vergennes, Vermont
• December 28, 1893: Instructions for judging sheep at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago sent to W.I. Buchanan of the Department of Agriculture
• July 2, 1902: Francis E. Warren of the National Wool Growers Association to William G. Markham concerning a treaty with Argentina that would harm the American wool industry

The Correspondence series contains 172 undated items. Of note is a letter with a hand-sketched map of plots of farm land near St. Joseph, Michigan, and a series of school essays written by Margaret G. Greenman (Mrs. Sumner Clark) on "Broken Friendships," "Penmanship," "Envy and Deceit," and "Buds of Flowers" among others.

The Documents series (114 items) contains legal and business documents relating to the family's land holdings and entrepreneurial endeavors. Included are the land deeds and mortgages of William Markham, Guy Markham, Phoebe Markham, and William Markham (primarily in Genesee County, New York), records for debts, land purchases, whiskey purchases, estate documents, and business agreements between the Sea Island Cotton Company and the United States Cotton Company.

The Accounts and Financial Records series (199 items) consists of material related to the personal and business activities of the Markham and Puffer families, including materials documenting management of the cotton companies during Reconstruction. Personal records amount to accounts and bills for tuition, day labor, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, furniture purchase and repair, insurance, and groceries. The business accounts document the Sea Island Cotton Company, the Hilton Head Cotton Company, and the accounts of C.C. Puffer (1865-1767). Present are accounts for plantation supplies, office expenses, salaries, cotton sold on speculation, sales of stocks, lists of share owners, and various receipts. Of note are the records for salary advances made to South Carolina freedmen in 1866.

• April-October 1840: Accounts of C.S. Boughton
• September-December 1856: Accounts of William Guy Markham
• 1865-1867: Two accounts of William Guy Markham's accounts with D.W. Powers Bank of Rochester

The Printed Items series (21 items) is comprised of blank Sea Island Company stock certificates, and government records related to the regulation of United States wool and fabric production. These records include the following bills from the 57th Congress: H.R. 6565, H.R. 14643, H.R. 14488, and documents concerning "Shoddy vs. Wool" and the National Wool Growers Association (1901-1902). These items were of interest to William Guy Markham, a wool producer and sheep expert.

The Miscellaneous series (6 items) contains photographs, stamps, and other miscellaneous material. One photograph is of Mrs. Hinkley Williams, Mrs. L. Boltwood, and Mrs. E. Boltwood ("Three Generations") sent to Guy Markham in 1892. The second photograph is of 84-year-old Hinkley Williams of Gorham, Massachusetts (1892). Also of interest is a list of Guy Markham's presidential picks from 1824-1888.

The Pearce Atkinson papers contain correspondence between Atkinson and his parents, written primarily in the 1890s. The majority of the letters date from his time at Lehigh University and early engineering career with the Union Pacific Railway. These letters include descriptions of his college life and later railroad work in the mountains of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.

The Pearce Atkinson papers consist of 295 letters, primarily between Atkinson and his parents, written mostly in the 1890s. In several letters written to their father in 1879, a young Pearce and his brother Clarence told of their daily lives, and frequently mentioned their newborn brother Arthur. Most of the correspondence, however, dates from the time that Pearce entered Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and covers his collegiate years as well as his early career as a railroad engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad Company. While in Pennsylvania, he frequently wrote his parents about his coursework, financial situation, and social life, which often included visits to Philadelphia. His father sometimes sent him money, and occasionally offered advice on education and other topics; in one letter, he suggested five possible thesis topics, all related to railroads (March 18, [1888]). Additionally, several academic progress reports are interspersed among the letters (June 22, 1888, January 1889, et al.). After graduation, Atkinson wrote his parents from various locations in the western United States, and described his career and life while based in Salt Lake City, Utah; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Denver, Colorado; and several locations throughout California. Along with discussing his engineering work, he also wrote vivid descriptions of the local scenery and occasionally commented on politics. On May 30, 1894, he mentioned a group of Coxey's army members encamped near Denver, and he continued to report about strikers and additional unrest throughout June. Atkinson's final letters were written in early 1895, though his parents received a handful of later correspondence, including condolences for his death (July 19, 1898) and a letter from Charles Pollak, a family friend, regarding the death of Pollak's father (November 14, 1903). The ephemera item is a bloodstained handkerchief, labeled "Pearce Atkinson."

The Morgan family papers contain the correspondence of three generations of the Morgan family of Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. Primarily spanning the 1850s and 1880s-1890s, the papers document the Morgans' support for abolition and social reform, as well as their teaching, farming, and business endeavors.

The Morgan family papers consist of 292 letters and 7 documents relating to 3 generations of the Morgan family, primarily in Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado. The collection spans 1834-1913, with most of the items clustered in the 1850s and the 1880s-1890s, with little representation of other decades.

The Morgan siblings wrote nearly all of the approximately 117 letters dating from the 1850s. Their correspondence provides family news, details on their teaching careers, and updates on their health. As the Morgans were very politically and intellectually engaged, they also discussed their opposition to slavery, opinions on various reform issues, and attendance of lectures by such figures as Sojourner Truth (August 25, 1851) and Henry Ward Beecher (January 30, 1856). Eliza Morgan's letters address such topics as bloomers (September 15, 1851: "I can walk faster than ever now and much farther without being tired") and spiritualism (April 18, 1852: "New mediums are being developed constantly all through the country, near and far & some of our nearest neighbors…Milton Maxwell is a shaking medium--that is the spirits can & do shake him [and others too] without his being able to control himself in the least."). Another subject in which the siblings shared an interest was education. Sue Morgan, in particular, wrote of a desire to make it more commonly available: "how much better it is to educate the mass of the people than to confine knowledge to the few[.] if all had an equal chance and were equally educated what a vast amount of suffering and crime might be prevented and Oh what a good leveler would it be to society…" (February 4, 1851).

In the 1880s and 1890s, the most prolific letter writers were Joshua Morgan's sons, Charlie and Wendell. Their letters concern farm life in Colorado and Nebraska, including a boom period for Holyoke, Colorado (March 17, 1888). Sometime during this period, Charlie and Wendell went into business together in Colorado, and this is reflected in their letterhead. The later letters in the collection contain more business-related material and represent more correspondents outside the Morgan family. Many letters (primarily from John Burns and Peter Young) focus on the ongoing care of Celinda Spiker, a relative of Susan Spiker.

The Puffer papers consist of items relating to the family history and tea room operated by the Puffer sisters in Nobleboro, Maine; much of the material is undated.

The most significant item in this collection is a typescript manuscript in two parts, "Recollections and Recipes," written by Mary Sophia Puffer, and "Nobleboro Community Kitchen", written by her sister, Alice. In addition, there are seven unique copies of Community Kitchen menus and several seemingly unrelated land deeds.

The first part of the typescript is aptly described by the author: "Around the seasons and through the years with a suburban Boston family, from Massachusetts to Maine and New Jersey, with happy memories and good eating made possible by old Yankee recipes handed down from generation to generation, culminating in the successful operation of a popular tea-room." This account of family travels and customs is interspersed with over sixty recipes. A tremendous appreciation for food fuels this reminiscence, which seems to have been written much later in life.

Alice Puffer goes on to describe the "birth and death of a tea room in the pre-war days of plenty" and provides some more recipes, including ones for lemon meringue pie, "the best seller and reputation maker... no ordinary haphazard confection," and the original recipe for Parker House rolls. The roll recipe was obtained by the Puffer's father directly from the chef at the Parker House, but the sisters found ways to improve it.

Two Community Kitchen menus are for afternoon tea and have watercolor paintings on the front. There are also five black menu cards painted by a "gifted art student" and four handwritten menus to accompany them. Lobsters are naturally featured ("We boil our own lobsters and Maine deep-sea lobsters have a flavor all their own"), as well as berry pies, "lemon pie, with a wonderful meringue", "rich creamy milk from a herd of registered cows" and "community pickles."

The six deeds are all for properties in the Nobleboro area and date from 1830 to 1912. They seem to be unrelated to the Community Kitchen materials, even though one deed, dated 1911, is from Robert W. and wife Blanche Puffer to O. C. Nutting. There is also a sketch of property lines done by Frank Bulfinch for Charles M. Hall in 1907.

The Marmaduke Burrough papers contain business and personal correspondence and documents, primarily related to Marmaduke Burrough’s time as United States Consul at Lima, Peru; Calcutta, India; and Vera Cruz, Mexico.

The Marmaduke Burrough papers is comprised of 495 letters, 51 essays and personal papers, 5 drawings, 418 financial records, 20 documents, and 4 items of printed material.

The Correspondence series holds Burrough's business, official, and personal items. The letters are mostly to Burrough though some are copies and drafts of letters by him. Many letters contain routine material on provisioning U.S. naval ships at Vera Cruz or requests from U.S. citizens for assistance, while others are from fellow consuls in Mexico. These describe tensions between U.S. and Mexico over the question of Texas annexation and express opinions on Washington politics. Other notable topics include the arrests of U.S. citizens by the Mexican Navy for being "Texas Pirates," the discussion of an assassination attempt on President Jackson, and the expected election of Martin Van Buren. A few letters are in Spanish and French.

The Essays, Drawings, Personal Papers, and Notes series holds many interesting items, such as a bundle of poems; medicine lists and prescriptions with notes; sketches of the island of Borneo and a beautiful detailed drawing of an Indian man riding a rhinoceros (undated); and a number of essays including travel notes and observations on leprosy.

The Financial Records series consists of bundles of ship provisions and medical inventories, travel notes, receipts, legal documents, accounting sheets, and a subseries of loose receipts and accounts.

The Documents series contains contracts, investment memoranda, an official appointment as consul, debt settlements, partnership agreements, insurance documents, and a deposition of witness for the seizure of an American ship by the Mexican government for importing counterfeit coins into Mexico.

The Printed Materials series holds a booklet called Friends' Miscellany (1831) and three formal invitations.

The William L. Clements Library acquired two newspaper cuttings separately from the Marmaduke Burrough Papers, which have been placed with the collection for their possible relation to the rhinoceroses imported by Marmaduke Burrough, and for ease of research. They include illustrated advertisements for the traveling Menagerie and Aviary, Zoological Institute, New York (at Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Newport, Rhode Island). The Library is currently unclear about whether or not the Zoological Institute rhinoceros is the same as one of the rhinos imported by Burrough.

The Lydia Maria Child papers consist of ninety mostly personal letters by Lydia Child; the bulk of them were written to her wealthy abolitionist and philanthropic friends in Boston, the Lorings.

The collection consists of ninety mostly personal and often playfully provocative letters dating from approximately 1835 to 1877. Most of them are from Lydia Maria Child to her wealthy Boston abolitionist and philanthropic friends, the Lorings, and date from 1839 to 1859. They thus concentrate on the period of Maria Child's distress with the institutional politics of antislavery, her editorship of the Standard, her growing attachment to New York Bohemia, and the publication of Letters From New York. Many of the letters deal simply with her day to day finances, friends, and family.

These letters chart Maria Child's loss of "pleasure" in "anti Slavery" until the martyrdom of John Brown renewed her "youth and strength." They witness her antagonism to the aggressive tactics of elements of the American Anti-Slavery Society and her defense of the "Old Organization." It is in terms of intra-organizational criticism that she justifies her job at the Standard despite reservations. Later, however, the letters witness her declining commitment to pacifism. They describe a remarkable fearlessness to the danger of the mobs in New York, and they note the challenges that the Standard faced. They speak of Maria Child's withdrawal from cliques of reformers and antislavery organizations, though clearly her hermitage was constantly broken by meetings with the likes of Catherine Beecher and Margaret Fuller. Throughout, she declares a radical social egalitarianism while demonstrating a contemporary racial paternalism and liberalism. Of particular interest concerning antislavery and race are:

• (1) To George Kimball, Jan 1835, on Texas and the freemen plantation in Mexico
• (3) To Louisa L., April 1839, concerning the discord within the movement
• (6) To "Nonny", Dec 1840, of a story about "our colored man... our retainers"
• (8) To Ellis L., May 1841, about guilt for accepting money for editing the Standard
• (9) To Ellis L., June 1841, where she insinuates the A.A.S.S. with proslavery form
• (13) To Ellis L., May 1842, about the Boston and Philadelphia cliques and N.Y. mobs
• (17) To Louisa L., May 1843, about the New York Letters and Angelina Grimké
• (48) To Ellis L., December 1852, with reference to Charles Sumner and Catherine Beecher
• (57) To Louisa L., October 1856, about Kansas and Frémont
• (69) To Oliver Johnson (A.A.S.), Dec. 1859, on John Brown's execution
• (70) To William Cutler, July 1862, on the questions of wage slavery and social equality
• (72) To Anna L., Oct (1871?), on a "mulatto girl" asking for handouts.

More peripherally the letters are witness to the homosocial support networks of Victorian America despite their author's exceptional ability to transcend the limitations imposed on her sex. Of the latter she was painfully aware, complaining here of the impropriety of a "young lady" staying at the Globe Hotel, determining to "always avoid belonging to any association of men" because of her "experience," noting how her critics preferred to attack her as a woman rather than deal with the facts, how some were shocked to meet a woman like her, and complaining about her gendered financial liabilities despite her disfranchisement. Indeed, she detaches gender stereotypes from biological sex as she writes repeatedly of the "small female minds of both sexes." Writing domestic guides for women and attending Emerson's lectures on domestic life never reconciled Maria Child to domestic work, of which she often complains here. On the other hand, she seemed to relish romance and also writes of her caring for a "wild Irish girl," and her poor niece Maria, and her taking in of Dolores, a poor Spanish woman, as her companion. Particularly relevant are her letters: (67) To Louisa L., December 1857, a story of two babies engaged in the struggle of the sexes; (71) To Anna L., July 1871, on suffrage for societal efficiency and female education.

Lydia Maria Child's letters also chart her critical attitude to religious and social injustice in general. This is born out in accounts of specific incidents of charity to orphans abandoned in the Tombs. Calling Angelina Grimké a "flaming Millerite," Maria Child also makes fun of her patron Isaac T. Hopper's Quakerism, claims to prefer the "Lord Pope" to the "Lord Presbyters," and "shocked... Christian piety by saying if Mendelssohn were a Jew, I hoped I should get into the Jew's Quarter in heaven." Her "dislike to respectable Puritanical character" crops up repeatedly in these letters. In one letter she jokingly claims her "right to be damned." She praises Plato as a forefather of "modern socialists" and writes of the world of the spirits and of her "bigotted Swedenborgian[ism]." In terms of her pacifism she recounts an argument she had with Samuel Colt over "his battery." Her letters moreover present a consistent picture of her preference for the soul-inspired music of the underdog against anything machine-like, or tainted by the "diseased ambition of wealth and show... and respectability." She criticizes the "ruffianly Forrest" and the Astor Place Riots for demagoguery and violence while repeatedly noting the blindness of aristocracy and arguing for a world in which "all ranks, and sexes, and sects, and barriers of all sorts," would be ignored. In an elusive search for freedom she claims pleasure in acting "contrary to statutes made and provided."

The Louise Gilman papers consist of letters written by Louise Gilman while serving as a teacher at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Viriginia, a school set up to educate freed slaves. The letters describe Gilman's activities as a teacher and her thoughts about the black students.

The Louise Gilman papers consist of 21 letters written by Louise Gilman to her elder sisters Molly and Emily, one to her brother, Edward, and four letters to Lizzie (probably Elizabeth Dwight Woolsey Gilman, ca. 1839-1910) or Hattie, who may either be friends or relatives. The collection also includes five letters from Molly Gilman to Lizzie, and a copy of one letter from Samuel C. Armstrong to one of the Miss Woolseys (probably Georgeanna).

Gilman's letters to her sisters include several fine descriptions of the still unfinished grounds of the Hampton Institute and portray an interesting, though not highly detailed picture of the life of a freedmen's teacher. The eagerness of many of the students to learn to read and the enthusiasm for education, at least among some of them, comes through strongly in these letters. One letter in particular provides an outstanding description of the Institute, the teachers' rooms and the daily routine, along with a long description of a visit to a Freedman's Church and Sunday School (1869 February 21). Gilman's final lines in her description of the Sunday School capture some of the complexity of her feelings about her experience: "I have spun out a long story of all this - but how else can I give you an idea of the mixture of free-ness & pomposity, of rudeness & simple decorum in all the exercises - I wish I could give you a picture of the whole scene! Such bonnets! Such hoops!!"

A running tension in the Gilman correspondence is the mixture of admiration and respect that Gilman musters for her pupils, leavened with an air of condescension and occasional scorn. At times, it can be difficult to discern her true feelings, as when she implies that books found in the Slabtown Sunday School might have been stolen, or when she suggests that she might bring home an 18 year old African-American girl whose health and well-being might improve at the north. Gilman adds, revealingly, "'Nothing offensive or niggery about her' says Rebecca [Bacon] -- 'She don't smell bad.' She has never received wages -- & I have not doubt would be satisfied with very small wages at least till the expenses of her journey are paid" (1869 April 27).

The Kane family papers contain letters from a large family and document various family matters.

The Kane family papers span multiple generations; they include letters, deeds, and miscellaneous documents from various members of the Kane Family and documents the family member’s lives and relationships.

Of the 225 items in this collection 185 are letters, of which 121 are dated between 1851 and 1866. Most of the letters are addressed to Bessie Kane from her brothers Thomas Leiper, Robert Patterson, and John Kintzing, and her sisters-in-law Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane and Mable Bayard Kane. The correspondence also has letters to and from other members of the family and some from Mable Bayard Kane’s family. Also part of the collection, are 10 letters from 1800-1801 addressed to Elisha Kane, Sr.

The letters mostly concern family matters such as sickness, deaths, engagements, marriages, the Presbyterian religion, births, and children.

Approximately 35 letters written by Elizabeth D. Wood Kane, wife of Thomas Leiper Kane, present a portrait of a well educated and well-to-do young woman living in Fort Hamilton, New York. These letters fall primarily between 1851 and 1863 and provide details regarding clothing and fashion, her home and nursery and her feelings regarding the sickness and death of her child, Maggie, who died in 1851. She describes walking down Broadway in search of muslin mantillas, weeping over Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and expresses her concern for her husband, who was serving in the Civil War. In 1852, Elizabeth traveled to Europe and provided descriptions of Liverpool and Paris, which included witnessing the extravagant arrival of Louis Napoleon.

The few letters from Mabel Bayard Kane, husband of John K. Kane, Jr., express her feelings of loneliness, John’s leaving for the Civil War, and her appreciation for the sisterly concern shown by Elizabeth. In addition, the collection contains two letters written by Alida Van Rensselaer (1766-1834), Elizabeth’s paternal grandmother. They are written to her cousin, Jane D. L. Kane in 1819 and 1820 regarding a visit with a dying friend, family news, and reading chemistry with another female friend.

Though the correspondence continues through the Civil War few letters mention the war or the Kane family members participating in it. John Kintzing Kane Jr. wrote five letters while in Cairo, Illinois, serving in the hospital there, and one letter from Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood Kane concerns her husband, Thomas Leiper, resigning from the army.

Of note are the nine letters from John Kintzing Jr. describing his medical studies in Paris in 1857. Two letters from Thomas Leiper describe going west with the Mormons in 1846. Also, one letter of July 1855 is a petition to Judge John Kintzing Kane for three slaves being kept in Pennsylvania to be returned under the fugitive slave law.

The collection includes 14 deeds and memorandum to Elisha Kane dating from 1798-1823, most concerning H.G. Livingston and Oliver Phelps. The correspondence to Elisha Kane, Sr. primarily deals with buying, selling and farming land.

The collection also contains two of Robert Patterson Kane’s calling cards with notes on them from July 1858, a fifteen page pamphlet from 1883 on vaccination entitled “Of the Importance of General Vaccination and the Groundlessness of the Prejudices Against it A paper prepared at the request of the state board of health” by John Kintzing Kane Jr., and poem entitled “Goodbye to Noah’s Ark” by S.W.M. and copied by John Kintzing Kane, dated 1849. A sheet of paper with “Kane v. Bitchett and Livingston v. Kane” written on it and 21 miscellaneous envelopes complete the collection. A few letters from Robert Patterson Kane have pen and ink sketches, and one from John K. Kane has a small sketch of a gravestone.

The Jonathan Chase papers contain letters and documents relating to the services of Colonel Jonathan Chase, of the 13th and 15th New Hampshire Militia regiments, during the Revolutionary War. These record Chase's involvement with recruiting soldiers and providing supplies for the army during the war.

The Jonathan Chase papers (74 items) in the Schoff Revolutionary War Collection contain 39 letters, 1 letterbook, and 34 documents and financial records (including receipts, soldier rolls, and commissions) relating to the services of Colonel Jonathan Chase, of the 13th and 15th New Hampshire Militia regiments, during the Revolutionary War. Chase was actively involved in recruiting soldiers and in providing supplies for the army during the war. This collection documents his part in these efforts and includes several wartime letters that depict the military situation in New England.

The Correspondence series contains 39 items, all of which are related to the Revolutionary War. Frequent correspondents include Benjamin Giles, a New Hampshire officer stationed in Charlestown, Massachusetts; Meshech Weare, President of New Hampshire; Major Jonathan Child; Major General Nathaniel Fulsom; and Jacob Bayley. The earliest letters are requests from officers at Charlestown, Massachusetts, with orders for Chase to send flour and meat to feed their troops. Meshech Weare wrote 10 letters on behalf of the Committee of Safety for New Hampshire, headquartered in Exeter. These dealt with military matters, informing Chase of the structure of the militia (July 18, 1777) and calling for him to draft a certain number of men from his militia units to fill a quota mandated by the Continental Congress. Weare specifically recommended that Chase must not trust prisoners of war or enemy deserters (March 9, 1778).

Other notable items include letters dealing with military matters such as deserters (July 23, 1779 and May 27, 1781), and pay incentives for enlisted soldiers (June 20, 1779). A report issued by the New Hampshire House of Representatives, dated April 15, 1781, outlined plans for the defense of the western New Hampshire frontier. One of several letters from Jacob Bayley warned of a possible attack near Otter Creek in Vermont and advised that "each man would equip himself with snow-shoes &c" (February 8, 1780). In an urgent letter, General Peter Olcott advised Chase to have his men ready "to march at a minutes warning to the relief of any quarter which may be invaded" (October 15, 1781). Post-war items, in both the Correspondence and Documents and Financial Records series concern reimbursements from the United States government for expenses incurred during the war. Though most of the items in the collection are official in nature, one letter reveals personal struggles during the war: Elisha Payne, in a letter dated May 12, 1777, explained to Jonathan Chase that he cannot stay with the militia because he must tend to his wife and many small children, and can find no one to take care of his land while he is away; also, he is unsure his health can take the strain.

The 14-page Letterbook contains 34 numbered letters. While the letterbook is largely comprised of copies of records dealing with supplies, food, and money, it also contains letters from Chase, Moses Hazen, Major Jonathan Childs, Jacob Bailey, and Horatio Gates. These describe troop missions and news about the war. Of note are two letters: one is from Moses Hazen mentioning that the French fleet is to be expected to arrive at the end of June, 1780 (p. 9, June [14], 1780); and the other is 1778 letter to the Chairman of the Committee of Bennington discussing the sending the 15th New Hampshire regiment to defend Vermont (p.12-13, [1780]).

The Documents and Financial Records series (34 items) contains lists of officers and soldiers recruited and dispatched by Chase, records of military expenses kept by Chase, and 3 printed items appointing Chase to various official positions. Nine items are regimental returns and other lists of soldiers, including returns for soldiers who marched with Chase to Ticonderoga and Saratoga. One document, of June 10, 1777, lists men under guard, with their infractions. The series contains 12 military records of payments for food, supplies, and soldiers pay. Two of these are post-war accounts kept by Jonathan Child and Jonathan Chase, documenting expenses incurred on behalf of the United States during the war, with calculations of interest up to December 13, 1786, and March 1, 1791.

• May 8, 1781, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "Colonel of the first Regiment in the 3rd Brigade & third Regiment of the Militia of this State [of Vermont]," signed by Thomas Chittenden
• December 25, 1784, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "Colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment of Militia, in the said State of New-Hampshire." signed by Meshech Weare
• September 13, 1786, Jonathan Chase's appointment as "a Brigadier General of the Militia, in the said State of New-Hampshire." signed by John Sullivan and Joseph Pearson. A note on the document, dated June 9, 1791, and signed by Josiah Bartlett, grants Jonathan Chase "leave to resign his Commission as a Brigadier General of the militia."

The Paulding collection contains eleven heavily illustrated letters written from Chicago, Illinois by the teenaged artist-in-training, John Paulding, to his mother.

The Paulding collection contains eleven heavily illustrated letters written by the teenaged artist-in-training, John Paulding, to his mother between 1897 and 1899. The content of these brief letters is limited, but Paulding's light-hearted style and good nature make reading them enjoyable, and there are a few small barbs about his status as a bachelor in the city, and about the possibility that the art work he sends home might scandalize the small town in which his mother lives (Carthage, Mo.). "I can hang the pictures in my room," he wrote, "because I am a young bachelor and live in a city where such matters are not given criticism. You are situated differently" (1898 March 13).

The main interest in Paulding's letters, however, are the excellent pen and ink sketches that he uses to illustrate his experiences in the city. Each letter contains as many as half a dozen small sketches, ranging from humorous self portraits to views of the street outside his window, country roads, and humorous characters. As an illustrator, Paulding's style is strongly influenced by the popular magazine illustrators of the day, featuring strong, clean lines, and outstanding attention to detail and character.

This collection is comprised of 104 items related to Private First Class John Marshal Holcombe III's service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Holcombe sent about 90 letters and other items to his parents and siblings in Farmington, Connecticut, while in training in Florida, South Dakota, and Utah in 1942 and 1943, and while serving in Africa between 1943 and 1945. He commented on various aspects of his training, the war, his health, and military life. The collection also contains 4 documents, 2 newspaper clippings, and 6 loose photographs related to Holcombe's military service.

This collection is comprised of 104 items related to Private First Class John Marshal Holcombe III's service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Holcombe sent about 90 letters and other items to his parents and siblings in Farmington, Connecticut, while in training in Florida, South Dakota, and Utah in 1942 and 1943, and while serving in Africa between 1943 and 1945. He commented on various aspects of his training, the war, his health, and military life. The collection also contains 4 documents, 2 newspaper clippings, and 6 loose photographs related to Holcombe's military service.

The Correspondence series consists primarily of letters that John Holcombe III wrote to his parents, John Holcombe, Jr., and Marguerite Holcombe, and to his siblings, especially his sisters Ada ("Adie") and Gloria. Of the collection's 72 dated letters and other items, Holcombe composed 7 letters from the training center at Miami Beach, Florida, (June 1942-July 1942); 20 letters from the training center at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, (July 1942-December 1942); 4 letters from Kearns, Utah (December 1942-January 1943); and 35 letters from North and Central Africa between (February 1943-May 1945). Other items are a telegram, 3 letters from other soldiers to the Holcombe family, a blank record sheet for "Bombing Practise" [sic], and a speech that Holcombe composed in honor of his parents' 25th anniversary. Of the 20 undated items, 19 are letters from John Holcombe III to his family; the final item is a typed copy of his poem "Tropic Fever."

Holcombe's letters relate to many aspects of his life as a soldier, both in training and on active duty. An asthmatic, he frequently commented on his health; for example, his letters from late 1943 mention his stay in a hospital after he contracted malaria. Other letters describe the scenery in the United States and in Africa, as well as African cultures. Holcombe frequently referred to his experiences in training, which included drilling and attending technical classes, and he sometimes reported news of the war, such as Italy's surrender. He requested news from Connecticut and often wrote personal asides for his sister Ada. His later letters often concern his relationship with other soldiers, and increasingly provide more detailed information about his duties.

• July 6, 1942: Hand-drawn diagram of Holcombe's quarters, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• August 20, 1942: Printed chart for weather reports, filled out in pencil
• September 14, 1942: Photograph of an unidentified soldier sitting on a bunk
• October 14, 1942: Photographs of a soldier punting a football and a soldier next to technical equipment and a chalkboard
• January 12, 1943: Printed cartoon of a soldier washing dishes
• March 19, 1943: 8 photographs of Africans
• June 14, 1943: Poem dedicated to Ada Holcombe on her 19th birthday
• April 7, 1944: Unidentified plant leaf
• July 17, 1944: Enclosed poem dated July 11, 1944
• January 25, 1945: Small drawing of a stickwoman
• Undated: Printed cartoon of a soldier writing

Additionally, several letters dated after October 1944 have a wax seal, often labeled "The Seal of the Clan & Huck Finn."

• United States Army Air Forces Technical School diploma for John Holcombe III's completion of a radio mechanics course (November 27, 1942)
• Travel orders for John Holcombe III and other soldiers, United States Army Headquarters, West African Service Command (March 20, 1945)
• "Salvati Africa" ticket stub (undated)
• Humorous certificate for John Holcombe III's membership in the Marching and Mayhem Club, illustrated with cartoons depicting Japanese and German soldiers being wounded (undated)

The two Newspaper Clippings are a copy of The Spectator Daily (March 22, 1945), and a copy of a John D. Rockefeller, Jr., radio broadcast entitled "I Believe" (undated).

Six black-and-white Photographs illustrate scenes from Asmara, Eritrea, such as a market, a horse-drawn carriage, and buildings.

This collection consists primarily of incoming personal and professional correspondence received by John Barbour, an Episcopal minister and professor at Berkeley Divinity School, concerning religious life in Connecticut in the late 1800s.

This collection consists primarily of approximately 1,150 incoming personal and professional letters received by John Barbour, an Episcopal minister and professor at Berkeley Divinity School, concerning religious life in Connecticut in the late 1800s. The papers also include 5 photographs, 4 printed portraits, and a small group of additional printed items.

The Correspondence series spans most of Barbour's career. The bulk is comprised primarily of letters John Barbour received between 1883 and 1899, reflecting the everyday lives of clergy in Connecticut and New England, as well as Barbour's work with the Episcopal Church and at Berkeley Divinity School. Many of the letters contain professional inquiries and reports of the writers' daily lives and work with local churches. Several relate to Barbour's role as the librarian of the Berkeley Divinity School, including factual questions and inquiries about specific volumes. Other letters request his services as a minister, including several from the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane in Middletown, Connecticut, and from other clergy requesting substitutes. Additionally, many of the letters concern religious education and mention prominent bishops and others in the Episcopal Church.

Two early items relate to John Barbour's father, Henry S. Barbour, and to administrative affairs of the town of Torrington, Connecticut, in 1852 and 1857. The series also includes a timetable for trains between Hartford, Connecticut, and New York City, and a manuscript complaint from attorney John R. Wittig to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Williams, issued against John Barbour, claiming that Barbour colluded with Wittig's wife in a conspiracy to "get rid" of him and seize his property (March 17, 1885).

The Photographs and portraits series holds 5 carte-de-visite photographs of members of the Barbour family, including Henry S., Sylvester, Herman H., Julia, and Joseph L. Barbour, as well as 4 printed portraits of Episcopal clergy.

The Printed items series contains biographical sketches of bishops, Episcopal clergy, and other figures, removed from published books and newspapers. Among those represented are Bishop John Williams and librarian Melvil Dewey. The series also includes approximately 20 invitations, programs, circular letters, and advertisements. One advertising card for the Fannie C. Paddock Memorial Hospital of Tacoma, Washington Territory, bears an engraved image of the facility.

The Jayne papers contain letters from Samuel Ferguson Jayne, during his service as a relief agent with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, to his fiancée Charlotte Elizabeth Jayne in the summer of 1864. He described his work at the U.S. Colored Hospital at City Point, Virginia, treating wounded soldiers from the battles at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Battle of the Crater (Petersburg).

The Jayne papers consist of 17 letters from Samuel Ferguson Jayne, during his service as a relief agent with the U.S. Sanitary Commission, to his fiancée Charlotte Elizabeth Jayne in the summer of 1864. The letters, dated May 22-August 19, 1864, track his travels on the Mary Rapley steamboat and document his efforts at the U.S. Colored Hospital at City Point, Virginia. They discuss the numerous wounded soldiers coming from battles at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the Battle of the Crater (Petersburg), and include vivid details on the treatment of the men and the facilities of the hospitals. Jayne often notes the difficulties of getting the Union doctors to treat black troops. He wrote, "We have had to almost fight the doctors to get them to treat the colored men decently and to find them proper attention. When we came here most of the men were without beds. Now we have them upon, not only beds, but every man has also an iron bedstead, entirely covered by mosquito netting" (July 12). On August 9th, Jayne wrote that "There are very few agents here, who are adapted to such 'low' work as that of taking care of sick negroes" (August 9).

Jayne described in depth the types of wounds and afflictions the solders suffered. On August 4, he wrote "we are overcome with sick and wounded...I have found many who fought hand to hand with rebels, as their wounds are those made by the butts of muskets or clubs...We have twelve men digging graves today for our hospital alone." In a letter dated April 9th, he described a "terrible explosion" of an ammunition boat at City Point, Virginia, and its aftermath. Though the letters contain many details on his work managing the sick in the hospitals, they also include expressions of love for Charlotte, who Samuel was "compelled to write" in order "to keep [his] wits straight" (August 9, 1864). Jayne also commented on political and ethical issues of the war. For example, in the letter from August 19, 1864, he questioned the morality of paying black soldiers to fight in place of a drafted white soldier:

"I do not think it would be exactly fair to obtain a negro for a substitute. In the first place, in all modesty, they do not make as good soldiers as the whites, and at the present crisis of affairs, from all that I can learn from observation and report, one white man, even as insignificant as myself, is equal to two negroes for war purposes. Then, the negro fights under great disadvantages. If taken prisoner he is either murdered or sold into slavery--and I think that a government that permits its soldiers to be thus dealt with, without retaliating upon the enemy ought to go to perdition, or at least to a strongly seasoned purgatory. I would not ask a man to go as my substitute who would be murdered in cold blood because he was not of my race and color. Until we can procure the African some rights of civilized warfare, let the Anglo Saxon fight his own battles."

Jayne drew several sketches and commented on them. Of note is a picture of a ground plan of the U.S. Colored hospital, City Point, Virginia camp, annotated with the functions of many individual tents. It includes the positions of hospitals for the 5th, 6th, and 9th Corps. This plan accompanies the letter from July 15, 1864, in which Jayne provided additional details of the hospital camp.

• "Our pet lamb Molly," City Point Virginia, a pencil sketch of a young Black woman sitting in front of shelves of supplies (July 26, 1864).
• "Special Diet," a barefoot black man walking past army tents holding a mug and plate of fish (August 10, 1864).
• "For this are we Doctors," a black soldier with a bloody amputated arm (August 10, 1864).
• "Lizzie," a profile of a black woman sitting on a crate with her hands to her head (August 10, 1864).
• "Hospital bed" on the back: "This is a drawing of our hospital beds, with mosque-to netting. Made by Roberts, S. "(August 19, 1864).

The Jared and Susannah Arnold papers are a collection of letters, written primarily by family members, pertaining to business and family matters. Legal documents regarding shipping, deeds for ships, etc. are also included in the collection.

The Jared and Susannah Arnold papers consist primarily of correspondence written between the couple and their children in the early 19th century. The earliest items in the Correspondence series, which makes up the bulk of the collection, are personal letters written and received by Jared Arnold and Susannah Brainerd before their marriage; these include material from Jared to his brothers, Simon and Joseph, as well as several addressed to Susannah by female friends. Many of the early letters detail the couple'scourtship; following their marriage, they corresponded with friends and family about their travels to New York, Baltimore, and other cities on the East Coast. Later material in the collection reflects the lives of the Arnolds' three sons, who frequently wrote their parents and, less often, each other; their son Owen, for example, shared his experiences at Yale College in the mid-1830s, and on one occasion detailed his expenses (February 6, 1835). Later, Owen wrote from his teaching post in Milledgeville, Georgia, while Jared drew a map of land along the Chemung River near Elmira, New York; Owen's letter of April 27, 1843 contains several pencil sketches, including a hawk and rough patterns. Two of the letters are written on printed reports: the Commercial Reporter and Shipping List from Mobile, Alabama (December 6, 1837) and a report of "The Trustees of the Planters and Merchants Bank of Mobile" (April 3, 1847).

Documents in the collection include two shipping receipts; a document related to the ownership of the Exchange, of which Jared Arnold was captain, by Jozeb and Horace Stocking; and a power of attorney appointing Jared Arnold legal representative for Jozeb Stocking.

The James Sterling letter book contains the outgoing letters of Sterling, a prominent trader at Fort Detroit, concerning transactions, prices, demand for goods, as well as accounts of events during Pontiac's War.

The James Sterling letter book contains 164 pages and 175 letters in all, spanning July 1761 to October 1765. Sterling wrote all the letters while at Fort Detroit, and they deal mainly with business and occasional local political matters. His letters provide a picture of the fur trade and the consumer needs of Indians, French civilians, and the British military, as well as the day-to-day concerns of a prominent trader at Fort Detroit.

The volume opens with a 6-page record of a council held "at the Wiandot Town near Detroit" by the deputies of the Six Nations (Iroquois) in order to convince members of the Ottawa, Wyandotte, Ojibwa (Chippewa), and Potawatomi tribes to ally themselves with the French. Sterling acted as interpreter during the meeting, and kept its minutes. The document records the Iroquois' grievances with the British, whom they accused of having "Disrespect" for them and their lands, adding "their Behaviour towards us gives us the greatest Reason to believe that they intend to Cutt us off intirely." The Iroquois urged the more western tribes to take quick action against the British and stated that "our Warriors are already prepared." The document contains long quotes from several speakers, including an Iroquois deputy and a "Captain Campbell," likely Donald Campbell, who expressed astonishment at the belligerent attitude of the Iroquois toward the British. The following day, the western tribes reported the meeting to the British, maintaining their loyalty.

Sterling's outgoing letters commence on July 20, 1761. He mainly wrote them to trading partners and clients, discussing details of shipments, prices (generally calculated in beaver pelts), and the availability of goods. On page 11 of the book, in a letter to Captain Walter Rutherford [August 27, 1761?], Sterling listed numerous items for sale along with their prices in pelts. These include strouds, blankets, shirts, buckskins, wampum, brass kettles, gun powder, knives, bed lace, and thread. Letters also shed light on the destinations and methods of the transportation of goods. In the first years of the correspondence, goods were shipped by fleets of bateaux, sometimes belonging to the military. Later, several schooners and sloops plied Lakes Erie and Huron, and went as far north as St. Mary’s River at Sault Ste-Marie. All goods had to be portaged at Niagara ("The Carrying Place"), while those to and from Albany were similarly reloaded at Oswego on Lake Ontario.

Sterling sometimes encountered problems with other traders and colleagues, including unscrupulousness, drunkenness, and offensive treatment of Native Americans, which alienated them as trading partners. He criticized John Collbeck, the commissary at Fort Niagara, for allowing his staff and servants to drink without restraint and for keeping a "seraglio of Indians Squahs in the same condition" of intoxication (January 10, 1762). On May 31, 1762, he complained to his partner, James Syme, that goods had arrived from New York "wet, dirty, and broken." Other hazards included storms and theft, which Sterling noted on several occasions.

A few letters detail the events of Pontiac's War as well as its effect on trade. On July 25, 1763, Sterling noted the capture of Fort Venango in Pennsylvania and the continuation of the siege at Fort Detroit, and hoped for relief from the army. On August 7, 1763, he described the Battle of Bloody Run as "the damn'd Drubbing the Savage Bougres gave us" and lamented the death of an aide-de-camp, "Capt. Delyelle." In other letters, he reported that trade with Native Americans had been prohibited by British officials (August 7, 1763), and gave an account of an attack on the schooner Huron by 340 Native Americans, resulting in the death of its commander, Captain Walter Horsey (September 8, 1763). The volume contains a gap in the correspondence between October 1763 and September 1764.

The volume also contains occasional references to Sterling's personal life. In a letter of February 26, 1765, Sterling informed his associate, John Duncan, that he had married Angélique Cuillerier, "the best interpreter of Indian languages in Detroit;" her dowry of 1,000 pounds included houses in Fort Detroit. Sterling also frequently referenced his brother, John Sterling, who was stationed at Niagara. James did not feel that John was capable of running the operation there, but called him dependable.

The James Silver papers consist of 12 letters, each of which is several pages long, composed by Silver during his 1872 visit to New Orleans, Louisiana, recounting his journey from New York, where his family resided, to Louisiana, as well as his time spent in and around New Orleans. Silver included 39 ink sketches of people and scenery throughout his letters.

The James Silver papers consist of 12 letters, each of which is several pages long, composed by Silver during his 1872 visit to New Orleans, Louisiana, recounting his journey from New York, where his family resided, to Louisiana, as well as his time spent in and around New Orleans. Silver included 39 ink sketches of people and scenery throughout his letters. The rough voyage took him past Havana, Cuba, before he entered the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River Delta. In New Orleans, Silver wrote about the sights and sounds in detail, paying particular attention to the peculiarity of hearing French in the French Quarter, of taking a train ride to Lake Pontchartrain, and of seeing the Mardi Gras celebrations. The young traveler frequently mentioned African Americans, and included some ink sketches of them in his letters. Also of interest is Silver's discussion of the city's unique burial practices and the social implications of them (February 7). The 39 sketches, interspersed throughout his letters, show buildings, farms, the streets of New Orleans during Mari Gras, and beaches along the Gulf Coast, as well as portraits. Along with the natural and man-made scenery, Silver drew scenes involving local people of all races, including trips to the market, families, fellow passengers on his railroad journeys, and couples dining in restaurants. Additionally, he sketched different events he witnessed during his travels, such as a man with a gun approaching him, a production of Hamlet that included a severed head, a drunkard being arrested by an African American police officer, a bowler hitting him with a ball, and a cluster of "hackmen" arguing about the price of a ride.

The Irving collection consist of three volumes of outgoing correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These volumes are a resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade.

The Jacob Aemilius Irving Letterbooks consist of three volumes of out-going correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These slender volumes are an outstanding resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade. While there is little information on plantation management, per se, the letters provide considerable insight into the psychology and management of debt. Having inherited a substantial debt as receiver of his father's estate, Irving struggled to settle the family accounts, placing himself in continued conflict with relatives and creditors alike.

Irving's management of his daily business demonstrates how thoroughly his vision of the world was trans-Atlantic. His network of agents, suppliers, friends, and competitors extended not merely to the West Indies, but to America and Britain, as well, and for Irving, the nation clearly straddled the ocean. Intriguingly, the letters suggest the manner in which debt worked to cement Irving's network of relationships, however uneasily -- indebtedness was the mortar binding Irving's familial and commercial lives. To Irving, debt was an inevitable byproduct of successfully maneuvering the sugar trade, and the gambler's mentality implicit in this formulation comes across clearly in the letters to Irving's largest creditor, Joseph Birch, and to his attorney, Alexander Peterkin, and clerk, John Pigot. Of particular interest is an excellent series of letters to and about Jacob's nephew, James, imprisoned for debt at the tender age of 19, admonishing him for profligacy and a lack of concern for his budget and accusing him, at one point, of a conscious design to indebt himself. See especially the letter of 1810 September 13 and the letter to Alexander Peterkin written on 1811 August 6.

The commercial impact of Anglo-American foreign relations and the War of 1812 forms a second, though relatively minor line of interest in the collection.

Finally, the Irving letterbooks are a fine resource for understanding aspects of the mentality and economics of slaveholding in Jamaica. While there is nothing in the collection relating directly to the management of slaves, there is considerable discussion of trading in slaves, their value to the estates, and their status as currency in the Jamaican economy. Among the most intriguing letters is one in which Irving described the departure (in England) of his servant, Peter:

"My Man Peter has left us after long threatening to do so -- indeed I was obliged to [word crossed out: discharge] part with him he had become so idle & fond of company, his services were not worth having -- it is no more than what I always expected -- for as soon as these gentry get to this Country, & get connected with Buckra Woman the fools go mad, & at length when poverty & disease ensue, the press gangs get them, or they become beggars in the streets. I should as soon recommend a Man to bring his horse with him to England as his domestic servant" (1812 March 3 to John Pigot)

In an impassioned letter to Simon Clarke responding to reading an antislavery work (1812 February 26), Irving includes an edgy defence of the slave system against charges that it is antireligious: "Teach them [slaves] morality, and you teach them wisdom. Teach them religion, and you confound their understandings, & render them a prey toEvil-doers!"

The Humphry and Moses Marshall papers primarily document the careers of botanist Humphry Marshall and his nephew and business associate, Moses Marshall.

The Humphry and Moses Marshall papers consist of 233 items: 181 letters (including drafts), 15 legal documents, 11 manuscripts, 10 poems, 4 account books, and several each of books, letter books, arithmetic notebooks, and broadsides. The materials span from 1721-1863.

The first series contains correspondence and a few legal documents and writings, arranged chronologically. The correspondence dates from 1733 to 1863 and is predominantly incoming. Humphry Marshall is the recipient of the bulk of the material (approximately 40%), followed by Moses Marshall (approx. 30%). The majority of the outgoing correspondence comes from the two "letterbooks" kept by Moses Marshall in 1791 and 1793. These books contain correspondence from a couple of days each, but provide a record of Marshall's response to inquiries from clients.

The bulk of correspondence prior to 1800 relates to Marshall's horticultural and botanical operations. Substantial numbers of orders are for plants and seeds from clients in other parts of the United States, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, and communications with middle men in the operation detail methods of packaging and shipping. Also of botanical interest is the correspondence with Marshall's "agents" in the field, including Moses Mendenhall, John and James Watson, Matthias King, Samuel Kramsh, and James Kenny. These men were admirers and friends of Humphry Marshall, and provided him with specimens collected from various regions of the country. The unsuccessful search for wild Franklinia alatamaha is mentioned in several letters (April 8, 1788: "There is not a plant of the Franklinia to be found"), and other letters include discussions of scientific expeditions either actualized or planned, mostly involving the participation of Moses Marshall. On November 14, 1786, Humphry described the logistics of tracking down ginseng, providing insight into the duties of plant collectors: "both of you being obliged to…encamp in the mountains strike up a fire & lie by it all night in the morning…climb up the sides of the mountains and dig towards evening…about 20 days in Going and Coming home again & digging the roots packing up &c." The content of the letters does not indicate the Marshalls' scientific interests or abilities, but this correspondence provides documentation for the complex network used by the Marshalls to collect, sell and distribute plants.

Approximately 18 letters relate to the Revolutionary War (see "Subject Index" under "Additional Descriptive Data"). These include letters that indicate Marshall's support for the nonimportation agreements (January 6, 1775), second hand reports of the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 25, 1775) and of Yorktown (August 24, 1781), and an important series of correspondence from Samuel Preston Moore relating to the resignation of the trustees of the General Loan Office when American revolutionaries seized control (June 17 and 21, 1777). Also significant are two letters from Quaker conscientious objectors on the morality of paying taxes to support military activities (undated c. 1780 letter; July 14, 1781), a letter relating to the North Carolina Regulator insurrection (March 3, 1771), and one concerning the arrest by American forces of Quakers suspected of Loyalist sympathies (September 6, 1777). Finally, in the pre-Revolutionary period, the letters of James Kenny provide excellent descriptions of plant collecting and the area around Fort Pitt in 1759-60.

The items from 1840-1863 mainly relate to Moses Marshall, Jr. Most notable in among them are several letters from William Darlington written as he was preparing his Memorial to Humphry and Moses Marshall in 1848 and 1849. Moses, Jr's pro-Confederacy political views are clearly expressed in the series of three speeches written during the Civil War, also included in the series.

The Poetry series includes 10 undated poems. The Bound Materials series comprises the arithmetic notebooks of Jacob Martin, whose relationship to the Marshalls is unclear; Darlington’s manuscript, Historical Introduction to Bartram & Marshall, Marshall's copy of Dover's Useful Miscellanies; and nine uncut and unfolded sets of signatures from Arbustrum Americanum.

This collection is made up of approximately 160 items related to the Hillard family and Low family of New York and Boston, including correspondence, documents, photographs, poetry, ephemera, and pamphlets. Family members wrote around one-third of the approximately 110 letters and typescripts, as well as 35 pages from a letter book, while living and working in China in the mid-1800s. Other letters and additional materials concern the families' social and business lives in New York and Massachusetts throughout the 19th century. The families were related by marriage.

This collection contains approximately 155 items related to the Hillard family and Low family of New York and Boston, including correspondence, documents, photographs, poetry, ephemera, and pamphlets. Family members wrote around one-third of the approximately 110 letters and typescripts, as well as 35 pages from a letter book, while living and working in China in the mid-1800s. Other letters and additional material concern the families' social and business lives in New York and Massachusetts throughout the 19th century. The families were related by marriage.

The Correspondence series contains the following subseries: Manuscript Correspondence, Edward Low Letter Book, and Low Family Typescripts.

The Manuscript Correspondence subseries contains around 100 items related to the Hillard and Low families. "Caroline," a friend of Harriet Low, wrote letters to Harriet in New York City from Macau, China, in 1834 and 1835. Caroline commented on aspects of her life abroad, such as William Napier's arrival from Great Britain and the difficulty of having goods shipped from the United States. Other early correspondence includes personal letters between members of the Low family, who often wrote from Boston about family news and their social lives.

Francis (Frank) A. Hillard wrote 25 letters to his parents and siblings between June 1844 and July 1846, including 2 while traveling onboard the ship Honqua and 23 while living in Canton (now Guangzhou) and Macau, China. He described many aspects of his everyday life and of his career as a merchant, and provided detailed accounts of scenery, people, customs, and local news. He also commented on his experiences as a foreigner living abroad. After returning to the United States and settling in Brooklyn, New York, he corresponded with his brother Oliver, to whom he wrote approximately 30 letters between 1847 and 1853. Frank discussed his mercantile career and social life, which included interactions with members of the Delano family. The bulk of the correspondence ends in 1853.

Abiel Abbot Low wrote 4 letters to his wife Ellen on June 12, 1841, and from June 28, 1845-August 21, 1845. In his first letter, he described his travels in northern New York along the Erie Canal. Low's letter of June 28, 1845, pertains to his transatlantic voyage to Manchester, England, on the Great Western: he discussed his fellow passengers, his leisure activities on the ship, and his reunion with his sister Harriet and her children. The final 2 items (August 16, 1845, and August 21, 1845) concern Low's life in New York City after his return from England; he provided news of acquaintances and briefly mentioned the possibility of war with Mexico.

The subseries contains a letter Frank received from his brother Oliver, who provided news of United States politics (June 9, 1846), a letter from a girl named Hattie to her mother that mentions a sermon by a "Mr. Longfellow" [1864?], and a letter and membership card from the New York State Woman Suffrage Association sent to Mary Loines (September 21, 1895).

The Edward Low Letter Book is comprised of 35-pages of retained copies of letters that Low wrote to various family members, including William Henry and Abiel Abbot, while living in Macau, China, from May to September 1842. He discussed his life and work in China, as well as the Chinese economy and current events.

A group of Low Family Typescripts contains 12 letters exchanged by members of the Low family between 1829 and 1841, accompanied by a table of contents and a letter about the original material, dated 1935. The location of the original letters is unknown. Harriett Low wrote the first 9 letters between 1829 and 1834, while traveling in the Pacific and living in Macau, China. She told her mother and sister of her life onboard steamships and about her loneliness, caused by separation from her family in the United States. The remaining 11 letters include items by Frank and William Henry Low concerning their travels to China and around the Pacific region. They also commented on financial affairs.

The Documents series has 2 subseries: Legal and Financial Documents (5 items) and Passports (2 items). Included are an indenture between John Hillard, Harriet Low, and Seth Low (November 1, 1836); 4 receipts (August 1894-March 9, 1896, and undated); and passports for John Hillard (1842) and George Stillman Hillard (1859). Each passport is housed in a leather wallet.

The Photographs series contains 3 cartes-de-visite of Samuel Stillman and Rebecca Allen Stillman, as well as 3 card photographs of George Stillman Hillard.

Poetry and Other Writings (10 items) are comprised of 3 small poems, including one Francis A. Hillard wrote for his brother Oliver; 1 long poem entitled "The Tale" (27 pages); a preface and notes concerning the preparation of a work on the Low family papers; 3 loose pages and 1 packet of notes; and a 2-page prose draft.

The Genealogy series holds a 25-page document with genealogical information about the Hillard family and associated families.

Printed Items are divided into 3 subseries. Printed Ephemera (4 items) includes an illustrated envelope for the company Fritz and Dean, a business card for John B. Hillard, an image of George S. Hillard, and a bookplate for items bequeathed to the Massachusetts Historical Society by James Savage. The Currency (13 items) was all issued in North America between 1770 and 1780. Three of the four published Pamphlets were written by George Stillman Hillard between 1843 and 1852. The final pamphlet is a copy of "A Clipper Ship and Her Commander" (1924).

This collection is made up primarily of incoming correspondence to husband and wife Gilbert and Adeline James of Cherry Creek, New York. Their most prolific correspondent was Gilbert's brother Henry James, who sent 18 letters, most written while serving in Company C of the 7th Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War. Henry James wrote to his family about life at Maple Grove, near Saginaw, Michigan; camp life during training at Camp Kellogg, Grand Rapids; experiences fighting at Gettysburg and elsewhere in Pennsylvania; and his posting at Camp Stoneman, Washington, D.C.

This collection is made up primarily of incoming correspondence to husband and wife Gilbert and Adeline James of Cherry Creek, New York, 1855-1865. Their most prolific correspondent was Gilbert's brother Henry James, who sent 18 letters, most while serving in Company C of the 7th Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War. Henry James wrote to his family about life at Maple Grove, near Saginaw, Michigan; camp life during training at Camp Kellogg, Grand Rapids; experiences fighting at Gettysburg and elsewhere in Pennsylvania; and his posting at Camp Stoneman, Washington, D.C. Also included are three letters from George Bentley, apparently of the 112th New York Infantry, to Adeline James, 1862-1863.

See the box and folder listing below for detailed information about each letter.

This collection is comprised of 14 illustrated letters that Henry Brevoort Eddy of Mamaroneck, New York, wrote to Louise Lyman, a friend living in Tarrytown, New York, and London, England. Eddy discussed his social life in Tuxedo Park, Mamaroneck, and New York City, and illustrated each letter with multiple (often humorous) ink drawings.

This collection is comprised of 14 illustrated letters that Henry Brevoort Eddy of Mamaroneck, New York, wrote to Louise Lyman, a friend living in Tarrytown, New York, and London, England. Eddy wrote 4 letters from New York City and Tuxedo Park, New York, between July and September 1895; he discussed a heat wave affecting Tuxedo Park and the surrounding area, as well as Sunday excursions in New York City, illustrated with cartoon portraits of beachgoers and a ferry boat. While in Tuxedo Park, he wrote of and illustrated sporting activities such as golf, bicycle riding, and tennis. A humorous drawing in his letter of August 12, 1895, shows a man and a woman quivering after a loud burst of thunder. In his other undated letters, he described and illustrated aspects of his social life and leisure activities, which included his frequent attendance at the Harvard Club in New York City. He often wrote his letters on Harvard Club stationery.

Eddy shared his observations on topics such as the effects of bicycling on women and commented on Lyman's letters and letter-writing habits. He occasionally mentioned his artistic work, including his upcoming posters for the New York Ledger and his desire to make his living drawing cartoons. Accompanying illustrations depict Eddy and others reading, and include several sketched cartoon portraits. Many of Eddy's drawings and observations were humorous, and on one occasion his work prompted him to depict himself as the devil drawing cartoons. Two illustrations show men fighting, and 3 refer to "Carl," an African-American acquaintance. One letter dated "July 8" includes a newspaper clipping of a poem Eddy composed, illustrated with several small, refined drawings and titled "This Is the House That Jack Built."

The Harriet DeGarmo Fuller papers consist of four bound volumes of records and eight miscellaneous receipts of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, kept between 1852 and 1856, when Harriet DeGarmo Fuller was a member of the executive committee of the Society.

The Fuller papers consist of four bound volumes of records and eight miscellaneous receipts of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, kept between 1852 and 1856, when Harriet DeGarmo Fuller was a member of the executive committee of the Society. Together, these books form an important and detailed picture of the formation and early activity of the Society, with a record of their official resolutions, activities and expenditures. The Fuller Papers provide a unique insight into the inner workings of one of the most important state-level Garrisonian antislavery societies.

Volume 1 (26 pp.) contains the resolutions of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Convention at Adrian, held on October 16th, 1852 (recording the formation of the State Central Committee), along with minutes from the State Central Committee meetings through September 23, 1853. The volume appears to be entirely in the hand of recording secretary, Jacob Walton of Adrian. The Central Committee appears to have served as a springboard to membership in the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, as each of the members of the Central Committee assumed prominent roles in the M.A.S.S.

Volumes 2 and 3 are daybooks of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, 1853-1856. Volume 2 (115 pp., many blank) contains the general accounts of the Society during this period, while Vol. 3 (33 pp.) contains detailed, itemized records of donations, pledges, and expenditures at antislavery fairs held at Adrian, Fairfield, Battle Creek, Livonia and other cities, as well as pledges made to antislavery agents between these events. These volumes provide an intricate depiction of the fundraising activities of a state-level Garrisonian organization, its resources, contributors and participants.

Volume 4 is a ledger (77 pp.) including the Constitution and bye-laws of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, minutes of the monthly meetings of its executive committee, and the minutes and resolutions of its annual meetings from October 22, 1853-January 5, 1857. The ledger is a remarkable record of a radical antislavery group founded to act upon deeply-held moral beliefs, and includes records of the convention at which the Society was founded, as well as its first three annual meetings. These brief entries provide insight into the minds of self-professed social radicals and glimpse into the inner workings and debates of the Society.

The Recording Secretaries of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society included: Ann Hayball (1853 October-1854 October); Eliphalet Jones (1854 October-1855 October; Ann Hayball often acted as Secretary pro tem.); Jacob Walton (1855 October-1856 October); and Harriet DeGarmo Fuller (1856 October-?). Each contributed to the records in this collection.

The Great Britain Indian Department collection is made up of documents, letters, and other manuscripts relating to interactions between government and military officials, Native Americans, and American residents from 1753 to 1795.

The Great Britain Indian Department collection is made up of documents, letters, and manuscripts relating to interactions between government and military officials, Native Americans, and American residents from 1753 to 1795. The bulk of the collection concerns British interactions with Native Americans in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, with some material relating to South Carolina, Michigan, and Virginia. Official documents include passes for Native American travelers, speeches to and from Native American groups, copies of treaties, and reports and correspondence relative to diplomacy, peace efforts, and military affairs. Materials relay information on boundary disputes, prisoner exchanges, crimes committed against both American settlers and Native Americans, and Native American distress over land infringements.

Of particular note are the Albany Commissioners of Indian Affairs' reports (112 pages) from June 1753 to May 1755. These include copies of correspondence, reports of meetings with Native American groups, and remarks on fort construction, prisoner exchange, rivalries with the French, religious evangelization, and diplomacy. The collection also includes a manuscript copy of the August 1768 journal of Benjamin Roberts, an Indian commissary, in which he describes the trial of Captain Robert Rogers for treason.

Please see Box and Folder Listing below for a comprehensive inventory of the collection.

This collection is comprised of seventy muster rolls and 15 additional letters and documents of the German regiments employed by the British to fight in the American Revolutionary War.

This collection is comprised of seventy muster rolls and 15 related letters and documents of the German regiments employed by the British to fight in the American Revolutionary War. Most of the rolls are from 1781 and 1783 and include lists for soldiers captured at Yorktown. The rolls contain details such as the rank and names of the Hessians, casualties, and remarks, such as "sick in the Barracks." These rolls are certified by British commanding officers.

• Anhalt Zerbst army under Riedesel, Regiment Prinz Friedrich, Grenadier Battalion von Mengen, Regiment von Riedesel, Regiment von Specht.
• Hesse-Cassel. Grenadier Battalion vacant Graff; Grenadier Battalion von Loewenstein,Company von Biesenrodt, Company von Mondorff, Company von Wachs; Grenadier Regiment d'Angelelli, Leib Conmpany; Regiment von Bunau, Leib Company; Regiment Erb Prinz (4 folls for this list names of Hessians captured at Yorktown), Company von Cochenhausen, Company von Fuchs; Regiment von Lossberg, Jr., Company von Baurmeister, Company von Biesenrodt, Company von Romrod, Company von Wilmowsky, Leib Company.
• Hesse-Hanau. Artillery detachment under Pausch.
• Waldeck. Third Regiment, Company von Alberti, Company von Horn, Company von Penzel.

In addition to muster rolls is a copy of the treaty executed in 1776 between the Duke of Brunswick and George III for hiring German mercenaries. Also enclosed is a barrack account for the first regiment of Anspach troops during the winter of 1777-1778; several receipts, including three accounts submitted to the Great Britain Army Victualing Office (1786); an account of payments to foreign troops in America; and a statement from a surgeon named Pralle of the Bath infantry, certifying that several men belonged to Major General de Rhetz' regiment (1781). Documents are in English and German.

The George Barrell journal is a bound account entitled "Journal of a Voyage from Boston to Malaga in the Brig Venus and Return in the Schooner Louisiana by George Barrell." Along with Barrell's prose descriptions of life at sea and detailed depictions of Gibraltar and Malaga, the author drew 32 colored illustrations, primarily of landscapes and people he encountered on his journey.

The George Barrell journal is a bound account entitled "Journal of a Voyage from Boston to Malaga in the Brig Venus and Return in the Schooner Louisiana by George Barrell." Along with Barrell's prose descriptions of life at sea and detailed depictions of Gibraltar and Malaga, the author drew 32 colored illustrations, primarily of landscapes and people he encountered on his journey. The account, which commenced on July 13, 1806, first chronicled the travels of the Venus to Gibraltar, Spain, via the Azores. Barrell made daily notations about the weather and often mentioned interesting occurrences; Spanish privateers, whom he detested, boarded the ship on several occasions, though the Venus also encountered friendlier British ships. By mid-August, they had arrived at Gibraltar, which Barrell described in detail on several pages, recording observations about the city and its people, including the weather, the Jewish population, local British officers, and local buildings. Following a quarantine period at Gibraltar, the Venus sailed to Malaga, about which Barrell also noted his observations. On September 28, 1806, he left on the Louisiana for New York City, but rough seas lengthened their journey to several months.

The journal also contains 32 color illustrations created by Barrell during the course of his travels. He often drew ships, landscapes, and various military officers seen along the Spanish shore.

The George A.C. Barnett papers consists of a set of letters written to a woman named "Dotty" between November 30, 1864, and December 25, 1864, while Barnett was serving as 1st Lieutenant in the 17th New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry.

The correspondence of George A.C. Barnett consists of a set of 27 letters written to a woman named "Dotty" between the dates of November 30, 1864, and December 25, 1864. The letters were written from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just as Barnett arrived in Tennessee, the railroad was cut, making it impossible to send or receive mail. As a result, Barnett collected his daily correspondence, numbered each page, and eventually sent the batch of letters as a collected work. The letters, totaling 192 pages, describe Barnett's daily activities, thoughts, and feelings.

A small printed etching of the Three Graces is affixed to the November 30th letter. Pen and ink drawings illustrate the letters of December 18th (a man in tall boots), 19th (a pair of elegant "breeches"), and 20th (a horse).

The Francis Edmonds papers document the art and business world of the early 19th century and the interrelationship between business and the arts. The correspondence reveals both the practical and aesthetic concerns of artists, and the interest of business men in art as a symbol of personal and national "culture."

The Francis Edmonds papers are about evenly divided between the banking and art scene. The collection is valuable in depicting the interrelationship between business and the arts in mid-nineteenth century New York, where a small group of men dominated art promotion and patronage. Edmonds, a man with one foot in both worlds, naturally occupied a prominent position, and his correspondence reveals both the practical and aesthetic concerns of artists, and the interest of business men in art as a symbol of personal and national "culture."

There are 70 different correspondents represented in this small collection, so its story must be pieced together from multiple fragments. Luckily, there are two published biographies of Edmonds which help to make sense of this scattered correspondence by placing it in context. Roughly, the letters can be divided into those from artists, those from business contacts, and those to or from family members. Their subject matter, however, is not so neatly separated -- and that is what makes the Edmonds Papers so interesting, for bankers talk of art in addition to business, artists of finances as well as aesthetics, and Edmonds may have been the only man to whom these combined interests were communicated.

The largest set of correspondence consists of letters from Francis Edmonds to elder brother John Worth Edmonds, who became prominent as a judge, politician, and writer on spiritualism. Letters written between 1823 and 1829 show the young man to have been much inclined toward personal improvement, and to have looked upon his elder brother as a worthy critic and role model. He self-consciously uses their correspondence as a means to improve his writing style and intellectual development, and mentions writing projects he is at work on. An 1829 letter refers to progress in art work: "About my neighborhood I am getting to be a little known as a painter however I am not at all intoxicated with success as yet."

Edmonds' letters to his brother reveal little of marriage or home life, but are good barometers of his psychological state and his views on life. Clearly he had no illusions about the business and political world, commenting in a March 31, 1829 letter that the Edmonds family had been "to [sic] kind in this world, too much trusting to the good will of mankind and they have suffered for their generosity. It is time we changed their nature's [sic]. ... if two hands are offered you spit in the worst & shake the best." Perhaps this attitude sustained him later on when he lost his prominent banking position, for he comments to his brother in October 1856 that "the sensitive feeling which has so influenced my conduct in going into the world is rapidly wearing away," which he knew would happen with time. In August, 1859, he writes that he is unhappy with his new position at the American Bank Note Company, and has to take the "bile" of those who are jealous and competitive of one another. It appears that he may have had an opportunity to regain his old bank job, but writes to John in 1861 that he has no interest in it, as his old boss would feel threatened by him.

Letters to Edmonds from John Gourlie, Charles Leupp, Jonathan Sturges, and Fanning Tucker, primarily dating from the 1840's, depict the interest in art held by some in the business world. These men, all of whom knew Edmonds in a business setting, also associated with him in societies for the promotion of art, bought and commented upon his paintings and those of other artists, and looked to him for advice when acquiring art for themselves. Many of the letters discuss both banking and art. A particularly interesting one, from Gourlie on June 15, 1841, criticizes artists' refusal to be business-like. Commenting upon rivalry between the Apollo Association and the N.A.D., he remarks that artists "are a queer set. ... So sensitive and at the same time so blind to their own interests." He believes popularization of art, as the Apollo does with its subscriptions for pictures or engravings, is the key to supporting artists, for "[a]ssociations in this country are what the aristocracy is in Europe." Gourlie asserts that rivalry between the Academy and Apollo is a good thing, for "rivalry is the life of all business and pictures may be made business matters as well as cotton or cocoa.!"

Yet correspondence to Edmonds from fellow-artists show them to have been aware that their work was a commodity. An 1841 January 30 letter from Daniel Huntington to Edmonds in Paris comments on hard times in New York, remarking that the arts are now "stagnant," as "[t]he mass of painters are I believe lasily waiting with hands in empty pockets for the revival of Commerce & the increase of orders for portraits." Huntington has sold a sketch he began in Rome of "one of those ragged and flea-inhabited beggar boys" for $100, and sold two heads painted at Florence for $150 each. He must be concerned with what will sell well "in these starving times." Artists Joseph Adams, Thomas Cole, and John Kensett also write of both art and money. They seem to have used Edmonds as a combination personal banker and agent, asking him to sell paintings for them, choose and execute stock transactions, or make loans with paintings offered as collateral. Because of his contacts he was also able to secure artists commissions, contracting with Cole for a painting, employing Asher Durand to copy a picture for engraving, hiring engravers to work from paintings to prepare Apollo Association and Art-Union premium offerings.

The artists' letters are highly interesting for their gossip and commentary on the art scene, both in New York and abroad. They describe work in progress, discuss the merits of major exhibitions, comment on the activities of the N.A.D., and chronicle the life of the expatriate artist as he moves from place to place in season, sending work home for display and (hopefully) sale, scrambling for funds to finance work abroad. It seems to have been a small and convivial "old boys' network" who worked and traveled together and critiqued each other's painting. Edmonds enjoyed seven months of the artist's life in 1840-41, and perhaps this cemented his position as an insider with other artists.

In two important letters of 1840 November 7 and 1842 December 14 Thomas Cole agrees to do a painting of Mt. Etna on commission and describes the finished product. He explains the location and elements of the picture in detail, noting that he may be accused of having "scattered the flowers with too profuse a hand. This is not possible. Sicily is truly the land of flowers..." He hopes the picture "will come to the lot of some one whom we would choose," or that "some good New Yorker will purchase it. I myself will give a hundred dollars & the View of Lake Schroon in Mr. Ridner's room for it." In April 1843 John Kensett writes extensively of the Paris art scene, describing specific works he has seen and including a small pencil sketch of one by Jules Louis Coignet.

Also of particular interest are three 1844 London letters from publisher and bookseller George Putnam, who worked to raise awareness of American art abroad. One solicits articles on American art from Edmonds, assuring him that despite prejudice there are many in England who would be interested in "a little information about American doings in some other arts than the art of raising the wind." In December, reporting on the disappointing reaction of a major critic to three American paintings Edmonds sent for display, he ruefully remarks that the criticism typified English ignorance of America. Putnam was advised to "'tell them to paint some American subject (!) Something of the Indian life.' He was rather incredulous when I suggested that Indians were as great a novelty, nearly, in New York as in London." Still, he wrote, hundreds had viewed and appreciated the paintings, so they had served a good purpose.

One letter in the collection involves neither art nor banking, but Civil War service in Virginia. It is from an old friend of Edmonds, William Fenton, who went to war along with his two sons and served as a colonel in the 8th Michigan regiment. Fenton describes a massive camp along the Rappahannock in detail and indignantly decries the "slaughter" at Fredericksburg as "almost unjustifiable," and due to "old fogeyism" in military strategy. "What was good strategy in the time of Napoleon may not be now." He criticizes political meddling in war and the advancement of "pets." Fenton encourages Edmonds to visit camp, for "[s]uch sights will never again be seen on this continent."

Besides correspondence, news clippings, some later genealogical material, and a draft excerpt from Edmonds' autobiography (ca.1860), the collection includes several pencil sketches by the artist. Eight rough but skillful sketches on small scraps of paper feature indoor and outdoor scenes of people and animals. One is water-colored. There is also a large preliminary study of Edmonds painting "The Bashful Cousin". It is not identified as such, and background scene and details differ from the finished version, but the two main characters are clearly recognizable.

The Fort Wayne Indian Agency collection consists of a letterbook kept by Indian agents John Johnston and Benjamin Franklin Stickney; an English-to-Ottawa dictionary, likely written by Stickney; and a memorandum book kept by Johnston during his time at Fort Wayne.

The Fort Wayne Indian Agency collection consists of a letterbook kept by Indian agents John Johnston and Benjamin Franklin Stickney; an English to Ottawa dictionary, likely written by Stickney; and a memorandum book kept by Johnston during his time at Fort Wayne.

The Fort Wayne Indian Agency Letter book (189 pages) was compiled by agents John Johnston (April 15, 1809-November 30, 1811) and Benjamin F. Stickney (April 18, 1812-October 1, 1815), who documented all accounts, disputes, complaints, and other occurrences that transpired between the soldiers at the fort and the Native Americans. The letterbook records the agency business during the critical years before and during the War of 1812, when Fort Wayne was a vital part of American frontier defenses. The volume is comprised of copies of letters, speeches, circulars, and documents, to and from the agents and various departments of the United States government. The correspondents include Presidents Jefferson and Madison; Secretary of State James Monroe, Secretaries of War Henry Dearborn, John Armstrong, and William H. Crawford; the governor of Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison; and Michigan governors William Hull and Lewis Cass; as well as several Indian chiefs (listed in Additional Descriptive Data). The entries contain lists of supplies received at Fort Wayne, lists of supplies and gifts extended to the Indians, receipts for work done at the garrison, reports on Indian activities, speeches addressed to the Indians, accounts of the war on the frontier, and reports about other conflicts in the area. The volume concludes with a 13-page "statements and observations relating to the Indian department" which summarizes Stickney's efforts during the War of 1812. For a complete transcription of the letterbook, along with a thorough index, see:

Thornbrough, Gayle. Letter Book of the Indian Agency At Fort Wayne, 1809-1815. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1961.

The English to Ottawa dictionary (40 pages) contains phonetic spellings for English words in the language of the Ottawa Indians (the Ottawa speak a dialect of Ojibwe). The book, likely composed by Stickney, contains words for mammals, fowl, birds, fish, reptiles, elements (earth, water, wood, stone, clay, etc.) plants, trees, body parts and facial features, food, maladies, medicine, feelings (love, malice, envy etc.), celestial features, weather, clothes and other goods, numbers, colors, and useful phrases. In addition to providing information on the Ottawan language, the dictionary relates concepts and terms that were important to the Americans. This volume was likely never published.

John Johnston kept the Fort Wayne memorandum book (145 pages) during his tenure as Indian agent at Fort Wayne, from 1802-1811. The volume contains both personal and official material. The first entry was March 20, 1801, when Johnson was appointed by General Henry Dearborn to be a clerk in the War Department. He arrived at Fort Wayne on September 20, 1802. The volume contains several lists of supplies for Fort Wayne and for gifts to the Indians, and records bills and accounts from the Indian agency and the War Department. Many of the accounts concern Indian agent William Wells (1802-1803). Johnston also made notes on his daily responsibilities, of enquiries into food and supplies, and on people traveling to and from Fort Wayne and Washington D.C.; Dayton, Ohio; and Detroit, Michigan. Several entries relate to Native Americans, and discuss Little Turtle's adopted son and the husband of Little Turtle's daughter. Among Johnston's personal notes are financial records for planting his farm and orchard in 1808. The memorandum book provides information about life in the Indiana Territory in the early 19th century.

The Fairfield Goodwin papers consist of poems, essays and drawings created by a Union soldier from Michigan during the Civil War. Goodwin was part of the 1st Illinois Light Artillery (Taylor's Chicago Battery) at the outbreak of the Civil War and later joined the 8th Michigan Cavalry.

The Fairfield Goodwin papers (27 items) consist of poems, essays, and drawings created by a Union soldier from Michigan during the Civil War. While most of the items are undated, the identified items range from November 5, 1861, to September 20, 1862. Goodwin likely created many of these items while with the Chicago Battery and during his six-month convalescence, before he joined the 8th Michigan Cavalry in 1862.

The bulk of the items are sentimental or comical poems and essays with titles such as: Decay, Thoughts of Spring, Our March, Flowers, Friendship, My Mother's Voice, A Dream of Heaven, What is Pleasure?, The Lazy Club Song, and Minute Men. In these, Goodwin expressed feelings of longing and loneliness, as a soldier away from home. He also mentioned several notable military figures, including Jefferson Davis, General Beauregard, and Stephen Douglas.

Goodwin illustrated many of these poems and essays with pencil and color pencil drawings. He sketched pictures of birds, soldiers with beards, a horse, a cat, and a dog. Of particular interest is a full-page illustration of a union camp at Shiloh depicting men chopping wood, killing pigs and fowl, cooking, and reading, as well as cannon, felled trees, and tents. This drawing is colored with blue and orange details. Another recurring sketch is of the artist propped up in his sick bed. Some of the drawings are independent of essays, including pictures of a cannon, a man and woman under a flowering tree, Goodwin's home in Pontiac, Michigan, a "Missouri Rural Cotage," a picture of "Jeff Davis returning from war," portrayed with a large beard and lying on his back, and, finally, a picture of a man on a horse.

This collection is made up of letters that Evelyn and Jan Thompson wrote to their parents in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1930-1936. The bulk of the correspondence consists of Evelyn's letters about her education in Paris, France, and at Bryn Mawr College, and about her life and editorial work in Washington, D.C. Evelyn's sister Jan wrote 4 illustrated letters from Bermuda in the fall of 1935.

This collection is made up of letters that Evelyn and Jan Thompson wrote to their family in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1930-1936. Evelyn's letters comprise the bulk of the collection. From September 1930-July 1931, she described her travels in England, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and discussed her life in Paris, France, where she attended school. Evelyn also wrote about her experiences at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, from November 1931-May 1935, and about her daily life in Washington, D.C., from November 1935-May 1936. While in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., Evelyn shared news of her studies, her social activities, and her work for the United States Department of Agriculture. She mentioned her intent to marry David Riesman, and some of her later correspondence contains brief references to politics, communism, and current events. Evelyn also wrote while traveling in New England and Arizona; her letter of July 8, 1935, encloses several small snapshot photographs of buildings in Rouen, France.

Jan Thompson wrote 4 letters while visiting Bermuda in the fall of 1935. She described many aspects of her travels, including a meal featuring "strange slabs of meat. hippopotamus or elephant probably" (September 20, [1935]). Her letters include ink sketches of bathers on beaches, Bermuda scenery, horse-drawn carriages, and a woman attempting to remove a large spider from a window curtain. Additional correspondence from Jan to her parents is scattered throughout the collection. The Thompson letters include postcards, official correspondence from Bryn Mawr officials, and telegrams.

This collection is made up of letters written and received by Reverend Evarts Kent and members of his family throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kent and his family corresponded with friends and family members in several states, including Vermont, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. Most letters concern family news, education, religion, travel, family relationships, and similar personal subjects. The collection also includes printed invitations, programs, and 23 photographs.

This collection is made up of letters written and received by Reverend Evarts Kent and members of his family throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kent and his family corresponded with friends and family members in several states, including Vermont, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, and North Carolina. Most letters concern family news, education, religion, travel, family relationships, and similar personal subjects. The collection also includes 2 documents and 23 photographs; printed invitations and programs are interspersed among the letters.

The Correspondence series comprises most of the collection, and contains approximately 4 linear feet of letters, which are primarily the incoming personal correspondence of Evarts Kent, his wife, and their children. The earliest items are Civil War-era letters between unidentified family members. The bulk of the collection begins around 1867, when Evarts Kent began to receive letters from his family and friends, who provided local news from Ripton, Vermont, and often commented on his recent marriage to Helen Beckwith. As Kent's father, Cephas, was a Congregational minister, the Kent family frequently discussed religious topics. In the early and mid-1880s, Michael E. Strieby and Joseph E. Roy of the American Missionary Association also corresponded with Kent.

After the mid-1870s, the correspondence is primarily between Evarts and Helen Kent and their children, Ernest, Grace, and Willys, who exchanged letters with their parents and each other from their childhood into their early adult lives. Ernest discussed his educational experiences, including his time at Iowa College,his experiences in preparatory school and as a young adult and at Iowa College, and occasionally composed letters to his father in Latin. The Kent siblings sometimes included sketches or more refined drawings within their letters. Their letters reveal details about their relationships with each other, their personal lives, and their religious beliefs. Later items from the World War I era often concern Willys's wife, who signed herself "Roxi," and the couple's experiences while spending their summers at Camp Arcadia in Belgrade, Maine. A relative named "Jupe" also wrote Evarts Kent an extensive series of letters throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including a group of 20th-century letters about travel in the Black Mountains of North Carolina.

The Documents series is made up of a 2-page document containing several sets of church minutes compiled in Benson, Vermont, between March 1790 and September 1792, and a partially printed receipt for a payment made to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in 1870.

The Photographs series holds 23 photographs, primarily snapshots, of unidentified individuals. Though most are portraits, 2 depict a woman riding a bicycle and one is a self portrait of a woman, "taken by herself in front of a looking glass." The photographs include one cyanotype.

This collection contains the personal correspondence of Levi Henry Elwell and his family. Elwell was a professor in Amherst, Massachusetts, and many of the letters relate to his children's studies at Vassar College and Amherst College, as well as their everyday lives in Massachusetts and New York.

This collection contains 226 personal letters, 8 Greek-language examinations, and 5 loose newspaper clippings regarding Levi Henry Elwell and his family.

The Correspondence series contains letters between and to members of the Elwell family. During his early days as a student at Amherst College and as a teacher in Poughkeepsie, New York, Elwell wrote to his mother, Harriet Adaline Elwell, and fiancée, Abbie Miner Nickerson, about his scholarly life and experiences. In these letters, Levi and Abbie often discussed their engagement and wedding plans. Though later correspondence includes some letters that the couple sent to Levi's parents, most originated from their children, Marion, Florence, and James. The sisters frequently wrote each other to discuss Marion's experiences at Vassar College. They also received mail from various friends, several of whom enclosed sketches. Levi Elwell wrote many of the later letters to his daughter Florence during her studies at Vassar College, including a postcard entirely in Latin (June 1906) and a report on the family's reaction to witnessing Halley's Comet (May 10, 1910). Though the letters primarily concern personal news, correspondents occasionally discussed contemporary politics; in a letter to Marion dated October 30, 1904, Levi described the American political landscape and discussed his own political views. Around 11 newspaper clippings are enclosed in various letters.

The Newspaper Clippings and Exams series has 8 examinations (December 20, 1897-January 20, 1908) for students of Amherst College, who were required to translate and interpret classical Greek texts, printed in their original language. The 5 loose newspaper clippings concern women's colleges (May 14, 1910), faculty promotions at Amherst College (undated), dirigible balloons (undated), and Halley's Comet (2 items, ca. April 1910).

Elizabeth Camp's journals detail her time spent with the Stockbridge Indians as a schoolteacher and unofficial Congregationalist missionary.

The first volume of Elizabeth's journal is eighty pages, and roughly half of it is Elizabeth's record of her time spent with the Stockbridge Indians as a schoolteacher and unofficial missionary. The second journal is only thirty-three pages, and since there are a number of large gaps between entries, it provides a much sketchier picture of Elizabeth's life as she returned to teaching, then attended school, got married, and had a daughter.

The High Congregational style of these journals is both edifying and entertaining. This young woman struggled constantly to know her spiritual condition, and to express her relationship with God. And unlike many a religion-steeped journal, her entries zing with lively language. Openers like "I am a poor, vile, sinful and unworthy worm of dust" and "A guilty hell deserving worm of the dust has graciously been permitted to witness another holy sabbath" sizzle, and Elizabeth rarely got through an entry without some elaborate articulation of self-loathing (1:23, 1:70).

What keeps the journal interesting, however, is the curious tension between this self-abasement -- considered the appropriate attitude with which to approach God -- and Elizabeth's pride and satisfaction in her "useful" work as a teacher and a missionary. To experience God's love, one had to feel absolutely wretched about oneself, and continually profess one's continual state of sinfulness. Therefore it was difficult, if not impossible, for her to simultaneously feel close to God and proud of her work as God's humble servant: "in short, my attainments in religion are very low. I am truly the vilest of the vile, yet I do not feel it as I ought; Oh when shall I live devoted to God? If I am a christian, why do I not love God more, and serve Him better? I know I have a very selfish, wicked heart, & Oh Lord! make me feel it, & give me deep repentance. May my heart be broken for my sins, & may I cheerfully submit to God in all his dealings with me" (1:16).

Elizabeth was frustrated that although she knew she was wicked, she did not always feel wicked -- and when one was devoting one's time so usefully helping the "dear red people," it must have seemed somewhat contradictory to try to feel like one had a "selfish wicked heart." And yet she did try, repeatedly. "Oh I am a sinful worm, & may I feel it more and more & humble myself at the feet of Him, who is the sinner's friend" (1:41).

Initially Elizabeth mentioned that her school has seven native children and six whites, but she did not mention the white children again -- in fact, the next entry states "had but seven native children," suggesting that the whites ceased attending (1:26-27). She brought her little niece to Stockbridge with her to keep her company, and she felt "something lonesome, as I am deprived of the society of white people" (1:26). Loneliness soon passed, as she involved herself in the community. Within a few weeks, she wrote: "I do love these dear red people. I have peculiar sensations while uniting with them in their devotions such as I do not experience meeting with any other people" (1:43). She was even able to relieve her own religious distress by talking with a "dear christian Indian woman" (1:46).

In addition to teaching school, Elizabeth attended native female society meetings, "the object of which is to promote industry and good morals among the females" (1:32). She also visited households, speaking to the women individually about their spiritual state of mind and instructing them in religious matters. When one woman said she had always loved the Saviour, Elizabeth had to explain to her that she was wrong. "I told her that we were born into the world enemies to God, that we did not naturly love Him, nor anything that is good &c." (1:32). She also went to weekly "conferences," and sermons on the Sabbath. Although Elizabeth presumably communicated with the Stockbridge in English, a "Mr. S." delivered a sermon in the natives' tongue (1:29). Most of the meetings Elizabeth attended were conducted in the Indian's language, and she had to rely on tone and demeanor to gauge whether or not the people were suitably "solemn," which they typically were.

Leaving the Stockbridge in September was difficult for Elizabeth. She shook hands with her school children, and after a final prayer meeting together, "two indian women accompanied me home, spent the night with me & breakfasted with me this morning" (1:51). Elizabeth went on to visit friends and return to her native home, and closed her journal with a lengthy transcription of Mrs. Martha Laurens Ramsay's "self dedication and solemn covenant with God," copied from the memoir of that "excellent woman" (1:71-80).

The most interesting part of the second volume of the journal is Elizabeth's account of hearing a dead woman's journal read aloud by her intended spouse (2:10-11). Elizabeth praised the young woman, who had possessed "superior qualifications for extensive usefulness, both native and acquired," and the young man, who "performed his task with an appearance of deep solemnity -- sensibly feeling his loss."