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

This collection contains correspondence related to the family of Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child, granddaughter of politician Theodore Sedgwick and wife of Harvard professor Francis James Child. The collection also includes several photographs and printed items.

This collection (1 linear foot) contains correspondence related to the family of Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child, granddaughter of politician Theodore Sedgwick and wife of Harvard professor Francis James Child. The collection also includes several photographs and printed items.

The Correspondence series, which comprises the bulk of the collection, contains letters the Sedgwick family wrote to and received from family members and friends, as well as several poems. From 1826-1842, Robert Sedgwick, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Elizabeth ("Lizzie") corresponded with family members including Catherine Maria Sedgwick of Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts, and Jane Minot Sedgwick of New York City. Most of the early correspondence pertains to the writers' social lives and family news, and to travel around New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Catharine Maria Sedgwick also reported on acquaintances such as the actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whom she deemed "fated to suffer" (May 27, 1834), and the writer and social theorist Harriet Martineau (November 2, 1834).

The bulk of the remaining correspondence is dated 1855-1885 and pertains to the relationship between Lizzie Sedgwick and her husband, Frank James Child. Child wrote to Sedgwick from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris, France, and received letters from Sedgwick and others. The couple's other correspondents included at least one writer in Italy who commented on their relationship and health, family news, and the Civil War. Postwar correspondence includes letters to Susan Ridley Sedgwick Butler. Three late postcards to Mrs. G. A. Stanger of Springfield, Massachusetts, concern her son Herb's experiences in Georgia while serving in the armed forces during World War I.

The Photographs series (5 items) contains 3 photographs of Helen Child (later Sargent), a photographic print of Elizabeth Sedgwick Child, and a photograph of the Child family's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Printed Items (9 items) include a certificate regarding Francis Child's qualifications as an instructor of Greek at Harvard University (September 22, 1846), 2 illustrated Christmas cards (1881 and undated), a copy of the Boston Daily Advertiser (August 1, 1884), an obituary for Francis Child from The Nation (September 17, 1896), and copies of the poems "From My Arm-Chair" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "The City of the Living" by Elizabeth Akers Allen. The series also includes a biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes that George B. Merrill presented to the Harvard Club of San Francisco on October 18, 1894, and an advertisement for the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women.

The Pollard family papers contain correspondence, indentures, and financial records related to Asa D. Pollard and his children, including Joseph G. Pollard, Cyrus W. Pollard, Emily F. Pollard, and George F. Pollard. Members of the Pollard family corresponded about their lives in New Hampshire and Massachusetts from the 1840s-1860s.

The Pollard family papers (334 items) contain correspondence, indentures, and financial records related to the Pollard family of New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The Correspondence and Documents series (228 items) includes personal letters between siblings Joseph G. Pollard, Cyrus W. Pollard, Emily F. Pollard, and George F. Pollard. From 1849-1865, the Pollard siblings wrote to each other about their daily lives, social activities, health, local travel, and family news from cities and towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. Some of George F. Pollard's letters concern his education in New Hampton, New Hampshire. Joseph Pollard wrote about his work teaching in a country schoolhouse; in one letter, he mentioned his plans to attend a lecture by Ralph Waldo Emerson, though he suspected it would be "beyond ordinary comprehension" (December 8, 1857). During the Civil War, the Pollards sometimes mentioned topics such as the draft, particularly as it related to Cyrus Pollard and his relocation from Woburn, Massachusetts, to Albany, New York; they also discussed George Pollard's attempt to obtain a commission in the Union Army. The Pollard siblings received letters from other acquaintances, occasionally pertaining to business matters.

The series also includes indentures regarding Asa D. Pollard and land in New Hampshire and Massachusetts; one document pertains to his purchase of a pew in the First Congregational Church in Woburn, Massachusetts (November 1, 1860). Undated items include a manuscript "Report of the School Committee of Woburn," a printed circular letter to children attending Sabbath schools, and a report about Emily Pollard's academic progress at the Charlestown Female Seminary.

The Financial Records series (106 items) is comprised of receipts, invoices, accounts, and promissory notes. Most of the items pertain to the financial affairs of Asa D. Pollard, including receipts for Pollard's tax payments in Derry, New Hampshire. Many of the remaining items, including most of the items dated after the mid-1850s, relate to Joseph G. Pollard's financial affairs in Boston.

This collection contains personal correspondence related to the family of Daniel M. Robertson of Bow, New Hampshire, mainly pertaining to his daughters Mary, Martha, Eliza, and Harriet. A later group of items relates to Harriet Robertson's son, Franklin N. Saltmarsh. The letters concern family news in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, and mention topics such as the Civil War and higher education.

The Robertson family letters (93 items) are made up of personal correspondence related to the family of Daniel M. Robertson of Bow, New Hampshire. Items dated between 1827 and 1882 mainly consist of letters to and between Daniel M. Robertson and his daughters Mary, Martha, Eliza, and Harriet. Martha M. Robertson also wrote letters to her parents while living in Boston in the 1840s. The Robertson sisters corresponded with their cousins, including members of the Fletcher, Truell, and Fowle families, who reported on their lives in towns such as Nashua, New Hampshire; Boston, Massachusetts; and Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Correspondents discussed topics such as sickness and health, deaths, religion, employment, and local travel. Harriet Saltmarsh remarked on political tensions before Lincoln's inauguration (February 26, 1861). Other writers mentioned aspects of the Civil War; one hoped that "the soldier and the slave may both be free" (July 26, 1862), and an injured soldier expressed his desire to lengthen his furlough (December 24, 1863-January 1, 1864). The collection also contains letters that Mary Ann Robertson and her husband, Isaac W. Newell, wrote to Robertson's sisters about their lives in Stockholm, New York.

From February 5, 1890-November 24, 1892, Frank N. Saltmarsh wrote 14 letters to his parents, Gilman and Harriet Robertson Saltmarsh, and to his sister, Harriet Saltmarsh ("Hattie"), about his experiences as a student at Dartmouth College. He commented on his coursework and social activities, as well as local news. He also wrote one letter to his aunt, M[artha] M. Robertson. The latest items are letters Frank N. Saltmarsh received, often regarding his finances or business affairs; in one letter, J. W. Watson described a Dartmouth class reunion (July 12, 1894).