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

The Wood family papers contain correspondence and other items related to the family of James A. Wood of Lebanon, Connecticut, and his descendants from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. Much of the content pertains to education, family news, and politics.

The Wood family papers (4 linear feet) contain correspondence and other items related to the family of James A. Wood of Lebanon, Connecticut, and his descendants from the mid-19th to the early 20th century.

The Correspondence series comprises almost all of the collection. Early items are incoming letters to James A. Wood, Rebecca D. Pillsbury (later Wood), and their daughter, Helen Elizabeth Wood, from family members and acquaintances. James A. Wood's siblings wrote with updates on their lives, such as Caroline E. Wood's teaching career in numerous towns throughout New York. Rebecca D. Pillsbury also received letters from her brothers and sisters, and both Wood's and Pillsbury's correspondents discussed family matters, religion, and local news. Margaret Ann's letter of December 3, 1860, concerns her affection for a deceased baby sister, and an unidentified author's letter of September 4, 1861, describes the recent death of a grandmother. James A. Wood received an increasing amount of business-related correspondence, including letters from Charles W. Pierce, in the 1870s.

After the 1870s, most letters are addressed to Rebecca D. Wood and her daughter, Helen Elizabeth Wood. Rebecca's children often wrote letters to their mother, and Helen received letters from cousins and friends from around the East Coast. George P. Wood, Helen's brother, often shared stories of his young son James and of his life in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D. C.; and Peekskill, New York. In one letter, George included a map showing the location of his home in Washington, D. C. (November 13, 1899).

In addition to family and social news, letters occasionally referred to current events. "Dana," one of Helen E. Wood's cousins, wrote from his United States Army post during World War I (December 28, 1917), and other friends discussed the impact of the war. Among Helen's correspondents were Ida McCollister of New Hampshire and Harry Sawyer, an old friend who shared news of his life in Kearney, Nebraska. In one later letter, George P. Wood expressed some of his political views about the 1924 presidential election (October 27, 1924). Correspondence was less frequent after Helen E. Wood's death in 1933, with most incoming letters addressed to Winchester R. Wood of Lynn, Massachusetts, a member of the family's Connecticut branch. Undated items include similar family correspondence, as well as one letter written on a printed program for the Public Meeting of the Philadelphian Society at Kimball Union Academy at Meridian, New Hampshire, on June 12, 1878.

The Essays series includes an "Autobiography of a Sofa," written by R[ebecca] D. Pillsbury, as well as a manuscript draft of the "Common School Repository...Published semi-monthly by L. J. Boynton & R[ebecca] D. Pillsbury," containing 8 pages of short pieces attributed, often only by first name, to various contributors.

Among the six Receipts, addressed to A. Wood (1 item) and Helen E. Wood (5 items) are two receipts for Helen E. Wood's educational expenses and two slips crediting her account at Citizens National Bank, Boston.

Maps and Blueprints comprise 7 items. These are several drawings of house layouts, one map showing the locations of two buildings, and two blueprints.

The Newspaper Clippings series has 6 items, one of which is an article entitled "What They Say: How Girls of Various Cities Behave When They are Kissed."

The Ephemera series contains 52 Christmas cards, greeting cards, postcards, calling cards, programs, and other printed items. Specific items include 2 Red Cross membership cards, a pamphlet advertising The Art of Living Long by Louis Cornaro, and a blank order sheet for Sears, Roebuck and Co. from the 1920s.

The journal of Levi E. Kent, of the 4th Rhode Island Infantry, Company F., provides an account of his regiment's movements, battles, pastimes, entertainments, and lifestyle.

Although Kent served for only one year during the Civil War, he left an outstanding account of his regiment's movements, battles, pastimes, entertainments, and lifestyle. A good writer and capable of holding forth for several pages on a single engry, Kent's journal virtually amounts to a regimental history. Of special interest is his reporting on the palace intrigue among the officers of the 4th Rhode Island.

This collection pertains to Horace Holley's trip from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1818. Holley regularly wrote to his wife and kept a diary while visiting cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Lexington, and while traveling through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Kentucky. He described his social life, the scenery, various colleges and universities, and other aspects of his travels.

This collection (79 items) pertains to Horace Holley's trip from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1818.

The Correspondence series (78 items) includes 3 letters that Horace Holley wrote to his parents while studying at Yale College (February 22, 1802-June 21, 1803); 2 letters that Holley wrote to Peter DeWitt, a friend, about religion and Holley's impression of New York City (February 8, 1804, and February 24, 1804); and 1 letter that Holley wrote to Samuel Wilson, acknowledging a Latin-language poem that Wilson had composed in his honor, printed on the back of the letter (February 20, 1827). Mary Austin Holley received a letter from Charles Caldwell on March 20, 1829, about Caldwell's attempts to sell copies of her late husband's biography, and 2 undated letters from an anonymous correspondent.

From February 5 to August 3, 1818, Holley wrote 69 letters to his wife while traveling from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lexington, Kentucky, and back. He traveled through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Kentucky, and wrote most frequently from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Lexington. Holley reported on his social engagements, including balls, parties, and dinners with prominent residents. While in Lexington, he frequently dined with Henry Clay. Holley commented on each city's social customs and, to a lesser extent, interactions between persons of various Christian denominations, including Presbyterians, Baptists, and Unitarians.

While in Washington, D.C., Holley visited the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He commented on speeches and debates about various political topics, including international news regarding Spain, South America, and France. He met politicians, including James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, and recounted a visit to the White House. After leaving the capital for Virginia, Holley wrote about Mount Vernon, plantation slaves, and a coal mine.

Horace Holley kept a Diary (229 pages) from February 3, 1818, to August 9, 1818. His daily entries provide additional content about many of the same experiences that he described in his correspondence with his wife, though he wrote much more extensively on his visits to Yale College, a New York City medical college, and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Most entries reflect his daily activities, which included attendance at balls, parties, lectures, and religious services; visits to museums; and dinners or meetings with numerous individuals. Holley's diary entries became much shorter over time. Many of the July and August entries contain only a few words.

The Henry A. S. Dearborn collection (176 items) contains the correspondence of the Massachusetts politician and author Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn, son of the Revolutionary War General, Henry Dearborn. The papers largely document his career as the collector of the Boston Customs House and include letters from prominent government officials in Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. The papers also include 16 speeches, orations, and documents pertinent to Dearborn's horticultural interests, Grecian architecture, politics, and other subjects.

The Henry A. S. Dearborn collection contains correspondence (160 items) and speeches, reports, and documents (16 items) of the Massachusetts politician, and author, Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn. The bulk of the Correspondence Series documents Dearborn's career as the collector at the Boston Customs House. Dearborn corresponded with government officials in Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. These letters largely concern his management of the customs department and political matters. Of particular interest are 22 letters from the French émigré, Louis Dampus, which constitute a case history of customs problems (May to November 1814). Most of these are in French. Also of interest are 11 letters between Dearborn and Thomas Aspinwall, United States consul to London. They discussed exchanging political favors, purchasing books in London, and, in the July 11, 1817 letter, President James Monroe's tour of New England and the North West Territory.

• James Leander Cathcart, United States diplomat, on the state of commerce on the Black Sea and his career as a diplomat with the Ottomans (June 8 and 12, 1818).
• Fiction writer and scholar William S. Cardell, regarding his election as member of American Academy of Language and Belles Lettres (October 30, 1821).
• Colonel Nathan Towson, paymaster general of the United States, on John C. Calhoun's political fortunes as a presidential candidate and the political ramifications of raising taxes (December 22, 1821).
• Harvard University Overseer and Massachusetts Senator, Harrison Gray Otis, on "St. Domingo's" (Hispaniola) terrain, agriculture, export potential, its white and black populations, and its importance, as a trade partner, to the French. Otis supported bolstering the United States' trade relationship with the island (January 17, 1823).
• Nathaniel Austin, regarding an enclosed sketch of "Mr. Sullivan's land," located near Charlestown, Massachusetts (April 13, 1825).
• Federalist pamphlet writer, John Lowell, about his illness that him unable to contribute to [Massachusetts Agricultural Society] meetings (June 5, 1825).
• Massachusetts Senator, James Lloyd, concerning funding the building of light houses in the harbor at Ipswich, Massachusetts (April 11, 1826).
• H. A. S. Dearborn to state senator and later Massachusetts governor, Emory Washburn, regarding the American aristocracy. He accused the Jackson administration of putting "the Union in jeopardy,” and dishonoring the Republic with an “unprincipled, ignorant and imbecile administration" (May 22, 1831). Dearborn also summarized many of his ideas on the political and social state of the Union.
• Abraham Eustis, commander of the school for Artillery Practice at Fort Monroe, commenting that the "dissolution of the Union is almost inevitable. Unless you in Congress adopt some very decided measures to counteract the federal doctrines of the Proclamation, Virginia will array herself by the side of South Carolina, & then the other southern States join at once" (December 27, 1832).
• The botanist John Lewis Russell, about a charity request for support of the Norfolk Agricultural Society (February 6, 1850).

The collection contains several personal letters from family members, including three from Dearborn's mother, Sarah Bowdoin Dearborn, while she was in Lisbon, Portugal (January 29 and 30, 1823, and January 27, 1824); two letters from his father, General Henry Dearborn (May 25, 1814, and undated); and one from his nephew William F. Hobart (November 8, 1822).

The collection's Speeches, Reports, and Documents Series includes 15 of Henry A. S. Dearborn's orations, city or society reports, and a copy of the Revolutionary War roll of Col. John Glover's 21st Regiment. Most of them were not published in Dearborn's lifetime. The topics of these works include the art of printing (1803), Independence Day (4th of July, 1808 and 1831), discussion about the establishment of Mount Auburn Cemetery (1830), education, religion, horticulture, Whig politics, and the state of the country. See the box and folder listing below for more details about each item in this series.

This notebook (241 pages) contains medicinal recipes as well as instructions for making other health, beauty, and household products. It contains several newspaper clippings and paper inserts, including one letter by Pierre Du Bois.

The entries are arranged alphabetically, with tabs marking each letter. The volume bears a torn origin label of Piccadilly, "...chester" on inside front cover. Concoctions include beauty lotion, cordials, kola koka, blood purifier, and cures for St. Vitus's Dance, anemia, and dandruff. Also present are tinctures, salves, ointments, cures, and preventatives. A few agricultural items respect calf drench and a substance for ewes after lambing. Some newspaper clippings respect aquarium cement and curry powder. Additional paper inserts include various formulas, a letter from Pierre to his father, and basic Spanish phrases on a sheet with the Venezuelan Consulate (Baltimore) letterhead.