Collections

The Alexander Thompson papers consist of the papers of three generations of Thompsons: Captain Alexander Thompson (1759-1809), Colonel Alexander Ramsey Thompson (1793-1837), and Reverend Alexander Ramsey Thompson (1822-1895). These papers document the military service of Captain Thompson in United States army (1793-1809); Colonel Thompson's military service (1819-1837); attempts by Colonel Thompson's widow Mary Thompson to secure a military pension (1838-1849); and the career of Reverend Thompson, a Union Army chaplain and Presbyterian minister, along with his family letters (1850-1932).

The Alexander Thompson papers (653 items) consist of the papers of three generations of Thompsons: Captain Alexander Thompson (1759-1809), Colonel Alexander Ramsey Thompson (1793-1837), and Reverend Alexander Ramsey Thompson (1822-1895). The collection is comprised of 494 letters and documents, 1 diary, 25 photographs, 103 religious writings and hymns, and 30 items of printed material. These papers document the military service of Captain Thompson in the United States Army (1793-1809); Colonel Thompson's military service (1819-1837); attempts by Colonel Thompson's widow, Mary Thompson, to secure a military pension (1838-1849); and the career of Reverend Thompson, Union Army chaplain and Presbyterian minister, along with his family letters (1850-1932).

The Correspondence and Documents series (494 items) is made up of three subseries, one for each Alexander Thompson represented in the collection.

The Captain Alexander Thompson subseries (255 items) consists of letters and documents related to Thompson's army career, including 37 military records (pay rolls, musters, and accounts) and 14 provisional returns. The bulk of the letters are to and from the war office in Philadelphia and from fellow army officers. These provide administrative documentation for the fledgling American military, as well as specific details on Thompson's assignments at Governor's Island, West Point, Fort Niagara, and Detroit. Topics covered include his efforts to provision and pay his troops, fortify his outposts, and recruit soldiers.

• April 19, May 7 and 24, and June 20, 1795: Letters from Thompson to New York Governor George Clinton, concerning the French navy and the fort at Governor's Island
• July 9, 15, and 18, 1795: Letters between Colonel Louis de Tousard and Thompson concerning prisoners, troops, and musicians at Governor's Island
• December 5, 1795: Letter fromThompson to Alexander Hamilton concerning a lawsuit involving Thompson's professional conduct at Governor's Island
• March 29, 1796: Letter to Thompson warning of a mutiny on Governor's Island
• September 14, 1800: Letter from Thompson to John Jacob Ulrich Rivardi concerning small pox at Detroit
• February 17, 1801: Letter from Thompson to Major Moses Porter, concerning filling the United States officer corps with Americans instead of foreign commanders
• January 20, 1803: May 1 and August 24, 1807: Letters and bills to and from Thompson and Secretary of War Henry Dearborn concerning payments for travel
• October 15, 1804: Instructions from Thompson to Doctor Frances La Barons concerning trading for pelts at Michilimackinac
• September 1807: News from a friend in St. Louis describing army activities there

The Colonel Alexander R. Thompson subseries (137 items) documents his post-War of 1812 military career, and his wife's efforts to secure a pension after his death. These include letters from fellow officers and friends, a few retained copies of Thompson's letters, and 55 letters to and from Mary Thompson and various prominent government officials concerning military pensions. In many of Mary's letters she described episodes in her husband's military career, including wounds and sicknesses suffered while on duty.

• November 27, 1816: Captain Kearny at Sackets Harbor to Thompson concerning securing pay to Mrs. Niblock for washing clothes for the army
• January 12, 1817: Major W.J. Worth at Sackets Harbor to Thompson describing a celebration at the newly build Madison Barracks
• May 13, 1833: George Brooke at Fort Howard (Green Bay) to Thompson describing his journey across Lake Huron
• August 28, 1833: Benjamin F. Larneal to Thompson concerning shipping a piano to Michigan
• April 28, 1836: Thompson to his nephew Alexander Thompson, describing the encampment and fortifications at Camp Sabine, Louisiana, and the lawless state of Texas - "the country is consequently infested with robbers and pirates
• February 21, 1837: Mary Thompson to General Winfield Scott seeking a promotion for her sick husband
• March 6, 1840: Mary to her brother-in-law William Thompson, relating her difficulties securing a pension
• 1842-1845: Letters to and from Mary Thompson to New York Governor Hamilton Fish and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, including John Jordan Crittenden and Thomas Hart Benton
• October 8, 1847: E. Backay at San Juan to Mary Thompson containing a description of the Mexican-American War
• March 13, 1853: Department of the Interior to Mary Thompson concerning her request for a land bounty

The Reverend Alexander R. Thompson subseries (102 items) contains Thompson's letters and 25 of his children's letters. Of note are the items documenting his Civil War service as chaplain of the 17th Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers and at the Roosevelt Hospital. These include many letters from solders and former parishioners serving throughout the country. Also present are letters discussing Thompson and his family's travels around New York and New England, and to the Canary Islands, Quebec, and San Francisco. The post-1872 letters largely concern Thompson's children.

• November 28, 1861: Albion Brooks to Thompson describing the soldier's Thanksgiving dinner at Burnside Camp, Annapolis, Maryland
• January 16, 1862: Leonard Woolsey Bacon to Thompson concerning chaplains' aids
• July 2, 1863: A small diagram of the Union fleet on the Mississippi River in front of Vicksburg
• June 4, 1864: Moses Smith of the 8th Connecticut Regiment to Thompson describing the battle at Cold Harbor
• September 25, 1865: E.A. Russell to Thompson describing hearing Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" on board a steam ship: "I feel like after hearing it sung like one inspired for the work. I do think it is very near Gods work."
• September 27, 1865: Five verses of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" copied on board the Steamship United States
• September 23, 1871: Gin Bon, secretary of the Chinese Young Men's Christian Society of San Francisco, to Thompson concerning his support of the group and enclosing four photographs of members

The Diary series (1 item, 372 pages) is the personal journal of Reverend Alexander Ramsey Thompson for 1861. The diary is deeply personal and includes Thompson's thoughts on personal, spiritual, and political matters, as well as his thoughts on the outbreak of the Civil War and his decision to join the army as a chaplain. In the back of the diary are 5 newspaper clippings concerning New York University commencements.

• April 13 and 16, 1861: Thoughts on the siege and bombardment at Fort Sumter
• July 22 and 24, 1861: Thoughts on First Bull Run
• August 31, 1861: Discussion of seeing a hippopotamus at Barnum's Museum

The Photographs series (25 items) contains undated family pictures, images of houses and landscapes, and commercial photographs of buildings in Europe.

Four additional photographs are located with the letter of September 23, 1871. These are portraits of Chinese Americans, one taken by Chinese photographer Lai Yong of San Francisco, and one of letter writer Gin Bon, secretary of the Chinese Young Men's Christian Society. Gin Bon's portrait contains watercolored highlights. The hymn book for the Roosevelt Hospital in the Printed Materials series contains family photographs, including a group picture in which many of the sitters are holding tennis rackets.

The Religious Writings series is composed of two subseries: Sermons and Ecclesiastical History Notes, and Hymns. Though largely undated and unattributed, these writings were all likely created by Reverend Thompson. The Sermons and Ecclesiastical History notes subseries (61 items) contains 58 sermon notes that Thompson wrote in the 1890s, much of which was written on Roosevelt Hospital stationery. Some of these are outlines while others are fully formed sermons. He also wrote notes on ecclesiastical history in two notebooks dated 1881 (232 pages), and on the Hebrew language in an undated notebook (58 pages). The Hymns subseries (42 items) contains 9 manuscript hymns, 16 printed hymns, and 17 volumes of manuscript hymns. They consist of transcribed and translated hymns, Bible quotations, and ballad lyrics. Two of the printed hymns, both Christmas carols, include music for four voices.

The Printed Material series (30 items) is comprised of 18 newspaper clippings and 12 miscellaneous printed items. The newspaper clippings are an essay by Reverend Thompson entitled "The Burial of Moses," and an address from Thompson delivered at the unveiling of a Gettysburg monument for the 17th Connecticut Volunteers. The Miscellaneous Printed Items subseries contains 12 items, including ephemera related to New York University commencements; an engraving of author, nurse, and charity organizer Isabella Graham; an annual report for the Brooklyn Nursery (1888); and a Roosevelt Hospital hymnal in which someone has inserted photograph clippings of Reverend Thompson, his wife, and others.

These selections of the Alexander Winchell papers relate primarily to his chancellorship at Syracuse University (1873-1874) and to the years following. The materials were microfilmed at the request of a researcher.

Professor of political science at Michigan State University and at the University of Michigan; director of the U-M Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies; specialist in communist ideology and the Soviet political system. The collection is composed of four series. The personal series consists of biographical information including autobiography detailing flight of his family from Nazi Germany, his education, and his academic career; the series also contains files relating to his education and to the history of his family; including extensive family correspondence, partially in German, primarily in the period of 1924-1945. The other, smaller, series in the collection pertain to his career and to his writings.

The Alfred G. Meyer Papers richly document both Meyer's personal and family history and his professional career, while providing considerable insight into the effects of Nazism and World War II on a German-Jewish family. The collection is arranged into four series: Personal (ca. 1860-1998); Professional (1956-1997); Writings (1952-1998); and Audio-Visual (1998).

Professor of philosophy and dean of the graduate school of University of Michigan. Journal articles and reprints.

The collection consists of journal articles on a variety of topics in philosophy, psychology, ethics .

Professor of philosophy and dean of the graduate school of University of Michigan. Correspondence, speeches, manuscripts of writings, student notebooks from Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, philosophy lecture notes, and photographs.

The Alfred Lloyd collection includes correspondence, speeches and writings, lecture notes. Within the correspondence, there are letters from Charles H. Cooley, July 1920, William H. Hobbs, Dec. 1918, James H. Tufts, July 1916 and Feb. 1919, the Ann Arbor Branch of the National Security League, Dec. 1918, John Dewey, Oct. 1917, Bertrand Russell, November 1925 and January 1926, and Robert M. Wenley in the years 1925 to 1927.

Homeopathic physician from Monroe, Michigan; correspondence, letterpress books, diaries, and other papers of Sawyer, his wife and daughter, and of members of the Toll family.

The Sawyer collection consists of correspondence and other papers of Alfred I. Sawyer, his wife Sarah Toll Sawyer, their daughter Jennie Toll Sawyer, and other members of the Toll family. The collection, in addition to family matters, relates to Sawyer's career as a homeopathic physician, his advocacy of the study of homeopathy within the curriculum of the University of Michigan, and his extensive activities within Masonry. The collection has been arranged into the following series: Correspondence; Various subjects -- Sawyer and Toll families; Homeopathy and homeopathic practice; and diaries of Sawyer and his daughter Jennie Toll Sawyer.

Soldier in the 24th Michigan Infantry during Civil War, later civil engineer concerned largely with construction of bridges and canals, especially improvements of St. Mary's Falls Canal, and consultant engineer to Panama Canal project. Correspondence, Civil War diaries, essays on proposed Nicaraguan Canal, printed materials, maps, and other miscellanea; also photographs.

The Alfred Noble Papers collection consists of several letters and diaries documenting his service with the 24th Michigan Infantry during the Civil War and correspondence, construction documents and other material relating to his work as a civil engineer on a number of major projects including the St. Mary's Canal, the Harlem Tunnel in New York, Panama Canal, Alton Bridge on the Mississippi and a proposed Nicaraguan Canal. The collection is organized in two series, Papers and Printed Works, 1853-1906. The Papers series is available on microfilm.

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an important Victorian poet and critic. The collection documents Swinburne's literary affairs and friendships, plus critical reactions to the poet. It consists of correspondence, writings, photographs, artworks, and printed material produced by Swinburne, his friends and associates, and present-day scholars. Over 200 pieces of holograph correspondence and manuscript material, over half of which is by Swinburne, are included. Also prominent is material by Theodore Watts-Dunton, Swinburne's friend and legal advisor.

This finding aid encompasses accessions of single manuscripts and small groups of manuscripts and other papers by or pertaining to Algernon Charles Swinburne, which the library has chosen to gather into one collection.

Much of the material in this collection forms part of the Kerr collection, formally titled the "Evelyn and Lowell Kerr Collection of Swinburne Books and Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Michigan." The Kerr collection was assembled by Lowell Kerr, a dedicated Swinburne collector. (See biographical entry.) In addition, Kerr worked for many years on the compilation of a descriptive catalog to the collection, which was, unfortunately, never completed. More information on arrangement of the Kerr collection can be found at the end of this section. All of the books from the Kerr collection, and many of the pamphlets, have been removed and cataloged separately.

The works and correspondence of Swinburne are well-represented here. Much of the selection of verse is fragmentary in nature--in some cases, leaves of a single work are spread across repositories; but Swinburne's prose pieces are notable in their completeness and number. Also showcased are the letters and works of important figures in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, as well as other literary luminaries of the day. The publishing interests of Swinburne and his circle are also detailed.

The collection is made up of six series: Works, Correspondence, The Swinburne Circle, Photographs and Art Images, Printed Material, and Swinburne Research and Collecting. Unless indicated otherwise in the contents list, items in the Works and Correspondence series are holograph works by Swinburne (or, rarely, in the hand of an amanuensis). Items in the Swinburne Circle series are letters or manuscripts in the hand of their respective authors, or their secretaries. In some cases, autograph material originally laid into books has been removed and added to the collection; in other cases, such items have been left in the books. Either way, a note to such effect has nearly always been made in the book's catalog record or in the contents list below. Moreover, for purchased material, copies of dealer descriptions often have been retained and may offer further details not included here.

A Note on the Kerr and Lang Numbers:

Since many of the pieces in this collection have already been cataloged individually, further details can often be found in the catalog records for those items. Furthermore, "Kerr numbers" have been assigned to many items. These numbers refer to entries in Lowell Kerr's catalog, in which he described the items that were originally from his collection. Along with library staff members, he continually updated and reworked the catalog up until his death. Library staff continued to revise the work through the 1980s, but it was never completed.

Although every effort has been made to respect the provenance of items from the Kerr collection, in some cases a Kerr number may have been assigned but is not noted in the finding aid. Researchers wishing for more information on items originally from the Kerr collection should consult the various drafts of the Kerr catalog, which are available in the Swinburne Research and Collecting series. The Kerr numbers in this finding aid refer to the most recent available draft of the Kerr catalog. The researcher should note that the Kerr catalog, while containing a wealth of information, is heavily anecdotal in nature, with a number of guessed-at facts and dates still in need of verification.

Cecil Lang, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, is an eminent Swinburne scholar. Professor Lang is the author of the six-volume The Swinburne Letters (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1959-1962). In this work, he assigns numbers to every item of Swinburne correspondence which he was able to locate, across repositories; thus, many items have both Kerr numbers and Lang numbers. Both numbers, where extant, are generally noted in the contents lists below.

The Allaire-Gibbons papers contain letters, receipts, and other material related to the early steamboat industry and, more specifically, to the 19th-century business affairs of James P. Allaire, Thomas Gibbons, and William Gibbons.

The Allaire-Gibbons papers contain letters, receipts, and other material related to the early steamboat industry and, more specifically, to the 19th-century business affairs of James P. Allaire, Thomas Gibbons, and William Gibbons.

The Correspondence series (16 items) consists primarily of business correspondence addressed to Thomas Gibbons, William Gibbons, and James P. Allaire. The earlier material in the series (1822-1837) is related to the Gibbons family's business affairs and often pertains to the legal disputes between Thomas Gibbons and Aaron Ogden. These include several letters from William Gibbons to his father, in which he discusses the impending court case as well as his own personal affairs. The majority of the series consists of later material (1837-1849) related to James P. Allaire's business interests, including the manufacture of steamboat engines. Interspersed with these items are receipts for parts related to Allaire's industrial operations.

The Documents series (12 items) contains receipts related to steamboats owned by James P. Allaire as well as 20th-century material about the early steamboat industry and the town of Allaire, New Jersey. The series includes 5 receipts for steamboat supplies (1828; 1856), including material for the Swan, the Thistle, and the Emerald, all Gibbons-owned ships whose engines were supplied by Allaire. The series also includes a document signed by the crew of the Swan affirming the receipt of their wages for April 1828. Later material in the collection includes two postcards of watercolor pictures of Allaire, New Jersey, and two articles, from the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society (January 1949) and American Heritage (October 1963), respectively. These relate to the early steamboat business, and to the role of Thomas Gibbons in its development.

Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, First Lieutenant 301st Field Artillery during World War I; Visual and other materials of Allen Sherzer and members of the Sherzer family, including film footage of University of Michigan campus ca. 1928.

The Allen Sherzer collection consists of visual and other materials of Allen Sherzer and members of the Sherzer family. Include is a photograph, 1880s, of the Delta Upsilon fraternity that included William H. Sherzer and a photograph, 1940s, of a University of Michigan reunion group. From his World War I service, there are French and German language posters, a scrapbook of clippings and postcards, and negatives, 1917-1918, taken during his World War I service with the 301st Field Artillery, at Fort Niagara, N.Y., Camp Devens, Mass., and in France. Of special interest is a motion picture, ca. 1928-1930, depicting University of Michigan student activities and Ann Arbor scenes.

In 2009, a preservation tape, DVD use copy and master and streaming digital files were made of the motion picture.