Collections

The Western Reserve (Ohio) collection contains documents related to the sale and purchase of land in the Western Reserve and in the state of Ohio, shortly after it gained statehood.

The Western Reserve (Ohio) collection contains 24 legal documents, dating 1796-1808 and 1814, which relate to the purchase of land in the Western Reserve. Many of the items document land purchases by Nathan Elliott of Hartford, Connecticut. The collection includes Elliot's land deeds for "fifteen hundred twelve hundred thousandths" of the total Reserve for $1575 (April 13, 1796), "nine hundred twelve hundred thousandths" for $2000 (July 27, 1796), and "one thousand six hundred and thirty twelve hundred thousandths" for $3260 (July 28, 1796). Also present are a certificate for one share in the Connecticut Land Company and several land deeds related to James K. Garnsey. Four documents dated May 27, 1805, concern land purchased "at Public vendue, " lying south of Lake Erie, and referred to as 'sufferers land'. These list the names of early settlers and their payments.

One document dated June 24, 1814, reflects the sale of six lots of land in Ashtabula County, Ohio, by Revolutionary War veteran Nehemiah Hubbard (of Middleton, Connecticut) to Ladock Mann for the sum of $4,000. Witnessed by Nathan Strong and Sally Strong.

The Western travel and mid-Michigan photograph albums (2 volumes, each 23 x 36 cm) contain a total of 417 photographs primarily pertaining to travel in the western U.S. and the mid-Michigan region, likely taken by a member of the Charlesworth/Abraham family of Flint, Michigan.

Volume I: Western photographs include views of Yellowstone, the Yosemite Valley, cliff dwellings with pictorgraphs, a petrified forest, hiking across a glacier, buildings of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, the Saltair resort in Utah, cliff dwellings, the California coast, a bull fight, Native Americans selling pottery on the street, California houses, and a concert band dressed in kilts. Also included are single views of a city waterfront, possibly St. Paul, Minn., Milwaukee grain docks, and the Minnesota State Capitol. Album contains 232 images. Photographs lack captions.

Volume II: Mid-Michigan photographs show chiefly outdoor activities and rural scenery, including house and barns, country roads, hunting and fishing trips, boating, swimming, hunting dogs and game birds, a circus parade in downtown Flint, farm animals and cow-milking, and picnics. Nine photographs show a collection of bird amulets and carved relics, some belonging to the Silas Collins collection at the Flint Public Library. Also shown are burnt-out ruins of the Michigan School for the Deaf and postal carriers in Flint with sleds and wagons piled high with Christmas packages. Several photographs feature automobiles, including an overturned auto in the street being contemplated by a young man in swimming costume with handwritten caption, "Berston killed;" automobiles stuck in potholes and rescued by horse-teams; filled with hunting dogs; and a Buick Model C burnt out and restored. Michigan locations include: Flint, Prescott, Stiles Lake, Long Lake, Houghton Lake, Rifle River, Ortonville, and Skinner Lake. Identified individuals include: W.B. Ormsbee, A.G. Abraham, Herb Mitchell, Howard Casler, E. Rockafellow, Luella Charlesworth, John Brewer, Emma Abraham, Ernest Oldfield, M.B. Shirk, William Somerville, Hattie Barker, George Dell, Gert Fellows, Glenn Jones, Edgar Ries, John Ries, George Havers, John Wildanger, George Havers, Clyde Baldwin, George Frye, Edgar Rice, Chancey Straber, Elsie Caverly, Clarence Caverly, Leo & Mrs. Boomhower, Bud & Mrs. Evans, Ed Brown, Llloyd & Mrs. Algoe, Alice Charlesworth, Anna Charlesworth, George Holmes. Album contains 185 images. Most photographs include manuscript captions on verso.

Albums housed in three-part wraps with blue cloth spines.

The "Western Trip" photograph album contains pictures of people, natural scenery, and cities in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington. The album includes photographs of the traveling party, popular tourist destinations, and residents of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This album (17cm x 25cm), entitled "Western Trip-Summer-1899," contains 95 photographs of people and scenery in several western states. Each page contains two photographs housed in 8cm x 8cm windows; all items have captions, usually providing the location of the photograph. The title "Photographs" is printed in gold on the album's faded green cloth cover.

The photographer took three photographs of railroad stations, railroad tracks, and the prairie in Nebraska and Kansas before reaching Colorado. A photograph on the first page, identified as Lincoln, Nebraska, is likely mislabeled. A manuscript caption on the back of this photograph identifies the location as Omaha, Nebraska. In Colorado, where the photographer visited Manitou Springs, several canyons, Pikes Peak, and the Garden of the Gods. Several photographs are views of mountain passes and similar Colorado scenery some of which were taken from the front of a horse drawn carriage. The photographs from New Mexico include street-level views of Las Vegas and Santa Fe, as well as informal portraits of a woman and a child in front of a pueblo, a woman ("Belle of Santa Fe"), and a boy ("Dude of Santa Fe"). In Arizona, the traveler visited cliff dwellings, canyons, and the Grand Canyon; some images show the horse-drawn carriage the party took from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon, and others show tourists (including the compiler) on horses. The caption of one photograph implies that a railroad car on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway had caught fire, though no fire or smoke is apparent.

After visiting the Southwest, the traveler continued to California, where he or she collected several photographs of the Pacific Ocean as seen from Santa Catalina Island, California. These are followed by a group of pictures from Yosemite National Park, including views of mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and forests, and a picture of Mount Shasta. The final items feature the Hotel Portland in Portland, Oregon; Umatilla House in The Dalles, Oregon ("Where Measles Flourish"); the Columbia River and riverside scenery; Tacoma, Washington; Seattle, Washington; and the shore of Lake Washington.

The Western views - Kodak snapshot album contains 104 photographs primarily of Western landscapes including canyons, rivers, waterfalls, and the Monterey, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz coasts.

The Western views - Kodak snapshot album contains 104 photographs primarily of Western landscapes including canyons, rivers, waterfalls, and the Monterey, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz coasts. The album (26.5 x 32 cm) is fully bound in leather with gilt lettering "Kodak" on the front cover. Most of the locations depicted are represented in one or two photographs with the exception of Yellowstone (approximately 20 images) and the Grand Canyon (approximately 12 images). Other photographs show trains and train tracks, with two photographs of train station gardens in Sacramento and Ypsilanti, Michigan. Non-western locations and objects depicted include the Hudson, Niagara, and Mohawk Rivers, Niagara Falls, Minnehaha Falls, and Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. In general people appear to be incidental to the scenery, save for two photographs showing posed groups; one in front of a topiary maze, and another in a grove of giant trees. Most photographs have numbers and captions derived from labeled negatives.

This collection contains 4 letters that W. F. Farrington wrote to his wife Margaret in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, while volunteering with the United States Christian Commission in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1865.

This collection contains 4 letters (12 pages) that W. F. Farrington wrote to his wife Margaret in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, while volunteering with the United States Christian Commission in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1865. Farrington discussed his work at Sickles Hospital, where he held religious services and distributed clothing to sick soldiers, including some who were close to death. He also expressed his distaste for Alexandria and his desire to return home. In his letters of June 15, 1865, and June 22, 1865, he described his visits to Mount Vernon, the Bull Run battlefield, and Fort Ellsworth.

On January 24, 1844, W. H. Gibbs, a "practical phrenologist," performed a phrenological reading of Thomas Mayhew and documented his findings in his Brief View of Phrenology and Chart... (Springfield: Wood & Rupp, 1842). Principally, Gibbs recorded a number between 1 and 7 to note the size of Mayhew's "organs," with one additional comment regarding Mayhew's "Very Small" Constructiveness organ, proclaiming him a "poor mechanic." The printed volume includes one illustration of a phrenological chart, showing the human head from three directions to identify thirty-seven labelled regions.

On January 24, 1844, W. H. Gibbs, a "practical phrenologist," performed a phrenological reading of Thomas Mayhew and documented his findings in his stab-sewn Brief View of Phrenology and Chart, Giving a Description of the Phenomena of the Human Mind, Designed to Assist Man in Obtaining a Knowledge of His Intellectual Faculties, Moral Sentiments, and Animal Propensities - How to Improve His Virtues and Remedy His Defects. Sixth Edition (Springfield: Wood & Rupp, 1842). Principally, Gibbs recorded a number between 1 and 7 to note the size of Mayhew's "organs," with one additional comment regarding Mayhew's "Very Small" Constructiveness organ, proclaiming him a "poor mechanic." The printed volume includes one illustration of a phrenological chart, showing the human head from three directions to identify thirty-seven labelled regions.

Collection includes various sizes and types of photographic materials of the William H. White family,William H. White and Company, a lumbering and shipping business, and the city and people of Boyne City, Michigan.

The White Mountains vacation photograph album contains 26 photographs taken by amateur photographer brothers Thomas Avery Hine and Charles Gilbert Hine related to a twelve-day carriage tour of the White Mountains by a party of eight travelers in July of 1883.

The White Mountains vacation photograph album contains 26 photographs taken by amateur photographer brothers Thomas Avery Hine and Charles Gilbert Hine related to a twelve-day carriage tour of the White Mountains by a party of eight travelers in July of 1883. The album (18 x 27 cm) is half bound with black leather and brown boards and gilt title reading "Chronicles of our White Mountain trip, July, 1883." An inscription inside the front cover reads "Miss Mary A. Barnard, compliments of T. A. & C. G. Hine." The album consists of albumen prints glued to thick cardstock (opposite printed text) and glued onto the facing page.

Scenic images include views of Tuckerman's Ravine, Pemigewasset River, Franconia Notch, Lake Chocorua, Lake Winnepesaukee, Profile Mountain, and Mt. Lafayette. Other images of interest include views of two horse-drawn carriages on the road, the traveling party relaxing on a dock and posed atop a boulder, and the Crawford House and Thorn Mountain House hotels. Photographs are accompanied by a printed narrative of the journey written by Ellen T. Cheever Rockwood.

The collection biographical materials, accounts, correspondence, deeds and legal papers, tax receipts, wills, and photographic materials.

The collection includes family papers for several generations of Knaggs. Among them are a petition by George Knaggs for reimbursement of property damaged in the War of 1812; a silhouette of Whitmore Knaggs; tax receipts for land in Detroit, Mich., Lucas and Henry Counties, Ohio and Eldora, Kansas; an 1866 Toledo, Ohio census; and essay on epidemics in Toledo, undated (ca. late 18th century?); and a telegram from the mayor of Chicago, R. B. Mason about the distress caused by the Great Fire of 1871.

This collection is made up of letters that Wilfred Ferguson, Jr., sent to his fiancée, Peggy Allen of Fairfield, Connecticut, while serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Despite his frustration with censorship regulations, he discussed his experiences with the 65th Station Complement Squadron in England.

This collection is made up of 28 letters that Wilfred Ferguson, Jr., sent to his fiancée, Peggy Allen of Fairfield, Connecticut, while serving in the United States Army Air Forces in England in 1944. Ferguson wrote regularly about his leisure activities, which included visiting a Red Cross club, playing table tennis, reading, and gambling. Though he attended movies, he believed they often resembled propaganda pieces. He also expressed his frustrations with censorship regulations, which limited his ability to discuss his military work. Ferguson occasionally shared stories about other soldiers and mentioned his correspondence from home.