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This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American diplomat.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American chargé d'affaires.

The papers also include financial papers, military documents, property documentation, materials related to the San Pedro Company, writings, poetry, sketches, photographs, ephemera, and other printed items. Among the writings is an 1840 account of a visit by Christopher Hughes to physician Fru Jansen at Catherineberg for health care; 1842 travel writing by Margaret Hughes; and manuscript and printed poetry, including dinner toasts, a valentine poem, an acrostic on Margaret's name, translations, and more.

Other selected items include pencil sketches of four of the five peace commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent negotiations in Belgium, by Dutch artist P. van Huffel, January 1815. The portraits include John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Christopher Hughes (as secretary of the delegation). A group of 24 photographs from the early 1930s depict the grave of Laura Smith Hughes (1795-1832) and the church where she was buried, Bromme Church in Akershof, near Stockholm, Sweden, and a variety of other people and places.

Please see the Christopher Hughes Indices and Notes for an index of letter writers and inventories of non-correspondence materials.

Lawyer with the Bendix Corporation and the Ford Motor Company, and member of numerous legal and public service organizations. Speeches, articles and public statements; material relating to his activities with the American Bar Association, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and other legal groups; some files concern his interest in such topics as business ethics, campus government and student dissent in the 1960s, electoral college reform, and legal education; there is also material detailing his involvement in public service organizations concerned largely with civil rights and education; also contracts, agreements, and other documentation relating to reorganization of Wesco Corporation (later National Theatres Corporation), 1933-1936; and reorganization of Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures, July-August 1935.

The William T. Gossett collection chronicle his professional career as a lawyer and businessman as well as those many public service activities in which he was active. The collection was received in two accessions, 1981 and 1997. The 1981 accession, the largest of the two, consisted of the following series: Vita; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Professional Activities; Topical Files; Public Service Files; Hospitals and Organizations; Colleges Universities, and Schools; and Personal Correspondence. The smaller 1997 accession included these series: Biographical and Personal Materials; Speeches, Articles, and Statements; Photographs; and Twentieth Century-Fox. There was some slight overlap in the content of the two accessions, particularly in Gossett's speeches and articles. No attempt was made, however, to intersperse this similar material.