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The Albert Davis papers contain letters written by Civil War soldier Albert Davis, of the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, Co. G. Davis described his regiment's roles in the battles of Ball’s Bluff, White Oak Swamp, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg.

The Albert Davis papers consist of 97 letters written by Civil War soldier Albert Davis of the 15th Massachusetts Regiment, Co. G, 3 letters written by his friends and family, one allotment receipt, his military discharge papers, and a photo of Albert Davis.

Albert Davis wrote letters while stationed with the Union army in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, between August 1861 and June 1864. Of the letters, Davis sent 83 to his widowed mother and 14 to his teenage sister, Angeline, both living in Upton, Massachusetts. The collection also holds one letter from Albert's mother to his sister (June 30, 1864), a letter from R. W. Ellis to Angeline Leland Davis (March 5, 1864), and a letter from W. I. Scandlin to Albert Davis (July 2, 1874).

Albert's letters document his participation as a soldier in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment from the beginning of the regiment’s formation in July 1861, until its dissolution after the battle of Petersburg (June 22, 1864), when all but eight men and one officer were killed or captured. In the early letters, Davis described his initial training near Worcester, Massachusetts. At first, he enjoyed soldiering, and sent home souvenirs: a piece of wood from the Harper's Ferry Bridge (October 6, 1861), and a piece of cotton from the breastworks at Yorktown (May 24, 1862). He wrote of snowballing a barge while on picket duty (January 4, 1862), and of picking wild blackberries during the fighting at Malvern Hills (August 2, 1862). Upon seeing the Monitor anchored among other boats at Hampton, Virginia, he wrote "it dont look as though it could take a Canal boat" (April 2, 1862). Many of his letters mentioned food, either what he was eating or what he would like to receive from home (cheese, tea, molasses, catsup, preserves, baked goods, chocolate, and checkerberry extract). On August 2, 1862, he sent a recipe for pudding made from hardtack. By December 1863, his feelings about soldiering had changed and he became determined not to reenlist. He was irritated by the "bounty men" who fought for money rather than patriotism (March 9, 1863; August 6, 1863). He witnessed several military executions (September 4, 1863; April 26, 1864). Davis also described his six months spent in hospitals and convalescent camps, and his part in the battles of Antietam, Cold Harbor, Gettysburg, and Bristoe Station.

His letters describing the Battle of Gettysburg are of particular interest not just for their accounts of the battle (July 4, 17, and 27, 1863), but also for his corrections of inaccuracies in the newspaper coverage of the battle (August 13 and 21, 1863). On May 14, 1864, Davis wrote from "mud hole near Spotsylvania Court House" and stated that the battle was "the hardest fight of the War." A few weeks later, on June 6, 1864, he wrote from the battlefield at Cold Harbor that "we are about sick of making Charges [--] we are not successful in one half of them and the loss on the retreat is great...there is some wounded men that are a lying between the lines that have laid there for three days and have not had a bit of care perhaps not a drop of water."

• October 22, 1861
• October 29, 1861
• November 6, 1861
• November 16, 1861
• November 17, 1861
• November 26, 1861
• May 6, 1862
• November 2, [1862]

This collection contains six letters by Charles Barrell to his sister Mary and father George, while he attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria (1855) and while he traveled to Beirut and London (1857, 1859). The primary topic of his letters to Mary was the search for his own personal understanding of Christian religious belief. At the seminary, he expressed his deep frustrations with churches and rejected authoritative interpretations of scripture by clergymen. He explored Episcopalian evangelicalism, reflected on "Second-Advent" ministry, and traveled in the near East to find peace in his "heart & mind" and to seek independence from his family and financial support. Barrell harshly judged people who did not believe or practice religion "right," treated skeptically those who followed "the multitude," and expressed regular concerns about his reputation. His relationship with his father and his father's opinions of him and his activities are a regular topic of discussion.

This collection contains six letters by Charles Barrell to his sister Mary and father George, while he attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria (1855) and while he traveled to Beirut and London (1857, 1859). The primary topic of his letters to Mary was the search for his own personal understanding of Christian religious belief. At the seminary, he expressed his deep frustrations with churches and rejected authoritative interpretations of scripture by clergymen. He explored Episcopalian evangelicalism, reflected on "Second-Advent" ministry, and traveled in the near East to find peace in his "heart & mind" and to seek independence from his family and financial support. Barrell harshly judged people who did not believe or practice religion "right", treated skeptically those who followed "the multitude," and expressed regular concerns about his reputation. His relationship with his father and his father's opinions of him and his activities are a regular topic of discussion.

Please see the box and folder listing for details about the content of each letter.

The Clarke family photograph album contains photographic prints taken during trips to New England, New York, and other locales from 1898-1902. The photographs show natural scenery, buildings of interest, soldiers, and family members.

The Clarke family photograph album (25cm x 32cm) contains 240 photographic prints, including cyanotypes, taken during trips to New England, New York, and other locales from 1898-1902. Of the prints, 232 are pasted onto the album's pages (usually four to a page) and eight are laid in; each mounted photograph has a caption, sometimes humorous. The title "Photographs" is stamped in gold on the album's brown leather cover.

The photographs depict buildings, street scenes, and natural scenery in places such as Marshfield, Vermont; Weirs, New Hampshire; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Lynn, Massachusetts; Catskill, New York; and Washington, D.C. The compiler noted places of interest in the family's history, such as Erastus Burnham's grave and the Burnham family farm in Marshfield, Vermont. Some interior views of private residences and schoolhouses are included, as are photographs of prominent locations such as the Vermont State House, the United States Capitol, Independence Hall, the Lee family home in Arlington, Virginia, "Rip Van Winkle's house," and the New York City skyline. Sailing ships, the paddlewheel steamer Mount Washington, and the battleships Indiana and Massachusetts are also pictured.

The photographer attended parades featuring elephants from the Forepaugh-Sells Brothers' Circus, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lynn, Massachusetts, and the welcoming of United States soldiers as they returned from Cuba after the Spanish-American war. Group portraits include men, women and young schoolchildren. Women are shown riding bicycles, playing the piano, and wearing costumes such as a soldier's jacket and a puritan's dress. One picture, entitled "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," is a double exposure of a woman in different poses.

The George Henry Bates papers consist of letters written home by a teenage soldier in the Civil War describing military camp life, the battles of Cold Harbor, Hatcher's Run, Petersburg, and Winchester, and life in a military hospital.

George H. Battes's letters provide an insight into army life as seen by a soldier still in his teens, and away from home probably for the first time. He provides vivid descriptions of four important engagements: Cold Harbor, Winchester (where he was wounded), Hatcher's Run, and Petersburg. Fond of decorating his letters with sketches and red-and-blue ink designs, Bates possessed of an exuberance that is illustrated by his breezy style. Although he evidently did not get along well with his mother, his letters to his siblings are especially tender.

For George Bates, the first two years of his service were, more than anything else, uninterrupted boredom. He complains constantly of having nothing to report, yet is not in any hurry to be done with the war for fear of unemployment. Yet through these pages emerges a fascinating depiction of daily life in the military camps: the quality and quantity of food, foraging for provisions from local residents, the invaluable services given by the Sanitary Commission, and the diversions and amusements that diverted the soldiers. Bates appears not to have understood the true implications of war until his first battle, after which he wrote, "I shant reenlist." The series of letters written after his wounding at the Battle of Winchester afford an inside look at military hospitals.

The George Washington collection contains miscellaneous letters and documents written and received by George Washington, first President of the United States, relating to personal, political, and military matters. Most of the items in the collection date from the period during and after the Revolutionary War.

The George Washington collection (89 items) contains miscellaneous letters and documents to and from by George Washington. The papers consist of 4 pre-American Revolution items (1751-1774), 58 items dated during the war years (1775-1782), 9 items from his first retirement from public life (1783-1788), 10 items from his presidency (1789-1797), 4 items from his retirement until his death (1798-1789), 4 undated items, and an engraving of Washington by Fenner, Sears, and Company based on a painting by Gilbert Stuart. The letters concern personal, political, and military matters, and are from Washington to other American officers; he discussed strategy, battles and skirmishes, provisioning troops, American-French relations, American and British spies, and many other topics.

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.

A young physician wrote most of this diary while a passenger on a voyage from Alexandria, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846. Content includes humorous accounts of sailing by river and ocean, observations of sailors' superstitions (i.e., Mother Carey's Chickens, also known as Storm Petrels, St. Elmo's fire, etc.), weather and storm patterns, personal health, and patient treatment.

A young physician wrote most of this diary while a passenger on a voyage from Alexandria, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846. Content includes humorous accounts of sailing by river and ocean, sailors' superstitions (i.e., Mother Carey's Chickens, also known as Storm Petrels, St. Elmo's Fire, etc.), weather and storm patterns, personal health, and patient treatment.

His humor often took the form of comical comparisons and exaggerations or plays on dialect. To entertain himself, he brought several books: Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, by William Blackstone, the Bible, and a pocket Shakespeare. He attached varying levels of reading intensity to each, as well as the applicable situation in which he might read them—Blackstone's Commentaries, for example, was "suitable for a listless, languid frame of mind" (page 6).

He brought with him two Bologna sausages, which he jokingly and emphatically mistook for a woman's bustle in an expression of his apparent hatred for the garment (pages 6-7). When he had to throw the spoiled sausages overboard several days later, he lamented that he couldn't do the same with every bustle in the land (pages 23-24).

The author and several others (the captain, a skipper, and officers from a nearby revenue cutter) briefly disembarked to visit a family's farm in Virginia while waiting for better winds to sail. He included racial epithets that the family used when he quoted their complaints about the labor involved in caring for their farm without enslaved workers (page 22). The skipper revealed that the author was a physician, whereupon he was entreated to care for several members of the family. The mother's eye had been "eaten out by cancer" and the young daughter had a hard lump on her nose that the family felt sure would turn into cancer. The author treated the daughter's nose by excising the lump.

At some point between Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, the author wrote of being "assaulted, battered, and robbed" by bedbugs, which led him to construct a makeshift bed of camp stools to sleep on to avoid being bitten at night (page 11). His rheumatism also caused significant discomfort during the trip, and a self-administered treatment of liniment did little to ease his symptoms (page 34). Although the physician questioned whether or not he would become seasick at some point during the voyage, he narrowly avoided it—he did, however, treat a fellow passenger with a course of "consolation [and] pills" (page 30) after the man became seasick and vomited over the fresh paint sailors were applying to the bulwarks and rigging.

The entries from page 46 onwards were most likely written after the author landed in Boston. He wrote about his plans to attend a series of lectures given by Prof. Agassiz [Louis Agassiz] on animal classification.

The War of 1812 collection is a miscellaneous collection of approximately 300 single items relating to the War of 1812. The papers cover many aspect of the war on both the American and British sides, including naval and military operations, regimental matters, trade issues, and state and national politics relating to the war.

The War of 1812 collection (approximately 300 items) contains miscellaneous letters and documents relating to the War of 1812. The papers cover many aspects of the war on both the American and British sides, including naval and military operations, regimental matters, trade issues, and state and national politics relating to the war. Item types include letters, memoranda, reports, orders, documents, reminiscences, financial documents, and returns.

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.

The William H. Sherzer Hawaii photograph album contains approximately 320 images documenting a cross-country car camping trip beginning at Michigan State Normal College professor William H. Sherzer's home in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to California, and then by ship to Hawaii.

The William H. Sherzer Hawaii photograph album contains approximately 320 images documenting a cross-country car camping trip beginning at Michigan State Normal College professor William H. Sherzer's home in Ypsilanti, Michigan, to California, and then by ship to Hawaii. The album (29 x 20 cm) has woven grass covers, black paper pages, and includes numerous handwritten captions. Photographs of the American Southwest and California include views of natural features and rock formations in New Mexico, Arizona (including cliff dwellings near Roosevelt), and the Mojave Desert; the Grand Canyon; and Lick Observatory. The traveling party appear to have had their vehicle shipped to Hawaii along with them. Hawaii-related images include views of buildings and streets in Waikiki and Honolulu; the interior of a cottage; rice harvesting; scenic views of Kauai, Waimea, Mo'okini Heiau, Puna, Kohala, and the lava fields of volcanic regions; the steamships Wilhelmina and Matsonia; and a photograph of Elizabeth Lahilahi Webb outside the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Additional images include scenes from a trip to Alexandria, Arlington, and Mount Vernon in Virginia as well as Washington, D.C., mainly consisting of views of tourist attractions as well as a visit to Sherzer's sister Dr. Jane Sherzer.