Search

This collection contains 25 diaries, 4 ledgers, and one volume of society constitutions kept by Asenath Chapin between 1840 and 1863. Daily diary entries document the everyday life and concerns of a socially active matron in upper-class Providence, Rhode Island, during the pre-Civil War era and the early years of the war.

This collection contains 25 diaries, 4 ledgers, and one volume of society constitutions kept by Asenath Cargill Capron Chapin. The volumes cover April 28, 1840-July 22, 1863, with gaps from 1843-1846 and 1854-1856, and many are titled "Help to Memory." The diaries, most of which are approximately 100 pages long, contain brief daily entries about Chapin's social activities, which included calls made on others and on her family, active involvement in numerous social and religious societies, charitable efforts, and church events and services. The Children's Friend Society and other organizations occupied much of her time, and she frequently attended day-long church services. On June 13-14, 1842, she noted the founding of the Ladies Society of Providence for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, of which she then became a member.

The volumes also contain a few references to contemporary political events as they affected her life. In May and June 1842, for example, she occasionally mentioned local havoc caused by Dorr's Rebellion, and she wrote that her son-in-law attended at the Republican National Convention in 1860. On February 24, 1861, she referred to a "colored man" outside the church who requested donations to help him pay for the freedom of his mother and children. During the Civil War, Chapin maintained her focus on social events and everyday life but remarked about the fall of Fort Sumter and possibility of war (April 14-15, 1861). Four ledgers, dated between 1842 and 1851, document the Chapins' charitable donations and other expenses, including the cost of food and household items, and an additional volume holds constitutions and member lists for three societies: The Ladies Society of Providence for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, Beneficent Foreign Female Missionary Society, and Beneficent Female Education Society.

The Blanding-Carpenter papers contain the incoming and outgoing correspondence of the families of Noah Blanding of Attleboro, Massachusetts, and James Blanding of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Correspondents include friends and family members from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York.

The Blanding-Carpenter papers contain 70 incoming and outgoing letters of the families of Noah Blanding of Attleboro, Massachusetts, and James Blanding of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Correspondents include friends and family members from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York.

Family and local news were frequent topics of conversation, as were illnesses and their treatments. Several friends reported news of acquaintances' teaching careers around New England. Others mentioned their travels, particularly within Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and some mentioned people who were considering a move to California during the Gold Rush. Though based in Bristol County, Massachusetts, each family received letters from a variety of locations, and several recipients spent time in Seekonk, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and Brooklyn, New York. On one occasion, Nancy A. Blanding wrote her sister Elizabeth about a party she attended in Brooklyn (January 28, 1847). Childcare was also discussed; for example, Susannah Carpenter Blanding, then married to Nathaniel Arey (or Avrey), wrote about the growth of her children, and included a pattern for a child's stocking (September 12, 1852).

The Hill Family papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.

The Hill Family Papers are made up of the personal correspondence, diaries, scrapbooks, and photographs of the family of Alice Hale Hill, her husband U.S. Senator from Colorado Nathaniel Peter Hill, and their three children Crawford, Isabel, and Gertrude. The bulk of the material consists of letters dating from 1864 to 1907.

Correspondence Series: The earliest correspondence in the collection is between Nathaniel Hill and Alice Hill during his research and business trips to England and Colorado in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Alice Hill wrote of family and social news in Providence, Rhode Island, while Nathaniel Hill discussed his travels, particularly on the frontier in Colorado. The Colorado letters include detailed accounts of geography, daily life, and cultural practices of the local Native Americans and Mexican settlers. Later letters, after the family's move to Colorado in 1867, include those between Alice Hill and her daughter Isabel at school in Providence. The collection includes substantial correspondence between Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, Alice Hill, and family friend Kate Slaymaker from the 1870s through the 1900s, while living and travelling in Colorado, California, New York, Washington, D.C., and in Europe. Family and friend updates, social events, travel, theatrical and musical performances, and current news were frequent topics of discussion. They often described food, especially meals served at various events.

The papers also include a small number of letters to and from various members of the Hale Family (Alice's mother, siblings, and cousins). These include a transcript of extracts from an 1832 letter by Nathan Hale, two 1841 letters by Harriet Johnson Hale to her sister Nancy, 1857 and 1858 letters from Harriet Johnson Hale to George Johnson, an 1858 letter from Alice Hale to her parents and siblings, and an 1863 letter from Bell Borland to Nathaniel P. Hill and Alice Hale Hill.

The Diaries Series spans 1879 to 1895 and is comprised of Isabel Hill's daily journals during her time living in Providence, Denver, and Washington, D.C., as well as trips abroad to Europe. She discussed social calls, daily activities, meals, sightseeing, Congregational Church services, books read, and performances attended. Also included are her typed notes from a 1915 YWCA National Board Meeting and two academic notebooks. Isabel Hill's diaries include the following:

• 1879-1884 of 1885. Daily life in Denver, Providence, and Washington, D.C.; includes lecture notes on history of English literature. Return voyage from England by way of Queenstown, Ireland, to New York City.
• 1880, "Letters Written by Isabel Hill from Europe." Letters written to parents and siblings during trip to Europe: England, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, and Germany. Includes one letter written from Denver by Isabel to a Mrs. Guy.
• 1883-1885. Winter in Washington, D.C., trips to New York City, summer in Charlottesville, Virginia (including a day trip to Luray Caverns).
• 1887-1888. Denver, Colorado. Travels through Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Utah. Includes log of calls made and received while in New York, Albany, and Washington, D.C.
• 1889. Denver, Colorado, and Trip to Europe via New York City: England (Handel Festival at Crystal Palace), Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and France. Contains dried plant specimens. List of Albany acquaintances and calls made in New York (Dec. '85 and Jan '86) in back.
• 1890-1893. Denver, Colorado. "The Doll Fair" clipping and Mrs. Ella C. Benton calling card. Contains plant specimens
• June 9-September 26, [1891]. European Travel Diary. Trans-Atlantic crossing to Liverpool with trip culminating at New York City. Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, and Ireland. Discusses sights within context of current events. Originally enclosed in the 1890-1893 Diary.
• April 1893-November 1895. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Boston, Washington, D.C., New York.
• 1896-1897. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (Italy, France, Monaco, and Switzerland). Includes clothing accounts, books read, and list of people and European addresses in back. Partial newspaper clipping and name card in front of volume.
• April 16, 1897-June 12, 1899. Denver, Colorado. Trip to New York and Rhode Island.
• June 1899-July 1901. Denver, Colorado. Trip to Europe (England. France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Germany). Drink recipes, seating diagram, and list of names with addresses in back.
• July 1901-July 1904. Trip to Europe (England, Scotland, France, returning via New York City and Chicago, Illinois), Denver, Colorado, summering in Maine and Canada. List of presents for 1902, names with addresses, copied epitaphs, and two recipes written in the back of the book. Contains plant specimens.
• May 5-10, [1915]. YWCA Association National Meeting Notes, Los Angeles, California.
• Notebook, 1882. Zoology Lecture Notes (Professor Fairchild) and German Exercises.
• Kitchen Garden Class Notebook, 1897. Sample colors for linens with instructions for use and styling

Three Scrapbooks spanning the years 1892 to 1904 are filled with newspaper clippings, programs, and ephemera chronicling the activities of the Tuesday Musical Club in Denver. Isabel Hill was an active member who served as president of the Club. The organization was a group of amateur female musicians who hosted concerts by professional performers and held their own performances.

The collection's 68 Photographs include landscape views and group and solo portraits of Nathaniel P. Hill, Alice Hale Hill, Isabel Hill, Gertrude Hill, and family members and friends from the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth century. They are largely card-mounted paper photographs.

The Printed Items and Ephemera Series includes business cards for the English Church in Milan and hotels including Charles Justin's The Shakespeare (Stratford on Avon), Hôtel de Flandre (Bruges), and Hotel Schweizerhof. Also included is a scrap of paper with address of Mary Cabell, a card for Caledonia Mills, and newspaper clippings chronicling the Knott's 1909 automobile tour of France, Mrs. J. H. P. Voorhies death, and a United States Legation reception. One envelope contains a lock of Isabel's hair. Additional items include Tuesday Musical Club ephemera, Brown University entrance examination schedule and English text, Cook's Tour railroad ticket (Milan to Chiasso), Crawford Hill's 1881 Classical Department (English and Classical School) report card, a telegram from N. P. Hill to Isabel Hill, a programme for Seamen's Orphanage Benefit Concert, and receipts from Chicago wholesalers. Two books include James Alexander Semple's Representative Women of Colorado (Denver, 1914) and Susan Fenimore Cooper's Mount Vernon: A Letter to the Children of America (New York, 1859).

This collection contains correspondence related to Nathan W. Williams, a Yale graduate and preacher in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, including incoming correspondence from friends and family members and his siblings' correspondence with their father, Reverend Thomas Williams of Providence, Rhode Island. Family members shared social news and updates about their travels, and Nathan's friends commented on their lives around New England. The collection also includes three framed, silhouette style paintings of Nathan W. Williams and his parents, Thomas and Ruth, by artist Edward Seager.

This collection contains correspondence related to Reverend Thomas Williams of Providence, Rhode Island, and to his son, Nathan W. Williams, who attended Yale and later became a preacher in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Nathan received 8 letters from friends, 5 from his father, 2 from his brother Thomas, 1 from his sister Sarah, and 1 from his brother Stephen. He also wrote 2 letters to his sister Mary, 2 to his father, and 1 to the Congregational Church at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. The remaining items include 1 letter Reverend Thomas Williams wrote to his wife Ruth, 2 letters he received from his daughter Sarah, 1 from his son-in-law, and 1 from his son Thomas.

Reverend Thomas Williams and his son Nathan exchanged 7 letters between December 19, 1849, and November 11, 1850. In 5 letters to Nathan, Thomas Williams shared family news from Providence, Rhode Island, including travel plans and updates on Nathan's siblings and their families. Nathan, in return, wrote about his wife, Frances, and daughter, Anna, describing a "donation party" held for them by his congregation in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts (January 15, 1850). In his letter of November 11, 1850, Nathan was concerned that his sister Mary and her husband "Mr. Grover" were planning to travel to the South for her health and discussed the drawbacks at length. Thomas Williams also wrote one letter to his wife Ruth while living in Foxboro, Massachusetts (May 6, 1816), and received letters from two of his children. In his April 19, 1839 letter, Thomas Hale Williams wrote of his attempts to find a place to live in Hartford, Connecticut, and drew the floor plan of one of the possible choices. Sarah Williams Cotton wrote of her first week of married life in Pomfret, Connecticut (April 29, 1850), and of a visit to her brother Nathan (October 24, 1850).

Nathan W. Williams also received letters from his classmates at Yale College, as well as from his siblings. One acquaintance, Benjamin T. Eames, thanked Williams for sending information on Yale's entry requirements (July 6, 1839), and another, M. Patten, mentioned raising money to pay for Nathan's tuition (January 5, 1842). William S. Huggins, a former classmate, wrote 4 letters between 1846 and 1850, in which he provided news of his recent travels to Washington, D. C., where he witnessed a speech by the Speaker of the House (February 20, 1850), and to western New York and Niagara Falls (October 19, 1850). In the summer of 1849, Nathan's brother Thomas wrote two letters concerning books, and Nathan wrote twice to his sister Mary in Philadelphia, describing his social life and hoping to meet her in New York City (January 4, 1842, and May 8, 1842). Sarah Williams (later Cotton) also corresponded with her brother and sister-in-law (February 6, 1850), as did Nathan's brother Stephen (August 16, 1851).

Nathan Williams also wrote a response to the call from the Congregational Church in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, on January 29, 1849, provisionally accepting a position as the church's pastor but requesting vacation periods and a visit to the town.

The collection also includes three framed, silhouette style paintings of Nathan W. Williams and his parents, Thomas and Ruth, by artist Edward Seager. The Nathan Williams portrait is dated May 1834; his parents' silhouette portraits are undated.