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The Charles H. Hosmer collection is made up of a diary (365 pages, 1877), 13 stereoscopic photographs (1872-1877), and a published volume (1870) related to the Hosmer's career as an assistant surveyor with the United States Coast Survey. The diary covers his experiences working along the Banana River in Florida and in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The Charles H. Hosmer collection is made up of a diary (365 pages, 1877), 13 stereographs (1872-1877), and a published volume (1870) related to Hosmer's career as an assistant surveyor with the United States Coast Survey.

The Diary is a partially printed Excelsior pocket diary for the year 1877, with each page devoted to one day. Hosmer wrote brief daily entries, covering his experiences on a surveying expedition along Florida's Banana River onboard the steamer Steadfast; his journeys to Bar Harbor, Maine, and Chicago, Illinois; and his daily life in Bristol, Rhode Island, between his travels.

From January to mid-May, Hosmer wrote from the Steadfast along Florida's eastern coast. He frequently visited Titusville and often recorded his successful duck hunting excursions. Entries also pertain to his hydrographical work for the United States Coast Survey, other workers onboard the ship, and Hosmer's acquaintances. He discussed his railroad journey home to Bristol, Rhode Island, various aspects of his social life, and later working journeys to Bar Harbor, Maine, and other locations. Memoranda at the back of the volume include a list of letters written by Hosmer, an address list, and tide gauge statistics recorded along the Banana River (1876 and 1877) and in Maine (undated).

A collection of 13 black-and-white Stereoscopic Photographs depict three-dimensional scenes from the southern United States and from Taunton River, Massachusetts, and Rockford, Illinois.

• Photographs of Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia (3 items)
• Pavilion Hotel, Savannah, Georgia (undated)
• Fort Sumter (1872)
• The Charleston Hotel, Charleston, South Carolina (undated)
• A storefront in Rockford, Illinois (undated)
• John R. Porter residence, Rockford, Illinois (undated)
• Surveying equipment and men at a camp near Taunton River, Massachusetts (2 items, September-October 1876)
• Number 707 Glen House, [Littleton, New Hampshire?] (undated)
• United States Steamship Bavataria [sic] (undated)
• Burnham slate quarry (undated)

The Printed Publication is a copy of United States Coast Survey. Memoranda Relating to the Field-Work of the Secondary Triangulation, written by Richard D. Cutts and published by the Government Printing Office in 1870. The text includes related tables. Charles Hosmer's name is printed on the front cover. A 10-page packet of manuscript documents laid into the book, contains Hosmer's descriptions of flagstaffs and signals "Between New Rochelle and Greenwich" (3 pages); tables recording several geographical positions with brief copied notes from G. Bradford (6 pages, June 1885 and undated); and a letter to Charles Hosmer from C. O. Bontelle of the C. & G. Survey (1 page, June 1, 1885). Bontelle's letter contains a small diagram showing old and new Bessel data lines, used in surveying.

This volume is a published collection of photographic prints of battlegrounds, ruins, works, and other scenes from the America Civil War in Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. The photographs were taken between the spring of 1864 and the spring of 1866. Along with the published photographs of Mathew Brady, and Alexander Gardner's Photographic sketchbook, Barnard's Views of Sherman's campaign is one of the main photographic monuments of the Civil War, containing some of the most famous images of the war's destruction.

Photographic Views of the Sherman Campaign (41cm x 51cm) is a collection of 57 photographic prints published in New York by Wynkoop & Hallenbeck in 1866. An abbreviated title is stamped in gold on the album's brown leather cover and the full title is printed on the first page. Clements Library's copy is imperfect: four plates lacking; one missing plate, acquired separately, is shelved at: Photo Div F.20.1. Inscriptions indicate that this copy was presented by Edward Hoffmire to John M. Hoffmire, his brother, in 1868, and John M. Hoffmire later gave it to his daughter Emma on April 15, 1916.

Each print is labeled with the location of the photograph, often including the names of natural and manmade landmarks. Some areas are represented in multiple images, though each item provides a unique view of landscapes and urbanized areas in Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. Many show evidence of military activity, including soldiers, tents and camps, earthworks and trenches, blasted trees, destroyed railroads and buildings. One item is a group portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman and seven other Union generals. See the list of photographs in Additional Descriptive Data for more information about specific locales pictured.