American History

GENERAL AND COLONIAL ERA

Presidential Autographs Collection

The library's collection of American presidential autographs developed during the period when the University Archives had charge of the papers of John Gilmary Shea, who had brought together examples of the writing of most of the presidents up to 1892; these were supplemented by a fair number of letters written by presidents to various Georgetown Jesuits. These have been further added to by manuscripts, documents, and letters in a number of separate collections, and the number of examples has become large enough (nearly 1,000 items in all) that many examples now remain with the collections which bring them to Georgetown. The recent gift by Henry L. Heymann of several early examples including Tyler, Monroe, and Lincoln has further strengthened the library's holdings in this field.

The Library of John Gilmary Shea

Among the more than 5,000 printed books, journals, newspapers, and pamphlets making up the library of the American Catholic historian John Gilmary Shea are strong groups of sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century works relating to the exploration of Canada and the Spanish Southwest, including a number of such individual rarities as Juan de Montoya's Relación (Rome, 1602), a primary source for the history of New Mexico that is known in only two copies. Also part of the collection is a comprehensive collection of American Catholic nineteenth century pamphlets, including virtually complete sets of records of diocesan synods and pastoral letters. All of these are further buttressed by strong holdings in American Indian history and linguistics and a general collection of volumes recounting the exploration and settlement of North America.

John Gilmary Shea Papers

Besides a limited amount of personal correspondence and other items making up his papers, the collection includes a substantial body of original manuscripts, transcripts, and related research materials documenting the early history of the Catholic Church in America. Original documents of the colonial period from Canada, New York, Maryland, Florida, and northern Mexico are present. Of comparable interest are larger bodies of documents from later periods down to about 1875, and an extensive file on Archbishop John Carroll. To these may be added a number of original Civil War artists' sketches (deriving, no doubt, from Shea's editorship of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly), and extensive files dealing with native American languages and cultures.
Gift of Sophie S. Shea and Elizabeth Shea
ca. 1600-1892 * 11.50 linear feet

Pieter H. G. Verhoog Papers

The papers of Verhoog, a journalist and translator who served the Holland-America Line for more than 40 years, provide extensive documentation for his researches into the first landfall of Christopher Columbus in 1492, which he determined to have been Caicos, rather than the more commonly accepted Watling's Island.
Gift of Mrs. Robert M. Weidenhammer
1927-1992 * 2.00 linear feet

Early Maryland and Pennsylvania History

The Archives of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus and, to a lesser extent, the Woodstock College Archives (both more fully described under The Society of Jesus) contain a wealth of material valuable to scholars of the early history of Maryland and, to a much lesser extent, eastern Pennsylvania. A number of other smaller collections, many of them gathered during the period of activity of the "Morgan Maryland Colonial Library," complement the Province Archives holdings, including the following:

• papers of the Plowden family, principally records of land holdings, 1660-1914, gift of Mrs. Clifford Lewis, Jr., Clifford Lewis III, and Agnes Plowden;
• papers of the Tilghman family, principally farm accounts and related business documents from the eighteenth century, but including an unpublished narrative (1843) of travel in the Far West, gift of Elizabeth Woodville;
• papers of Robert Fergusson and Alexander Hamilton, two related groups of business correspondence from Maryland tobacco factors, ca. 1780-1800
;
• the Charles Carroll of Carrollton Collection, including drafts of an essay by Carroll, a limited number of autograph and signed letters, books from his library, and a description of landholdings in the Carroll estate, ca. 1830
;
• documents pertaining to the Brooke family, Prince George's County, Maryland, 1723-1748
;
• papers of the Green family, consisting of various records, Charles County, Maryland, 1762-1849
;
• Alexander McWilliams Papers, 1678-1844, consisting of a variety of documents relating to "Broad Neck," a tract of land located in St. Clement's Manor, St. Mary's County, Maryland, gift of Joseph McWilliams through the auspices of Lawrence Kelly, S.J.
;
• the Quaker Collection, consisting of a folio album; a commonplace book; and related correspondence touching on Quaker activities in Pennsylvania and on the island of Tortola, and mentioning Quaker interest in the anti-slavery and temperance movements, ca. 1740-1815, gift of Joseph E. and Jeannine Jeffs;
• papers of the Loughborough family, mainly family correspondence, 1803-1917, gift of Margaret C. Loughborough; an
d
• papers of the Thomas Sim Lee family, 1778-1844, gift of Sarah Redmund Lee through the auspices of John LaFarge, S.J.

American Revolution

The library preserves among its holdings no single major collection on this topic, but a variety of fragmentary sources offer documentation on the War of Independence. Printed sources include a number of early pamphlets and accounts of the war, including a 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence from Salem, Massachusetts, as well as an extensive group of printed materials relating to Major John André. Among primary sources, besides single wartime letters of George Washington and other American leaders, the following are of special note:

• copy, probably created by a "committee of correspondence," of the October 1774 petition of the Continental Congress to George III;

• orderly books of the Third Connecticut Regiment, 1779 (part of the John Gilmary Shea Papers);

• a group of autograph letters of Revolutionary date by and to Baron von Steuben in the Mimika Farish Frith Collection, gift of Mimika Farish Frith; and

• journal of a French soldier of the regiment of Armagnac attached to De Grasse's Caribbean squadron, 1781-1784, including accounts of action against the British.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Haiti

The French side of Haiti's struggle for independence is documented in the fragmentary papers of French General Jean Baptiste Brunet, 1802-1803, consisting largely of reports to his superiors, Leclerc and Rochambeau, but also including incoming correspondence as well. On the Haitian side, the outcome of that struggle, if not its course, is documented in a remarkable series of early Santo Domingo imprints and Haitian government documents including the only copy so far located of the Nomination of Dessalines as emperor of Haiti (1804), the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Roderick Engert. The whole extent of Haiti's history and culture is the subject of the collection of books and documents formed by U.S. Marine Colonel Robert Debs Heinl, Jr., and his wife, Nancy Gordon Heinl, in the writing of their history of Haiti (Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1971) and donated by Mrs. Heinl. The collection includes a large number of books by respected Haitian historians and ethnographers, as well as by non-Haitian observers.

Michel Marsaudon Papers

The papers of Michel Marsaudon document the daily life and activities of a young French merchant trader in Haiti during the period of the early French Revolution and the first revolts on the island. Both the business side and the personal side of Marsaudon's life--he was something of a man with the ladies--are well represented, as is commentary on political and social conditions in the island's principal cities.
1788-1802 * 0.50 linear foot

Parsons Collection

Over a period of many years Georgetown assembled in the Parsons Collection (named for former librarian and bibliographer Wilfrid Parsons, S.J.) by far the most complete collection of Catholic devotional books and other works by Catholic authors printed in this country between 1720 and 1830, especially as they are supplemented by books in the Woodstock Theological Library. Many of the collection's nearly 500 titles, especially official church publications like the annual Ordo and pastoral letters, are very scarce indeed, and the collection includes among its rarities the only known copy of the first American Catholic directory (1817). Items in the collection, as they are re-cataloged for entry in the library's electronic database, are being assigned new physical locations, though their traditional connections are maintained in a separate bibliographic file.

Clorivière Collection

The collection of Rev. Joseph-Pierre Picot de Limoëlan de Clorivière (1768-1826), consisting of some 175 volumes, preserves possibly intact the working library of a Catholic priest serving in Charleston, South Carolina, and in Washington during the period 1812-1826. Not surprisingly, given Clorivière's heritage, the bulk of the works are in French, and the perilous position of the church in France during the Revolution and after is reflected in the collection's emphasis on private devotion and individual prayer.
Gift of the Georgetown Visitation Monastery

Other Nineteenth Century Printed Materials

Besides the relevant portions of the Shea library and the MacNeil collection (described under Political Science), the library has a number of smaller collections that provide special resources for students of nineteenth century American history. Of principal note among these are an extensive group of early state statutes and session laws covering virtually the whole country and a strong collection of nineteenth century Catholic newspapers, primarily from the East but with a few Midwestern examples. In the Woodstock Theological Library are a considerable number of related American rarities, including the first edition of The Book of Mormon (1830) and the only known copy of the 1825 "Bardstown Catechism."

Levy Collection of Papers of Robert G. Ingersoll

The collection includes a large quantity of autograph manuscripts by the noted lawyer and lecturer Robert Green Ingersoll, the "Great Agnostic." There is also a group of Ingersoll correspondence, a law diary, and a group of early printed materials. Of major note are two manuscript drafts of the famous "Plumed Knight" speech nominating James G. Blaine for the presidency in 1876. A recent addition to the collection is an account book from Ingersoll's law firm giving details on his legal business.
Gift of Isaac D. Levy
1866-1898 * 1.75 linear feet

Richard X. Evans Collection

The Evans Collection includes family correspondence, manuscripts, and other items comprising the archives of the Mills, Dimitry, and Evans families. Of principal interest is correspondence to and from the following: General John Smith of "Hackwood," a member of Congress from 1801 to 1815; Robert Mills, architect of the Treasury, the Washington Monument, the Patent Office, and other major buildings in Washington and elsewhere; and Alexander Dimitry, educator, diplomat, and assistant postmaster general of the Confederacy.
Gift of Richard X. Evans
1752-1976 * 6.50 linear feet

Elder Family Papers

Correspondence of William Henry Elder, Archbishop of Cincinnati, and other family members, the bulk relating to various aspects of Catholic church history in nineteenth century America. Among well-known correspondents are archbishops Martin John Spalding and John M. Odin as well as Confederate General Pierre Beauregard.
Gift of Barbara Cooper, R.S.C.J.
1794-1906 * 0.25 linear foot

Henry G. Hunt-William B. Chilton Collection

Primarily family documents and correspondence of various members of the Chilton and Brent families, touching on diplomatic and military affairs, art, travel, and letters. Family members represented include Daniel Brent, diplomat; John Carroll Brent, attorney and writer; George Chilton, chemist; and diplomat and poet Robert S. Chilton. Correspondents and authors of documents in the collection include James Buchanan, Mary Mapes Dodge, John Wesley Jarvis, and Lewis Gaylord Clark.
Gift of Henry G. Hunt
ca. 1804-1936 * 5.25 linear feet

Santa Anna Collection

A small group of papers of Mexican president and general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and some of his close associates, consisting primarily of military correspondence dating between April and September 1847 and including a long, detailed, and unhappy accounting to Santa Anna from Felles in California, as well as several printed United States Army documents from the Mexican campaign.
Gift of Robert L. Walsh
1843-1847 * 0.50 linear foot

David Rankin Barbee Papers

The papers include very substantial research files formed during the earlier part of this century by historian and journalist David Rankin Barbee, focussing on Lincoln and the Civil War, and especially on events leading up to Lincoln's assassination. His tracking down of people who were near the events in question make Barbee's files of permanent value for students of the assassination. The papers also include Barbee's valuable research material on Confederate spy Rose O'Neil Greenhow.
Gift of Mrs. Hugh F. Smith and Mrs. Robert C. Maxwell
1886-1956 * 25.00 linear feet

E. H. Swaim Collection

The Swaim Collection, well-known to several generations of researchers into the Lincoln assassination, incorporates much of the research material amassed by Finis L. Bates and Dr. Clarence True Wilson. The collection focusses on the career of John Wilkes Booth after the assassination, attempting to substantiate insofar as possible the hypothesis that Booth was not killed after the assassination in 1865.
Gift of the estate of E. H. Swaim
1893-1980 * 7.00 linear feet

Margaret Bearden Papers

The Bearden Papers consist of correspondence, primarily relating to the assassination of Lincoln and various theories offered in partial explanation of that event, between Mrs. Bearden and such other scholars and theorists as Robert Anderson, David Rankin Barbee, John C. Brennan, Bruce Catton, Otto Eisenschiml, Dr. Richard D. Mudd, Col. Julian E. Raymond, Richard Sloan, and E. H. Swaim, among others. The correspondence is supplemented by an extensive file of tape recordings of lectures concerning various aspects of the Civil War.
Gift of Mrs. Bearden
1944-1983 * 4.50 linear feet

Other Lincoln Collections

The library holds two other special collections that focus on various aspects of the political career, and especially the assassination, of Abraham Lincoln:

• the Eugene G. Boss Collection, rich in Lincoln-related ephemera, especially political, and containing several signed Lincoln documents and other autographs, gift of Dr. Boss; and

• the Lincoln collection formed by Earl Kubicek, a large assemblage of almost 1,500 printed books, pamphlets, journal issues, and other items relating to Lincoln, now divided between the Special Collections Division and the general stacks.

Ord Family Papers

The Ord Family Papers consist in large measure of intra-family correspondence touching on the Civil War, on Reconstruction, on the early years of California statehood, and other matters. Principal correspondents include James Ord (1789-1873), reputed to be the son of George IV and Mrs. Fitzherbert; and Major General E. O. C. Ord (1818-1883), his son; and the General's brothers James Placidus Ord, Judge Pacificus Ord, and Dr. James Lycurgus Ord.
Gift of Marian Ord
1845-1963 * 2.00 linear feet

Horace Porter Collection

The collection consists in large part of the honorific muniments and other relics of this Civil War general and Medal of Honor recipient, ranging from a West Point document signed by the gallant John Pelham (1860), to a captured Confederate sword presented in the aftermath of the battle of Fort Pulaski (l862), to an elegant testimonial signed by President McKinley and his Cabinet on the occasion of Porter's appointment as ambassador to France (1897). Of special interest is a daguerreotype portrait of Porter from about 1855 in his West Point cadet's uniform, one of the earliest such portraits known.
Gift of Mrs. Horace Porter Mende
1855-1921 * 6.50 linear feet

Other Civil War Collections

Besides the various materials noted in descriptions of other collections, the library has several other small groups of manuscripts of potential value to Civil War scholars. These include:

• the wartime diary of Confederate soldier John Dooley;

• a group of miscellaneous papers relating to the Confederate side of the Civil War, including autographs and letters by Jefferson Davis, John S. Mosby, and others, gift of Edith S. Mayfield;

• sketchbook of John Mooney, a long-time teacher at the Corcoran School of Art, kept while he served in the Confederate army, gift of Mary Willis Shelburne;

• correspondence and other papers in the Oliver P. Swisher Collection (deposited by William G. Ketterer; restricted);

• correspondence and related documents in the John Erwin Collection, gift of Frank Kurt Cylke;
• correspondence in the Breedin Family Papers, gift of Ruth Coleman Marthinson;
• correspondence of Lt. William R. T. Boggs, of Pennsylvania, gift of Vickie R. Boggs;

• correspondence and related documents in the Julius P. Garesché Collection, gift of Louis J. Garesché;

• correspondence in the William O. Dundas Collection, gift of Mr. Dundas; and

• correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, and related material, mostly from Louisiana, in the Richard X. Evans Collection (described above).

Otto L. Hein Papers

The Hein Papers include correspondence and photographs documenting the career of this Indian fighter, military attaché at European courts, and commandant at West Point (1897-1901), the author of Memories of Long Ago (1925), an autobiography as valuable for its recall of choice rumor and gossip as for its recital of events. Included in the collection are a controversial account of Custer's actions at the Little Big Horn, written by an officer on the scene shortly before and after the battle, as well as letters from such notables as Theodore Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, and officer-author Charles S. King.
Gift of Herbert R. Hein, Jr.
1873-1930 * 0.75 linear foot

Helen King Boyer Collection

The collection includes the papers of homeopathic physician Zachary T. Miller and those of his daughter and granddaughter, the artists Louise Miller Boyer and Helen King Boyer. Among its many significant correspondences are a group of letters by Pennsylvania politician Nathaniel B. Boileau, 1823- 1828; over 130 substantive Civil War letters by Dr. Miller to his family, 1862-1864; more than 250 informative letters from concert pianist Julie Rivé-King; and a particularly remarkable series by Louise Boyer in which she describes her career as a pioneer screenwriter at Metro in New York in 1918. Other correspondents include John A. Brashear, John Taylor Arms, and Elbert Hubbard. The collection also includes more than 1,000 family photographs, most dating from the end of the nineteenth century. Original artwork and prints by Boyer family members are described under Visual and Performing Arts.
Gift of Helen King Boyer
ca. 1823-1940 8.50 linear feet

John Mullan Papers

Besides a small amount of material relating to Mullan's early career as a military engineer and explorer in the Far West, the bulk of the collection deals with his later efforts as a claims agent (1878-1908) in Washington, D.C., for California, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, and Washington Territory.
Gift of Mary Rebecca Mullan Flather
1859-1940 4.50 linear feet

Ewing-Sherman Family Papers

The papers, consisting of correspondence and a variety of other materials, form a valuable supplement to the large collection of family papers at the University of Notre Dame. Georgetown's holdings include a series of letters and a manuscript speech by General William T. Sherman, and important records of General Charles Ewing.
Gift of Eleanor Sherman Fitch and P. Tecumseh Sherman
1850-1950 3.00 linear feet

Other Military Collections

Besides collections noted elsewhere, there are a number of small groups of material bearing on various aspects of American military history in the nineteenth century. Of particular note are the following:

• a bound volume of commendatory letters received by Stephen Decatur after his successful action against H.M.S. Macedonian, gift of Susan Wheeler Decatur;
• a group of letters between members of the Causten family relating to the naval side of the War of 1812, gift of Elizabeth Young;
• correspondence received by Charles Lacey, naval officer, 1809-1814, concerning military and domestic aspects of the war with England, gift of Charles H. Trunnel;
• letters to Commodore John Rodgers, 1813-1815, gift of Louisa R. Meigs;
• papers relating to the West Point days and brief army career, ca. 1825-1832, of James Clark, S.J., including West Point documents signed by Robert E. Lee;
• documents and manuscripts of Capt. Dominick Lynch, including accounts of service and travel in California, Hawaii, and the interior of Ecuador in the late 1840s, gift of the estate of Tonita Ridgway Martin;
• record book of a detachment of Spanish or Puerto Rican troops stationed at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 1893-97, gift of Gerald E. Griffin; and
• papers chronicling the naval career from 1854 onwards of Rear Admiral Jackson McElmell, gift of Thomas A. McElmell.

John F. Farley Papers

The Farley collection is a prime source for the study of the American West. The letters, telegrams, and clippings contained in it provide insight into Farley's career as chief of police in Denver, Colorado, from 1889 to 1915, as well as glimpses of his earlier work for the Thiel detective agency and as a cavalryman. Correspondents include G. H. Thiel, mining king H. A. W. Tabor, Major Gerald Russell, and many others.
Gift of Mrs. John B. Farley
1889-1940 1.00 linear foot

O'Connor Railroad Collection

This collection, formed by Jeremiah J. O'Connor, has two principal components: a strong group of early (pre-1840) publications on American railroading, with supporting European materials; and a large assemblage of railroad timetables, brochures, maps, and other ephemera, again principally American and with a substantial component of nineteenth century examples. Including posters and other graphics, the collection totals some 5,000 items.
Gift of Margaret M. O'Connor

Martin I. J. Griffin Papers

The papers consist primarily of correspondence, principally with American Roman Catholic churchmen, generated by Griffin's twin careers as historian and journalist; he is best known as editor of American Catholic Historical Researches and as an authoritative early writer on the history of Catholicism in his native Philadelphia.
1848-1912 3.75 linear feet

Rogers Family Papers

The papers focus on the careers of three Marylanders: James Webb Rogers I (1822-1896), author, lawyer, and clergyman who served in the Civil War as chaplain on the staff of General Leonidas Polk, and his sons, the inventor J. Harris Rogers (1850-1929) and attorney James C. Rogers. The collection includes a large quantity of material dealing with J. Harris Rogers' various inventions, including an underseas wireless system of importance to American submarines in World War I. Among a large number of correspondents should be noted Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, Joaquin Miller, Lee De Forest, and writer Grace Greenwood.
Gift of Mrs. James Webb Rogers II
1803-1985 (bulk: 1860-1940) 30.00 linear feet

Other Nineteenth Century Holdings

The library houses a variety of collections that, while not of great physical extent, offer useful documentation to scholars of many aspects of nineteenth century American life. Some of these are incorporated in the "Historical Manuscripts Collection," an assemblage of smaller groups of records formerly housed in the University Archives. Among these the following are of considerable potential interest to the researcher:

• Aylmer Family Papers, containing insightful letters home from a student at Georgetown and St. Mary's College, 1836-1840, gift of Margaret Aylmer;

• Bernard U. Campbell Papers, containing historical material on Maryland and the Catholic missions as well as a letter from George Bancroft (1844);
• papers of attorney and historian Richard H. Clarke, gift of the Clarke family;
• Richard Duckett Papers, consisting of two volumes of Duckett's notes on Benjamin Rush's lectures on medicine, 1799- 1800;
• Benjamin J. Gilbert Papers, including six letters from Daniel Webster with occasional comments on national affairs during the War of 1812, 1795-1818;
• Charles Guiteau Collection, containing letters and documents by Guiteau and others relating to his assassination of President Garfield, including a letter from Guiteau to General William T. Sherman asking that Sherman rescue Guiteau from jail, gift of William B. O'Donnell;
• bound volume of pamphlets relating largely to Native American archaeology and anthropology (ca. 1875-1878), richly annotated by Wills De Hass, the gift of Ira Weiss Pearlman;
• the Holland Collection, a substantial photographic record of American agricultural methods and development, largely dating from the late nineteenth century, gift of James G. Holland;
• manuscript diary of Rev. John Kelly, kept during his service as a missionary to emancipated black Catholics from America returned to Liberia, 1842, gift of Thomas H. Kelly through the auspices of Thomas F. Meehan;
• papers of Archbishop Francis P. Kenrick, including a manuscript on the spiritual instruction of Protestant children, ca. 1850-59;
• Lynde Family Papers, correspondence and documents regarding land claims in Louisiana, ca. 1862-1925;
• Matthews Family Papers, accounts and land documents, the bulk relating to Missouri, 1818-1941, gift of Margaret B. Scattergood;
• a group of autograph letters (in German, 1852-54) from Bishop (now Saint) John Nepomucene Neumann, gift of M. A. Noel, S.J.;
• Vinnie Ream Collection, comprising correspondence, photographs, and articles by and about this American sculptress, gift of General and Mrs. Richard L. Hoxie; and
• papers of Rev. Charles Constantine Pise, the first Catholic chaplain to serve in the United States Senate.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Jean Edward Smith Papers

Materials amassed by historian Jean Edward Smith for his full-length biography of Lucius D. Clay entitled "Lucius D. Clay: An America Life" (New York: Holt, 1990). Cooperating with his biographer on this project, Clay exchanged correspondence with Smith, recounted key events, agreed to take part in numerous oral history interviews, and provided access to key documents.
Gift of Jean Edward Smith
1969-1975 * 12.00 linear feet

Louis J. A. Mercier Papers

The papers cover the full range of Mercier's career as educator and philosopher of education, author of such works as Le Mouvement humaniste aux Etats-Unis, The Challenge of Humanism, and American Humanism and the New Age. Included are drafts of his writings, research materials, class materials, lecture notes, and correspondence; among his correspondents are Norman Foerster, Robert Maynard Hutchins, Paul Elmer More, and Baron Ernest Seilliere.
Gift of Jeanne Mercier and the Mercier family
1888-1966 * 22.50 linear feet

Fitzhugh Green, Sr., Papers

While they include many of Fitzhugh Green's later manuscripts, the Green papers are of importance principally for their documentation of the Crocker Land expedition to the Arctic led by Donald B. MacMillan just before World War I. Green interrupted his naval career to take part, and he kept extensive journals as well as photographs and other records concerning the expedition. Among those whose letters to him Green kept are Donald B. MacMillan, Robert E. Peary, and Richard E. Byrd.
Gift of Penelope Green
1900-1947 * 8.25 linear feet

Janet Richards Papers

The Richards Papers include extensive correspondence by public officials and foreign diplomats relating to Miss Richards' career as a lecturer and columnist, together with some items of women's suffrage interest, minutes of the Board of Lady Managers of the National Homeopathic Association, and early family records.
Gift of the estate of Miss Richards
1724-1948 * 2.00 linear feet

Ora Lumpkin Mayfield Papers

In large part, family correspondence and memorabilia gathered by the wife of Senator Earle B. Mayfield of Texas, including materials relating to her long-time involvement with the Daughters of the American Revolution in her hometown of Tyler, Texas.
Gift of Edith S. and John S. Mayfield
ca. 1880-1973 * 7.50 linear feet

John Knox Papers

The collection consists primarily of correspondence, including many letters from Knox to his family
during his period (1935-1937) as clerk to James C. McReynolds of the U. S. Supreme Court. Also included are correspondence with justices Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as with numerous veterans of the Civil War, British aviators of World War I, and members of the Prussian royal family, including Kaiser Wilhelm.
ca. 1925-1940 * 16.00 linear feet

Ernest Larue Jones Collection

The Jones Collection consists of some 1,500 photographic prints (many of them first generation), mounted in seven volumes, relating to the early history of American aviation. The photographs were taken or collected by Jones primarily in the period 1907-1915, during which time he was editor of the pioneer technical journal Aeronautics.
ca. 1863-1917

Daniel W. Tracy Papers

Correspondence and other papers relating principally to the labor union career of Tracy, as assistant secretary of labor (1940-1946) and as vice president of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor (1947-1955).
Gift of Mrs. Daniel W. Tracy
1929-1955 * 2.50 linear feet

Edythe Patten Corbin Papers

An extensive correspondence received by Mrs. Corbin, the wife of General Henry C. Corbin. Principal correspondents, often giving their views on national and international affairs, include President William Howard Taft, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, General John J. Pershing, Myron T. Herrick, and Elihu Root.
Gift of Mrs. Corbin
1898-1960 * 1.50 linear feet

Richard H. Tierney, S.J., Collection

The Tierney Collection consists of original documentation: pamphlets, news accounts, and some manuscript material relating to the convoluted and combative New York charities investigations of 1915-16, which raised questions of wiretapping, church-state separation, child abuse, and outright fraud. This material was assembled as the research basis for contemporary articles in America, the New York-based Jesuit magazine.
ca. 1904-1917 * 2.50 linear feet

Atomic Energy Collection

The collection, numbering several hundred printed books and journals, focusses on American publications dealing with nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and related matters, commencing with the first distributed version of Smyth's General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes (1945) and extending up to about 1960. The bulk of the collection stems from gifts of Renée Amrine, George M. and Penelope C. Barringer, and George Weil.

Carl A. S. Coan Collection in Housing and Urban Affairs

Personal and professional papers, government documents, typescripts, and related items concerning housing and urban affairs both in the United States and abroad, particularly in regard to the work of the United Nations. Coan served from 1961 to 1976 as staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs, and the collection includes numerous drafts of his speeches for Senator John Sparkman and related correspondence.
Gift of Flora Coan Daly
1954-1976 * 21.00 linear feet

Archives of Dag Hammarskjöld College

Founding documents, correspondence, financial records, curricula, and other documents, the whole being the archives of Dag Hammarskjöld College, Columbia, Maryland. The college experimented in polycultural education with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary studies and experience-oriented learning. It operated from 1972 to 1975.
Gift of Robert L. McCan
1967-1975 * 21.00 linear feet

John J. Meng Papers

Correspondence, photographs, and related files concerning Dr. Meng's long career in American, and particularly Catholic, higher education, including tenures as a professor at the Catholic University of America and Queens College, as president of Hunter College, and as a member of a host of conferences, task groups, and other educational structures.
Gift of Dr. Meng and members of the Meng family
1922-1986 * 93.00 linear feet

Paul R. Sullivan Papers

Correspondence and documents relating to Professor Sullivan's 20-year career in Georgetown's English Department (1941-1961), including documentation of "The Blue and Gray Show," a student-produced radio broadcast that aired from 1946 to 1951, as well as material concerning a navy-financed Antarctic operational and behavioral research project in which Professor Sullivan participated in the 1950s.
Gift of Patricia A. Sullivan
1930-1961 * 7.50 linear feet

The Kennedy Assassination

The library has three small collections that bear on various aspects of the Kennedy assassination and on the ongoing investigation conducted by scholars and other individuals skeptical of the explanations embodied in the official Warren Report. These include:

• papers of Life reporter Richard Billings and related photographs from his coverage of New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of Clay Shaw and others in 1967 and 1968, gift of Mr. Billings;

• papers of Richard E. Sprague relating to the whole corpus of photographic evidence employed in the investigation of the assassination, gift of Mr. Sprague; and

• papers of R. B. Cutler, including a copy of the Zapruder film of the assassination; the main focus of the collection is on analysis of "CE 399," the bullet alleged to have killed President Kennedy, gift of Mr. Cutler.

Grenada Documents Collection

The collection consists of photocopies of a portion of the official documents as well as personal papers of Grenadan officials captured in the American intervention in Grenada in 1983, together with oral history interviews and photographs, the whole compiled by Gregory Sandford in the course of research for his book, Grenada: The Untold Story. Of particular interest are materials related to Grenada's PRG (People's Revolutionary Government) and the NJM (New JEWEL Movement).
Gift of Mr. Sandford
1979-1984 * 5.00 linear feet

Gene Basset Collection

The Basset Collection comprises more than 3,000 photographs, primarily in black and white and for the most part depicting American political figures from the Kennedy administration onwards. These were assembled by Gene Basset, the well-known editorial cartoonist, as a reference file for use in preparing his daily cartoons.
Gift of Mr. Basset
ca. 1960-1980

Other Twentieth Century Holdings

The following collections also offer insight into various aspects of American history in the twentieth century:

• manuscript material for the volume edited by Georgetown professor Richard Walsh and William Lloyd Fox, Maryland A History 1632-1974, preserving readings not in the published version,
  gift of Dr. Walsh;

• materials on New York social life early in the century, in the John D. Crimmins Papers, gift of the estate of Mr. Crimmins;

• the John Ihlder Papers, a relatively small group that supplements holdings in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, presented together with a library of early works on public housing, gift of Mr. Ihlder;

• the E. E. Libbey Papers include correspondence, receipts, and order forms documenting business conducted by E. E. Libbey, a dealer in pulpwood, cedar posts, white birch, and hemlock bark in Pittsfield, Maine. These records, spanning the years1900 to 1912, provide a glimpse into Maine's bustling turn-of-the century timber and pulpwood industries. purchase ;

• the Francis Robertson Collection, comprising photographic evidence submitted before the Presidential Railroad Commission (1961);

• the George R. Towne Collection of more than 7,000 color photographic transparencies, ca. 1940-1965, many of architectural subjects now changed or completely vanished, gift of the Iowa State University Archives; and

• papers of Alain C. White regarding the history of Litchfield, Connecticut, gift of Thomas Hoge.

LOCAL HISTORY

Printed Books

The libraries of local collectors Eric Menke, Bulkley Southworth Griffin, and others, together with materials acquired by the library during the nineteenth century, provide a solid background of early Georgetown and Washington imprints, as well as runs of early guide books, directories, and specialized monographs. A long run of the National Intelligencer highlights holdings in early local newspapers and periodicals.
1792-ca. 1900 * 500 items

Early Social and Economic History

A number of manuscript holdings, many of them unfortunately fragmentary in nature, shed light on life in the area before the Civil War. Worthy of separate note are the following:

• records of Huie, Reed and Co., merchants of Dumfries, Virginia, 1787-1788, with material on Washington-area trade;

• records of the Koenig-Mayer freight company, much relating to Baltimore-Washington traffic in the early nineteenth century, gift of Margaret M. O'Connor;

• a group of account books kept by various professionals and tradesmen, largely in or near Georgetown, dating from about 1790 to 1850; and

• the Nidiffer Collection of several hundred early nineteenth century legal instruments, including wills, deeds of trust, and other records, many of value to the social historian for their detailed household or business inventories, gift of F. Don Nidiffer.

Crawford Family Papers

Of particular note are correspondence and papers of Richard Crawford, mayor of Georgetown from 1857 to 1861, including a manuscript record book, 1857-1858, of the Board of Aldermen.
1812-1896 * 0.25 linear foot

Eric F. Menke Papers

The Menke Papers document not only Menke's career with the Office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army, but also his lifelong attachment to and concern for Washington, where he worked as an architect beginning in the late 1920s. Files of photographs, postcards, and ephemeral publications flesh out the correspondence and related documents. Integrated with the Menke Papers are two files of manuscript material collected by him: the first consisting of American items, chiefly of local interest, 1794-1865; the second consisting of European, principally German, items dating from the fifteenth century to 1826.
Gift of Mr. Menke
ca. 1500-1979 * 20.50 linear feet

Archives of Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown

Placed on deposit in the library in 1982, the church records include materials dating back to 1792. The usual parish and school records, more complete after 1850, are a rich source for the history of Catholics in Washington and especially for black Catholics. The archives are richly supplemented by related correspondence and other records in the University Archives, the Maryland Province Archives, and the Woodstock College Archives.
Deposited by Holy Trinity Church
1792-1982 * 31.50 linear feet

Francis P. Sullivan Papers

The papers include correspondence, printed ephemera, sketches and other artwork, and a very valuable file of cyanotype photographic prints showing a variety of Washington subjects at the very end of the nineteenth century. Sullivan's work as an important Washington architect is documented by a file of proposals and related materials.
Gift of Mannevillette Sullivan
ca. 1825-1945 * 4.00 linear feet

Shoemaker Family Papers

The papers of the Shoemaker family of Washington (particularly those of Albert E. Shoemaker) provide a wide range of insights into Washington life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Included are vivid family correspondence, land records, and early accounts of the Friendship Heights Citizens' Committee (1925-1935).
Gift of Frederick B. Scheetz and Nicholas B. Scheetz
ca. 1832-1958 * 3.00 linear feet

Peter R. Brady Papers

Letters to the Arizona pioneer and explorer, Peter R. Brady, from his sisters, Mary Ellen and Margaret, and their respective husbands, Benjamin B. French and Edmund F. French. The French families were longtime residents of Washington, and their letters tell much about the changing city in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Gift of Francis P. Brady
ca. 1850-1898 * 0.50 linear foot

Hinckley-Werlich Family Papers

Besides the diplomatic papers of McCeney Werlich and those of Thomas Hinckley, the collection encompasses a variety of records, including family correspondence and diaries, which offer insight into Washington social life in the first half of the twentieth century. Of some special interest also is a remarkable series of informal photographs taken in Utah in the early 1900s.
Gift of Robert O'Donnell Werlich
1890-1970 * 9.75 linear feet

Virginia Murray Bacon Papers

Mrs. Bacon's papers cover the entire range of her activities as a world traveller, a leader of Washington society, a political activist, and the wife of a Republican congressman (Robert Low Bacon, whose papers are described above under Political Science). Of particular interest are the detailed records documenting Mrs. Bacon's role as one of Washington's foremost hostesses, and especially as one with political and social influence. These range from correspondence with public officials to detailed menus and seating plans for dinners she gave for more than two decades.
Gift of the estate of Mrs. Robert Low Bacon
ca. 1920-1976 * 35.00 linear feet

George H. O'Connor Papers

O'Connor, an attorney, journalist, and civic leader in Washington, D.C., was perhaps best known as a troubadour and as the "entertainer of presidents," having sung for nine of them from William McKinley to Harry S. Truman. The collection contains scrapbooks, photographs, phonograph records, sheet music and correspondence, including letters from William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Cordell Hull. The material documents not only O'Connor's own career, but also the history of the Washington entertainment industry from 1894 to 1946, the year of his death. The recordings collection is described separately.
Gift of George H. O'Connor, Jr.
1894-1946 * 4.00 linear feet

William J. Hughes Papers

Personal and professional papers of Hughes, for 50 years a lawyer in Washington and a professor at the Georgetown University School of Law from 1928 to 1970. Included are items relating to various aspects of Washington history during the entire period.
Gift of Mrs. William J. Hughes
1919-1971 * 42.00 linear feet

Archives of the D. C. Federation of Citizens Associations

Minutes, reports, and correspondence documenting the organization, administration, and activities of the federation. The federation, founded in 1910, had a long history as a vehicle for the expression of citizen concern on the entire range of social and political issues raised by Washington's growth from "small Southern town" to major city.
Gift of the Federation
1940-1972 * 9.50 linear feet

Alfred M. Pommer Papers

Correspondence, typescripts, and related material primarily concerning Dr. Pommer's longstanding interests in nutrition and in various forms of mental retardation, most notably Down's Syndrome. The papers touch on his work as an assistant in pediatrics at the Georgetown University Hospital in the late 1950s.
Gift of Agnes L. Pommer
ca. 1957-1974 * 1.50 linear feet

Robert M. Weston Papers

Correspondence, memoranda, reports, and other papers documenting Judge Weston's career in public service in the federal and District of Columbia governments. Of particular interest are materials relating to the Capital Transit case before the Public Utilities Commission.
Gift of the estate of Judge Weston
1933-1973 * 10.50 linear feet

Other Local History Holdings

A number of other collections have much that bears on local history. The following may be cited:

• the Horace B. McKenna, S.J., Papers (described under The Society of Jesus);

• the manuscript, with related photographs, of Dr. Wilfred Mason Barton's The Road to Washington (1919), concerning the War of 1812, the gift of Dr. William P. Argy;

• the Breedin Family Papers (noted above);

• minute book of the Columbian Debating Society, a Georgetown citizens group that first met on February 21, 1827, gift of Charles H. Trunnel;

• the Cron-Earley Collection, which bears chiefly on John Joseph Earley and local architectural matters, gift of Frederick W. Cron;

• the DeVol Funeral Home Collection, gift of the DeVol Funeral Home;

• papers of Dr. Llewellyn Eliot, 1885-1914, who served as inspector for the Health Department and as director of the Smallpox Hospital in the District of Columbia;

• the Col. John Fitzgerald Papers, relating to local affairs in the 1790s, in part gift of Thomas J. Delihant, S.J.;

• the papers of historian and editor John C. Fitzpatrick, gift of Elizabeth F. Gerrety;

• papers of Tonita Ridgway Martin, including numerous photographs of local interest, gift of the estate of Miss Martin;

• the National Hotel Collection, consisting of the hotel's registers from the 1850s;

• journal of the North Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., containing minutes of church meetings and a congregational roster, commencing with the founding of the congregation in 1873;

• the Waller Family Papers, containing material of local genealogical interest, gift of Brent Breedin;

• a collection of photographs of steam navigation on the Potomac, with related items, gift of Ames W. Williams; and

• the Frank Wolfe Collection, comprising correspondence concerning family members at Georgetown, 1888-1897, and photographs and diagrams relating to the construction of the Washington Aqueduct and the Cabin John Bridge, gift of Mrs. Frank Wolfe.