Women in History Collection Guide

Women in History
Guide
to
Manuscript Collections

Below are links to descriptions of manuscript collections at the Clements Library that are relevant for the study of women's history and gender studies. The documents themselves are not available on the web site; please contact the library if you are interested in obtaining photocopies or visiting the library to view the originals. More descriptions will be added as they are written. For further information on how to the descriptions are set up, click here.

Helen Curtis Annan Journal, 1840-1853
A multi-purpose volume used by a Presbyterian woman in St. Louis to record the text and outlines of her pastors' sermons, reflect upon her spiritual condition, and describe a steamboat trip up the Mississippi to St. Anthony's Falls and Indian lands during the summer of 1845.

Appleby Family Papers, 1862-1902 (Bulk dates, 1864-1870)
Over three hundred items relating primarily to the younger generation of the Appleby family of Huntingdon County, Penna., including Civil War veterans Thomas and Daniel Appleby and their many girlfriends.

Martha Barker Papers, 1866-1890s
58 letters to a woman in Saratoga County, N. Y., from friends throughout the northeast and family in Minnesota and Illinois.

Elizabeth Barras Papers, 1838-1840
27 letters home from a young student at the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, before she was expelled from school.

Bird Family Papers, 1821-1947
Nearly two feet of letters, speeches, and journals spanning five generations of a Bradford County, Pennsylvania family. Includes the papers of a W.C.T.U. leader, a courtship correspondence (1878-1883), and a schoolgirl in West Chester (1912-1913).

Bradford Family Papers, 1831-1834
Eight excellent letters from family in Cincinnati to family back home in Duxbury, Mass., about childbirth and local happenings.

Eliza O. Perkins Burke Papers, 1846-1867
Letters to the wife of Col. Martin Burke from other military wives who met at Fort Moultrie before the Mexican War, demonstrating the strength of their connection even after they had all moved on. Also some Civil War content, and a woman who wanted a divorce in 1860.

Elizabeth Camp Journals, 1819-1825
Journals of a supremely religious woman who spent the summer of 1820 teaching school and providing religious instruction to the Stockbridge Indians in New Stockbridge, New York, just two years before they were relocated to Wisconsin.

Elizabeth Carter Journals, 1774-1795
An Englishwoman's dozen journals documenting the daily activities of an entire household, and their frequent interactions with an extended network of family and friends.

Rowe-Curtis Family Papers, 1833-1851
9 letters and two documents by and about two deaf-mute families from Maine, and Nancy's conversion to the Baptist Church.

Rev. Richard Varick Dey Papers, 1821-1822
50 courtship letters from a divinity student to his sixteen year old girlfriend with disapproving parents.

Mary Alice Foley Papers, 1937-1995 (Bulk dates, 1937-1945)
Materials relating to a young American woman and her parents, who were living in Manila when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, and were subsequently placed in an internment camp for over two years.

Martha Jane Gay Papers, 1853-1854
7 letters from family and friends in Wisconsin to a young woman traveling in the east, discussing the death of one man's wife and local social events.

Annie Hobbs Journal, 1876
Detailed, entertaining 31 page account of a New Hampshire woman's experiences at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

Helen M. Noye Hoyt Papers, 1863-1925 (bulk: 1863-1864)
Small collection of letters of Civil War nurse at the Naval Academy Hospital in Annapolis.

Ingle Family Papers, 1849-1907
A small diary kept by 15 year old boy-crazy Olive Ingle, who lived in Ohio in the 1880s, and related family materials.

Jewett-Lee Family Papers, 1850-1900 (Bulk dates, 1850s)
34 letters and manuscripts written by some of the first settlers of the Saginaw Valley in Michigan and their offspring.

Marie Louise Kellogg Travel Journal, 1915-1916
Small, 81 page journal kept by a young woman traveling with her parents from San Diego home to Kentucky in a Ford touring car. There are two later entries about boys and dances.

Harriet Kendall Papers, 1862-1870
20 letters to a young woman who attended Genesee College in Lima, New York.

Philena Kendall Papers, 1820-1895 (Bulk dates, 1850s-1870s)
95 letters of an unmarried Quaker woman and her family, who lived in New Castle County, Del. & Chester County, Penna.

Amy Kirby Papers, 1824-1825
8 letters written by a young Quaker woman living on Long Island to the man she loved, who tragically died before they got married. She later married her dead sister's husband, Isaac Post, and became a well known Rochester reformer.

Stephen Metcalf & Carrie White Papers, 1863-1868
Extensive courtship correspondence between a Civil War soldier and an apothecary's assistant, who met through a newspaper advertisement and eventually married.

Kate Mills Papers, 1882-1889
A young married missionary's 80 long letters home to her father about her struggles to adapt to Chinese culture while simultaneously striving to Christianize and improve the health and education of the Chinese.

Catherine Surget Minor Papers, 1859-1869
35 letters by a once-wealthy woman written to her New York financial agents from the Natchez District in Mississippi during Reconstruction.

Jenny Olin Papers, 1898-1911
Papers of a woman missionary in Micronesia, including photographs and thirty entertaining, lengthy letters to her friends in the United States.

Frank & Sophia C. Peebles Journal, 1861-1862; 1865-1868
Journal kept first by Frank and then by his mother Sophia, describing life in Mooresville, Alabama during and after the Civil War. Sophia was an ardent Methodist, avid book reader, and dedicated teacher.

Reed-Blackmer Family Papers, 1831-1928 (Bulk dates, 1850s, 1880-1900, 1918)
Nearly 400 letters of a large family with strong roots in Ontario County, New York, and many offshoots in Michigan, Kansas, Indian Territory, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Strengths are education in New York State and the evolution of kinship networks over long distances and many years.

Ellen Rice Journal, 1848-1849
128 pages in 2 volumes written by an intelligent young woman who worked in her elder sister's household in Boston and Lexington until she died at the age of 19. She wrote eloquently about God, nature, and her love for her other sister, Susan.

Blanche & Lena Smith Family Papers, 1870-1931 (Bulk dates, 1905-1906)
Over 500 letters and a large amount of ephemera relating to a young woman who died of tuberculosis in 1906, and her sister Lena, who was the recipient of an barrage of letters from a man she eventually married. The collection also includes material relating to their parents and siblings.

Tracy Family Papers, 1815-1903 (Bulk dates, 1815-39)
34 items relating to a family based in Norwich, Conn., that includes letters from a woman missionary in India, 1838-39.

Wadsworth Family Papers, 1833-1853
15 letters, primarily from an anxious widow in New York City to her son's family in Monroe County, Michigan.

Mary Jane Hale Welles Papers, 1846-1848
6 letters from a woman best known as the wife of Gideon Welles, home to her mother in Lewistown Pennsylvania, detailing (somewhat) Washington D. C. social life and the doings of her children.

Young Ladies Union Society of Danbury, (Conn.) Record book, 1826-1842
Constitution, minutes, membership, and annual reports for a benevolent society that raised money by selling the fancy articles they made.

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