Henry James Young was an ardent student of the history of his native Pennsylvania. Born in York County, Pa., in February, 1908, Young received his bachelor's degree from nearby Franklin and Marshall College in 1932, and thereafter enjoyed a twenty year career as archivist at the Historical Society of York County and in the Division of Public Records of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Young's work as an archivist gained him considerable experience with late colonial documents and awakened a growing interest in historical matters, and in the early 1950s, he decided to pursue a degree in early American history. Two years after receiving his doctorate at John Hopkins in 1955, he was appointed the history faculty at Dickinson College, where he remained until his retirement in 1973. Throughout his academic career, Young's primary research interest was American Loyalism.

Scope and contents:

The Henry Young Collection is the product of a life-time of historical work on American Loyalists under arms. It remains the largest index to officers of American Loyalist regiments of its kind, and is a useful resource for tracking down primary resources relating to Loyalists in major North American and British archives.

The collection is organized into two parts: a card file and a series of research notes and photocopies. The card file is both the largest and most useful part of the collection, containing several thousand 3x5 cards indexing primary sources for references to individual Loyalist soldiers. Arranged by regiment, and then alphabetically by soldier, the index does not provide comprehensive coverage of all Loyalists under arms, however Young's extensive work in British, Canadian, and American archives has resulted in a massive compendium with particularly thorough coverage of Loyalist officers. Typical entries include notes on the location of documents pertaining to a soldier, sometimes with synopses of the contents (e.g. memorial, request for commission, death, capture), and occasionally biographical information culled from printed or manuscript sources, and the card file is accompanied by a comprehensive handwritten index of names. The collection is oriented strongly toward military affairs as represented in official records, rather than personal records, and the index does not contain general references to Loyalist units.

Second, the collection includes four linear feet of Young's research notes and a selection of photocopies acquired during the course of his research. These copies -- mostly of primary sources -- have not been indexed, but can be used on-site.

Provenance:

Gift of Henry Young.

cat. 6/98 rsc

Subject index to the Henry Young Loyalist Collection

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