Manuscripts

Watson family correspondence

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Description: Three of the letters discuss the shipwreck of the steamer Independence, February 16, 1853, off the coast of Baja California Sur. One of these letters is an 18-page letter by Mary R. Watson, a survivor of the wreck, in which she tells the story of the shipwreck, her son's drowning, and how the survivors made their way to a small island three miles from the ship. The survivors were on the island for three days before another ship saved them. One of the letters, written by Ella Watson Mizner, gives details regarding the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1853-1906.
Call number: mssHM 63711-63716
Creator: Watson (Family)(Opens in new tab)

John Fanning Watson correspondence

Manuscripts

Personal correspondence John Fanning Watson, chiefly letters addressed to him. Correspondents include members of the Adams, Barron, Fanning, Watson, and other prominent Pennsylvania and New York families. Included are letters from the children of Azel Backus, a Congregational clergyman and first president of Hamilton College, Edmund Fanning (1769-1841), and James Barron (1768-1851)

mssWatson

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Richard Watson Gilder correspondence

Manuscripts

The Richard Watson Gilder correspondence consists of letters mainly from Richard Gilder addressed to Brigham Johnson, editor of the Cedar Rapids Republican and later Iowa State Librarian, from 1887 to 1931. Subjects discussed in the letters include literary matters, political issues (particularly Grover Cleveland and the Republican Party), David Bennett Hill, the Gilder family and Gilder's wife, Helena de Kay Gilder. After Richard Gilder's death in 1909, Brigham continued to correspond with Helena de Kay Gilder and the Gilders' daughter, Rosamond Gilder.

mssHM 45005-45048

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Upson family correspondence

Manuscripts

The majority of these letters deal with the Upson family's mining and business interests in California and Montana; life in Sterling, Montana, and Sacramento and San Francisco, California; and the settlement of the estate of Gad Ely Upson after his death in 1866. There is one letter by James Upson written in Panama while on his voyage to California onboard the ship Falcon. There is also one letter written by Hiram D. Upham, Deputy Agent for the Blackfeet Indians. The originals of these letters are in the Upson Family Papers at Yale University Library.

mssHM 68204-68214

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Charles Watson-Wentworth letters

Manuscripts

Charles Watson-Wentworth letters and item by Mary Walpole, wife of Robert Walpole. With engravings of Wentworth and Walpole.

mssHM 410-414

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Pierson family correspondence

Manuscripts

This collection contains twenty-three letters written primarily from Schuyler, Buffalo County, Nebraska, but include also three letters from Morrison, Colorado, one from Deadwood, South Dakota, and one from Pendleton, Oregon. Most of the correspondence was written by newlyweds Elmer or Lou (short for Louisa?) Pierson to their relatives in Illinois. The letters are filled with numerous details reflecting daily lives and struggles while making ends meet on the western plains. In January 1894 Lou writes, "...well it seems to me I never can get Elmer's debts paid I come out here & he owes [Geo] Little $150.00 and Mr. VanHoosen over $200.00 and I have got my 2 hands to pay..." Elmer appears to be a very colorful character, who, as he mentions in one letter, "I served ten years in the penitentiary in Nebraska for stealing horses..." (April 4, 1882). His writing reflects at times humor, a quick wit, and a restless ambition to take full advantages of the opportunities promised by the open west.

mssHM 81100-81122

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George Watson Cole papers

Manuscripts

The collection consists primarily of draft article manuscripts written by George Watson Cole concerning his lifelong interest in the history of printing and the study of bookmaking. A number of documents describe sixteenth and seventeenth English printing practices and the problems they present to contemporary scholarship. In several documents, Cole annotates bibliographies of his own published works. The collection also includes an early, handwritten draft of Cole's biography of the artist Edward Vischer complete with extensive notes. Two letters from Henry Cabot Lodge responding to Cole's request for seventeenth century books and one letter drafted by Cole to the University Library of Cambridge comprise the collection's correspondence records. Several newspaper clippings describe an alleged palimpsest manuscript discovered in the Huntington collection and the ensuing controversy.

mssHM 72880-72893

Watson family correspondence

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John Fanning Watson correspondence

Richard Watson Gilder correspondence

Upson family correspondence

Charles Watson-Wentworth letters

Pierson family correspondence

George Watson Cole papers