Aphra Behn portrait

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  Background report on Charles H. Parker: incomplete copy

  Manuscripts

  Typescript background report on engineer Charles H. Parker commissioned by an unknown party and on letterhead of the "International Bureau of Criminal Investigation. North America Branch." The document is undated, but presumably dates to about 1897, the year of Parker's death and the last date referenced in the work (Page 18). According to the report, Parker was a draughtsman who passed himself off as a bridge engineer and building inspector, among other professions. The veracity of the report, which is incomplete and it ends in mid-sentence on the 27th page, has not been confirmed.

  mssHM 83085

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  Electus Backus diaries and letters

  Manuscripts

  The 31-page diary by Electus Backus covers his time traveling from San Antonio to El Paso, Texas in 1850 and 1851. In the diary he talks about Bishop John Lamy, Lorenzo Sitgreaves, Dr. S. W. Woodhouse, members of the Sitgreaves Expedition, as well as the bad weather and the landscape and inhabitants of Texas. He also discusses his journey from El Paso to Albuquerque. There is one diary page by Backus in June 1848 while he was taking part in the Mexican War in Puebla, Mexico, the site where Santa Ana executed Mexia; he mentions meeting General Stephen Kearny. There is also one page of a diary by Backus from 1860 while he was living in El Paso. There are also several letters and statements regarding Backus' protest against and disagreement with a letter by the Secretary of War, Charles Conrad, stating that he was commissioned to Major of the 3rd U.S. Infantry on October 10, 1850; Backus believed it was June 10 instead. This material includes letters by Backus to Adjutant General Roger Jones and Senator Jefferson Davis, who was on the Committee of Military Affairs, along with a statement of facts by Backus. There is also a copy of a letter by Backus to Colonel Samuel Cooper in August 1860 about his commission date. Also included is a 5-page manuscript by Hugh Brady about his brother, Samuel Brady, Indian fighter of western Pennsylvania (the draft is in Backus' handwriting - Hugh Brady was Backus' father-in-law). There is also one letter by Electus Backus, Sr., to his brother Andrew in New York. This letter was written while he was with the US Army in New Orleans in 1809.

  mssHM 71476-71481

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  George Catlin papers and illustrations

  Manuscripts

  This collection consists of roughly 252 unbound illustrations of Indians in both North and South America, by artist and author George Catlin, and other items all related to Catlin's unpublished manuscript The North Americans in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Collection contains bound folio manuscript of The North Americans in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century (Volume A). The contents of Volume A are: Map of North America with Distribution of tribes, Prospectus, Preface, Second Preface, Lists of tribes, Descriptions of plates, and Glossary. There is also a small, bound volume consisting of the report of J. Garland Pollard of the Smithsonian Museum, who identified many of the illustrations for Rogers (Volume B). The contents of Volume B are: Letter from J. Garland Pollard to A. Howard Clark, Curator of the National Museum (1892, Apr. 18), Lists of illustrations called for in the manuscript "The North Americans," letter from William Hallett Phillips to Archibald Rogers (1892, Dec. 27), and letter from George B. Grinnell to William Hallett Phillips (1892, Oct 24). The unbound illustrations consist of the following: 24 finished color cartoons, 26 unfinished color cartoons, 38 finished pencil outlines, 107 unfinished pencil outlines (many are counterproofs), and 43 line cuts (from Catlin's published works). They were probably composed for the most part during the late 1860s in Brussels, particularly those means to accompany the manuscript, and those unidentified ones which clearly portray the South American Indians which Catlin visited only during his final explorations in the 1850s. Most of the drawings and cartoons are copies of cartoons prepared by Catlin to replace his original collection confiscated in 1851, and therefore their original versions in many cases date from the 1830s. The line cuts are taken from Catlin's books and were inserted by Archibald Roger's agent in places where no drawing existed corresponding to a particular description in the manuscript text. The illustrations numbered 1-206 in the collection correspond to the descriptions in Pollard's report; in many cases a described illustration is missing from the collection (the drawing numbers are not truly consecutive); in other cases as many as three versions (enumerated a, b, c) of the same illustration exist, in different media. Illustrations numbered consist of paintings and drawings not described in the text, and otherwise unidentified, expect that many are clearly South American subjects. Illustrations numbered 265-285 are partially finished copies (with colored backgrounds but figures outlined) on cardboard canvas paintings (originally 27 in number) forming a series entitled "Voyages of Discovery by LaSalle" which Catlin was commissioned to do by Louis Philippe of France, and which are described in Catlin's Catalogue…of Catlin's Indian cartoons (New York, 1871, 67-69). Most of the illustrations (except for the LaSalle) consist of group portraits, full-length, of Indians, arranged by tribe. Those painted in oils are marked "color" in the container list, although in some cases the coloring is incomplete, consisting of yellow figures against an undifferentiated greenish background. The drawn figures are generally counterproofs; in many cases Catlin has drown over the counterproof outlines in pencil, refining them, and this drawing is noted in the container list as well. Illustrations cut out Catlin's books are marked "printed." Collection also contains facsimiles of correspondence from the New York Historical Society, as well as photocopies of Catlin manuscripts and drawings from the Newberry Library, Yale University Library, and the New York Public Library. Collection also contains the original mat labels and the original binding for Volume A.

  mssHM 35183