Manuscripts

St. Andrew Oliver St. John logbook for HMS Centurion

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Description: Midshipman St. Andrew Oliver St. John kept this logbook that describes the day-to-day activities, along with hand-drawn maps and technical diagrams, of Vice-Admiral Edward Seymour's HMS Centurion expedition to relieve the city of Peking (now known as Beijing) during the Boxer Uprising. The log details the ship's journey through Hong Kong, Taku, Weihai, and other locations as well as provides an eyewitness account of intense resistance from Chinese forces and Seymour's retreat to Tianjin. Many of the entries were reviewed and initialed by Vice-Admiral Seymour. The volume is accompanied by a list of commercial code signals and a page from a 1901 edition of The Navy and Army Illustrated which contains images of the Centurion crew and officers.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1900-1901.
Call number: mssHM 84493
Creator

HMS Bristol ship's surgeon logbook

Manuscripts

Record kept by the surgeon of the HMS Bristol, to track the names of sick sailors as well as their maladies and treatments.

mssHM 84019

John T. Hudson logbook, 1807-1808

Manuscripts

This logbook, kept by John T. Hudson, includes accounts of journeys from the Sandwich [Hawaiian] Islands to Canton and Canton to Boston. The log is in two main sections. The first section comprises 9 pages and is headed: "Remarks on board ship Mercury. Wm. H. Davis, from Sandwich Islands towards Canton." The first entry is dated 15th October, 1806 [actually 1807]. It concludes November 29, 1807. Davis was the father of William Heath Davis, Jr. an early Californian and important San Diego pioneer. Entries mention the Hawaiian royal family, cargo including bananas and taro, and ports along the way. He mentions taking leave of his ship Tamana. The second section comprises 42 pages and is headed, "Ship O'Cain from Canton to Boston." The first entry is February 14, 1808 and concludes on June 15, 1808. His notes include lists and prices of skins purchased, lists of items such as sewing silks, India cotton, china and glassware, lace, liquors, tobacco, paper & ink, powder & shot, knives, axes, etc. Several shorter sections occur towards the end of the volume, including one headed: "The purchase of sea otter skins at San Blas." Much of the volume is blank. The very last pages of entries include only a few lines: "Don Luis Munoz de Gusman. Captain General of Chile." "Don Manuel Rodriguez, Comd. of the Port of St. Diego." and a list of several names including: Capt. James Rowen, William H. Davis, Samuel C. Blodget, Clifford, and Boyd. Several loose pages of writing containing notes and navigational calculations are laid in volume.

mssHM 83408

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John Dolland letter to John Canton

Manuscripts

Letter written by John Dolland and addressed to "Sir." The letter, which regards the resistance of air, is mounted on cardstock, along with an engraved image of Dolland. On the cardstock is the text "To John Canton" written in pencil at a later date by an unidentified person.

mssHM 83070

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St. John O'Sullivan letter to Charles Francis Saunders

Manuscripts

Partial letter from St. John O'Sullivan to Charles Francis Saunders in which he writes of finding the "Journey Story" that he had written a year earlier. He also mentions previous versions of the story and his attempts to include more detail in his later attempts. The story was probably related to O'Sullivan and Saunders' work on Capistrano nights. Only the first page of the letter is included.

mssHM 78044

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St-W (HM 53977-53978, HM 54223-54236, HM 54238, HM 54241-54275, HM 54277)

Manuscripts

The oral history tapes and transcriptions, together with the correspondence, that make up this collection were created by Peter A. Brazeau during the course of his research for his oral history biography of Wallace Stevens: Parts of a world: Wallace Stevens remembered (1983). Brazeau, a member of the English Department faculty of St. Joseph College, wrote to and interviewed dozens of Stevens' relatives, friends, neighbors, employees, business colleagues, and literary associates and acquaintances in order to elicit their recollections about the poet.

mssHM 53675-54279

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Andrew Jackson, camp on Thompson's Creek, letter to Pathkiller :

Manuscripts

Jackson is responding to Pathkiller's letter of October 22; approves of his sending spies to investigate fires. Jackson is leaving his encampment the following day and hopes to encounter hostile Creek Indians. Pathkiller (d. 1827) was the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and served as a colonel under Jackson during the Creek War. This item appears to be a letter written and signed for Jackson by an amanuensis, or it may possibly be his own autograph altered as a result of gunshot wounds received in a recent fight with Jesse Benton and Thomas Hart Benton. The Papers of Andrew Jackson list this item as a copy.

mssHM 13424

St. Andrew Oliver St. John logbook for HMS Centurion

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HMS Bristol ship's surgeon logbook

John T. Hudson logbook, 1807-1808

John Dolland letter to John Canton

St. John O'Sullivan letter to Charles Francis Saunders

St-W (HM 53977-53978, HM 54223-54236, HM 54238, HM 54241-54275, HM 54277)

Andrew Jackson, camp on Thompson's Creek, letter to Pathkiller :