L. Dennis Shapiro collection

The L. Dennis Shapiro collection contains over 500 items of original material primarily from U.S. presidents George Washington to Barack Obama from 1776 to 2015. The bulk of presidential material is for John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Warren G. Harding. There are also a number of items for John Adams, James Monroe, Franklin Pierce, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Harry S. Truman. The remaining presidents have fewer than five items each. In addition, the collection contains material for various cabinet members, especially Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin; Supreme Court justices; several presidential spouses including Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and Eleanor Roosevelt; and a small number of items relating to famous explorers, British politicians, and royalty. Also present are 40 items, mostly correspondence, pertaining to American statesman and financier Bernard M. Baruch.

Material is primarily correspondence; the collection also contains documents, ephemera, photographs, and engraved portraits. Most items in this collection have brief Scope and Contents notes at the item level.

Items relating to John Quincy Adams cover a large timespan and mostly concern domestic politics and foreign relations. Several letters were written from St. Petersburg while serving as minister to Russia; many letters were written during his tenures as president and congressman. Several items relate to horticulture.

Franklin D. Roosevelt material contains correspondence with lawyer Basil O'Connor and others, and nearly 100 letters between Roosevelt and Charles Engelhard Sr., from 1934 to 1942, primarily regarding monetary policy, gold and silver prices, and foreign events. Also present are several items relating to power, dams, and rural electrification including letters to Frank B. McNinch, chairman of the Federal Power Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. In addition, Roosevelt material includes notes written by him and by Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins that discuss plans for social security.

Much of the Warren G. Harding correspondence is with attorney and postmaster (James) French Crow of Marion, Ohio concerning Ohio activities and Harding's properties there. Also present are Harding estate documents and a souvenir photo album of his 1923 Alaska tour.

The bulk of Albert Gallatin's correspondence is from his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury from 1801 to 1814; many of these items pertain to maritime matters.

The collection also contains several items relating to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, particularly to the cases of Thomas Sims and Shadrach Minkins, both fugitives from slavery who were captured in Boston. The material documents efforts by U.S. Marshal for the District of Massachusetts Charles Devens Jr. to recover expenses incurred during the extradition of Sims and during prosecutions against those who were charged with helping Minkins escape from jail. Items include correspondence and notes signed by both presidents Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, and two abstracts of compensation for the guards involved with lists of names and amounts owed.