Shaw and Gregory families papers

This collection contains papers and materials related to the Shaw and Gregory families and their relatives, the Van den Heuvel family, Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, and John Church Hamilton. These materials date chiefly from 1820 to 1870. Among John Shaw's materials is his 1810 diary detailing his journey down the Mississippi River on his way to annex the Republic of West Florida. Other items include a letter from Shaw to his father-in-law, Ebenezer Breed, and a letter addressed to Shaw regarding his daughter's education.

The papers include correspondence exchanged between Shaw's eldest daughter, Elizabeth "Kate" Shaw Gregory, and her husband, the naval commander Francis Hoyt Gregory. These letters discuss family affairs, social life in New Haven, Connecticut, and Francis Hoyt Gregory's impressions of Brazil. The correspondence also mentions the seizure of the Porpoise, a brig used to transport enslaved people, by his ship, the Raritan, and other naval affairs during Gregory's navy service. Additionally, there are letters between Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll and his son Charles Roberts Ingersoll, the father-in-law and husband respectively of Gregory's daughter Virginia. These discuss American politics, observations on the Russian court, and European unrest. Included too is his correspondence with John Church Hamilton, Colin McRae, Jacob Adrian Van den Heuvel, and others regarding the estates of Charles Ward Apthorp and Cornelius Van den Heuvel. Court summons and order for publication of citations regarding the will of Charlotte A. Van den Heuvel are also included.

One copied diary of Anna Marilla Baker Gregory, who married Henry Edmund Gregory, the son of Francis Hoyt Gregory and grandson of John Shaw, is also accompanied by a typescript copy and a letter from William H. Hale. This diary was created as a gift for her son, Henry "Harry" Baker Gregory. It discusses her time as a teacher to the Sioux Indians and life as a woman on the frontier; after Harry's passing, she continued to write entries into the 1920s and 1930s.

Fifty-one photographs included in this collection encompass loose photographs and one Gregory family photograph album. Additional documents include certificates of military and federal appointments, one signed by President Abraham Lincoln and another by President Ulysses S. Grant, legal paperwork and court summons, and a family coat of arms. Ephemera consists of one Certificate of the Naval Benevolent Organization signed by John Shaw and its frame, one Book of Common Prayer inscribed by multiple Gregory family members, certificates from the Washington National Monument Society, a Freemasons certificate, one Proclamation of Thanksgiving by Governor Charles R. Ingersoll, an obituary newspaper clipping, a transcription of a tombstone inscription, and one Yale University bicentennial badge.