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The collection consists of two volumes relating to the Dunwoody family of Marple Township, Pennsylvania, produced between 1807 and 1829. The first volume is a memoranda and expense book kept primarily by James Dunwoody, between 1807 and 1815. It documents financial transactions for meat and livestock, crops, and farm labor. Records also indicate when female laborers began their employment with the family, likely for domestic service, listing the wages and expenses for three of them. The second volume is a copybook kept by Jane B. Dunwoody in 1829 while attending the Marple Union Seminary, focusing on practicing forms for banking, business, legal, and real estate transactions.

The collection consists of two volumes relating to the Dunwoody family of Marple Township, Pennsylvania, produced between 1807 and 1829. The first volume is a memoranda and expense book kept primarily by James Dunwoody, but with references to his sons John, William, and Joseph, between 1807 and 1815. It documents financial transactions for meat and livestock, crops, and farm labor, with several entries with women or notes about cash being provided to wives. Records also indicate when female laborers began their employment with the family, likely for domestic service, including one under-age girl who took up work with her parents' consent and one African American woman ("Black Hariott"). It lists the wages and expenses of Hannah Griffith, Anna Griffith, and Hanah Sithers, documenting the items they were acquiring while in the employ of the family. A recipe for making pills is present, as well as a page of household expenses. The volume has paper covers with woodcut illustrations of four scenes: "Two Sturdy Bull Dogs," "The Fox and the Goat," "An Ass and His Master," and "A Dog and his Shadow."

The second volume is a copybook kept by Jane B. Dunwoody in 1829 while attending the Marple Union Seminary, focusing on banking, business, legal, and real estate transactions. She studied document forms, such as indentures for apprentices, promissory and judgement notes, property leasing, proxy votes, bonds, bills of sale, mortgages, among others. The volume has illustrated, printed covers. The front cover is labelled "The Pet Lamb" and shows a man holding a lamb in his arms with pasted-on letters "JBD Book," and the back cover is labelled "The Pheasant" and shows a pheasant accompanied by a description of the bird by Goldsmith.

The collection consists of correspondence related to the Griffin family of New York City and includes 58 letters that George Griffin and his family exchanged between 1833 and 1854 with author Lydia H. Sigourney of Hartford, Connecticut. Additional material includes letters written by Sigourney about her work and correspondence among members of the Griffin family that provides commentary on family life, two extended trips to Europe, Protestant theology, and higher education. The final series in the collection includes manuscript copies of several of Sigourney's poems, including one on the death of American poet John Trumbull and another on the "Death of a Missionary to Liberia."

The collection consists of correspondence related to the Griffin family of New York City and includes 58 letters that George Griffin and his family exchanged between 1833 and 1854 with author Lydia H. Sigourney of Hartford, Connecticut, as well as several other pieces of correspondence written by Sigourney and others. The second series of the collection includes several folders of correspondence among members of the Griffin family, especially letters of fatherly advice that George Griffin wrote to his sons Edmund Dorr Griffin (1804-1830) and George Griffin, Jr. (1811-1880). In addition to narratives of family life, the bulk of these letters involve accounts of two extended trips to Europe as well as discussions of Protestant theology and higher education. The final series in the collection is a 3-page manuscript copy of Sigourney's poem on the death, in 1831, of American poet John Trumbull.

Sigourney Correspondence, 1833-1854: This subseries consists primarily of Lydia H. Sigourney's correspondence with her close friend and intermediary, George Griffin, and his family in New York City. Thee letters from Lydia Sigourney, dated in 1857 and 1858, may or may not have been to Douglas Smith. In them, she offered a brief remark on her own aging and disclaimed the notion of striving to appear young; content on shipping books to the U.S. Consul; and an interest in agricultural sciences.

Much of Sigourney's correspondence with George Griffin directly involves her work as an author and her position as a woman in that profession. She frequently sent him copies of her written pieces, some of which had already been published in periodicals, asking for advice about the content of the work and about how she might pursue publication. In the course of doing so, she remarked upon her writing and revision process. These letters also specifically address her negotiations, often through Griffin's work as intermediary, with the Key & Biddle, Harpers, Leavitt, Lord & Co., D. Appleton, and Van Nostrand publishing firms, as well as the publication of her Letters to Young Ladies (1833 and 1841), Poems (1834), Sketches (1834), Girl's Reading-book (1838), and Letters to Mothers (1838). Additionally, a small number of letters from 1840 deal with Sigourney's trip to Europe.

Griffin, in turn, kept Sigourney apprised of developments with publishing firms as well as on the sale and review of her work. He candidly offered his response to works she had sent him, as well as general advice on the direction of her literary career. As a writer himself, he too sought feedback for his work, which took the form of theological essays. A manuscript copy of one of the reviews of his book, The Gospel its Own Advocate , appears in this series. Both correspondents also reflected on the challenges facing the publishing industry during the financial crisis of the late 1830s (especially the Panic of 1837) and shared their opinions on the state of American literary culture.

This series also includes letters that Sigourney exchanged with George Griffin's wife, Lydia Butler Griffin, and daughter Caroline. These pieces tended to relate family news and household matters but also included reflections on reading and Sigourney's involvement in various charitable societies. She briefly remarked on her relationship with her African American servant, Ann Prince. In addition, Sigourney conveyed in her letters to George Griffin that she valued the responses of his wife and daughters to her work. Finally, the series contains 2 letters composed by Charles Sigourney, Lydia Sigourney's husband, and ten letters written by Lydia Sigourney relating to her work, public appreciation of it, school celebrations, and social matters.

Griffin Family Correspondence, 1807-1885: The Griffin Family correspondence contains over 150 letters, dated between 1807 and 1885, that relate to George Griffin (1778-1860) of New York City and his family.

Most of the letters from the 1820s deal with Edmund Dorr Griffin (1804-1830), the second son of George and Lydia Butler Griffin. A handful of these items chart his religious convictions and pathway to becoming an Episcopal minister. The bulk of these letters, however, are ones that Edmund exchanged with his parents, siblings, and friends during the extended trip he took to Europe between October 1828 and April 1830. George Griffin's letters to Edmund during this trip are full of advice and directives about where to travel, what to observe, and practicalities about money. He also kept his son informed about matters that were unfolding among the Episcopal churches in New York and at Columbia College. Although George Griffin was the primary writer of these letters, many of them include notes from other family members as well, with accounts of family life, including the courtship and marriage of Edmund's older brother Francis to Mary Sands.

Edmund's letters home narrate his journey and impressions of Europe in extensive detail. George Griffin actively compiled his son's epistles to have them published in periodicals, and upon Edmund's death in September 1830, these travel accounts (not all of which are included in the collection) made up the bulk of the "Remains" compiled by Francis Griffin and published in his brother's memory in 1831. Letters pertaining to the preparation and reception of this document, as well as a 12-page account of Edmund's final days, can be found in Series I and II of the collection.

Another group of letters from 1830 chart George Griffin, Jr.'s (1811-1880) sudden religious awakening and decision to pursue ministerial training under the care of his uncle, Edward Dorr Griffin (1770-1837), a Congregational minister and the president of Williams College. Later letters in the collection reveal that George Griffin, Jr., eventually became a farmer in Catskill, New York, and deal with his efforts to sell his hay. He would also travel to Europe, in 1850, with his ailing sister Caroline (1820-1861). While they were away, their father conveyed advice regularly and procured letters of introduction, some of which remain in the collection.

Additional materials include subjects related to male and female friendship; family financial matter; the births, deaths, or marriages of family members; education; Protestant theology; health and medicine; early telegraph communication; and family genealogy. The handful of items that date to the 1870s and 1880s include a printed piece called "Dear Erskie!" which contains a series of riddles, and a fifteen-page booklet that includes two poems titled "Picnic" and "Archery."

Lydia Sigourney Poems, Notes, and Photograph

This series consists of six items: a 3-page manuscript copy of Sigourney's poem on the death of American poet John Trumbull in 1831; a manuscript copy of "Death of a Missionary to Liberia" written for theColonization Herald; her poem "Tomb of Josephine"; Sigourney's manuscript copy of an 1849 printed notice regarding Whisper to a Bride that she sent to an autograph collector; a "List of L. H. Sigourney's published poetical works" (ca. 1857? in her hand); and a carte-de-visite seated portrait of Lydia H. Sigourney. The photograph was published by E. & H. T. Anthony & Co., New York, from a photographic negative in Brady's National Portrait Gallery. It is signed by Lydia H. Sigourney to her friend Mrs. E. Douglas Smith.

The collection consists of six penmanship and cypher books kept by William L. Shimer, Susanna M. Shimer, and Nathan M. Shimer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s and 1850s and one alphabet card with lower-case and upper-case letters. The blank books include illustrated covers and several have calligraphic titles for their sections. Four of them are dated and range from 1846 to 1853. The cypher books include exercises for arithmetic, fractions, accounting, and weights and measures, with many examples relating to practical issues like farming, business, and estates. Penmanship exercises include the copying of moral proverbs, common business abbreviations, strings of letters, and phrases. Two of the penmanship books are associated with writing systems: George J. Becker's The American System of Penmanship, and Bayson, Dunton and Scribner's National System of Penmanship.

The collection consists of seven penmanship and cypher books kept by William L. Shimer, Susanna M. Shimer, and Nathan M. Shimer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the 1840s and 1850s and one alphabet card with lower-case and upper-case letters. The blank books include illustrated covers and several have calligraphic titles for their sections. Five of them are dated and range from 1846 to 1853. The cypher books include exercises for arithmetic, fractions, practical geometry, accounting, and weights and measures, with many examples relating to practical issues like farming, business, and estates. Penmanship exercises include the copying of moral proverbs, common business abbreviations, strings of letters, and phrases. Two of the penmanship books are associated with writing systems: George J. Becker's The American System of Penmanship, and Bayson, Dunton and Scribner's National System of Penmanship.

• Uriah Hunt & Son, Booksellers, Philadelphia
• Leary's Cheap Book Store, Philadelphia
• Brower, Hayes & Co., Booksellers and Stationers, Philadelphia
• Henry J. Oerter's Cheap Book & Stationery Store, Bethlehem
• Crosby & Ainsworth, Publishers, Boston

The cover of William L. Shimer's 1848 exercise book includes an inscription "L. Shimer, Co. A 10 reg. Militia Pa." William L. Shimer's 1850-1852 cypher book includes notations that he was attending the Gen. Taylor school and was being instructed by A. Stout, as well as geometrical drawings, calligraphic headings, and a pen-and-ink drawing of an eagle's head holding a banner that reads, "Let teh Stars and Stripes proudly float over you."

The collection consists of six penmanship exercises composed between 1815 and 1817 by Eirene Smith (aged 13), Nancy Smith (aged 14-16), Mary Smith (aged 17), and Loreney Stone (aged 17), likely students in the same class in Wayland, Massachusetts. The exercises consist of copied poems entitled "The Rose," "To Eliza," "On The Seasons," "To The Lilly," "Epitaph," and "Lines Written in a Winter's Walk."

The collection consists of six penmanship exercises composed between 1815 and 1817 by Eirene Smith (aged 13), Nancy Smith (aged 14-16), Mary Smith (aged 17), and Loreney Stone (aged 17), likely students in the same class in Wayland, Massachusetts. The exercises consist of copied poems entitled "The Rose," "To Eliza," "On The Seasons," "To The Lilly," "Epitaph," and "Lines Written in a Winter's Walk."