Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

The Townshend papers included the private and public records of Charles Townshend who served in various positions in the government of Great Britain including as Secretary of War during the Seven Years War and as Chancellor of the Exchequer where he authored the Townshend Acts to tax the American colonies.

The Townshend papers contain approximately 2,600 items, including letters, documents, accounts, and printed matter relating to the public life and activities of Charles Townshend, gathered largely during the last period of his career. The collection is an extremely valuable resource for study of British commercial and mercantile policy in the 1760s, administrative perspectives on the mounting crisis in the North American colonies, and the inner workings of British political life. The papers reflect Townshend's serious research efforts in his role as policymaker; much of the collection consists of documents that he gathered for his own information on legal cases, British politics, financial and treasury matters, and affairs in North America, the West Indies, and Africa. Also present is a small amount of incoming and outgoing correspondence and an assortment of memoranda and speech drafts by Townshend. The collection spans 1660-1804, but the bulk centers around the 1750s and 1760s, when Townshend held an appointment on the Board of Trade and Plantations (1748-1754) and served as Lord of the Admiralty (1754), Secretary-at-War (1762-1763), President of the Board of Trade (1763-1765), Paymaster General (1765-1766) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1766-1767). The collection was originally arranged by Charles Townshend into numerous bundles marked with wrappers. This original order has largely been maintained and hence, document types and topics are scattered across the collection. One volume of letters sent from Charles Townshend to Dr. Richard Brocklesby (1722-1797) was acquired separately and was formerly a part of Thomas Phillipps library as Ms 15648.

See "Additional Descriptive Data" for a partial subject index of the papers as well as a list of printed matter in the collection.

Correspondence

A moderate amount of Townshend's incoming and outgoing correspondence is located throughout the collection. This includes contemporary copies of his letters to and from William Barrington and Thomas Gage relating to the War Office during his time as Secretary-at-War (Box 8/ Bundle 2), numerous incoming letters concerning patronage and requesting favors (8/3/A), and correspondence between Townshend and John Morton concerning politics and happenings in the House of Commons in 1764-1766 (8/37). Also present are a series of letters written from the Mediterranean by Commodore Augustus Keppel, describing British peace negotiations with Tunis and Tripoli and the signing of a treaty on October 21, 1751, (Box 297/1/2) and incoming correspondence on a variety of topics from William Dowdeswell, George Sackville-Germain, George Younge, William Shirley, Edmund Burke, Wellbore Ellis, George Macaulay, Edward Walpole, Henry Pelham-Clinton (3rd Duke of Newcastle), and John Stuart, (3rd Earl Bute). A separate volume includes correspondence sent from Charles Townshend to Dr. Richard Brocklesby between 1763 and 1765, including personal reflections on political affairs, reactions to events and key figures, comments about publications and public opinion, and more.

Legal Papers

The collection also contains scattered documents relating to legal issues and court cases in the late-18th century. The box marked 8/5 contains accounts of the court cases of the following parties, heard before the House of Lords and the Commissioners of Appeals in 1760: Francis Watkins; Francis Dalby; the Proprietors of Sulbrave, Northamptonshire; the Pennsylvania Land Company; a group of London fishmongers; and John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury. Also represented are several cases concerning prizes captured by Dutchmen (8/5). Other legal papers include those relating to Townshend's wife, Caroline, 1st Baroness Greenwich, which span 1754 to 1789 and are located in Box 298, and documents concerning Samuel Waldo and his service in the Siege of Louisburg (8/24/a).

Other Documents

The Charles Townshend papers contain numerous documents gathered by Townshend for his own information or created by him during the process of policymaking. These include many items relating to North America, including reports on trade, military matters, the characteristics and features of various regions, and debates on British policies. Among the military-related topics addressed are recruitment for the British army in North America in the years 1753-1763 (8/22), expenses of maintaining a force in North America for 1765-1766 (8/28), the cost of maintaining various British forts (8/31), and the debate over foreign officers' commissions in America in 1756 (8/4). Other items concern trade between North America and Great Britain; this includes a 1761 memorandum on the prevalence of smuggling in Boston (297), information on Newfoundland fisheries (8/4 and 299), and notes on the importation of iron bar from America (299). A group of undated documents relate to the settlement of East and West Florida (8/34) and the expenses related to the settlement of East Florida by Greeks (297/4/5). Box 8/31 contains Townshend's own notes on his proposal to impose new duties on salt, wine, oil, fruit, glass, tea, sugar, molasses, china, and paper. A draft of the Townshend Duties is also included in the papers.

Other documents in the collection concern a variety of British political matters, such as contested 1754 English parliamentary elections (8/32), estimates of the strength of several parties in the House of Commons (8/42), and proceedings against John Wilkes in the House of Commons (296). The collection also includes Townshend notes for his speeches opposing the Marriage Act (298), and documents concerning his election to Parliament for Great Yarmouth in 1754 and 1756 (8/52).

Additional scattered papers relate to world trade and matters of the British Treasury. A substantial amount of material concerns the East India Company, including debates on the taxation of tea, memoranda concerning precedents for government intervention in East India Company matters, and Townshend's 1766 notes on a bill concerning East India, all of which are located in the Bowhill Box. Box 298 contains many lists and statistics on British imports and exports abroad, particularly to the North American colonies. Other documents pertain to the British manufacture of earthenware and china, the coal trade (8/40), and trade with Africa, including the activities of the Committee on African trade in 1752-1754 (297/5/3).

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American diplomat.

This collection primarily consists of correspondence of U.S. diplomat Christopher Hughes; his twin sister Peggy Hughes Moore; his in-laws the Moore family; his spouse Laura Smith Hughes (1792-1832); their daughter Margaret Smith Hughes Kennedy (1819-1884); and Anthony Kennedy (1810-1892), his son-in-law. The papers largely date between the War of 1812 and the U.S. War with Mexico. Christopher Hughes corresponded with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, and a large circle of friends and family on both sides of the Atlantic. The papers reflect American diplomatic policy in Europe after the War of 1812, particularly in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. They also present the lives and experiences of the social and personal lives of women and children who traveled as part of the duties of an American chargé d'affaires.

The papers also include financial papers, military documents, property documentation, materials related to the San Pedro Company, writings, poetry, sketches, photographs, ephemera, and other printed items. Among the writings is an 1840 account of a visit by Christopher Hughes to physician Fru Jansen at Catherineberg for health care; 1842 travel writing by Margaret Hughes; and manuscript and printed poetry, including dinner toasts, a valentine poem, an acrostic on Margaret's name, translations, and more.

Other selected items include pencil sketches of four of the five peace commissioners at the Treaty of Ghent negotiations in Belgium, by Dutch artist P. van Huffel, January 1815. The portraits include John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, and Christopher Hughes (as secretary of the delegation). A lithographed portrait of Christopher Hughes, by Jean Baptiste Madou, from 1829 is also present in the collection's oversize materials, with a lithograph image of "le capitole a Washington" below the portrait of Hughes. It features an autograph presentation from Christopher Hughes to Prince Henry of the Netherlands, July 12, 1845. A group of 24 photographs from the early 1930s depict the grave of Laura Smith Hughes (1795-1832) and the church where she was buried, Bromme Church in Akershof, near Stockholm, Sweden, and a variety of other people and places.

Please see the Christopher Hughes Indices and Notes for an index of letter writers and inventories of non-correspondence materials.

This collection consists of 7 documents and printed items relating to the steamship City of Glasgow and its voyages between Liverpool and Philadelphia between 1850 and 1852, including advertising materials, receipts, and a passenger manifest.

This collection consists of seven documents and printed items relating to the steamship City of Glasgow and its voyages between Liverpool and Philadelphia between 1850 and 1852, including advertising materials, receipts, and a passenger manifest.

The documents in the collection include three partially printed receipts signed by the Philadelphia agent Thomas Richardson for freight payments. There is also a manifest of the passengers who sailed on the ship in August 1852, listing their names, age, sex, occupation, country of origin and "Country of which it is their intention to become inhabitants," number of packages or baggage, and number of passengers who died during the voyage. The passengers are separated into those sailing via cabin or steerage, and they range in age from infants to 70 years old. Countries of origin include Ireland, England, the United States, France, Germany, Scotland, Switzerland, and Belgium. Final destinations for immigrants include the United States, Canada, and Peru. A variety of occupations are represented, such as farmers, merchants and shipping agents, engineers, weavers, millwrights, and skilled tradesmen like a glass cutter, blacksmith, jeweler, galvanizer, and more. A British vocalist, Thomas Bishop, and Boston artist John Pope (1821-1880) are listed as cabin passengers.

Advertising materials include a November [1850] printed circular sent to William D. Lewis for an upcoming event to "celebrate the arrival of the Steamer 'City of Glasgow,' the first of the new line of Steamships established to ply between this port and Liverpool." There is also an illustrated printed broadside produced by the Richardson Brothers & Co. in 1851 to advertise the Liverpool and Philadelphia Steam Ship Company and the Pennsylvania Steam Ship Company's "Steam Communication Monthly from Liverpool to New York, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Charleston, Havana, &c., By Way of Philadelphia." The City of Glasgow is listed as one of their four ships, with notes about ship tonnage, departure dates, rates of passage, rates of freight, and additional information about securing railroad tickets to American cities. Printed on yellow paper, the broadside features a decorative border and an engraving of a steamship.

A colored engraving of the City of Glasgow sailing down the Delaware River, clipped from Gleason's Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, is also present.

Clair Brubaker, possibly in or near Cripple Creek, Colorado, made these handwritten newspapers "devoted chiefly to society, fashions & personals" sometime around 1917. They consist of newspaper clippings, pen-and-ink drawings, and manuscript annotations and "editorials" (letters) written to Brubaker's sister.

Clair Brubaker, possibly in or near Cripple Creek, Colorado, made these handwritten newspapers "devoted chiefly to society, fashions & personals" sometime around 1917. They consist of newspaper clippings, pen-and-ink drawings, and manuscript annotations and "editorials" (letters) written to Brubaker's sister. Brubaker's editorials often include family news and commentary. Other content includes news on social balls and dances, the Cripple Creek Junior High School prom, minstrel performances, weather, social and local news, jokes, and school news. Some references to World War 1 are present.

Volume 1 is identified as the 2nd edition of "The Victor Gazette." Clair's letter to his sister includes the line, "What in the world did you do with your warts? I have two horrible ones and I would like to remove them." The Eastern Star Dance given by the Gold Nugget Chapter no. 30 features heavily in both handwritten notes and article clippings. Other news includes "Lyric Opera House Destroyed by Fire," with an accompanying drawing of two dancers, implying it was the heat of their feet while dancing that caused the blaze. One example of a joke is, "Mary (four) who had never seen a cat before found one purring by her grandmother's range. 'Grandma,' she cried, 'come here quick! It's boiling!'"

Volume 2, identified as the 3rd edition of the "Gazette," includes more about the class of 1917 and their social debuts. An article titled "Pretty Girls in Stunning Gowns was feature of Junior High School Prom [at Cripple Creek]" includes brief summaries of the gowns that some girls wore. An editorial column on page five was compiled by "editor-in-chief Shakespearibus" [presumably Clair]. Page nine includes a small clipping with the summary, "The Cripple Creek Woman's Club held its annual election of officers somewhere in the city sometime last week. If you want to know just where, and when and who was elected ask 'em, we're not giving away any of their secrets." Volume two also features an advertisements section.

Volume 3, the 5th edition of the "Gazette," is identified as "The Gossip Number" because of an apparent lack of news and is described by Clair as the dullest paper yet. This volume contains more newspaper clippings, such as "'Moonshiners' Outfit Found in the Hills Near Victor," "Presbyterians Vote to Forbid Women Preachers," and "Two Girl Students Tie for Honors at Victor High School." Jokes include, "'Are you in pain, my little man?' asked the kind old gentleman. 'No,' answered the boy; 'the pain's in me.'"

The Clinton Prison, Lake Chazy, and Lake Saranac photograph album contains 14 images including views of the Clinton County Prison, New York and the surrounding area, and individual and group portraits.

The Clinton Prison, Lake Chazy, and Lake Saranac photograph album contains 14 images including views of the Clinton County Prison, New York and the surrounding area, and individual and group portraits.

The album (22 x 17 cm) is lacking covers. The exposed cover page bears a montage photograph showing printed flowers with an inscription reading "A Merry Christmas / 1897" as well as a portrait of an unidentified young man. Images of note include views of Clinton Prison, the "Warden's Garden" dedicated to Warden Walter N. Thayer, the Clinton Prison chapel, Chazy Lake and waterfalls on the Saranac River, a studio portrait of a man with a safety bicycle, and a group shot of 22 uniformed men captioned "W. N. Thayer Hose Company." Also present is a loose photograph of a dirt road in Saranac, New York.

This 838-page volume contains twelve manuscript issues of the Club Room Gazette, a literary magazine produced by the Everett Literary Association's Committee on Literary Exercises. The magazine appeared monthly and this volume, containing the twelve issues of Volume 6, covers the calendar year of 1861. A complete table of contents may be found here: Club Room Gazette Manuscript Magazine Table of Contents.

This 838-page volume contains twelve manuscript issues of the Club Room Gazette, a literary magazine produced by the Everett Literary Association's Committee on Literary Exercises. The magazine appeared monthly and this volume, containing the twelve issues of Volume 6, covers the calendar year of 1861.

The Club Room Gazette consists primarily of manuscript documents organized into 12 issues and bound into a single volume. It includes essays, short stories, serials, travel accounts, articles, editorials, letters, poems, songs, jokes, club administrative reports, and a single obituary. In addition, the issues contain numerous hand-drawn illustrations and examples of decorative lettering.

Each issue contains varying content, as well as two monthly recurring items: an editorial essay and the ELA "Round Table." The editorial, written by the Gazette editor, reflects on events from the preceding month, the state of the Gazette, and general thoughts from the editor. The Round Table contains a combination of club news, accounts of club events, and jokes submitted by members.

While the Club Room Gazette was not, in general, a political publication, it does include some pieces relating to contemporary politics. Notably, a number of pieces discuss the outbreak of the American Civil War, slavery, and wartime military operations and preparations.

A complete table of contents may be found here: Club Room Gazette Manuscript Magazine Table of Contents.

The Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico views collection contains 24 photographs of places and people in the western United States, British Colombia, and Mexico.

The Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico views collection contains 24 photographs of places and people in the western United States, British Colombia, and Mexico.

The collection is stored in a modern brown plastic binder (30.5 x 23.5 cm). Contents consist of images of the Ferguson area of British Columbia; pack mules at work; a gold mine in Oatman, Arizona; Idaho Springs, Colorado; Santa Fe and Laguna, New Mexico; a woman from Cuernavaca, Mexico; buildings (including a Mexican cathedral); portraits of Native Americans in New Mexico; and mountains in Colorado. The collection include mounted and unmounted photographs ranging in size from cartes de visite to prints on 20 x 25 cm mounts.

This collection contains correspondence and newspaper clippings collected by Cora Clarke, a respected female botanist and entomologist.

This collection consists of 23 letters, five newspaper clippings, and six miscellaneous items. Nineteen of the letters are addressed to Cora Clarke, with four to her mother and one to her father. No single correspondent or time frame dominates the collection, nor are there themes which run through all the letters, except in the most general sense. Prominent people represented in the collection as correspondents include Grace Greenwood (a.k.a. Sarah Jane Clarke Lippincott), Jacob Abbott, James Freeman Clarke, Edward Sylvester Morse, Alpheus Spring Packard Jr., Robert Collyer, Samuel Eliot, Francis Parkman, and Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz.

The Clarke Papers appears to consist largely of letters retained for their autograph value, more than their substance. Clarke's botanical and entomological activities appear most clearly in letters from the Cambridge Entomological Club (1878 November 16) and Francis Parkman. However, only Charles Russell's letter discussing the anatomy of flowers (1870 December 19), provides anything approaching a lengthy or in-depth discussion. More typical are a letter dated 1875 May 25, mentioning the Boston Society of Natural History and the "Society to encourage studies at home," and a receipt for a summer botany course (1874 August 4) suggesting Clarke's commitment to continuing education. The value of the collection lies primarily in creating an impressionistic portrayal of a respected female scientist at a time when she was maturing into adulthood.

The Cora Smith photograph album contains approximately 214 photographs documenting the travels and daily life of a woman living in Cornwallville, New York, in the late 1890s.

The Cora Smith photograph album contains approximately 214 photographs documenting the travels and daily life of a woman living in Cornwallville, New York, in the late 1890s.

The album (26 x 22 cm) is a blank page scrapbook with "Cora M. Smith" written in pencil on the fly leaf. Photographs consist primarily of snapshots and cyanotypes, and many of the people represented in this album (including members of the Smith and Olcott families) are identified with captions. Several trips are documented including visits to New York State destinations such as the Catskills, Niagara Falls, and Cambridge as well as Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Virginia.

Images of note include views of the Brooklyn Bridge; an older African American woman captioned "Aunt Caroline, Virginia"; young girls on "Poverty Row"; scenes around Cambridge, New York, and Cornwallville; a wedding party; the Smith family home; “Dr. Carter” preparing to remove a tooth from the mouth of an African American man; a semi-domesticated bear; the 1899 Dewey Land and Naval Parade; and Niagara Falls. Cora Smith appears in photographs on pages 24 and 33. Also present is a note regarding a store display designed by Cora to advertise Payne’s Celery Compound.

This collection contains receipts, bills, accounts, court documents, and other materials related to the expenses and operations of the Corporation of the City of New York between 1798 and 1873.

This collection contains receipts, bills, accounts, court documents, and other materials related to the expenses and operations of the Corporation of the City of New York between 1798 and 1873. The first 6 documents, written in 1798 and 1799, are minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, concerning a bill to provide the city with fresh water in order to improve public health. The council's deliberations, with the input of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, focused on whether the water supply should be a municipal or a privately funded project. The council resolved to permit a private company, under direction of the city recorder, to provide the city with water on February 28, 1799 (paving the way for the unsuccessful waterworks enterprises of the Manhattan Company).

The bulk of the collection, dated between 1806 and 1865, pertains to the efforts of New York City's governing body to build and sustain a local infrastructure. Approximately 1,250 bills, receipts, requests for payments, and miscellaneous administrative documents provide financial information about the construction and repair of roads, wharves, piers, slips, and docks; the supply of fresh water; the employment of men for the night watch; the dredging of the river; purchase of printed forms; and the regulation of city lighting. Some of the items reflect broader city events, such as the May 14, 1849, check for janitorial services which likely relates to the aftermath of the Astor Place Riot. Some receipts and accounts reflect the Common Council's 1811 plan to fix block and lot sizes, which resulted in Manhattan's gridded street pattern, and many documents, bills, and accounts provide insight into the city's interactions with individuals for goods and labor. The collection illustrates the increasing responsibilities and expenditures of the city government in the first half of the 19th century.

The collection also includes approximately 90 documents produced by the Marine Court of New York between 1872 and 1873. These summonses, affidavits of merit, and other court documents primarily regard individual complaints related to unpaid debts.