The Harrison Smith Papers contain writings, correspondence, printed material, and photographs that document the life and work of editor and publisher Harrison Smith, particularly his research on American author Sinclair Lewis, and his editorial work for the Saturday Review of Literature. Series I, Research Files on Sinclair Lewis, includes extensive biographical notes, presumably intended as the source material for a book-length biography of Lewis. Series II, Other Papers, consists chiefly of writings, interviews, and speeches that relate to the position of women in early- and mid-twentieth century society.
The Whittemore collection of photocopied letters at Hill-Stead Museum numbers 1562 items, a mere fraction of the material held by the Whittemore family at the Harris Whittemore, Jr. Trust offices in Naugatuck, CT, and not accessible to the public. Judicious selection of documents worthy of photocopying, given resources at Hill-Stead, winnowed the selection to selected items pertaining to Alfred Pope's Malleable Iron business in Cleveland, Ohio, and elsewhere in the mid-west, the Pope family's activities, Alfred Pope's art collecting, and the construction of the Pope's Euclid Avenue house in Cleveland [mid 1880's], Hill-Stead in Farmington [1898-1901], Westover School [1908-9] and the Halle Bros. department store building in Cleveland [1911-13], a joint real estate venture by Alfred Pope and J. H. Whittemore. All letters written by Alfred's wife, Ada, or daughter, Theodate, are also included. Alfred Pope is best known at Hill-Stead as the collector of French Impressionist masterpieces that are the hallmark of the museum's holdings. However, an understanding of Pope's business life is important to understanding him, therefore, archivists selected letters that marked important moments in the growth of his companies or that summarized activity, problems, or plans, yielding insight into Alfred Pope's general thought process, and personality. Business matters and art-related topics are intertwined within various correspondences. Lengthy business letters include brief asides about art and vice versa. Business-related correspondence outnumbers art-related correspondence, yet combined the letters reveal much about the patriarch of the Pope family, and without whose collection Hill-Stead Museum would not exist.
Photographs prints created and collected by Harry Adams, 1943-1985, that chiefly document events, activities, and individuals related to the African American community in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of California and his career as a professional photographer as well as his work for African American newspapers including the California Eagle and Los Angeles Sentinel.
The collection consists of writings by Harry B. Chase, Jr., which focus on the history of the railroad in Massachusetts in general and the experiences of his father, Harry B. Chase, Sr., an employee of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, in particular. Included in the writings are excerpts from letters written by father to son entitled "'Boston & New York R.P.O. Train 500,' Letters from a New Haven Railroad Signal Maintainer to his Soldier Son in Wartime, 1942-1943," as well as "Mixed Train to Providence: A History of the Boston and Providence Rail Road, the Taunton Branch Rail Road, and Connecting Lines, with Emphasis on Mansfield, Massachusetts," and other writings about the experiences of his father and himself with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in the mid 1900s.
The papers of Harry Clement Brogan consist of printed materials, memorabilia, and photographs relating to Brogan's student years at Yale, particularly commencement activities in 1920 and 1923, as well as his participation in Yale's Reserve Officers' Training Corps. A personal collection of vintage postcards depicting Connecticut towns is included in the papers.
Diaries, family records and history of the Parish of Trinity Church, New Haven (1740-1820) by Harry Croswell, journalist and later minister of Trinity Church from 1815 until his death. The diaries in 14 volumes (1821-1858), offer a daily record of his life in New Haven as well as accounts of his participation in the work of the church in the surrounding region and in the affairs of Trinity College, Hartford.Croswell also records the formation of the black congregation, St. Luke's, in 1844. Occasional trips to upstate New York (1825, 1841), to Boston and Philadelphia (1821) offer descriptions of these places. In 1915 F. B. Dexter made a transcript of large portions of the diary and also compiled an index.
The Harry F. Brown Papers consist of 478 photographic images in various media of railroad electrification equipment along electrified main line section of the Shoreline route of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.
Harry Gideon Wells, pathologist and immunologist, was born July 21, 1875 in New Haven, Connecticut and attended Hillhouse High School. He graduated from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, in 1895. He was an authority on the chemical aspects of pathology and immunology. Collection materials include his autobiography, student notebooks, drafts and published writings, reunion books, and obituaries.
Miscellaneous autographs and letters of American political and cultural figures, among them John and John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Jefferson Davis, Horace Greeley, and Lydia Sigourney. Also included are eleven letters to James F. Babcock, editor of the New Haven Weekly Palladium, on politics (1840-1866) and seven letters (1866-1872) to R. P. Cowles in New Haven from prospective lecturers.
Connecticut's Archives Online