Collections

The collection comprises diaries, notebooks, and other manuscript documents concerning the travels of James Wales in India, with a particular focus on antiquities of Poona and the nearby cave temples of Ellora.

The James Watson Webb papers consist of correspondence, letterbooks, newspapers, diaries, and miscellanea documenting the personal life and professional career of James Watson Webb and his family, including his second wife, Laura Virginia Cram Webb. The papers document Webb's journalistic and political careers, his personal life, and the activities and observations of his second wife, Laura Virginia Cram Webb, a close confidante to her husband. Major topics of interest include New York politics and life, national politics, the Civil War, foreign relations with France and Brazil, and the social life of New York and Washington, D.C. As a major New York City newspaper publisher and a U.S. diplomat to Brazil, Webb corresponded with such figures as Nicholas Biddle, James Blaine, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, Hamilton Fish, Abraham Lincoln, William Marcy, Napoleon III, William Seward and others.

The James Welch Papers contain manuscripts, correspondence, and personal papers documenting the life and work of author James Welch. James Welch is well known for his fiction dealing with the histories and experiences of Native Americans, and the drafts of manuscripts, for novels and other works, together with correspondence and secondary literature, make the Welch papers a valuable resource for research in literary, American, and Native American studies.

The James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson Papers provide evidence of the personal and professional lives of James Weldon Johnson, Grace Nail Johnson, and to a lesser degree, the Johnson and Nail families, spanning the years 1850 to 2005, with the bulk of material dating between 1900 and 1976. The papers chronicle Johnson's writing career and involvement in education, politics, and cultural affairs and consist of a variety of documents, including correspondence, writings, personal papers, scrapbooks, photographs, artwork, objects, and audiovisual materials. Johnson was involved in a number of significant movements and organizations during his lifetime, and, as a result, the Papers also provide insight into broader topics in American and African-American history during the twentieth century.

The James Weldon Johnson Collection Files contain manuscript correspondence, literary works and other documents relating to African Americans, dating from 1809 to 1979. The collection contains several letters to James Weldon Johnson from aspiring poets asking for feedback on their writing. Correspondence sent to Langston Hughes, Harold Jackman, Grace Nail Johnson, and Carl Van Vechten is also prominent in the collection. The collection includes broadway actress Rose McClendon's scripts used when performing in various productions. Some early documents relate to slavery; these include bills of sale and an estate inventory dating from 1856. Writings by Sterling Allen Brown, George Washington Carver, Ralph Ellison, and J. Saunders Redding can be found in the collection. African-American women authors are also represented; most notably in writings and correspondence of Elizabeth Ross Haynes and Margaret Walker.

Single manuscripts and small groups of manuscripts, including literary manuscripts, letters, and other documents. Materials are grouped under headings by author or corporate name.

Chiefly correspondence and diaries of James Wesley Cooper documenting his career as a Congregational minister, and his service as a Fellow of Yale University (1886-1916). The only personal correspondence are forty-four letters from Cooper to his fiancée in 1865 and fourteen additional letters (1877-1905). The diaries (1869-1914) provide a daily record of his work as a minister and of his visits to churches and schools in the South supported by the American Missionary Association. He was an officer of the Association between 1903 and 1914. Also in the papers are a letter from Richard Ely to Elizur May, 1787 Jun 3, a resolution of the Hartford South Association, 1819 Jun 1 and minutes taken by Noah Porter of an ecclesiastical council meeting, 1837 Nov 13.

The papers record the career of a nineteenth century military officer in the American West and, in particular, his service in the Wounded Knee campaign. Forsyth's correspondence documents his service as military secretary to General Sheridan and as an inspector for the military Department of the Missouri during the 1870s. The letters also trace his command in the Bannock War of 1878, his part in the Wounded Knee campaign and subsequent investigation, and his command of the Department of California. The collection contains military reports on the Wounded Knee affair, as well as printed and manuscript maps of the campaign. Forsyth's papers also contain documents relating to other nineteenth century military officers and some photographic portraits. There are some papers, mostly financial receipts, regarding his family and his in-laws, the Dennisons.

The papers consist of correspondence, writings, reports, memoranda, research material, clippings and photographs documenting the activities of James W. Fesler, as professor of political science at Yale University, as a participant in professional associations, and as a consultant on commissions appointed by the state of Connecticut, the United States government and the United Nations. His papers on the activities of the War Production Board (1941-1946) are particularly full and include correspondence, reports, charts and photographs.