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The papers detail the personal lives and professional careers of several generations and family lines of the Baldwin family. The legal, political, and business activities of family members in Connecticut, New York, and elsewhere are documented. Major topics include: family, women, law, education, Connecticut and New York politics and government, New Haven, Connecticut, and Yale University.

The papers consist of correspondence, newspaper clippings of a historical and religious nature, journals, and other papers of the Bacon family. Included are sermons and writings of Leonard Bacon; papers and journals of Leonard Woolsey Bacon and Benjamin Wisner Bacon; correspondence and printed material pertaining to the affair of Delia Salter Bacon and Alexander MacWhorter, a licentiate; and correspondence about the scandal between Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Tilton regarding Beecher's affair with Tilton's wife, Elizabeth Tilton. Additional papers include diaries of Leonard Bacon; notebooks, letterbooks, manuscripts, and printed matter concerning the Congregational Church in Connecticut; correspondence, manuscripts, printed matter, newspaper clippings, and photos of four generations of the Bacon Family; and correspondence of Leonard Woolsey Bacon.

The papers consist of correspondence, account books, financial records, diaries, journals, and other papers relating to the personal lives and professional careers of the Chauncey family of Connecticut. Material relating to the American Revolution and the colonial period includes the correspondence, legal papers, and financial records of Charles Chauncey (1747-1823). The legal papers of Charles Chauncey (1777-1849) document his work in Philadelphia. The European travel diaries for Nathaniel Chauncey (1824-1826) and Durham, Connecticut town records relating to Worthington Gallup Chauncey's municipal duties are also included in the papers.

An artificial collection of diaries relating to Connecticut and other states and regions in the United States. Topics including farming, religion, military life, student life, travel, and the weather are documented.

An artificial collection of correspondence, writings, diaries, and memorabilia relating to Yale University, its officials and employees, faculty, students, and related topics.

Correspondence and financial papers of Shadrach Osborn, a general merchant of Southbury, Connecticut, who was also active as a commissary during the Revolutionary War. Also included are the records of his business associate, Truman Hinman and his son, Erastus Osborn, who was sheriff of New Haven County. An account book for purchases from wholesale suppliers covers the period 1783-1792. The three letters in the papers are from Erastus Osborn. One dated 1812 describes a town-gown riot in New Haven, Connecticut and two written to his father in January 1824 report the discovery of a body stolen by Yale medical students from the West Haven, Connecticut burying ground.

Correspondence, financial records, diaries, scrapbooks, account books and memorabilia of the Bristol family of New Haven and New London, Connecticut. The major figures in the collection are the descendants of Simeon Bristol (1739-1805); his son, William Bristol, and his grandsons, William Brooks Bristol, and Louis Bristol, all prominent lawyers, judges and members of the state legislature in Connecticut.Nearly a third of the papers is made up of land deeds for New Haven and New London counties (1765-1854). The voluminous correspondence (2,569 letters) extends over several generations from 1798 to 1879. Of particular interest are the fifty-one letters by Louis Bristol written from Paris to family members and to Timothy Dwight Edwards describing the Revolution of 1830. Between 1829 and 1857 William Brooks Bristol wrote 581 letters to his brother Louis, chiefly on the question of buying and selling railroad stocks. Additional papers of the brothers include records of their law practice, account books and business corrspondence. Also a diary (1834-1844) kept by Louis Bristol recording his life as a student at Yale College, his surveying experience and his courtship, together with twenty-nine compositions written while at Yale. Eugene Stuart Bristol, son of William Brooks Bristol, is represented by letter books and extensive financial records (1869-1873) documenting his mining operations at Bingham Canyon, Utah.

Correspondence, diaries, account books, daybooks, legal papers, deeds, and land books of the Boardman family of New Haven and New Milford, Conn., which had extensive real estate holdings in Connecticut and the Western Reserve. Family members include William Whiting Boardman, (1794-1871) lawyer and probate judge of New Haven, Conn.; his father Elijah Boardman, (1760-1823) U.S. Senator from Connecticut who had holdings in the Connecticut Land Company and the three Ohio townships of Palmyra, Boardman, and Medina; his brother, George Sherman Boardman, (1799-1825) and his son, William Jarvis Boardman, (b.1832) attorney for the Valley Railroad Company, and holder of real estate in Cleveland, Ohio, New Haven, Conn., and Chattanooga, Tenn.

The papers consist of correspondence, financial papers, printed material, photographs, and miscellanea of the Blake family of New Haven, Connecticut. Several generations of family members are represented in the papers, including Eli Whitney, Eli Whitney Blake (1795-1886), Eli Whitney Blake (1836-1895), Henry Taylor Blake (1828-1922), and William Phipps Blake (1826-). Additional family members represented in the papers include: Charles Thompson Blake, Edward Foster Blake, James Pierrepont Blake, Dotha Bushnell, George Bushnell, George Ensign Bushnell, Mary Elizabeth Bushnell, and members of the Hazard, MacWhorter, Osborne, and Rice families.

The papers include correspondence (comprising over half of the collection), manuscripts of Samuel Wells Williams's Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, themes and lecture notes by Frederick Wells Williams, diaries, newspaper clippings, articles on China, maps, and pictures. The bulk of the correspondence relates to S. W. Williams, missionary, diplomat, and sinologue. The period between 1845 and 1855 has extensive correspondence with missionaries and with James Dwight Dana and Matthew C. Perry, whom Williams accompanied on his mission to open Japan and on his return visit in 1854. Williams's letters to friends and family comment on progress made and their reception in Japan. In 1856 Williams became secretary and interpreter to the American Legation in China and many of the letters refer to Chinese problems of the following 20 years. His correspondents include, in addition to Dana and Perry, Anson Burlingame, Hamilton Fish, Asa Gray, Frederick Low, William Bradford Reed, and William Henry Seward. The remaining correspondence covers the period 1885 to 1939, encompassing the correspondence of F.W. Williams, Yale professor, and Wayland Wells Williams, writer.