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The papers consist of correspondence, writings, notes and research materials, clippings, memorabilia, photographs and financial records of William Graham Sumner, a sociologist, professor at Yale University, and advocate of free trade and the gold standard. The correspondence (over 13,000 items) documents many of Sumner's interests including the Yale College curriculum and economic and political issues. It also includes substantive accounts from friends in the South about Reconstruction, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Tilden-Hayes election. Family correspondence spans the years 1863-1908. There are over 100 letters written by Sumner during the last years of his life to Albert Galloway Keller.