Archives and Special Collections: Personal Papers

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A

Josiah Albertson family papers, 1805-1855.

The collection includes bills, receipts, letters, and account books of Josiah Albertson's lime and lumber business in Plymouth, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, which he later held in partnership with his brothers, Jacob and Benjamin. Also included are papers relating to the Plymouth Railroad Company (1831-1844), the Gwynyd Friends Meeting, and family correspondence.

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Hazelle Myra Allen Brooks diaries, 1928-1970.

Hazelle Myra Allen Brooks graduated from Dickinson College in 1934. This collection contains diaries kept by her as a college student and as a young mother during World War II. It also includes diaries kept by her mother, Essie Myra Comstock Allen.

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Nathan Appleton scrapbook, 1867-1898.

An album containing clippings of the serial publication "Harry Ashton's Ramblings," with a handwritten preface, pencilled editing notes, photographs, and letters from publishers. The story was published in the Boston Globe in 1873 and concerns the fictional travels of Harry Ashton in Europe and Russia. Much of the story was based on the author's own travel experiences. Correspondents include Charles Lever, Richard Kimball, John Lillies, J. Wesler Harper, T. Niles, Lucy Derby, Franklin Burgess, and William Dean Howells.

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John Armstrong business papers, 1755-1783.

The collection contains papers related to John Armstrong's service as a surveyor in Cumberland County between 1755 and 1783. These papers include correspondence with the Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania and Delaware, John Lukens, complaints from his clients, and several survey maps drawn by Armstrong. Born in County Fermagh, Ireland in 1717, Armstrong emigrated to Pennsylvania with his wife, five brothers, and a sister. He established himself as a surveyor but in 1756 joined the militia as a captain during the Seven Years' War (French and Indian War). He led a victorious assault on the stronghold of Kittanning, earning forever the label "the Hero of Kittanning." After the war, Armstrong returned to surveying, being named deputy-surveyor in 1762. He later served several terms in the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1788, and was a founding trustee of the Carlisle Grammar School and Dickinson College.

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Dr. Joseph Cullen Ayer family papers, 1836-1918.

The collection consists mainly of personal correspondence: fifty letters, most of which are from Carolyn Elizabeth Roberts Ayer to her husband Joseph Cullen Ayer (b. 1839) at various points in his life, beginning before their marriage (1861) when he was at Harvard; as a medical officer in the 18th Massachusetts Volunteers (1861-63); as a land speculator in Tennessee; and as a businessman in Boston. The collection also includes other family correspondence and legal materials, the latter comprised of family deeds and the settlement of Ayer's father's (Joseph Cullen Ayer, Sr. - 1846) and his mother's (Rachael Ellis Ayer-Washburn - c. 1888) estates. Miscellaneous materials include poetry and a medical thesis by Joseph Cullen Ayer, Sr.; printed materials contain three Civil War manuals.

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