0. Manuscripts

Collection Overview

Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: These ledger books contain mercantile records, doctor's accounts, and court records. The mercantile records reveal much about the way of life in the formative years of the country. The doctor's records give an interesting glimpse into the sort of service they performed. Note: See also "Fort Smith Trader's Book" for further information concerning this interesting ledger.

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: William R. Leigh (1866-1955), traveler and artist, was a painter of wild animals, primitive people, and local color. His home was in New York City, but he traveled and studied in Europe when he was a young man, and later he traveled in Africa with the Carl Akely Expedition and with the Martin Johnsons (1926). The collection is the gift of his wife, Ethel Traphagen Leigh, presented by her brother, Edward Traphagen, after her...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Emil William Lenders (n. d.), cowboy and artist, was born in London and educated in Germany, having studied art at the Academy of Munich. He painted buffalo at the 101 Ranch in the 1890's, and was later associated with Buffalo Bill (William Cody). The papers consist of three books containing color sketches of American Indians and their artifacts, including cattle brands, with notes; a catalog of Lender's collection of books; a...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: G. W. Lillie (1860-1942), of Pawnee, Oklahoma, was better known as Pawnee Bill. A notice (probably 1886 or 1887) written on the letterhead of "Pawnee Bill's Oklahoma Colonization Company" is directed to "city and county papers" telling them that 2500 to 5000 people are ready to come into Oklahoma, but have been frightened by false reports that soldiers are waiting to keep them out. A letter to ''Friend Engles" says he...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: A two-page document, on vellum, signed November 12, 1862, authorizes the Smithsonian Institution's agents in London to recover the residue of Smithson's bequest so that it may be used for the benefit of the Institution. This is one of the few documents on which Lincoln signed his full name - he usually used only the initial of his first name. The paper is countersigned by William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Charles...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: An early day school teacher in Tulsa, Lilah Denton Lindsay (1860-1943) writes "Memories of Yesterday in my School Life in the Indian Territory Mission Field." Miss Lindsay's mother was a pupil of Reverend R. M. Loughridge at the Creek Mission School at Coweta. Lilah taught under him at the Wealaka Mission School in 1883, and taught day school in Okmulgee, 1884-85. Employed by the Home Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church,...

Collection Overview

Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Entitled "The Nation of Indians called Charrikees," and written about 1698, this bound manuscript of forty-four pages is enclosed in a portfolio covered with buckram. Written by a man who was apparently an official at Williamsburg in Virginia, this document is interesting as well as informative because of its descriptions of Indian life before 1700.

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Ranald S. Mackenzie (1840-1889), a graduate of West Point and a general in the U.S. Army, participated in many battles of the Civil War. After the war he was transferred to the South and Southwest, accepting a lower rank, and took a leading part in the campaign against marauding Indians in the early 1870's. As a result of his efforts, large areas in Texas were opened for permanent settlement. Later he was transferred to Indian...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Joseph Martin (1740-1808) was one of three commissioners appointed by the governor of Virginia to treat with the Southern Indians. In that same year North Carolina also engaged his services as agent among the Cherokees and Chickamaugas. In 1785, as commissioner of the National Government, he engaged in the negotiation of the Treaty of Hopewell. In this letter dated March 12, 1785, he writes to Alexander Martin, Governor of...

Collection Overview Collection summary derived from "Guidebook to Manuscripts", 1969: Samuel Bell Maxey (1825-1895) was a Confederate general in charge of troops in Indian Territory and later became a senator from Texas. There are 200 letters, more of which are personal than official, and documents and maps (1861-65). There are only two letters after 1865 and they are dated 1881-82, one to the Secretary of the Interior and one to Jackson McCurtain, Choctaw Chief; both pertain to railroad charters in the Choctaw...