American History/Revolution

  • Patrick Henry Collection

    The collection consists of selected manuscript material by and about PatrickHenry. Included are ten signed autograph letters, two signed documents, oneother document, one autograph note, and one steel engraved portrait of Henry.One letter, dated 25 May 1779, is addressed to Virginia delegate BenjaminHarrison, about two persons jailed for suspected "wicked intentions"; anotherletter, dated 19 June 1788, concerns the will of Israel Christian; one about alegal matter, dated 24 July 1789, is addressed to Robert Carter; another, dated28 September 1789 and addressed to Thomas Madison, regards a bond of Henry'sbrother. In a third letter, sent to his daughter, Betsey (Mrs. Elizabeth Aylett)and dated 3 May 1794, Henry writes: "I hope your children will give to you thesame pleasure which mine give me." In a letter dated 14 February 1795, addressedto "Dear Sir" (presumably Henry Lee), Henry declines to take a law caseinvolving an influential Fairfax family. In another letter, dated 30 July 1794,Henry orders supplies for his slaves. There is also a brief letter by Henry tohis son-in-law, Spencer Roane, dated 14 November 1786. In addition, there are asigned receipt for two hundred and fourteen pounds for October 1764 and May1765, another dated 8 June 1765, a promissory note in the hand of Henry, signedby Jacob Puckett and dated 22 February 1793, and a 1795 receipt signed bycobbler Ephraim Potts for money paid by Henry for shoes and saddle cloth for hisnephew John H. Christian, with an accompanying explanatory letter (1889). Abrief, undated [1831?] manuscript ("opinion") concerns a land survey.

  • Pinkney Papers

    The collection consists of the papers of Pinkney and, to a lesser degree, of WilliamPinkney Whyte (1824-1908), his grandson. Included are several works by Pinkney, hisdiplomatic correspondence while he was U.S. minister to Great Britain (1807-1811) andto Russia (1816-1818), legal notes, deeds, bookplates, and assorted memorabilia.Pinkney's correspondents include John Quincy Adams, Baron Auckland, Thomas Jefferson,James Madison, James Monroe, and Jonathan Russell. For Whyte, there is correspondencefrom such notable figures as James G. Blaine, Reverdy Johnson, and Thomas Swann, aswell as several documents. In addition, there is correspondence of several otherpersons, such as James Buchanan, Cardinal Gibbons, Francois de Kossuth, and variousPinkney family members.Included in the collection are the notebook of Joseph White, a Pinkney relative, thatcontains "Historical Notices of the Inauguration of the Presidents" from Washingtonto Lincoln, and a volume of Pinkney's legal jottings that includes a letter (80 pp.)"To the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin Review" and a 162-page brief of an "Issue inTail."

  • Pinkney Papers

    The collection consists of the papers of Pinkney and, to a lesser degree, of WilliamPinkney Whyte (1824-1908), his grandson. Included are several works by Pinkney, hisdiplomatic correspondence while he was U.S. minister to Great Britain (1807-1811) andto Russia (1816-1818), legal notes, deeds, bookplates, and assorted memorabilia.Pinkney's correspondents include John Quincy Adams, Baron Auckland, Thomas Jefferson,James Madison, James Monroe, and Jonathan Russell. For Whyte, there is correspondencefrom such notable figures as James G. Blaine, Reverdy Johnson, and Thomas Swann, aswell as several documents. In addition, there is correspondence of several otherpersons, such as James Buchanan, Cardinal Gibbons, Francois de Kossuth, and variousPinkney family members.Included in the collection are the notebook of Joseph White, a Pinkney relative, thatcontains "Historical Notices of the Inauguration of the Presidents" from Washingtonto Lincoln, and a volume of Pinkney's legal jottings that includes a letter (80 pp.)"To the Editor of the Anti-Jacobin Review" and a 162-page brief of an "Issue inTail."

  • Princeton Cuneiform Collection

    The Manuscripts Division has cuneiform collections containing approximately 1,350baked and unbaked clay tablets, opened and unopened tablet cases, claycylinders, nail-shaped cones, pyramid-shaped tags, and other items. Cuneiformwriting on clay was in use for approximately three thousand years to recordliterary texts, school exercises, mathematical computations, and especiallydocuments in Sumerian, Akkadian, and other Mesopotamian languages in what is nowIraq. However, the bulk of the Princeton collection is documentary and archivalin nature, chiefly dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur or the Old BabylonianPeriod (dated 2112–2004 BC and 2004–1595 BC, in accordance with the "MiddleChronology"). Most of Princeton's clay tablets were excavated more than acentury ago, beginning in the 1890s and continuing into the early years of the20th century and are among the earliest acquisitions of the Department of RareBooks and Special Collections. The Princeton Cuneiform Collection is comprisedchiefly of temple accounts and other economic and administrative documents fromthe temples of Telloh, Jokha, and Drehem (modern place names for the ruins ofthe ancient Girsu, Umma, and Puzrish-Dagan in Southern Mesopotamia (in what isnow Iraq). The bulk of the collection was the gift of Moses Taylor Pyne(1855–1921), Class of 1877; Professor Rudolph Ernst Brünnow (1858–1917),Department of Near Eastern Studies; and other friends and graduates of PrincetonUniversity. On the question of provenance, Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen, AssistantLibrarian and Curator of Manuscripts, noted in 1921: "The beginning of thecollection of Babylonian cuneiform tablets and seal cylinders was made in 1897,when the late M. Taylor Pyne, of the class of 1877, to whom the University andits Library owes so deep a debt of gratitude, had his attention called to acollection of some 280 tablets and 80 cylinders, offered for sale by Daniel Z.Noorian of New York. This collection was recommended by the late William HayesWard….A large part, if not all, of this collection of Noorian's was purchasedand presented to the Princeton University Library by Mr. Pyne and Mr. Junius S.Morgan (Class of 1888). A considerable addition (623 tablets) to the collectionwas made in 1912–1913 by the late Professor Rudolph Ernst Brünnow, Mr. Pyne andother friends and alumni of the University. The complete list of donors is asfollows: Rudolph Ernst Brünnow; Sheldon Franklin, Class of 1903; Robert Garrett,Class of 1897; Kenneth Campbell Kirtland, Class of 1893; Cyrus Hall McCormick,Class of 1879; John Leverett Moore, Class of 1881; Russell Wellman Moore, Classof 1883; Charles Allen Munn, Class of 1881; Richard Wayne Parker, Class of 1867;Moses Taylor Pyne, Class of 1877; Simeon H. Rollinson, Class of 1893; Miss EdithWard; Martin Dasher Wylly, Class of 1875. In the same year another collectionconsisting of 35 tablets was presented by Wilfred John Punk, Class of 1909, andGeorge William Gilmour, Class of 1883. The latest, as the earliest, gift wasfrom Mr. Pyne—three tablets, presented during the year 1913–14. The cylinderseals are as yet uncatalogued with the exception of 58, of which we have adescription in manuscript by Mr. Ward."

    Edward Chiera (1885–1933), then a professor of Assyriology at the University ofPennsylvania, first learned of the Princeton collection in 1917. He describedthe main Princeton collection (now designated C0848) in two books: Catalogue of the Babylonian Cuneiform Tablets in the Princeton University Library (Princeton: Princeton UniversityLibrary, 1921), including Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen's provenance note, quotedabove; and Selected Temple Accounts from Telloh, Yokha and Drehem; Cuneiform Tablets in the Library of Princeton University(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922). The first book is the source ofdescriptions for nos. Ex136–Ex2381 in the finding aid. Chiera's descriptionshave been retained, though at variance with more recent approaches totransliteration and dating. However, Chiera's descriptions have been annotatedas necessary in square brackets to indicate tablets that have been removed fromtheir tablet cases since 1922; tablets that do not correspond to theirdescriptions; and missing tablets, many of which were lent in the 1950s to anAmerican Assyriologist for study and never returned. During the 2009–2010academic year, the Princeton Cuneiform Collection was rehoused from metalcabinets to boxes by Sylvia Yu, Department of Rare Books and SpecialCollections. Box numbers (1–99) have been added to the descriptions to indicatethe box in which each item is housed. The descriptions from Chiera cataloguewere taken from a digitized version of the catalogue.

    In the decades following publication of Chiera's catalogue, several smaller giftsof cuneiform were made to the Princeton University Library. Accordingly, theseare briefly listed after Chiera's descriptions. Two Princeton collectors donatedtheir cuneiform as part of their own collections. These cuneiform are housedwith the Princeton Cuneiform Collection (C0848). One of the two collectors wasRev. William H. Tower (1871–1950), Class of 1894, whose postal historycollection (C0911) includes two tablets now housed with the Princeton CuneiformCollection). The other was Robert Garrett (1875–1960), Class of 1897, whodonated almost all of the extensive Robert Garrett Collection in 1942; his tenclay tablets and nail cones were separately accessioned (AM 14837) andconstitute a series within the Robert Garrett Collection (C0744). The Garrettitems are housed with the Princeton Cuneiform Collection. Another Princetoncollector was Harold E. Walker, Class of 1926, who had acquired his tablets fromthe American Assyriologist and collector Edward J. Banks (1866-1945),constituting eight tablets designated Walker-Banks (AM 16787) and part of thePrinceton Cuneiform Collection. Professor William W. Hallo, Yale University,prepared the descriptions of the Banks-Walker items included in this findingaid. Also listed are four fine items in The Scheide Library, Princeton,privately owned but housed in the Department of Rare Books and SpecialCollections. These items are kept in The Scheide Library and are not housed withthe Princeton Cuneiform Collection (access is through the Scheide Librarian).The finest of these items is a large clay royal inscription cylinder of KingNebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (r. ca. 605–562 BCE), which relates to theLugal-Marada temple in Marad (near the modern Wannet es-Sa'adun) and closes witha prayer to Lugal-Marada. Another Princeton collector should be mentioned. LloydE. Cotsen, Class of 1950, has assembled a cuneiform collection, including manyfine examples of school exercises and mathematical computations. However, thiscollection has not been transferred to the Cotsen Children's Library, which is adivision of the Department of Special Collections. A significantportion of the Cotsen cuneiform collection has been described and reproduced inMark Wilson, Education in the Earliest Schools: Cuneiform Manuscripts in the Cotsen Collection (Los Angeles: Cotsen OccasionalPress, 2008).

    Not listed is the Manuscripts Division's collection of 244 stone seals (C0849)from the collections of Moses Taylor Pyne; Robert Garrett, and Edward D. Balken(1874–1960), Class of 1897. Such seals were used to make impressions in claytablets and their cases. The Assyriologist Rudi H. Mayr has prepared a partialchecklist (unpublished and not available online) of the Princeton collections ofstone seals, including those in the Princeton University Art Museum, which alsohas monumental cuneiform inscriptions donated by Robert Garrett. Finally,Special Collections at the Speer Library of the Princeton Theological Seminary,an independent educational institution located in Princeton, has a substantialcuneiform collection, with some three thousand items. These have been catalogedat the University of Pennsylvania and are available at Speer Library. [By Don C.Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts, May 20, 2010]

  • Princeton Cuneiform Collection

    The Manuscripts Division has cuneiform collections containing approximately 1,350baked and unbaked clay tablets, opened and unopened tablet cases, claycylinders, nail-shaped cones, pyramid-shaped tags, and other items. Cuneiformwriting on clay was in use for approximately three thousand years to recordliterary texts, school exercises, mathematical computations, and especiallydocuments in Sumerian, Akkadian, and other Mesopotamian languages in what is nowIraq. However, the bulk of the Princeton collection is documentary and archivalin nature, chiefly dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur or the Old BabylonianPeriod (dated 2112–2004 BC and 2004–1595 BC, in accordance with the "MiddleChronology"). Most of Princeton's clay tablets were excavated more than acentury ago, beginning in the 1890s and continuing into the early years of the20th century and are among the earliest acquisitions of the Department of RareBooks and Special Collections. The Princeton Cuneiform Collection is comprisedchiefly of temple accounts and other economic and administrative documents fromthe temples of Telloh, Jokha, and Drehem (modern place names for the ruins ofthe ancient Girsu, Umma, and Puzrish-Dagan in Southern Mesopotamia (in what isnow Iraq). The bulk of the collection was the gift of Moses Taylor Pyne(1855–1921), Class of 1877; Professor Rudolph Ernst Brünnow (1858–1917),Department of Near Eastern Studies; and other friends and graduates of PrincetonUniversity. On the question of provenance, Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen, AssistantLibrarian and Curator of Manuscripts, noted in 1921: "The beginning of thecollection of Babylonian cuneiform tablets and seal cylinders was made in 1897,when the late M. Taylor Pyne, of the class of 1877, to whom the University andits Library owes so deep a debt of gratitude, had his attention called to acollection of some 280 tablets and 80 cylinders, offered for sale by Daniel Z.Noorian of New York. This collection was recommended by the late William HayesWard….A large part, if not all, of this collection of Noorian's was purchasedand presented to the Princeton University Library by Mr. Pyne and Mr. Junius S.Morgan (Class of 1888). A considerable addition (623 tablets) to the collectionwas made in 1912–1913 by the late Professor Rudolph Ernst Brünnow, Mr. Pyne andother friends and alumni of the University. The complete list of donors is asfollows: Rudolph Ernst Brünnow; Sheldon Franklin, Class of 1903; Robert Garrett,Class of 1897; Kenneth Campbell Kirtland, Class of 1893; Cyrus Hall McCormick,Class of 1879; John Leverett Moore, Class of 1881; Russell Wellman Moore, Classof 1883; Charles Allen Munn, Class of 1881; Richard Wayne Parker, Class of 1867;Moses Taylor Pyne, Class of 1877; Simeon H. Rollinson, Class of 1893; Miss EdithWard; Martin Dasher Wylly, Class of 1875. In the same year another collectionconsisting of 35 tablets was presented by Wilfred John Punk, Class of 1909, andGeorge William Gilmour, Class of 1883. The latest, as the earliest, gift wasfrom Mr. Pyne—three tablets, presented during the year 1913–14. The cylinderseals are as yet uncatalogued with the exception of 58, of which we have adescription in manuscript by Mr. Ward."

    Edward Chiera (1885–1933), then a professor of Assyriology at the University ofPennsylvania, first learned of the Princeton collection in 1917. He describedthe main Princeton collection (now designated C0848) in two books: Catalogue of the Babylonian Cuneiform Tablets in the Princeton University Library (Princeton: Princeton UniversityLibrary, 1921), including Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen's provenance note, quotedabove; and Selected Temple Accounts from Telloh, Yokha and Drehem; Cuneiform Tablets in the Library of Princeton University(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1922). The first book is the source ofdescriptions for nos. Ex136–Ex2381 in the finding aid. Chiera's descriptionshave been retained, though at variance with more recent approaches totransliteration and dating. However, Chiera's descriptions have been annotatedas necessary in square brackets to indicate tablets that have been removed fromtheir tablet cases since 1922; tablets that do not correspond to theirdescriptions; and missing tablets, many of which were lent in the 1950s to anAmerican Assyriologist for study and never returned. During the 2009–2010academic year, the Princeton Cuneiform Collection was rehoused from metalcabinets to boxes by Sylvia Yu, Department of Rare Books and SpecialCollections. Box numbers (1–99) have been added to the descriptions to indicatethe box in which each item is housed. The descriptions from Chiera cataloguewere taken from a digitized version of the catalogue.

    In the decades following publication of Chiera's catalogue, several smaller giftsof cuneiform were made to the Princeton University Library. Accordingly, theseare briefly listed after Chiera's descriptions. Two Princeton collectors donatedtheir cuneiform as part of their own collections. These cuneiform are housedwith the Princeton Cuneiform Collection (C0848). One of the two collectors wasRev. William H. Tower (1871–1950), Class of 1894, whose postal historycollection (C0911) includes two tablets now housed with the Princeton CuneiformCollection). The other was Robert Garrett (1875–1960), Class of 1897, whodonated almost all of the extensive Robert Garrett Collection in 1942; his tenclay tablets and nail cones were separately accessioned (AM 14837) andconstitute a series within the Robert Garrett Collection (C0744). The Garrettitems are housed with the Princeton Cuneiform Collection. Another Princetoncollector was Harold E. Walker, Class of 1926, who had acquired his tablets fromthe American Assyriologist and collector Edward J. Banks (1866-1945),constituting eight tablets designated Walker-Banks (AM 16787) and part of thePrinceton Cuneiform Collection. Professor William W. Hallo, Yale University,prepared the descriptions of the Banks-Walker items included in this findingaid. Also listed are four fine items in The Scheide Library, Princeton,privately owned but housed in the Department of Rare Books and SpecialCollections. These items are kept in The Scheide Library and are not housed withthe Princeton Cuneiform Collection (access is through the Scheide Librarian).The finest of these items is a large clay royal inscription cylinder of KingNebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (r. ca. 605–562 BCE), which relates to theLugal-Marada temple in Marad (near the modern Wannet es-Sa'adun) and closes witha prayer to Lugal-Marada. Another Princeton collector should be mentioned. LloydE. Cotsen, Class of 1950, has assembled a cuneiform collection, including manyfine examples of school exercises and mathematical computations. However, thiscollection has not been transferred to the Cotsen Children's Library, which is adivision of the Department of Special Collections. A significantportion of the Cotsen cuneiform collection has been described and reproduced inMark Wilson, Education in the Earliest Schools: Cuneiform Manuscripts in the Cotsen Collection (Los Angeles: Cotsen OccasionalPress, 2008).

    Not listed is the Manuscripts Division's collection of 244 stone seals (C0849)from the collections of Moses Taylor Pyne; Robert Garrett, and Edward D. Balken(1874–1960), Class of 1897. Such seals were used to make impressions in claytablets and their cases. The Assyriologist Rudi H. Mayr has prepared a partialchecklist (unpublished and not available online) of the Princeton collections ofstone seals, including those in the Princeton University Art Museum, which alsohas monumental cuneiform inscriptions donated by Robert Garrett. Finally,Special Collections at the Speer Library of the Princeton Theological Seminary,an independent educational institution located in Princeton, has a substantialcuneiform collection, with some three thousand items. These have been catalogedat the University of Pennsylvania and are available at Speer Library. [By Don C.Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts, May 20, 2010]

  • Princeton University Press Records

    The Princeton University Press Records document the business acitivities of PrincetonUniversity Press. They include extensive files on works published by the press. Thebulk of the collection is made up of the Press's General Files, which includecorrespondence with reviewers and authors as well as Editorial Board dossiers(reports by staff and readers); contract information; files describing each project’seditorial, production, and manufacturing characteristics and concerns ("ManuscriptTransmittal Forms"); copyright and permissions information; production schedules;copyeditors' stylesheets and designers' specification sheets; and promotion andmarketing files. The records also include the files of three former directors, DatusC. Smith, Herbert S. Bailey, and Walter H. Lippincott, as well as review files,editorial board and board of trustees files, financial information, production files,and selected publications.This collection consists of the Press's paper records only. Records maintained by thePress in electronic form are not included and remain at Princeton UniversityPress.

  • Princeton University Press Records

    The Princeton University Press Records document the business acitivities of PrincetonUniversity Press. They include extensive files on works published by the press. Thebulk of the collection is made up of the Press's General Files, which includecorrespondence with reviewers and authors as well as Editorial Board dossiers(reports by staff and readers); contract information; files describing each project’seditorial, production, and manufacturing characteristics and concerns ("ManuscriptTransmittal Forms"); copyright and permissions information; production schedules;copyeditors' stylesheets and designers' specification sheets; and promotion andmarketing files. The records also include the files of three former directors, DatusC. Smith, Herbert S. Bailey, and Walter H. Lippincott, as well as review files,editorial board and board of trustees files, financial information, production files,and selected publications.This collection consists of the Press's paper records only. Records maintained by thePress in electronic form are not included and remain at Princeton UniversityPress.

  • Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature

    The collection consists of manuscripts, letters, and documents of numerous andvaried authors and artists that span nearly five centuries of English andAmerican literature. There is a variety of related material, such as such asartwork, illustrated albums, letterbooks, and photographs.Authors most extensively represented include the so-called "Taylor authors"-MaxBeerbohm (with numerous caricatures and drawings, correspondence andmanuscripts), Alexander Pope, Richard Brinsley Sheridan; George Gordon Byron,and Anthony Trollope.Other writers significantly represented in the collection, with regard tomanuscripts and/or letters, are: the Brontë family (Anne, Charlotte, andPatrick), Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Henry James,George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, Alfred Tennyson, William MakepeaceThackeray, the Trollope family (Frances Milton, Henry Merivale, T. Adolphus, andFrances Eleanor), Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. The major artists includeWilliam Blake, Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cruikshank, Edward Lear,John Everett Millais, William Makepeace Thackeray, and J. M. W. Turner.Note: A listing of Taylor Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (Series 4) isincluded as a reference for researchers, but full textual and codicologicaldescriptions of them will eventually be published in a "Catalogue of Medievaland Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library."

  • Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature

    The collection consists of manuscripts, letters, and documents of numerous andvaried authors and artists that span nearly five centuries of English andAmerican literature. There is a variety of related material, such as such asartwork, illustrated albums, letterbooks, and photographs.Authors most extensively represented include the so-called "Taylor authors"-MaxBeerbohm (with numerous caricatures and drawings, correspondence andmanuscripts), Alexander Pope, Richard Brinsley Sheridan; George Gordon Byron,and Anthony Trollope.Other writers significantly represented in the collection, with regard tomanuscripts and/or letters, are: the Brontë family (Anne, Charlotte, andPatrick), Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Henry James,George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, Alfred Tennyson, William MakepeaceThackeray, the Trollope family (Frances Milton, Henry Merivale, T. Adolphus, andFrances Eleanor), Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. The major artists includeWilliam Blake, Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cruikshank, Edward Lear,John Everett Millais, William Makepeace Thackeray, and J. M. W. Turner.Note: A listing of Taylor Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (Series 4) isincluded as a reference for researchers, but full textual and codicologicaldescriptions of them will eventually be published in a "Catalogue of Medievaland Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library."

  • Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature

    The collection consists of manuscripts, letters, and documents of numerous andvaried authors and artists that span nearly five centuries of English andAmerican literature. There is a variety of related material, such as such asartwork, illustrated albums, letterbooks, and photographs.Authors most extensively represented include the so-called "Taylor authors"-MaxBeerbohm (with numerous caricatures and drawings, correspondence andmanuscripts), Alexander Pope, Richard Brinsley Sheridan; George Gordon Byron,and Anthony Trollope.Other writers significantly represented in the collection, with regard tomanuscripts and/or letters, are: the Brontë family (Anne, Charlotte, andPatrick), Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Henry James,George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, Alfred Tennyson, William MakepeaceThackeray, the Trollope family (Frances Milton, Henry Merivale, T. Adolphus, andFrances Eleanor), Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. The major artists includeWilliam Blake, Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cruikshank, Edward Lear,John Everett Millais, William Makepeace Thackeray, and J. M. W. Turner.Note: A listing of Taylor Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (Series 4) isincluded as a reference for researchers, but full textual and codicologicaldescriptions of them will eventually be published in a "Catalogue of Medievaland Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library."

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