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Librarian Contacts

George Miles, William Robertson Coe Curator, Western Americana Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - george.miles@yale.edu

Bill Landis, Associate Director for Public Services, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library - bill.landis@yale.edu

James Kessenides, Kaplanoff Librarian for American History, Sterling Memorial Library - james.kessenides@yale.edu

James maintains several subject guides that may be useful for finding additional primary sources in licensed databases (e.g., newspaper articles, magazines) relating to to the subject of your biographical paper, or to events and issues of the time period: Nineteenth Century America and Twentieth Century America. The guides also include secondary resources like the Oxford Handbooks Online, which can be quite useful if you need a solid, scholarly overview of an era or topic with which you are only passingly familiar in order to situate your biography subject.

Martha Smalley, Special Collections Consultant, Divinity Library Special Collections, Yale Divinity School - martha.smalley@yale.edu

The Divinity Library Special Collections holds numerous collections of the personal papers of missionaries, often with Yale connections, who’ve lived and worked in Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world in the 19th & 20th centuries. Contact Martha if you are interested in mining these rich collections for a biography subject.

Guide to Using Special Collections at Yale University

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Your assignment for the Wednesday, February 24th, class session

The subsequent 16 posts on this Tumblr blog each contain a description of a different archival collection held at either the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library OR Manuscripts & Archives, which is in Sterling Memorial Library. These are the two largest of the Yale Library’s seven special collections repositories. Each post also contains links to one or more folders of digitized materials from the collection that might be useful in writing a biography of the creator(s) of each collection.

After class today (Wednesday, February 17th), each of you will browse these 16 Tumblr posts and select two collections that you will “own” for next week’s session (February 24th), and add your name in Column A on this spreadsheet beside each of the two collections you will “own” for February 24th.

The sooner you do the above the more choice you’ll have -- only one of you can “own” each collection! IMPORTANT CAVEAT: Your “owning” of these collections is for surveying purposes only; it doesn’t commit you to those collections for your final paper for The Art of Biography!

For the Wednesday, February 24th class session, you’ll be joined by George Miles from the Beinecke Library, and Josh Cochran and Bill Landis from Manuscripts & Archives.

Between February 17th and class time on February 24th, explore the digitized folders linked to the two collections you’ve chosen to “own” and think about how best to present those two collections to your classmates in about 5 minutes on February 24th. Also, don’t forget to follow the link to the Archives at Yale finding aid (in one case to a catalog record in Orbis) for your collections so that you have a good sense of how much and what other types of material exist in the collection.

You will each give a presentations on February 24th about your two collections, in which you should try to address the following questions:

Who created this archival collection, when were the materials in it created, where were they created?

What is going on in the folders you looked at? What is the context for the document(s) you looked at?

Whose perspective(s) comes through in the document(s) you examined? Whose doesn’t?

What can you know based on the sources you have in front of you? What do you not know?

What questions do the sources raise that could help someone shape a biographical paper?

Did anything surprise you when looking at the folders in your collection?

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Anna Catherine Bahlmann Papers Relating to Edith Wharton (YCAL MSS 361) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Anna Catherine Bahlmann (1849-1916) was employed as author Edith Wharton's German language tutor in 1874. She later served as her governess, secretary, and literary assistant. The collection includes more than 130 letters from Wharton to Bahlmann, spanning Bahlmann's employment with the Wharton family in 1874 to 1915. They document a significant, long-standing relationship and shed light on Wharton's personal and literary affairs.

Collection materials used in class session:

Series I, Box 2, Folders 23-25: Letters from Edith Wharton to Anna Catherine Bahlmann, 1874-circa 1885.

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George Bent Papers (WA MSS 32) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the online catalog description for this collection

Overview: George Bent (1843-1918) was the son of Colonel William Bent, fur trader and founder of Bent's Fort, and Owl Woman, a Cheyenne, daughter of White Thunder, went to school in St. Louis. Bent's letters to George E. Hyde describe Bent's life with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Comanches, Kiowas, Sioux and other Native American communities of the Arkansas and Platte River valleys. They include accounts of the Indian wars, and statements by Native Americans about their battles with American troops.

Collection materials used in class session:

3 folders: Correspondence with George Hyde, 1906-1926.

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Bingham Family Papers (MS 81)  - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Correspondence, diaries, journals, manuscripts, notebooks, sermons, writings, two books with manuscript notes, legal and financial records, photographs, printed material and miscellanea documenting the personal lives and professional careers of four generations of the Bingham family. The papers include material documenting Hiram Bingham I (1789-1869) and his missionary work in Hawaii; Hiram Bingham II (1831-1908) and his missionary work in the Gilbert Islands, his literary efforts, and family matters; and Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) and his academic career, his South American explorations, including finding the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911, and his political career as lieutenant governor, governor, and United States senator from Connecticut. Papers relating to several other family members are also included in the papers.

Collection materials used in class session:

Series II, Box 8, folder 124: “Journal of life on Apaiang [Abaiang, Gilbert Islands]” by Minerva Clarissa Brewster Bingham (1834-1903), wife of Hiram Bingham II, 30 June 1860-27 September 1862.

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Brewster Family Papers (WA MSS S-1309) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview:  diaries, artwork, and an album which document the lives of Elizabeth Bates Brewster and three of her daughters, Ada Augusta Brewster, Mary Brewster Long, and Elizabeth Brewster Scribner. The material spans 1838 to 1879. Subjects include child rearing and family life, nursing during the Civil War, school teaching, and life in Nevada and California

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 2, folder 14: Diary of Elizabeth Bates Brewster (1814-1878), 1838-1839.

Box 2, folder 15: Diary of Mary Brewster Long (1834-1873), 1867-1872.

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James Beebee Brinsmade, Jr. (Class of 1845) Diaries (RU 861) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for the Yale Student Diary Collection, of which these are a part

Overview:  The two-volume diary primarily documents Brinsmade's junior and senior years at Yale College and richly describes campus life. Subjects include prayer meetings, excursions, baseball (the first known reference to baseball at Yale), football, wicket, and an incident of violence toward a local man. The regular entries end on August 31, 1845, but continue sporadically until February 3, 1853.

Collection materials used in class session:

Accession 2011-A-030, Box 1, folder 1: Diary, 1843-1844.

Accession 2011-A-030, Box 1, folder 2: Diary, 1845-1853.

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Alex Charging Crow Autobiography (WA MSS S-2701) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for the Adee Dodge Papers, of which this is a part

Overview:  Adee Dodge, a Navajo linguist and artist, obtained and preserved two copies of the autobiography of Alex Charging Crow (aka Alex Adams), a Lakota Indian born circa 1860. Sometime in the 1920s or early 1930s, Charging Crow told his life story to a scribe who wrote it in Lakota and had it translated into English. The custodial history of this autobiography, and Dodge's relationship to the transcriptions and to Charging Crow are undetermined.

Collection materials used in class session:

Series III, Box 40, folders 329-332:  "History of the Lakotas as told by Alex Charging Crow," English version, manuscript and typescript, undated [1930s?] .

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John Anthony Danaher Papers (MS 165) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Collection consists primarily of Danaher's files for his one term in the United States Senate (1939-1945), including political and constituent correspondence, speeches, background material, copies of legislation, and clippings. Materials document Danaher's service on the Judiciary, Finance, and Banking and Currency Committees, and highlight Danaher's efforts to prevent United States involvement in the war in Europe, his questioning of the aims of post-war foreign policy, and his actions to safeguard domestic liberty against possible incursions by the wartime government.

Collection materials used in class session:

Series I, Box 7, folder 119: 77th Congress: Speeches: Correspondence relating to Danaher’s 25 June 1941 speech at an America First rally, 1941.

Series I, Box 7, folder 130: 77th Congress: Speeches: Correspondence and drafts relating to Danaher’s 19 November 1942 radio speech at Town Hall, New York City, 1942.

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John White Geary Mexican War Papers (WA MSS S-585) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: John White Geary (1819-1873), soldier and politician, served as Territorial Governor of Kansas 1856-57. During the Mexican war he was Captain of the American Highlanders which joined the 2nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers and served under Gen. Scott in the campaign against Mexico City. The correspondence in the collection includes letters from his wife, Margaret, and brother, Edward, which reflect political thinking on the national level.

Collection materials used in class session:

11 folders: Correspondence, 1847-1848.

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Mary Welsh Hemingway Papers (YCAL MSS 392) - Beineck Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Mary Welsh Hemingway, journalist and fourth wife of the author Ernest Hemingway, was born in 1908, in Walker, Minnesota. She studied journalism at Northwestern University, and edited the American Florist before joining the Chicago Daily News in 1932. In 1937 she moved to London to write for the Daily Express. Beginning in 1940 she covered World War II for Time and Life magazines. Welsh met Hemingway in London in 1944. They were married two years later in Havana. During their fifteen years together, Mary Hemingway continued to work as a free-lance journalist but also supported her husband's writing, answering correspondence and typing his manuscripts.  The papers document Mary Welsh Hemingway's life and career, and include correspondence, autobiographical writings, and personal papers.   

Collection materials used in class session:

4 folders: Correspondence and notes, 1953-1968.

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Maxine Kumin Papers (YCAL MSS 734) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Maxine Kumin was born Maxine Winokur in 1925 in Philadelphia. Educated at Radcliffe College (1946, 1948) she  is the author of numerous children's books, poetry collections, essay and short story collections, and novels. Her many awards include the Pulitzer Prize (1973) for Up Country. Her husband, Victor Kumin, was born in 1921 in Worcester, MA. They met in Cambridge where Victor studied chemistry. In September 1944, while he was serving in the Army, Victor was dispatched to Los Alamos to work on the Manhattan Project. The collection includes 3 boxes of the couple's correspondence from 1945 to 1946.

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 66, folder 8 of 19: Letters from Maxine Kumin and Victor Kumin, 1945.

Box 66, folder 9 of 19: Letters from Maxine Kumin and Victor Kumin, 1945.

Box 67, folder 1 of 19: Letters from Victor Kumin to Maxine Kumin, 1945.

Box 67, folder 7 of 19: Letters from Victor Kumin to Maxine Kumin, 1945.

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Page Family Papers (MS 772) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Correspondence, family papers, diaries, photographs, and other materials documenting the personal lives and professional careers of Alfred Rider Page (1859-1931) and Elizabeth Merwin Roe Page (1861-1943), and their two daughters, Elizabeth Merwin Page Harris (1889-1969) and Marjorie Page Schauffler (1897-1983). The Page family papers document Elizabeth Roe Page's work as field secretary for the Women's Board of Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church in America and has correspondence on such subjects as relations between parents and children, courtship, and aging. The papers also contain material on the life and career of elder daughter Elizabeth, who graduated from Vassar College in 1912, received an M.A. from Columbia University in 1914, and was a teacher, Y.M.C.A. volunteer in World War I, employee of the International Grenfell Association, and author.

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 1, folder 29: Correspondence, primarily Elizabeth Merwin Page to her family, October-December 1914.

Box 1, folder 30: Correspondence, primarily Elizabeth Merwin Page to her family, January-March 1915.

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John Hall Paxton Papers (MS 629) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Correspondence, writings, photographs and printed materials of John Hall Paxton, American foreign service officer. The papers reflect primarily Paxton's service in China from 1925 to 1949, broken only by a year in Tehran in 1943. He made a dramatic escape from China (1949) and returned to the United States. He broadcast for the Voice of America, and returned as Consul to Isfahan, Iran in 1951, where he died in 1953. Papers include reports on Chinese economic and political conditions, memoranda on Nanking and the Nationalist takeover in 1927; an account of the U.S.S. Panay incident in 1937, to which he was an eyewitness; a record of his internment in Nanking by the Japanese in 1942, and articles and letters on his escape from China in 1949. An unpublished manuscript, Consul to Sinkiang, is among the papers, as are extensive collections of photographs of China and Iran.

Collection materials used in class session:

Series II, Box 3, folder 43: Personal experiences of Paxton at the time of the bombing of the U.S.S. Panay, 1938.

Series II, Box 4, folder 60: Correspondence, January 1936-August 1938.

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Yonekazu Satoda Papers, Photographs, and Moving Films (WA MSS S-2897) - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Yonekazu "Yone" Satoda was born in Hanford, California in 1921. The son of Japanese immigrants, he graduated from the UC Berkeley in 1942, the same year he was imprisoned at the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas as part of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  From November 1946 to August 1948, Satoda served as a first lieutenant and military intelligence officer in the United States Army. He served in the United States Army Reserves from 1949 to 1969. In March 1961, he married Taka "Daisy" Uyeda (born 1927). Satoda worked as an accountant and lived in San Francisco, California. Material related to Satoda's internment at Jerome includes a diary he kept from May 1942 to February 1945.

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 1, folder 1: Diary, 12 May 1942-13 February 1945.

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William Findlay Shunk Papers (MS 449) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview:   Shunk (1830-1907), son of Pennsylvania governor (1845-1848) Francis Rawn Shunk, graduated from Dickinson College (Class of1847) and served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy (1846-1850). He had a successful career as a civil engineer working for several railroads. The papers contain primarily correspondence, a journal, speeches, and miscellanea of Shunk and his family. Shunk exchanged letters with family members in Pennsylvania while sailing around the world, circa 1846-1849. The sloop, Preble, stopped in many ports, including Cape Verde, Rio de Janiero, Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Canton, China.

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 1, folder 2: Letters from William F. Shunk to his parents recounting the voyage from Brooklyn, New York, to Lima and Callao, Peru, 25 September 1846-26 February 1847.

Box 1, folder 4: Letters from William F. Shunk to his parents recounting the voyage from San Blas to Hawai’i and on to Shanghai, and the return to Honolulu, 21 June 1848-12 November 1849.

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Silvain van Praet Papers (MS 1241) - Manuscripts & Archives, Sterling Memorial Library

Link to the Archives at Yale finding aid for this collection

Overview: Manuscript diary kept in English in twelve school notebooks by Silvain van Praet, a member of the Ostend (Belgium) city government, from the day of the German occupation of Ostend (1914 October 14) until its liberation (1918 October 17). It was concealed in a hole in the wall of the Maison Communal.

Collection materials used in class session:

Box 1, folder 1: Diary, 14 October-25 December 1914.

Box 1, folder 13: “The occupation of Ostend by the Germans, 1914-1918,” 4 February-4 July 1915, typed manuscript, folder 1 of 6.