Items

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  John Bigelow: An American Abroad Between 1850-1886

  John Bigelow (November 25, 1817 - December 19, 1911), Union College class of 1835, lived a dynamic life during a period where there was rapid social and industrial change. During his long life, he was fortunate enough to have traveled extensively around the world for leisure and for business. This digital exhibit aims to delight audiences by showcasing various trips Bigelow and his family made between 1850 and 1873. Through his letters and other collection materials from the John Bigelow papers (SCA-0022), visitors can accompany Bigelow around Europe and the Caribbean to learn more about global travel during the nineteenth century.
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  William James Stillman collection

  The collection is comprised of a wide range of materials reflecting Stillman’s long and prolific career in journalism, as well as his intimate ties to literary, artistic and political circles of the nineteenth century. In addition to close to six hundred letters and documents between Stillman and family, friends, colleagues and associates, there are several unpublished manuscripts by Stillman: essays, articles, stories and poetry. Several large photograph albums contain Stillman’s photos of Greece, Italy, the Adirondacks, the countryside of Cambridge and the Charles River in Boston; and a smaller album contains Julia Mitchell Cameron’s costume photos of Stillman’s second wife Marie Spartali. Other loose manuscripts are Stillman’s own manual on the science of photography, personal photographs of Stillman, his first wife and his country home in Surrey, reminiscences of Stillman in old age by his granddaughter, and a woodblock drawing of Stillman by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
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  Smith Map

  Smith map collection
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  Sheldon Jackson collection

  Sheldon Jackson was a Presbyterian minister and missionary as well as a political leader, and he was involved in establishing government agencies and Presbyterian community throughout the territory that became Alaska and the Western portions of the United States. The Sheldon Jackson Collection provides evidence of his work in Alaska and Colorado, including the establishment of the First Presbyterian Church of Sitka and the Museum of Alaskan Natural History and Ethnology. In addition, substantial family correspondence illustrates his personal life.
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  Jonathan Pearson Diaries, 1828 - 1875

  Jonathan Pearson (1813-1887) was a notable Union College graduate, instructor and administrator. He received his early education in New Hampshire. He graduated first in his class in 1835 and returned to the school in the fall of 1836 as a tutor. In 1839 he became a professor of chemistry and natural history, and later taught botany and agriculture. He served as the college's librarian for more than 40 years and was also the school treasurer from 1854 to 1883. Along with his career at Union and maintaining his diary, Pearson produced five works on local history, most notably “The History of the Schenectady Patent.” This collection includes 16 diaries with enclosures written between 1828 and 1875 totaling 2,500 pages in length. They start with the scribblings of a young man, detailing his experiences and travels, and continue through his college years and his employment at the College. The diary holds accounts of Pearson’s travels in New England and through parts of the United States, and documents his time as a member of the College administration. Interestingly, the diary becomes critical of the longtime president of Union College, Eliphalet Nott, and Pearson discusses what he exposes as incompetence in the administration as it waxes and wanes. In addition, Pearson, a devout Baptist, reflects on many aspects of the society of his day, such as slavery, as he records his impressions of historical events. Pearson himself suffers illness, engages in many travels, and lives as a father through the travails of family life.
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  John Bigelow papers

  The John Bigelow Papers consist of the extensive correspondence of Bigelow and his family, his scrapbooks and his writings, records and correspondence detailing his professional activities, diaries and journals belonging to Bigelow and other family members, genealogical documents and records of the Bigelow family, and a variety of photographs. The Correspondence series includes around 24,000 letters from prominent cultural and political titans, including Andrew Carnegie, Charles Dickens, John Jay, J.P. Morgan, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and Thurlow Weed. The letters detail Bigelow’s activities such as the U.S. Consul to France during the Civil War, his position on the boards of the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the founding of the Panama Canal, and Lincoln’s assassination. Letters are also from family members and friends. The diaries of his wife, Jane Tunis Poultney Bigelow, make up the majority of the Diaries and Journals series. Just as respected and loved as her husband, Jane was an important figure in the New York literary and social scene. Her diaries details their life and travels. Some especially delightful tidbits are her entries wherein she writes about Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde when they stayed with the family during their trips to New York City.
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  Alumni Files

  Newspaper clippings, ephemera, correspondence, publications, and other materials on Union College alumni compiled by the Alumni Office. Also includes files on nineteenth century faculty.
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  Adirondack Research Library Postcard Collection

  Postcards of mostly of Adirondack scenes. Most of the postcards are the work of photographer Harold Ross.
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  Jane Bigelow Diaries

  The diaries of Jane Tunis Poultney Bigelow (1829-1889) are found in the John Bigelow papers (SCA 0022) in the department of Special Collections and Archives in Union College's Schaffer Library. Even though Jane was a dedicated wife and mother, she was fiercely independent and was just as respected and loved as her husband in literary and social circles in the United States and Europe. She was a gracious and energetic hostess to Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde during their visits to New York, and her visits with Walt Whitman, Wilkie Collins, and William Thackeray were wildly successful as she charmed and entertained her guests with her high intelligence, wit, and unconventional language. A gifted writer and speaker, she published prose under the pen name of Jenny P. Bigelow and spoke several languages fluently. Part of the Diaries and Journals (1850 - 1911) series, Jane's diaries detail her life and travels from 1850 to 1873 and make up the majority of the Diaries and Journals series.
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  Hiram S. Wilson Civil War Letters

  This collection contains letters written by Hiram S. Wilson to his wife, Elizabeth, from 1861 to 1864 with the majority of the letters dating between 1862 and 1863. While most letters were addressed to his wife, there are a few letters written to other family members including his daughter, Stella. Most of the letters were written while he was stationed at various army camps in Virginia and Maryland. He writes about family and home issues but also talks about military activities. Wilson expresses confidence about the army’s abilities and writes about his trust in General McClellan and other Generals. He includes discussions about camp life, troop movement, and general war news. For instance, several letters discuss the passage by Congress of the Militia Act of 1862 and the Confiscation Act of 1862 that allowed the enlistment of African Americans.
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  The Westinghouse Family Papers

  The papers of the Westinghouse Family date from 1833-1913, with the bulk of the material falling between 1862 and 1880. The collection includes: correspondence; legal documents such as mortgages, warranty deeds, agreements, leases and patent information; photographs; drawings; a pocket diary and autograph book. The bulk of the collection is family correspondence. The majority of these letters were written by Albert Westinghouse to his family while he was serving in the military during the Civil War. The pocket diary belonged to Albert Westinghouse. The diary dates from January 30 until October 10, 1864. His entries are concise, writing about daily military life including mail from home, inspection, clothing, marches, new recruits, drilling, etc.
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  John McConihe Collection

  This collection contains primarily letters written by Captain John McConihe to his business partner, John B. Kellog. The letters date from April 1, 1862 to May 21, 1864. The letters give descriptions of military maneuvers, people and places he encountered during his military service, camp life, his finances, his duties as an officer, his health and his recovery from a shoulder wound sustained at Shiloh. There are some receipts that detail purchases he made during his military service. The collection also contains a carte-de-visite or small photograph of McConihe and one of his calling cards.
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  Union College Civil War Era Patriotic Envelopes

  This collection comprises a series of unmailed Civil War-era patriotic envelopes or covers that was presented to Union College by John M. Pearson. The patriotic covers featured in this collection primarily depict themes supporting the Northern or Union cause. This includes political cartoons and caricatures of patriotic symbols and political messages both for and against the Northern and Southern leaders of the time. The first patriotic covers appeared in 1861 as commercial printing houses seized the opportunity to publish and sell these novelties as commentary on both sides of the conflict. However, production was relatively short lived as the printing of Confederate covers dropped by 1863 while the Union covers lasted only one year longer.
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  Union College Postcards

  This website provides a glimpse of the many kinds of unique cultural resources held among the library collections at Union College in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, Union College was the first college chartered by the state’s Board of Regents and is situated in a campus that was the first in the nation to have been designed according to a comprehensive architectural and landscape plan.
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  Union College Aaron J. Feingold Judaica Collection (Jewish Women Postcards)

  This collection contains North African Postcards of Jewish women, children, and families dating back to the early 20th Century. The demographic dispersion of Jews is generally described in three categories: Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi. While Ashkenazi Jews make up the majority of world Jewry, the Feingold Postcard Collection focuses mainly on Jewish populations living in North Africa, which consisted of a combination of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. The term Sephardi designates the diaspora of Jewish people from Spain who migrated to Mediterranean regions, such as France and North Africa. Mizrahi Jews, on the other hand, originated in Persia and diverse locales in the Middle East and moved eastward. Mizrahi Jews were often seen as outsiders by both natives and other sects of Jews because they had dark skin, spoke different languages and had different customs.
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  The Butler Family Letters

  The collection consists primarily of correspondence between William Butler and his family during the Civil War. His letters began in 1861 when he was sailing to Annapolis on a troop ship and continue until his death in August 1864. Some months he wrote almost daily while others he wrote sporadically. His letters document the everyday concerns of a Civil War soldier including life, death, health, clothing, money and liquor. The majority of the letters are written to William’s brother Edmund with his other brother James and his sister Margaret appearing occasionally.
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  Bigelow Letters

  This website is an interactive version of a card-based index to over 20,000 letters in the John Bigelow Collection housed in the Special Collections Department of Schaffer Library, Union College.