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These files have been compiled by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library from its origin in 1930 through the present day. The material derives largely from gifts, and the occasional purchase; much of the subject file in particular is made of ephemera included in the American Type Founders, Co. Library, purchased in 1942. Prospectuses and information sent by fine presses and book artists are added to the relevant files in an ongoing fashion. The files cover subjects from the beginning of printing to the current day.

Letters written to Frank Topham, ca. 1879; letters from various 19th century artists including Wyke Bayliss, G. Bowers Edwards, and Carl Haag; letters to Jerome Milkman, 1925-1958; letters to Howes Norris, 1908-1930; letters from various 20th century artists including Sir D.Y. Cameron, Sir John Collier, and Sir Gerald Kelley; and letters and a few manuscripts and documents of various American and British authors. Also, a group of French documents and letters from immediately following the French Revolution, 1793-1812, mostly dealing with military and governmental matters. Correspondents and signers include Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot, Jean Jacques Regis Cambacérès, Jean Etienne Championnet, and Jean Baptiste Michel Saladin. Letters, 1814-1832, written to United States ministers to France including William Harris Crawford, Albert Gallatin, William Cabell River, and Nathaniel Niles. The correspondents include Elie Decazes, Antoine René Charles Mathurin, comte de La Forest, and Armand Emmanuel du Plesis, duc de Richelieu. The letters deal with a variety of diplomatic matters such as the exchange of war prisoners and refuge for the ship DECATUR.

Letters from Willis to George James Pumpelly. The correspondence is mostly written from Boston and only one letter is actually dated with the year by Willis. The letters are very personal in character, giving a rather full account of the young poet's activities, particularly his affairs of the heart, and the editing of a magazine. Also, there are two promissory notes, 1839, 1842, written by Willis for sums to be paid to Pumpelly.

Correspondence, manuscripts of poems, and manuscripts of lectures by Benjamin. The correspondence consists of original letters of Benjamin, typescript and photostatic copies of Benjamin letters in other libraries, and letters to Benjamin from some of his literary contemporaries including Paul Hamilton Hayne, Willis Gaylord Clark, John Lothrop Motley, and Fitz-Greene Halleck. Many of the letters relate to Park Benjamin's lecture tours. There are other family letters and many documents relating to the Benjamin family,and two letterbooks of John Lothrop Motley. Also, a large amount of genealogical material of the Benjamin family, and its related families from the 16th century to the present day. There are also financial records, monographs, clippings, and photographs.

Correspondence, documents and manuscripts from late seventeenth and eighteenth century France, especially from the French Revolution, collected by Sam Schaefler. Authors include J.B. Colbert Torcy and the Duchesse Du Lude. Many of the items from the French Revolution represent the work of the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security. French Revolutionary leaders represented in the collection include François-Antoine Boissy D'Anglas, Jean-Baptiste-Noel Bouchotte, Pierre Joseph Cambon, Lazare Carnot, Jean-Marie Collot D'Herbois, l'Abbʹe de Fauchet, Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai, Jean Victor Moreau. C.A. Prieur-Duvernois, and Antoine Joseph Santerre. In addition, the collection includes a letter from the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted to Sir John Herschel, a letter by the French poet Romain Rolland, a document of the Philadelphia Artists' Fund Society of 1846 with signatures of its officers, and an autograph letter and a photograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.