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Frank M. Etting collection
Frank M. Etting's connection with the Historical Society began in 1855 when he was elected recording secretary at age 22. After a decade in the army, 1861-1870, he returned to Philadelphia to begin a career of public service. He became director of the city's public schools, chairman of the...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Collection: | Frank M. Etting Collection |
| Collection Number: | 0193 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
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| Physical Description: |
23.0 Linear feet ; 78 boxes, 20 volumes, 1 flat file |
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| Access: |
The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
Frank M. Etting's connection with the Historical Society began in 1855 when he was elected recording secretary at age 22. After a decade in the army, 1861-1870, he returned to Philadelphia to begin a career of public service. He became director of the city's public schools, chairman of the committee to restore Independence Hall, and director of the Historical Department of the Centennial, 1876.
The collection represents both Etting's personal interests and his professional concerns. It consists of three distinct groups of papers: an autograph collection containing materials of distinguished Americans and Europeans, 1558-1887; family papers, 1739-1847, which document the efforts of the Gratz, Frank, Etting, and Hart families and their associates in the settlement and development of trade in early Pennsylvania and contain some information on the domestic affairs of these families; and, finally, a group of papers on the public and professional career of Frank M. Etting.
The autograph section includes: letters of early Quakers and the Penn family, 1650-1815; colonial governors, 1675-1776; governors of states, 1768-1852; members of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, 1685-1762, with letters of members of the Stamp Act Congress, 1762-1763, with orders of the Council of Safety of Maryland, 1776-1782; autographs, prints, and documents relating to the Washington family with autograph letters of signers of the Constitution; signers of the Declaration of Independence; material connected with colonial and Revolutionary wars, 1719-1782, including lists of pay for the army and navy, 1774, lists of general officers, n.d., minutes of the Continental Congress' Commission on Claims, 1775-1776; return of British prisoners of war, 1780-1782; correspondence of Generals Amherst and Forbes, and Sir William Pepperill; officers in the American and British navies, 1740-1865; officers in the American and British armies, 1757-1887; generals of the Revolution, 1755-1809.
Also in this section are: letters of John Quincy Adams, James Buchanan, Jonathan Dayton, Alexander Hamilton, Robert Harper, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, Timothy Pickering, William Tilghman, William Wirt, and others, 1738-1887; letters of George Bancroft, William Cobbett, James Fenimore Cooper, Joseph Drake, Salma Hale, John Heckwelder, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Washington Irving, Henry W. Longfellow, John T. Morse, Thomas Paine, Timothy Pitkin, Noah Webster, and others, 1707-1889; Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Baron de la Motte Fouque, Benjamin Disraeli, John Keats, W. Roscoe, Madam de Stal, and others, 1762-1885; Thomas Birch, Thomas Cole, John Singleton Copely, Pierre Eugene du Simitieire, Charles Willson Peale, Jacques Louis David, Thomas Sully, Benjamin West, and others, 1767-1889; letters of James Abercrombie, Jacob Duché, Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather, Henry Muhlenberg, Henry W. Onderdonk, William Smith, William White, George Whitefield, and others, 1761-1880; George Bryan, John Growdon, Robert H. Harrison, John Marshall, Jonathan D. Sergeant, Robert B. Taney, John Tyler, Bushrod Washington, and others, 1769-1887; Eric Bollman, Jacob M. DaCosta, Samuel P. Grffith, John Morgan, Joseph Parrish, Caspar Wistar, and others, 1766-1887; letters of William Bartram, Peter Collinson, John Fothergill, Robert Fulton, Joseph Priestly, John Ramsey, John Tyndall, and others, 1762-1876; French autograph letters, 1559-1850; royalty, generals, statesmen, scholars. Also Pennsylvania papers, acts of Assembly, 1732-1750; letters of persons prominent in the Stamp Act Congress, Federal Convention, Old Congress, 1734-1823; Maryland Council of Safety, 1776-1786; letters of presidents, vice presidents, and members of cabinets, George Washington to James Buchanan, 1789-1861.
The group of family papers, with additions, includes papers of some of the important merchants and shippers of the early period, Croghan, Pemberton, Gratz, and others, influential in the economic affairs of Pennsylvania. The group comprises: Pemberton papers, 1654-1806; miscellaneous manuscripts, 1658-1889; Phineas Pemberton, account book, 1670-1690, ledger, 1674; miscellaneous correspondence, legal papers, documents, powers of attorney, agreements, bills of lading, commercial transactions, policies accounts, 1685-1872; Pentecost Teague, receipt book, ledger, account book, bills of lading, 1700-1752; Miller Cooper, account book, 1704-1705; Anthony Morris and Elizabeth Janney, ledger, 1705-1708; Abraham Scott Laudin, account book, 1706-1707; parchment deeds, patents, leases, exemplifications of wills, 1726-1835; receipt books of John Pemberton, 1748-1880; William Fisher receipt book, 1752-1757; David Franks, account book, 1757-1762; Stephen Collins, receipt book, 1773-1783; letters of John Fothergill to Israel Pemberton, 1757; Etting family correspondence, 1794-1927, including various commissions issued to members of the family. Papers in which the Gratz family was specifically interested: Gratz family miscellaneous correspondence, 1695-1917; Gratz-Croghan papers, 1733-1830; George Croghan estate, 1747-1816; Ohio Company, 1753-1817; Michael Gratz, ledger, 1759- 1784, account book, 1759-1762, receipt book, 1762-1767, letterbooks, 1768-1772; Gratz ledger, receipts, commercial correspondence, 1760-1796; Miriam Gratz, market and household accounts, 1765, memorandum book, 1807; drafts and surveys, 1762-1785; census of York County, 1762; treaty with Indians at Fort Stanwix, 1768; Michael and Bernard Gratz, papers, deeds, conveyances of land, trade with Indians, an account of the French and Indian War, 1769-1786; Bernard Gratz, George Croghan, estate papers, 1780- 1816; Revolutionary pension receipts, 1792; papers of various land companies on the sale of lands, 1794-1819; pamphlets on Philadelphia Water Works, 1792-1872; papers and agreements on Philadelphia and Boston Water Works, 1817-1834. Financial affairs are dealt with in "A Historical Sketch of Paper Money Emitted by Pennsylvania," 1722- 1785; bills of exchange, 1755-1806; papers on the Bank of North America and both Banks of the United States, 1787-1848; acts of Congress, incorporation papers, letters of secretaries of the Treasury; papers on the Bank of Pennsylvania, 1793-1859 include minutes, accounts, correspondence; miscellaneous correspondence of early banks in the United States, 1793-1859.
Civic affairs in Philadelphia, social and professional activities in which Etting was interested, are shown in his voluminous correspondence, 1856-1890. A large portion of the letters relate to the Centennial Exposition; papers and photographs on Independence Hall and its restoration, 1871-1876; papers on the historical department of the Centennial Exposition, 1875-1878; American members of the American Philosophical Society, and subscription list for carrying on the building in the State House Yard, for that Society, 1876; biographical sketches of members of the Old Congress.
There are also printed books, some inscribed with the names of prominent persons, and other containing marginal notes; portraits of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and some other eminent men; pamphlets petitioning against the stage and other public amusements, 1754-1811; pamphlets on politics, law, religion, colonial affairs, 1759-1783; miscellaneous papers, Masonic degrees, 1734-1884. |