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Gilpin family papers
A collection of papers emanating from a family distinguished in scholarship, commerce, and political leadership. Most of the papers are those of Henry D. Gilpin, whose long and varied career makes his papers particularly informative on many aspects of national history. His correspondence includes...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Collection: | Gilpin Family Papers |
| Collection Number: | 0238 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Tags: | Add Tag |
| LEADER | 10644ntc a2200205 u 4500 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | ead-0238 | ||
| 008 | 180927i xx eng d | ||
| 040 | |e dacs | ||
| 041 | 0 | |a eng | |
| 099 | |a 0238 | ||
| 100 | 3 | |a Gilpin family |e creator | |
| 245 | 1 | |a Gilpin family papers |f 1727-1872 | |
| 300 | |a 20.0 Linear feet |f 20 linear feet, 28 boxes, 81 volumes | ||
| 520 | |a A collection of papers emanating from a family distinguished in scholarship, commerce, and political leadership. Most of the papers are those of Henry D. Gilpin, whose long and varied career makes his papers particularly informative on many aspects of national history. His correspondence includes letters from Martin Van Buren, 1836-1862; James Buchanan, 1839-1856; George M. Dallas, 1831-1859; Edward Everett, 1831-1861; T.F. Bayard, George Peabody, Edward Livingston, Henry Clay, Richard Rush, Charles Gallagher, George Bancroft, Gouverneur Kemble, John W. Forney, J. B. Francis, Benjamin Chew, Joseph Reed Ingersoll, General Winfield Scott, and others, 1819-1872. In addition to Gilpin family items, the collection includes groups of papers of the following: Joel R. Poinsett, James Wilkinson, Daniel Clark, William Short, James Brown, and David Porter. Joel R. Poinsett's correspondence, 1794-1850 forms a notable group in this collection. It reveals the many roles played by him in a long and active career of diplomacy and national leadership. They contain vivid descriptions of incidents, travel, home, and social life of that period, as seen through the eyes of an impressionable youth. Glimpses of Russia and travel through Europe are seen in his letters of 1807-1808, his participation in the revolutionary movements of the South American countries against European dominion are shown in his letters of 1811-1812. His interest and activities in the Mexican Revolution and its internal strife, while he was minister of the United States to Mexico, are depicted in the letters of 1821-1829. Interesting is his description of the origin and causes of those conflicts and the important parts played by the Scottish Rites Masons on one side and the York Rite Masons on the other. Poinsett's letters between 1829 and 1850 deal mainly with the turbulent political questions and economic affairs affecting the United States. The topics discussed are the nullification and secession movements in South Carolina; the split and strife in the Democratic party; abolition and slavery issues; the political influence of John C. Calhoun; the machinations and intrigues in the Baltimore convention; Indian affairs and Indian warfare in the Floridas; the United States war with Mexico; western expansion; the statehood of California; the gold discovery; his interests in organization of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the agitation aroused over his army reorganization bill while secretary of war; controversies and the danger of war with England; and the building and financing of railroads through the South. The letters tell of his interest in agricultural innovations, arts and sciences. Another group of papers are letters of Commodore David Porter, on his naval service as commander-in-chief of the Mexican naval forces in the was against Spain, 1825-1827. The letters are chiefly to Joel R. Poinsett, U.S. minister to Mexico, and are full of complaints about the humiliations experienced and indignities suffered by him because of the intrigue and jealousies prevailing among the various Mexican political leaders. General James Wilkinson vs. Daniel Clark papers, 1788-1808, in a legal controversy present a vivid picture of the life and character of James Wilkinson; the papers depict him as an adventurer, a secret agent for the Spanish government, a conspirator with Aaron Burr plots to separate the western countries from the United States, and an instigator of the rebellion in Louisiana and the Floridas; incidentally, the papers throw light on Wilkinson and Clark's commercial enterprise, commodities traded, extension of frontiers, south and west, navigation of the Mississippi, and life in New Orleans, La., in that period. William Short, United States chargé d'affaires in Paris and secretary to Thomas Jefferson while minister to France, present in his group of papers, 1786-1801, a graphic picture of the violent throes of the French Revolution, European politics, and United States diplomacy; the letters are addressed to Jefferson, John Jay, John Rutledge, Gouverneur Morris, Marquis de Lafayette, Edmund Randolph, James Monroe, Thomas Pinckney, David Humphreys, William Nelson, and others. James Brown, statesman and minister to France, his letters, 1824-1835, addressed chiefly to Edward Livingston, deal with politics in France and Spain. Brown's commercial interests in Louisiana, and American politics. Biographical sketches and letters, 1727-1824, relating to the lives and character of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, written by the descendants of Benjamin Harrison, Samuel Adams, Eldridge Gerry, Charles Carrol of Carrolton, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, William Paca, C. Rodney, and George Taylor are included. Henry D. Gilpin's papers: letters to his father, Joshua Gilpin, 1822-1841; correspondence with his family, 1824-1843; letter books, 1831-1833, 1846-1849; diaries, 1822-1859; docket book, United States district attorney, 1828-1833; United States district attorney, letters and correspondence, 1832-1838; United States Bank papers, 1833, 1836-1837, contains correspondence of Henry D. Gilpin, director and examiner of the Bank, with Andrew Jackson, Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, George M. Dallas, R.M. Whitney, William J. Duane, Roger B. Taney, Nicholas Biddle, Levi Woodbury, John M. Sullivan, and others, on illegal transactions of the institution, misuses of Bank funds, diversion of funds for propaganda purposes, withdrawal of public deposits from the Bank. Henry D. Gilpin's letters written during his tour through Europe, 1853-1854; his journals of that tour, 1853-1854; correspondence while in Florence, Italy, which discloses his interest in art, 1853-1854; correspondence, 1856-1858; scrapbook, Henry D. Gilpin, "Governor of Michigan," 1834, Gilpin's journalistic and literary talents are shown in his manuscripts of biographical sketches of the lives of signers of the Declaration of Independence, 1826; literary reviews of current and contemporaneous publications, 1829-1830; notes on current topics and literature, 1828-1831; memoranda, catalogue references on bibliography and literature, n.d.; miscellaneous printed matter pertaining to the University of Pennsylvania, and kindred subjects, 1825-1864; his magazine, The Atlantic Souvenir, Christmas and New Year's Offering, 1828, Philadelphia, and other publications; letters of condolence, tributes, eulogies received by Mrs. Henry D. Gilpin upon the death of her husband, 1860; Mrs. Gilpin's publication, A Memorial of Henry D. Gilpin, 1860; letters from prominent persons acknowledging receipt of her book, 1861. The papers of Joshua and Thomas Gilpin pertain to domestic, commercial, and industrial affairs: Joshua Gilpin correspondence, 1795-1841; 1797-1815; general correspondence, 1800-1822; family letters from England, 1824-1830; Bainbridge and Brown, London, legal correspondence with Joshua Gilpin, 1809-1834; John Bainbridge vs. Benjamin Chew of Philadelphia, papers in a legal suit, 1809-1831; Thomas Gilpin correspondence, 1769-1817; contracts and agreements for sales of lands in Virginia, 1769-1811; Alexander Taylor field notes of surveys for Joshua and Thomas Gilpin, 1802-1812; papers on western lands, 1770-1780; contracts and agreements for sales of land in Pennsylvania, 1800-1817; Luzerne lands, 1808-1852; letter book of Joshua and Thomas Gilpin containing the accounts of Gilpin and Fisher, 1800-1818; Thomas Gilpin journals, eastern states, 1805; New England, 1805; West, 1809; Chester and Duck Creek surveys, estimates, maps, on building canals, 1772; pamphlets on the construction of canals, railroads, tunnels, maps, printed in England, 1789-1835; maps of projected English railroads and canals, London, 1832-1835; collection of specimens of bank-note paper and of engraved currency, manufactured at Brandywine Mills, Del., undated. Richard Gilpin's manuscripts include material on papermaking machinery, 1815; his philosophical and literary essays, undated; notes on history, theatre, astrology, religion, literature, transportation, canals, agriculture, travel, 1813-1828; poetic notes, 1799-1818; Pieces in Verse and Prose, by Joshua Gilpin, essays on medical science, hygiene, politics, history, 1796-1806; Joshua Gilpin's history of the colonies and the State of Delaware, n.d.; essays on the manufacture of woolen goods, n.d.; Wool and Cotton Manufacture, Sheep and Other Subjects Connected, 1815; Report on the Manufacturers of the State of Delaware, and a Report of the History and Principles of Tariff and Public Labor, undated; Report on the Economic Condition of Philadelphia and Other Subjects, 1809; History of the Colonization of America and of the Charter and Grant of Pennsylvania and Delaware, undated; copies of letters of Thomas Fisher, and some additional notes, 1840; journals and diary notes of travel, unidentified, 1836-1858; manuscript copy of Barremore, a novelette by Bernard Gilpin, anecdotes, undated; maps of ancient Greece, engraved by Barbie du Bocage, 1781-1788. In addition, there are parchments of the marriage settlement between the Gilpin and the Dilworth families, patents of lands, deeds, 1776-1834; the genealogical records and notes of the Gilpins consist of: Memoir of the Life of Thomas Gilpin,: 1769; Family in England, 1795; Memories in England, n.d.; genealogical memoranda, 1206-1811; Memories in America, 1800; and some other items. Joshua Gilpin's "Journal of a Tour from Philadelphia through the Western Counties of Pennsylvania" published in the P.M.H.B., 30 (1906): 64-78, 163-178, 380-382; 51 (1927): 172-190, 351-375; 52 (1928): 29-58. Extracts from the commonplace book of Henry D. Gilpin, 1819 published in the P.M.H.B., 45 (1921): 224-242. Memoir of Thomas Gilpin published in the P.M.H.B., 49 (1925): 289-328. Finding aid available for Poinsett papers. | ||
| 541 | 1 | |a Gift of the Henry D. Gilpin estate. | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Gilpin Family |2 Local sources | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Land speculation--Indiana County (Pa.) |2 Local sources | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Legal Profession--Philadelphia-Antebellum |2 Local sources | |
| 650 | 7 | |a Social life and customs--19th century. |2 Local sources | |
| 852 | |a The Historical Society of Pennsylvania |b Gilpin Family Papers |l 0238 | ||