The collection includes correspondence (chiefly carbon copies of letters from Werner to friends and associates), speeches, briefs, opinions, and scrapbooks of clippings covering his legal career.
The collection is arranged by specific topics. The GAR and Civil War material occupies the majority of box 2, the remaining topics and general correspondence are filed in box 1.
The Oliver Phelps Papers are comprised of one box containing correspondence written by Samuel Street (1753-1815), a merchant trader and land speculator who supplied goods to the British stationed at Fort Niagara during the Revolutionary War. In addition to Oliver Phelps, Street's correspondents include General Israel Chapin (1740-1795), George Washington's aide-de-camp and first agent for Indian Affairs in Western New York, and Reverend Samuel Kirkland (1741-1808), missionary and liason between New York State and the Iroquois in land negotiations following the Revolutionary War and founder of the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, which was to become Hamilton College. The correspondence largely concern relations with the Native Americans and land settlements. One bill for goods, issued to Chapin by Street and Colonel John Butler (of Butler's Rangers), is housed in the last folder.
The Nicholas M. Graver Papers are comprised of one series: Anti- Smoking Materials. This series contains correspondence from 1984- 1998 that Graver wrote to New York State legislators imploring them to pass anti-smoking legislation, as well a response from the Editor of Time explaining why the magazine would continue to publish advertisements from tobacco companies. There are also issues of ASH: Smoking and Health Review from 1984- 1986 that document the organization's committment to anti-smoking activism. The series includes printed materials published by ASH and other organizations as well as newspaper clippings that Graver saved.
A collection of documents including deeds, leases, agreements, and land titles relating to transactions in upstate and Western New York. Includes records relating to Albany, Monroe County and the Pulteney Purchase.
Correspondence, reports and printed material relating to the proceedings of the 1967 New York State Constitutional Convention. Includes copies of propositions submitted to the Convention for amendment of the Constitution. Also, correspondence and printed material relating to the proposed repeal of the Blaine Amendment, Article II, Section 3, which prohibits aid to sectarian schools. Copies of the proposed Constitution, which was defeated in the November, 1967 election, also are included.
The New York Central Railroad Stock Certificate Collection is comprised of three boxes containing over 200 stock certificates (and a few bonds) from the 1840's to the early 1900's. All but a few are certificates of railroad companies, many of which became part of the New York Central System. The certificates are not only of historic, but also of artistic, interest.
