Mr. Hamilton's diaries cover a sixty-six year period, 1879-1943. The diaries reveal many interesting incidents from his personal life, the School for the Blind, local, national and world events. The diaries for the years 1885 to 1889 give a vivid picture of Hamilton's experiences as an undergraduate at the University of Rochester.
Livingston's papers consist of a one volume manuscript, titled "'Itchy Feet, a Sort of Autobiography." It was written by Mr. Livingston in 1953, and describes the construction of the Eastman Theatre and of the River Campus. It also tells of his many trips of different parts of the world. Also in the collection is the typescript of the diary Livingston kept between July 22, 1925 and May 20, 1930 describing his activities as General Superintendent of Eastman Theater.
A collection of material by and about Elwell Stephen Otis (1838-1909), University of Rochester, Class of 1858. A soldier by profession, he held various positions including that of commander of the Department of the Pacific; and military governor of the Philippines, August 29, 1898 - May 5, 1900.
The Ernst Family Papers, 1911-1963, consist of a scrapbook and a photograph album.
The Frank J. Dowd Jr. Papers reflect his service during World War II, his experiences at the University of Rochester as a student and administrator, and his interest in political buttons and other ephemera. His papers include correspondence written during his freshman year at the University of Rochester and while serving in the Army during World War II. In his letters, Dowd writes to his parents, Frank J. Dowd and Virginia R. Dowd; his sisters, Barbara, Carol, and Mavis (all three of whom also attended the University of Rochester); his aunt Winifred Dow, whom he called "Aunt Way Way," and his grandparents Caroline and Otto Rhein. Dowd describes his experiences as a freshman—including expenses, classes, campus food, activities, and fraternities. He writes about Rochester friends, including Richard Wade, who, like Dowd, came from the Chicago area and who later became a history professor at the University of Rochester. He observes classmates leaving for military service during World War II and reflects on his own upcoming service, expressing interest in the Army Specialized Training Program (A.S.T.P.). Once in the Army, he describes his experiences while stationed at Camp Wolters in Texas, Fort Dix in New Jersey, and other locations in the United States; while serving in Europe; and while recovering from shrapnel wounds in England and Washington state. Some of Dowd's correspondence is in the form of Victory Mail (V-Mail)—a system employed by the armed services during World War II to streamline mail delivery through the use of microfilm. While Dowd's correspondence from this time consists primarily of his own letters and postcards, it also contains some official correspondence to Dowd's parents from the University of Rochester and the War Department.
Primarily a collection of correspondence, business papers, diaries, journals, essays, etc., of Horatio Gates Warner (1801-1876) and his immediate family.
The majority of the collection includes the research, lecture notes, published articles and books for Howard Merritt, with a small portion of materials related to Florence. Merritt. Howard wrote and lectured extensively on 19th century painters such as Thomas Cole and Thomas Chambers. Much of Howard's research and lecture notes focus on painting in early America and American landscape, however, his lectures also covered topics such as the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Baroque period. Florence's research and lecture notes, though limited, focus on early America, specifically the American West. The collection also contains the couple's correspondence exchanged among colleagues from 1963-1988.
The Individual Manuscripts Collection ranges in date from the eighteenth through the twenty-first century and documents the actions of historical figures and events, principally from American History. Personages include Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Napoleon Bonaparte, Charlotte Bronte, Robert Browning, Edmund Burke, Aaron Burr, Henry Clay, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Frances Folsom Cleveland, Grover Cleveland, DeWitt Clinton, Calvin Coolidge, David Crockett, Charles Darwin, Jefferson Davis, Henry Dearborn, Ferdinand Victor Eugeneène Delacroix, Albert Einstein, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, Millard Fillmore, Gerald Ford, Benjamin Franklin, William Lloyd Garrison, George IV, Ulysses S. Grant, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Hardy, Benjamin Harrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rutherford B. Hayes, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Hooker, Herbert Hoover, John Edgar Hoover, Samuel Houston, Julia Ward Howe, Charles Evans Hughes, Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson, Henry James, Mary Jemison, Andrew Johnson, John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Rudyard Kipling, Samuel Kirkland, Henry Knox, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier Marquis de Lafayette, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Martin Luther, James Madison, John Marshall, Cotton Mather, Guy de Maupassant, William McKinley, James Monroe, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Horatio Nelson, Richard Nixon, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, John Rutledge, Margaret Sanger, the Seneca Nation, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley, William Tecumseh Sherman, Upton Sinclair, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, William Howard Taft, Isaiah Townsend, Bess (Wallace) Truman, Sojourner Truth, Martin Van Buren, George Washington, Daniel Webster, Walt Whitman, William Wilberforce, Thornton Wilder, William Wordsworth, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Emile Zola.
The James E. Spencer Papers extend from his early education to Helen's business affairs after his death. Material relating to the University of Rochester includes the text of Chancellor Ira Harris's address at the University's first commencement in 1851, as well as a notice of Spencer's honorary dismissal from Madison and an 1850 letter to his brother. Post-UR material is mostly legal matters.
