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Lawyer, political leader, ironmaster, railroad promoter, and banker, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Correspondence and business papers reflecting the major part played by Bell and his family in the economic development of central Pennsylvania and other areas. Among the subjects dealt with are the building of internal improvements, the charcoal iron industry in the Juniata Valley, land titles and speculation, and early growth of the Pennsylvania Railroad under J. Edgar Thomson and others, tariff bills, the economic cycle of booms and depressions, the evolution of the monetary and banking system, telegraph companies, coal mining, Lake Superior copper mining, and Bell's active interest in Whig and Republican Party politics. Papers of the Civil War period illustrate the impact of the conflict on the business community in the North, and on the people of Pennsylvania during Confederate raids and invasions. Some papers relate to tests of Pennsylvania iron made at the Washington Navy Yard by Captain Dahlgren, to Bell's service as agent of Jay Cooke in floating Federal loans in Pennsylvania, and to the effect of the war on the banking system. Included are two early railroad broadsides from Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad (1856 and 1867).

Collection consists almost entirely of photocopies of documents held in the Public Records Office (London) originally belonging to James Rogers, Bristol, England, a merchant, ship owner, and slave trader who engaged in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The material, dating from 1768-1794, largely consists of incoming correspondence, bills of sale, receipts, and other items related to ships' voyages and trading activities. Many of these voyages were for the purpose of acquiring and trading enslaved laborers from Africa. A paper guide to the collection created by the donor of the collection and available to researchers includes descriptions of most of the ships' voyages.

Autograph letter and prescriptions, signed. Pringle writes to the Earl of Buchan regarding Buchan's work on right-handedness.

Planter, state legislator, and U.S. Representative, from Lawrenceville (Brunswick Co.), Va. Papers of G. C. Dromgoole, son Edward Dromgoole, and other members of the Dromgoole family, including the papers of Richard B. Robinson, George's nephew by marriage. George's papers concern family, business, and political matters and include a large number of letters dealing with plantation work and the management of slaves; items on the Democratic Party before the Civil War; and letters from Edward when he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Richard B. Robinson's papers include correspondence, business papers, and a daybook. Edward Dromgooles papers deal largely with legal and business matters and contain plantation records, accounts of cotton sales, and letters from tenants after the Civil War, and from a student at the Virginia Military Institute in the 1870s. The collection also includes Brunswick County, Va., legal records, including justice of the peace, county, and Circuit Court minutes, orders, summonses, warrants, and depositions. There are volumes, including daybooks, plantation books, an account book for the estate of Thomas Dromgoole, and a description of Edward Dromgoole's home and family genealogy.

Scholar, educator, and author of Charlottesville (Albemarle Co.), Virginia. Correspondence, notes, diaries, and literary works of George Frederick Holmes. Also contains correspondence of William Howard Perkinson, educator and son-in-law of Holmes; and of Joseph Henry Herndon Holmes and Mary Ann Pemberton Holmes, parents of George Frederick Holmes. Early papers of Joseph and Mary Holmes concern their life in Demerara, British Guyana, where Joseph Holmes was a barrister, and include legal papers, poems, and a genealogy. The papers of their son, George Frederick, a professor at the University of Virginia, include correspondence, diaries, articles, literary works, and notes, and relate to his interests in philology, grammar, history, political science and economics, and to Southern colleges and universities. The papers of William Howard Perkinson are confined to a few records of his work as a professor of Latin and Greek at the University of Virginia, a few business papers, and records of the administration of his father-in-law's estate.

James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres, was a British astronomer, politician, and noted collector of books and manuscripts. Lindsay inherited a considerable library from his father, but during his lifetime he assembled the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, one of the largest private libraries of the nineteenth century. In the 1880s, Lindsay’s fortunes suffered and he was forced to sell much of his rare book library, although he continued to collect proclamations, broadsides, and manuscripts of the French Revolutionary era. After Lindsay’s death, his heirs auctioned off most of what remained of his collections, including his French manuscripts. Collection consists of selected letters, administrative papers, and other manuscripts, chiefly of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, that bear the bookplate and previously formed part of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana, the private library of James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford. Lindsay's collection of French manuscripts was auctioned off by Sotheby's between 1924 and 1925 and a small portion was acquired by Duke in 1960. Duke's collection represents a very small fraction of Lindsay's original collection and consists chiefly of manuscripts, with typed transcripts in French, that document various aspects of civil administration including letters from the prefects of various departments, letters from government ministers, and several letters addressed to Comte Collin de Sussy, Minister of Commerce and Manufacturing, and the Comte d'Antraigues. Other materials in the collection include letters in English from French elites to British nobility, such as to the Duke of York, and letters from French aristocrats to government officials. Examples include a letter addressed to Napoleon Bonaparte from Arnoud Joubert, a lawyer at the imperial court of Paris, discussing the possibility of receiving a medal of honor, and a letter from Cardinal Albani to Alexander I, Emperor of Russia, requesting the Emperor's protection from French authorities. The collection also includes some manuscripts and engravings acquired separately that do not bear the Bibliotheca Lindesiana bookplate.

Ledger of an unknown merchant in New Bern, N.C. Transactions appear chronologically by account holder, and reflect the sale of general merchandise, such as cloth and clothing, food, rum, seed, pitch, tar, and turpentine. Accounts were settled with either cash or goods. Formerly known as Anonymous ledger C, 1767-1776.

ALS relating to financial matters.

ALS. Introduces Benjamin Rush and Jonathan Potts. Refers to inquiries into Swinton's lands in New Jersey, made on his behalf by Franklin's son, William, then Governor of New Jersey.