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The correspondence covers personal and business matters of Gage. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence from Orville Peckham, counsel for the First National Bank of Chicago, concerning the financial matters of Secretary Gage. Also, correspondence with members of the Gage family dealing with Lyman's wayward son Eli. The remainder of the collection includes correspondence congratulating Gate on his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury, and letters of condolence on the death of his second wife, Mrs. Cornelia Washburne Gage in 1901. Among the notable items are a letter from Theodore Roosevelt expressing regret at Mr. Gage's resignation from the Treasury Dept.; and an engraved certificate admitting Gage to membership in the Knights of Labor, signed by Terence V. Powderley.

Correspondence; manuscripts of books, chapters, addresses, lectures, articles, and other writings; clippings and other printed materials relating to Butler's life and career, and memorabilia, ca. 1900-1947. Also, correspondence, 1891-1946, between Butler and presidents of the United States including William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman.

Correspondence, manuscript, and drawings relating to English and American literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries collected by Solton (1896-1961) and Julia (-1984) Engel. Ten letters and four manuscripts of poems by Rudyard Kipling form the largest unit within the collection. Prominent among the other items are the manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Mock Trial" and two Walt Whitman letters, a copy of R. W. Emerson's famous "Leaves of Grass" letter in Whitman's hand and Whitman's letter to Conway regarding the Emerson letter. Also included is a letter from James Fenimore Cooper to Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson Jay, wife of Peter Augustus Jay. Thirty-one of the drawings in the collection are by William Wallace Denslow and John Rae Neill and represent illustrations done for various works by L. Frank Baum. There are also two drawings of Gelett Burgess, one ot "The Goop" and the other of "The Purple Cow." Castings of the obverse and reverse of the bronze Kipling medallion commissioned by Engel in 1953 from Julio Kilenyi are stored in 2 oversize boxes. Most of the items in this collection relate to a collection of first editions which was also presented to the Libraries by Mr. and Mrs. Engel.

The records of W.R. Grace & Co. cover the rise of the Grace shipping business from 1864 until World War II. The early correspondence concerns all aspects of the shipping business in New York and South America, mining interests in Peru and Chile, the railroad in Costa Rica, the inter-ocean canal planned for Nicaragua, and political interests throughout Central and South America. There are letter books, correspondence, and scrapbooks of clippings for all aspects of W.R. Grace's career. There are minute books and other documents for more than 50 subsidiary companies owned by W.R. Grace & Co. or by family members. The papers of Joseph Peter Grace (1872-1950) continue the business, family, and philanthropic activities until 1942. There are also 20 reels of motion picture film about the Grace Co. South American interests in the 1950s.