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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.

Correspondence of Howe, dealing with various departmental affairs such as supplies, laboratory equipment, building maintenance, personnel, students, and examination questions. The chief correspondents are two of Howe's colleagues in the Dept. of Metallurgy, Bradley Stoughton and Arthur Lucian Walker. The Stoughton correspondence runs from 1902 to May 1908, at which time he left Columbia and was replaced by Walker. Although Walker remained in the department until 1929, only his correspondence from May 1908 to 1909 is included. Throughout the correspondence there are frequent references to steel. Most of Howe's letters are originals, while Stoughton and Walker's replies are almost entirely carbon copies. Also, a group of letters of inquiry and letters of reference regarding Howe's effort to find a new assistant during July and August of 1916. The manuscripts and documents consist of twenty reports, with covering letters, by Howe as a metallurgical consultant to various mining and metal companies, 1890-1911; lecture notes, 1884-1896; two scrapbooks of metallurgical photographs; four volumes of blueprint graphs illustrating metallic content; a volume of Howe's experiments on refrigeration, ca. 1888-1889; and various other metallurgical notebooks.