Collections

This collection is primarily concerned with Prof. James Renwick and his professional correspondence and papers, both as Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at Columbia College and as a leading engineer. Many certificates of membership in honorary societies are included. There are letters from Washington Irving (1783-1859) to Prof. Renwick and to his mother, Jane Jeffrey Renwick, pertaining to contemporary events and Irving's own activities. The letters to Mrs. Renwick are about the travels and experiences of Irving and Renwick abroad. The collection also covers the affairs of the Prof. Renwick's grandfather, including documents concerning his land grants in New York State, and those of James Armstrong Renwick, including his valedictory address at Columbia College in 1876 and his class reunion in 1916. There are many legal documents, letters, and manuscripts of various members of the Renwick and Brevoort families; among these are Prof. Renwick's notes on his family genealogy and a memoir of Jane Jeffrey Renwick. Correspondents include Clement Clarke Moore, John A. Dix, Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State John Forsyth, and Secretary of the Navy James K. Paulding. There is one letter from Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883), President of the Royal Society, giving his views on the American Civil War.

A collection of diaries and journals relating to Robinson's years at the University of Freiburg, where he took his doctorate, and to his subsequent European travels before his return to America. Also, several volumes bearing Robinson's marginal notes.

Personal letters written by Phoenix to friends and associates, and letters which Phoenix collected as autograph specimens, ranging in date from 1554 (Melanchthon) to 1933 (Franklin D. Roosevelt). Over half of Phoenix's own letters are addressed to Josiah Collins Pumpelly (1839-1920), many others are to Henry Thayer Drowne (1822-1897). The material is dated from various places in the United States and Europe and contains accounts of Phoenix's travels and comments on yachting, books, the theater, and friends. There is a series of Presidential letters ranging from Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Also, an engraved portrait of Phoenix.

Correspondence, copies of letters, documents, manuscripts, invitations, menus, clippings, school papers, leases, agreements, deeds, financial accounts, photographs, and printed miscellany. The papers deal with many aspects of the Belmont family interests from 1799 until 1930, including: finance, banking and the Rothschilds; the United States Navy, Commodore Matthew C. Perry (1794-1858) and the Perry expeditions to Mexico and Japan; Belmont's embassy to The Netherlands from 1853 to 1857; the Democratic Party, New York City politics, presidential and Civil War politics; social life in New York and Newport and European travel; horses, horse breeding, The Jockey Club, polo, the Remount Association (for cavalry horses in World War I), fox hunting, dog breeding, and yachting; New York subway construction, railroads, the Cape Cod Canal and aviation; the Democratic Convention of 1912; and genealogical notes on the Belmont, Perry, and other families. In addition to the correspondence, there are 117 letter books, tissue-paper copies of outgoing letters.

Box 1 (original acquisition) includes letters, manuscripts, and memorabilia, including four letters from Columbia professors relating to Bancroft's participation in General Studies Day, May 1977. The manuscripts consist of two diaries, one from 1926-1929, which includes her account of a European trip and a second for 1969; a typescript she prepared for the use of her students in General Studies History 5 in 1941, entitled "The Old Stone Age" (357 p.) with several pen-and-ink sketches of early man; and four notebooks on ancient art taken at a course taught by Professor Richard Brilliant in 1974.