Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence to Parsons from numerous well-known contempories relating chiefly to political and social matters. Also, miscellaneous reports and printed materials.

There is a letter book / account book of 347 p., 1790-1856, containing 466 draft copies of his commercial and social correspondence with shipping agents in Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, China, Canada, as well as in the United States. The correspondence concerns Bell's business arrangements, the various cargos he shipped and their disposal, political affairs affecting the shipping trade, laws and treaties of various countries to be dealt with, taxes, embargoes, piracy, threats of war, and other pertinent events. A second account book of 84 p. (many are blank), 1787-1852, for the Ship Stephania and others contains ships' records for 1799 to 1828 and miscellaneous accounts up to 1857. There is a one volume carbon typescript (113 p.) of genealogical notes and reminiscences by Gordon Knox Bell (Regent of the University of the State of New York and grandson of Isaac Bell) and others, ca.1940. There is also an essay and lists of the residents of Greenwich Street (including the Bell and Rogers families) by Elizur Yale Smith with related correspondence, 1940.

Levi's correspondence with his wife, Alice Fries Levi, letters of other family members, his diaries, his school and college notebooks and papers, awards and medals, and personal photographs. The earliest item in the collection is a scrapbook kept by his father, Albert A. Levi, in San Francisco, 1862.

Correspondence and papers of various members of the Kane and Hand families. The collection includes the business correspondence of Oliver Kane of Albany (early 19th century); the correspondence of Moses Hand (1764-1826) of Baltimore; the letters and papers of Thomas Jennings Hand (1824-1908) of New York, with many letters from Professor William Hand Browne of John Hopkins; the diaries and account books of Thomas Jennings Hand, extending from 1859 to 1901, and the household account books of his wife; the family correspondence, accounts, and personal papers of Oliver Kane-Hand (1863-1941); various legal documents and papers of Oliver Kane-Hand (1863-1941); various legal documents and papers of Oliver Kane King, Thomas Jennings Hand, Jr. and Oliver Kane-Hand; and a group of family photographs.

Correspondence, subject and organization files, speeches, and notes.

Correspondence, art work, and memorabilia of Rood, including letters to Rood from colleagues, scientists, and artists including Albert Bierstadt, Arthur J. Evans, Joseph Henry, and Charles Eliot Norton. Family letters to and from his wife, Matilda, and children; letters from his wife to her mother, Anna Prunner, in Germany; sketchbooks, drawings, and etchings of Rood and his son, Roland Rood; and photographs and memorabilia.

The collection includes seven volumes of scrapbooks containing clippings on current affairs roughly between 1939 and 1950 with particular reference to the trials of the German War Criminals at Nuremberg and the state of Germany after World War II. Also, general items on President Franklin Roosevelt and U.S. foreign policy. There are several complete copies of newspapers folded and inserted in the scrapbooks. The second and more important part of the collection consists of typescripts of Dr. Pfeiffenberger's writings. These occupy one and one-half manuscript boxes (Boxes 4 and 5). Included are about 45 pages of poetry in German, about 120 pages of selected stories of New York Life (in German), about 30 pages on The European State-System, 1848-1890 (in German), 127 pages of manuscript entitled "The Spirit of the Code of Hammurabi" (this is a preliminary draft in English of a short book or article by Pfeiffenberger), about 305 pages of typescript on "Compensation in the Western Zone of Germany" by Pfeiffenberger, Dr. H. Klein, and Dr. Klavehn-Berndt (there are many changes and notes in script, and this item is accompanied by another typescript of approximately the same size on the same subject), and several other items.

Letters written to James Ripley Wellman Hitchcock, to Mrs. Hitchcock, and to Richard Henry Stoddard from various people in literary artistic and dramatic circles, mainly of New York. There are letters and documents relating to Hitchcock's early life, photographs, a group of materials relating to the American Art Alliance in which Mrs. Hitchcock was interested, and a group of miscellaneous papers and letters relating to the publication, dramatization, filming, and radio rights of Edward N. Westcott's DAVID HARUM which Mr. Hitchcock was instrumental in having published. Also, manuscripts and printed versions of Charles Chapin Sargent, Jr.'s (brother of Hitchcock's second wife, Helen Sargent Hitchcock) writings including short stories and a libretto for an operetta "Cleopatra" written for the Columbia College Musical Society in 1897, two scrapbooks containing mementos of his college years, two pictures, and a Columbia College diploma.

Correspondence and papers of Low. Both sides of the correspondence are almost intact from 1890 on, with copies of outgoing letters for the two previous decades. There are also four letterpress copybooks, numerous scrapbooks of clippings relating to Low's career and activities, a large number of photographs and other memorabilia, and printed and manuscript copies of many of Low's speeches. Also, contains ten boxes of Annie Low's (Mrs. Seth Low) business and financial correspondence, invitations and regrets, requests for donations, and bills for the period 1914 to 1930.