Collection Overview

Summary
Arrangement
Description
Using the Collection

Note: some material may be restricted or offsite

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Subject Headings
History / Biographical Note

Collection Contents

View All
Series I: Cataloged Correspondence
Series II: Cataloged Photographs
Series III: File Folders
Series IV: Bound Materials and Miscellaneous Papers
Series V: 1979 Addition to the Collection
Series VI: 1991 Addition to the Collection
Series VII: Oversized

Paul R. Hays papers, 1910-1980

After clicking 'Submit Request', users will login with their UNI and password (Columbia affiliates) or their special collections account (external users). Appointments are required and will be arranged according to each individual repository's policy.

Series VI: 1991 Addition to the Collection

This small addition of photographs, correspondence and journal entries provides background information about Paul Hays' ancestors as well as offering a rich insight into life in 1860s America.

The bulk of the additional material concerns the Civil War correspondence of Edward Bridges to his family. Bridges, the elder brother of Susan Hatch (nee Bridges), Paul Hays' maternal grandmother, served with the 55th Regiment--Company B, Illinois Volunteers between 1861 and 1864. Born on June 30, 1843 in Windsor, Vermont, Bridges enlisted as a teenager and though wounded at Shiloh, fought in subsequent battles before dying of sickness on January 10, 1864.

85 letters from Bridges are preserved in a bound scrapbook, which has a note on Bridge's history, handwritten by Paul Hays. Bridges' letters to his family document his experiences as a soldier and chart his movement through various camps in the South. Also included in the scrapbook are letters of condolence upon his death, from Bridges' friend and co-soldier Thomas Wilson, the Chaplain of Bridges' unit L. Harvey, and a letter from the Sanitary Commission. Correspondence in the scrapbook has been retained in its original order, which is close to chronological.

Hays' paternal ancestry is represented by a typed transcript of Mary Hollingsworth's journal which documents her experience as a teacher to freed slaves in Mississippi from 1865 through 1866. Hollingsworth, who married Walter Hays, was Paul Hays' paternal grandmother.

There are a number of other supplementary materials, including some photographs, letters of condolence upon the death of Elva Mae Hatch, Paul Hay's aunt and other miscellaneous correspondence concerning his ancestors. There are some materials relating to Paul Hays' own early life, including high school newsletters and a photograph of Hays as a baby.


Box 106 Hays Family Photographs, undated

Box 106 Certificate Appointing Edward Bridges as Sergeant of the Company B, 55th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, 1863 March 27

Box 106 Typed Transcript of the Diary of Mary Hays, nee Hollingsworth, covering her time as teacher to freed slaves in Mississippi, 1865 August-[1866] April

Box 106 Hays Family Correspondence, 1866-1903

Box 106 Condolence Letters to the Hatch Family upon the death of Elva Mae Hatch, 1894

Box 106 Paul Hays Baby Photograph and Correspondence from 'Aunt Mae', 1904

Box 106 High School Juvenilia, 1920-1922

Civil War Scrapbook

Contains correspondence from Edward Bridges to his family.


Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 October 23

Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 October 5

Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 November 12

Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 October 23

Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 November 27

Box 107 Camp Douglas, 1861 November 3

Box 107 Camp Benton, 1861 December 11

Box 107 Camp Benton, 1861 December 13

Box 107 Camp Benton, 1861 December 27

Box 107 Camp Benton, 1861 December 27

Box 107 Paducah, 1862 February 12

Box 107 Camp Benton, 1862 January 1

Box 107 Pittsburg, 1862 March 25

Box 107 Hannibal, 1863 March 18

Box 107 Pittsburg, 1862 April 1

Box 107 Pittsburg, 1862 1

Box 107 Chawalla, 1862 June 8

Box 107 Moscow, Tennessee, 1862 June 29

Box 107 Moscow, 1862 July 8

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 August 11

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 August 15

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 July 22

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 August 2

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 August 26

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 September 3

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 September 15

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 September 23

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 October 6

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 October 12

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 October 20

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 October 26

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 November 11

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 November 3

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 December 13

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 December 14

Box 107 Steamer Westmoreland, 1863 January 4

Box 107 Steamer Westmoreland, 1863 January 3

Box 107 Arkansas Point, 1863 January 13

Box 107 Camp before Vicksburg, Louisiana, 1863 January 25

Box 107 Camp before Vicksburg, Louisiana, 1863 February 2

Box 107 Camp before Vicksburg, Louisiana, 1863 February 8

Box 107 Louisana, 1863 February 14

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 March 1

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 March 15

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 March 12

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 March 14

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 March 28

Box 107 Unspecified Location, undated

Box 107 Young's Point, 1863 April 10

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 April 3

Box 107 Young's Point, 1863 April 13

Box 107 Young's Point, 1863 April 14

Box 107 Young's Point, 1863 April 2

Box 107 Millikin Bend, 1863 May 4

Box 107 Grand Gulf, 1863 May 11

Box 107 Caynes Bluff, 1863 June 1

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 June 7

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 June 13

Box 107 Sanitary Commission Label

Box 107 Sanitary Commission Letter to Susan Bridges, 1863 May 24

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 June 21

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 June 26

Box 107 Unspecified Location, undated

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 July 1

Box 107 Vicksburg, 1863 July 4

Box 107 Blackriver, 1863 July 29

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 August 6

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 August 19

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 August 25

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 August 31

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 2

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 5

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 6

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 13

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 20

Box 107 Camp Sherman, 1863 September 26

Box 107 Juka, 1863 October 20

Box 107 Juka, 1863 October 27

Box 107 Memphis, 1863 October 5

Box 107 Fort Rickern, Memphis, November 4

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 November 17

Box 107 Nashville, Tennessee, 1863 November 28

Box 107 Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1863 December 2

Box 107 Bridgeport, Tennessee, 1863 December 18

Box 107 Bridgeport, Tennessee, 1863 December 25

Box 107 Letter from Thomas Wilson, 1864 March 23

Box 107 La Grange, 1862 June 20

Box 107 Memphis, 1862 November 24

Box 107 Letter from Thomas Wilson, 1864 April 1