Manuscripts
Handwritten documents open a personal perspective on history. This selected list features highlights of Historic New England's collections created by individuals and corporations. It is just a sampling of the enormous trove of account books, deeds, diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and other rich historical materials.
View a list of more manuscript collections.
Codman Family Manuscripts Collection
The Codman Family Papers are a major resource for the study of New England family history, domestic relationships, changing patterns of taste and consumption, mercantile and shipping activities, and the evolution of the Codman country estate, named The Grange, which is one of Historic New England's properties. Supplementary materials include the architectural drawings of Ogden Codman, Jr., as well as letters to and by writer Edith Wharton. |
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Account Books Collection
Account books record the financial transactions of businesses, families, and individuals. This collection (circa 1750-1880s) contains more than 150 items. Of special interest to the study of New England's economic history, these records reflect the activities, expenditures, and personnel of various specialized occupations, as well as the consumption patterns of households, from approximately 1750 to the 1880s. The particular strengths of the collection are textile production (both domestic and commercial), carpentry, agriculture, and merchandising practices of general stores. |
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Bowen Family Papers
The Bowen Family Papers span six generations of the Bowen family, extending from 1775 to 1965, though the bulk of the material dates from the mid nineteenth century to early 1900. This collection includes account books and financial papers, printed material, photographs, and detailed documentation pertaining to the construction of Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut, one of Historic New England's properties. |
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Casey Family Papers
The Casey Family Papers cover topics such as family history, trade, and agricultural activities. The family farm, one of Historic New England's properties, is located in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. The collection contains invaluable resources related to the construction of the Washington Monument, Library of Congress, State, War, and Naval Building, and other structures in the District of Columbia, such as engineering studies and construction studies. In 1876, as Chief of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, then Lieutenant-Colonel (later Brigadier General) Thomas Lincoln Casey was entrusted with the task of completing the structure, which he achieved on December 6, 1884. |
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Coffin Family Papers
The Coffin Family Papers spans seven generations of the Coffin family of Newbury, Massachusetts, from 1643 through 1861. The collection focuses on the domestic life and civic affairs of the family during the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. This collection includes correspondence, legal documents, financial papers, account books, and diaries. Historic New England has owned and cared for the Coffin House since 1929. |
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Jewett Family Papers
The Jewett Family Papers (1878-1917) include letters to and from various members of the Jewett household of South Berwick, Maine, covering the last quarter of the nineteenth century through the first quarter of the twentieth century. The majority of the contents reveal details of domestic life. The most prominent member of the family was author Sarah Orne Jewett. Her correspondence with her close friend Annie Fields is an important repository of information and insights into the American literary world of the period. |
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Little Family Papers
The Little Family Papers (1764-1984) are built around a core of the papers of Edward Henry Little, who originally leased the Spencer-Peirce-Little farmhouse in 1851 from the Pettingell heirs. In 1861, he purchased the farm outright and moved in with his family. The Littles retained ownership of the property until 1986, when it was given by Amelia and Agnes Little to the Society for the Preservation of New England, now Historic New England. Edward Henry's papers account for eight boxes within the total collection of twenty-six boxes of manuscripts. |
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Marrett Family Papers
The Marrett Family Papers (1792-1971) tell the stories of the many generations who inhabited the house for nearly two hundred years in Standish, Maine. The collection is divided into two major groups: papers of individuals and general and unassignable materials. The papers of individuals represent seventeen people, fourteen direct descendants of Daniel Marrett, and three people included because of their close ties of blood, marriage, or friendship with the family. |
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Harrison Gray Otis Professional Papers
The majority of the Harrison Gray Otis Professional Papers (1793-1845) are legal records related to the activities of this leading citizen of Boston with the Proprietors of Mount Vernon, the syndicate that was instrumental in developing Beacon Hill as a prime residential area in Boston. Included in the collection are small groups of papers relating to Harrison Gray, the maternal grandfather of Harrison Gray Otis, Samuel Allyne Otis, his father, and William Foster Otis, his son. Harrison Gray Otis commissioned Charles Bulfinch, America's preeminent architect, to build his house on Cambridge Street, now Historic New England's headquarters. |
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Rundlet-May Family Papers
The Rundlet-May Family Papers (1770-1934) came to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, in 1971 as part of the contents of the Rundlet-May House, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Built in about 1808 for James Rundlet, the house remained in the family for four generations before its bequest by Ralph May, great-grandson of the builder. Over that time both furnishings and documents of several individuals accumulated within the house. |
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Sayward Family Manuscripts Collection
The Sayward Family Manuscripts Collection (1741-1977) consists of a variety of materials spanning two centuries. Besides several types of papers, there are photographic and printed materials. All the Sayward papers now in the collections of Historic New England were given to the organization with the official transfer of the Sayward-Wheeler House in York Harbor, Maine, in 1977. |
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Perry Paint Collection
The Perry Paint Collection documents the work of the Edward K. Perry Company of Boston, Massachusetts, an important and influential design firm, and provides information about the practices and materials available to the paint industry from the 1930s to the 1980s. |
