Manuscript Collections

16th New York Infantry Regiment Records

The 16th New York Infantry regiment consisted of 1247 men from three counties in Northern New York State.  These included companies A, B, F, G, H, and K from St. Lawrence County, C, D, and E from Clinton County, and I from Franklin County. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, records and photographs from the members of the 16th New York Infantry Regiment.

1875 Diary

Personal diary kept by unidentified student/teacher in Canton area of St. Lawrence County, N.Y. in 1875.

1980 Winter Olympic Games

This collection consists of transcripts and tapes of an oral history project documenting the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. Interviews are mostly with North Country individuals involved with the local organization of the games. Project headed by Jonathan Rossie, SLU History Department.

765 KV Line Protest Collection

The North Country Defense Committee and the coalition Upstate People for Safe Energy Technology (UPSET) were the most prominent groups that opposed the implementation of the 765 kV power line by the New York State Power Authority.

A.L. Jameson Glass Plate Negatives Collection

The collection consists of 136 glass plate negatives taken between 1895-1910 by Jameson of Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, N.Y. The negatives depict families and scenes in the Ogdensburg-Black Lake area.

Abraham Lincoln Ephemera Collection of Dorothy P. Hall

This collection contains ephemera related to Abraham Lincoln. The content includes but is not limited to photographs and drawings of Lincoln and family, statues, toys related to the Civil War, Civil War Round Table memorabilia, and clippings related to collecting Lincoln ephemera.

Adirondack Collection

The Adirondack Collection consists of ephemera, promotional literature, maps, magazines, commercial photo albums, picture books, Seneca Ray Stoddard photographs, and 2 groups of unidentified photographs. Also included are the records of Citizens to Save the Adirondack Park, from 1975-1982.

Adirondack Park Agency Collection

The Adirondack Park Agency Collection at St. Lawrence University has three sections. The first section consists of the papers of George D. Davis who served as Wildlife Ecologist for the Temporary State Commission on the Adirondacks. 

The second section of the Adirondack Park Agency Collection consists of clippings about the Adirondack Region, the Adirondack Park Agency and the Horizon Development planned for Colton, NY.

The third series of the Adirondack Park Agency Collection consist of additional materials obtain from various sources. The materials include pamphlets, booklets, Newsline editions, annual reports, etc.

Adirondack Perceptions: Adirondack Fiction 1802-2014

"Adirondack Perceptions: 200+ Years of Fiction Within the Blue Line", an exhibition and bibliography of Adirondack fiction from 1802 – 2014 by St Lawrence University student Fellow Jacqueline Colt, was on display in the Special Collections Reading Room, Owen D. Young Library for the Fall 2014 semester.

Adirondack Sutra

Adirondack Sutra is a creative work that brings together selected Buddhist and Tibetan Sutra esthetics & philosophies with contemporary Adirondack and environmental themes.

Aileen Vincent-Barwood Papers

The collection consists of files that include completed and draft manuscript writings, correspondence, notes, clippings, ephemera and some financial records related to Aileen Vincent-Barwood’s work as a freelance journalist and writer. The collection also contains files related to her three books and her editorship at the Plaindealer. The majority of the files concern the years 1960 to approximately 2010.

Akwesasne Contemporary Issues Resource Collection

This collection contains information about the contemporary issues of the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. There are a variety of pamphlets, informational packets, articles, newsletters, newspapers and handouts all with information that pertains to the Mohawk reservation. The issues these resources cover span from environmental initiatives to public school education to the annual powwow.

Alan Casline Small Press Collection

This collection consists of broadsides, in booklet, stapled and loose-leaf formats, of poetry by various poets published by Mr. Casline’s Benevolent Bird Press and the Rootdrinker Institute, based in Delmar, NY. Also included are a CD of a William Weaver Christman tribute reading in 2007, promotional materials on the Rootdrinker Institute, listings of Rootdrinker “Books in Print” for 2009, a flier on a talk on “Reinhabiting the Northeast” and printed notes from “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee”, a lecture on cultural emergence, creation and discovery given in 2009.

Alexander/Edith O'Dell Black Coll.

This collection was presented to St. Lawrence University in July 1980 by Ruth Atwood Black, daughter-in-law of Alexander Black. Alexander Black was the originator of the "picture play," the fore-runner of the motion picture, and was the pioneer of the screen drama. This collection contains an original manuscript of one of these "picture plays" and other works by Black.

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Included in the collection are minutes of meetings, financial records, constitution and by-laws, correspondence, newsletters, photographs and original documents found in scrapbooks, newspaper clippings and fourteen cassette tapes from national conferences pertaining to the St. Lawrence County Branch of AAUW.

Andrea Nouryeh Orson Welles Collection

This collection consist of materials compiled by Andrea Nouryeh for her research on Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater for her dissertation and later research. Included are photographs, scripts, comparative notes, correspondence and other documents related to Welles’ musical version of Around the World in 80 Days for the Mercury Summer Theater and his film adaptation of Macbeth, as well as photos related to stage productions of Julius Cesar, Five Kings, Henry IV, Shoemaker’s Holiday, Heartbreak House and The Cradle Will Rock. The vast majority of the non-photographic material in the collection are photocopies.

Arthur and Shirley Einhorn Iroquois Collection

The collection consists mainly of books, journal articles, personal notes, papers and other items reflecting Mr. Einhorn’s research on the Iroquois from the 1950s through 2013. Unbound articles and other research materials are listed and boxed alphabetically by last name. Bound books are cataloged individually on the Libraries’ online catalog, and are searchable under the title “Arthur and Shirley Einhorn Iroquois Collection”.

Aspen "Magazine-in-a--Box" Collection

Aspen was a three-dimensional, multi-media magazine featuring articles, pictures, flyers, broadsides, phonograph recordings and film reels, usually revolving around a particular theme. The items were boxed loosely together, eliminating the traditional magazine format.  The collection at St. Lawrence contains the first six issues of Aspen in their original boxes. Issues 5 and 6 were produced and sold to subscribers in one box.

Atwood Manley Papers

The Atwood Manley Papers, covering the years 1856-1989, were donated to the university by the Manley family at the time of his death. They comprise 5.16 linear feet of correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, notes, and tapes relating to Manley’s interests.

Back to the Land

A digital collection and research portal highlighting the significance of the back-to-the-land movement in St. Lawrence County.

Bannister-Conkey Family Papers

Correspondence of the Conkey, Bannister and Page families covering a span of 60 years.

Basil Watson Scrapbook and Photographs

This collection consists of a photo album of Basil Watson. It chronicles his life of graduation from Madrid High School in 1938 to his life at the Plattsburgh Military Base and Pine Camp (now Fort Drum). The end of the album contains photographs taken at Ohrdurf - Nord and Buchenwald concentration camps. These photographs are graphic in nature.

Beach Family Papers

Alvah and Enos Beach of Russell, NY, and their brother-in-law David Robinson fought on the Union side in the Civil War. The collection consists chiefly of letters written by Alvah and Enos Beach of Russell, N.Y., while they were in the Union Army during the Civil War. The collection also includes two photos of Alvah Beach and some material relating to David Robinson, including letters concerning his death in the Battle of Antietam.

Benjamin Clark letters

The collection consists of business receipts and bills for sundry items: tobacco, whiskey, wheat, cloth, etc. Other receipts included are for: horsekeeping, purchase of a cow and mare, work done, property, and subscription for Universalist Watchman.

Benjamin Kip Glass Plate Negative Collection

Approximately 500 photographic images (mostly glass plate negatives) documenting people and places, mostly in Canton, but also Potsdam, NY, from the 1890’s to the 1940’s.

Birdsfoot Farm Records

Birdsfoot Farm is an intentional community in Canton, New York.

Bohn Shakespeare Collection

Harold C. Bohn was a member of the English dept. at Montclair State College in the 1940's through the 1960's. Collection contains clippings, playbills and epherera related to productions of the plays of William Shakespeare. Clippings and ephemera are organized by play and the plays are alphabetized. Also includes thesis and typescript on teaching Shakespeare in secondary school.

Bostic Afghan War Collection

This collection consists of two 1-page narratives by two U.S. Army soldiers from A Company, 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, NY following their return from deployment in Kunduz province in Afghanistan. The narratives were written in April 2011, while their deployment was from April 2010 to March 2011. The first narrative is by Spc. Jorge Maya and is type-written. The second is by Spc. Jeremiah Bostic. Both are stationed with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum.

Brown/Kirby Family Papers

The Brown Papers consist of around 500 items covering a period from 1800 to 1865. The papers contain both personal and business correspondence of Jacob Jennings Brown and his family and the accounts of Edmond Kirby, the son-in-law of Jacob Brown. The papers give a clear picture of pioneer life in Northern New York as well as a sense of the military life of the time.

Brush Family Papers

This collection contains correspondence, deeds, land contracts, financial records and wills. The collection came to the archives in notebooks and organized by year. 

St. Lawrence University acquired this collection between the years 1959-1963 from Susan Andrews Brush, and Neilson C. Brush, of Malone, NY and Orlando, FL. Mr. Brush was the grandson of Henry Neilson Brush.

Canadian Rebellion Collection

This collection (formerly known as Patriots War Collection) consists of several original letters relating to the Battle of the Windmill... and more.

Canal Society of New York State Ephemera Collection

Founded in Buffalo in 1956, the Canal Society is a not-for profit educational organization that brings together canal enthusiasts from across the state to learn about the history, development and ongoing activities associated with numerous New York canal systems. This collection consists of ephemeral material related to the New York State Canal system and individual canal structures.

Canton Commercial Advertiser Articles

This collection consists of abstracted articles of the Commercial Advertiser, which began in the village of Norwood (Potsdam Junction). The paper later relocated to the village of Canton. Issues in our collection run from 1874 through 1914.

Census of North Country Commercial Photographers (1840-1920) Research Collection

This material was used in the research of St. Lawrence University student Sadie O'Neill Talmadge ('01) performed as part of a University Fellowship in the summer of 1999. The project sought to identify the commercial photographers who provided services in a six county area of the North Country before "amateur" picture taking became common. SLU Curator of Special Collections Mark McMurray was Ms. Talmadge's faculty mentor for the project. In the words of the paper's introduction, the census "clearly shows that the North Country was included in the photographic revolution that swept almost every corner of the United States after the Civil War."

Central American Peace Project (CAPP)

The Central America Peace Project was a grass roots organization formed in 1984 by citizens of Northern New York concerned with the escalating threat to peace, the systematic denial of human and economic rights, and the ever-increasing US military intervention in Central America.

Included in the collection are notes, printed materials, fliers, brochures, newspaper publications, propaganda, and correspondence pertaining to Central American Aid and the CAPP 1980-1990. While most of the materials in the collection are in English some of the content of the collection is in Spanish.

Charles Henry Tuck Papers

The collection consists of an article "Through Soviet Russia from Moscow to its Limit", various articles about Charles and Andrew (Charles' brother) Tuck, newspaper clippings, and wills of Andrew Tuck, Charles Tuck, and Ethel Pinder Tuck. The collection was donated to St. Lawrence University by Howard Deans in 1993.

Child Family Papers

This collection of approximately 100 items written between 1818 and 1855 consists of records of the land business of James Moon of Middletown, Pennsylvania, who owned part of Great Lot 4 of Macomb's Purchase in Philadelphia which he sold through his relatives and agents, Daniel, Joseph, and Moses Child. Included in the papers are maps of the lots belonging to Moon, descriptions of each lot, accounts of the payments by buyers, and correspondence between Moon and the Childs. Also included are maps and lists made in 1942 and 1943 of the lots in that area and their early owners. Useful also are references to Quaker affairs of the area, for the Moons and the Childs were members of the Society of Friends.
The library does not hold literary rights to these materials.

Christmas Bells for the Little Folks

Late 19th century [?] manuscript of children's Christmas stories signed by L. Fidelia Woolley Gillette and Florence L. Gillette.

Christopher Ripley Charles Shepard papers

The collection consists of business and personal correspondence of the Ripley family including the correspondence of Charles Shepard (Ripley's son-in-law) and his connection with the American Line Steamship Company. The correspondence in this collection gives an account of a man who was financially unsuccessful in his business attempts. These papers give a good picture of the life of the common man in UpstateNew York in the early 1800's. Also included is an article titled "The Ripley Papers" by Atwood Manley.

Civil War Diary

Civil War diary of an unknown soldier. The diary covers August 1, 1864 - May 31, 1865.