Seward, William H. (William Henry), 1801-1872

Overview: The papers consist of correspondence, writings, legal and financial material, congressional papers, family memorabilia, and other papers of various members of the Evarts family of Vermont, Boston, and New York. The principal figures, however, are Jeremiah Evarts (1781-1831), author, editor, lawyer, and philanthropist, and his son, William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), lawyer and statesman. The papers of Jeremiah Evarts relate to his work and writings on Congregational orthodoxy, his travels for...

Overview: The principal figures in this collection are Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) and his sons Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) and Richard Cary Morse (1795-1868). More than half of the collection is made up of correspondence (1779-1868) among members of the family. Also included are legal and financial papers, sermons by Jedidiah and Richard Cary Morse, travel journals, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, printed matter, and photographs.

Summary: The papers include correspondence (comprising over half of the collection), manuscripts of Samuel Wells Williams's Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, themes and lecture notes by Frederick Wells Williams, diaries, newspaper clippings, articles on China, maps, and pictures. The bulk of the correspondence relates to S. W. Williams, missionary, diplomat, and sinologue. The period between 1845 and 1855 has extensive correspondence with missionaries and...