Carroll T. Hobart papers

The papers document Carroll T. Hobart's involvement with Yellowstone National Park through correspondence, photographs, printed material and documents. The collection consists of four series: Correspondence, Photographs, Printed Material, and Other Papers, and spans the dates 1871-1904.

Series I, Correspondence , consists primarily of business correspondence, including incoming letters and drafts of outgoing letters. The series has been arranged chronologically. The earliest correspondence is in the form of a letterpress copybook for the years 1871-1872. There are approximately 500 letterpress copies of outgoing letters and reports sent by Hobart while Superintendent of the Minnesota Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The letters concern supplies, reports of work on the line, and other construction matters. The remainder of the correspondence, in the form of individual letters, dates from 1881 through 1898. These letters largely concern his work as manager of the Yellowstone National Park Improvement Company. The nearly twenty letters to his wife are full of detail about his work, and thirty-five letters from his brother Charles describe daily events at the hotel, including the carpenter strike in the winter of 1883-1884. Other correspondents include T. F. Oakes and Robert Harris of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Henry M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior. A letter from Rufus Hatch to Hobart dated July 3, 188[-] contains a letter of introduction to Henry Ward Beecher. There are very few personal letters; three of them are from Carroll's mother in Appleton, Wisconsin, two of which are undated, the other is dated March 1886. Typescript transcripts of the correspondence are in four folders at the end of the series; these transcripts were made by an unidentified person, and have not been checked against the correspondence. They are accompanied by photocopies of documents, financial papers, and printed material, arranged in chronological order.

Series II, Photographs , is organized by photographer into six subseries: F. Jay Haynes, Keystone View Company, H.C. Phillips, W.H. Jackson & Co., Carleton Watkins, and Unidentified. The views are predominantly of Yellowstone National Park at the time Hobart worked there and also include portraits of Carroll Hobart and his family. The twenty-two Haynes photographs include eight stereocards from the Yellowstone National Park series, several mounted photographs (17.4 x 25 cm.) from different photographic series, and a mounted photograph entitled "Conductors' Excursion to the National Park, June 1885." The forty-two Jackson photographs (some of them duplicates) are mounted and unmounted albumen photographs, including two photographs measuring 16.5 x 27 cm. The forty-six Watkins photographs include mounted albumen photographs from Watkins' New Boudoir Series, and unmounted albumen photographs from Watkins' New Series.

Series III, Printed Material , is organized by format into five subseries: Books, Catalogs, Pamphlets, Periodicals, and Other Printed Material. Within each subseries, the materials are arranged alphabetically by author or title. Series IV, Other Papers , consists of documents, financial papers, maps, and other papers. These include two folders of documents and financial papers relating to the Yellowstone National Park Improvement Company, and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company; a file of bills and receipts for both personal and professional expenses; two pen-and-ink maps, one of Fracl Township in Yellowstone National Park, and the other an 1883 plat of the town of Cinnabar, Montana; and two office journals covering 1881-1882 containing information on his work on the Northern Pacific Railroad in North Dakota.

Oversize consists of materials from Series II, III, and IV, and is arranged in box order.