New Manuscripts Finding Aids, June 2025

The staff of the Clements Library’s Manuscripts Division have been organizing and describing a wide variety of collections these past few months, making materials ranging from a teenage boy’s sketchbook to the treatment records of horse surgeons available for research.

Baird T. Spalding, Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East carbon typescript, [circa 1935?]

This bound volume is a 316-page carbon typescript of the first three parts of Baird T. Spalding’s “The Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East,” giving the full account of his 1894 travels to India and Tibet, where he and a research party of scientists interacted with immortal beings in the Himalayas that performed miracles and delivered spiritual revelations. The carbon typescript was possibly made around the time Douglas DeVorss published the third part in Los Angeles in 1935. Scattered throughout the volume are pencil notes and annotations pertaining to ideas and content (i.e. not editing or printing marks).

L. H. P. Farrar scrapbook, circa 1876

This scrapbook was likely compiled by L. H. P. Farrar of Boston, Massachusetts, around 1876. The bulk of the scrapbook consists of printed, illustrated trade cards from businesses in the Boston area. It also includes twelve collaged scenes of household rooms, where Farrar pasted in clippings and photographs of furnishings alongside samples of wallpaper, tissue paper, or other decorative papers used as background designs or curtains. Several rooms feature hand-drawn or hand-crafted elements, like a hallway door, a piece of furniture, and a child’s dress. Rooms depicted include: a hall, a music room, a parlor and back parlor, a library, a sitting room, a dining room, a kitchen, three chambers, and a nursery.

Samuel C. Allison account books, 1863-1893

This collection consists of physician and doctor Samuel C. Allison’s patient accounts from 1863 to 1892 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, with short notes on the reason for patients’ visits, medicines, and the costs of Allison’s services.

Fred W. H. R. Hannig sketchbook, [ca. 1919-1921]

Fred Hannig kept this sketchbook, likely while he was a teenager in the 1920s. It includes a watercolor painting as well as various pencil and pen-and-ink sketches of animals, people, school scenes, domestic disputes, and shopping.

Amador County (Ca.) account book, 1896-1909

This ledger for a harness and saddlery business in Amador County, California, consists of financial information relating to its operations between 1896 and 1909.

John Burroughs, Jr. diaries and notebooks, 1840-[1868?]

John Burroughs, Jr., kept a diary largely between the ages of 13 and 23, from 1840 to 1850, as well as two notebooks containing diary entries, notes, and scrapbook-style content into the mid-1860s. His 1840-1850 diary is filled with details about his hobbies, interests, and other aspects of his life in and around Philadelphia. Burroughs wrote frequently about rabbits, which he kept as pets; education at Yale; and politics (particularly after the 1840 U.S. Presidential election).

Cooper Institute (Mo.) manuscript student magazines, 1861-1864

Lucy E. Baskett and Virginia Turner compiled these manuscript magazines, “Intellectual Buddings: A Quarterly” (v. 1, no. 1) and “The Bubble”, in 1861 and 1864, while students at the Cooper Institute in Boonville, Missouri. Their fellow female students contributed writings on student life, male classmates, and other observations.

Dawson (Yukon) Wholesale and Consignment Merchant receipts, January 1903-July 1903

This collection of around 300 partially printed retained receipts is a record of sales made by a currently unidentified wholesaler and consignment merchant in Dawson City, Yukon, following the Klondike Gold Rush. The firm sold a wide variety foods, feed, hay, and a small quantity of non-edible dry goods.

Postmark scrapbook, [ca. 1860-1891]

An unidentified individual compiled this scrapbook of clipped postal markings in the latter half of the 19th century, with known dates ranging from 1860-1891. The bulk of the markings are stamped, but several are handwritten. The stamps are organized by place of post office mark, first by states and a section for “Foreign Post-Marks” at the end.

O. S. Fowler Phrenological Analysis of the Character of T. Sullivan, 1882

Orson Squire Fowler provided a phrenological reading of T. Sullivan on seven pages stapled at the top within a printed cover folded. The reading indicates that Power was Sullivan’s greatest characteristic—in body, feelings, and intellect. He also had one of the best physiologies Fowler has ever examined in terms of muscle and vitality. He advised that Sullivan marry a slim, light-haired woman, who is stylish and well-educated. “A right marriage will make ever so much more of a man of you than you could be otherwise”—yet no one appreciates him and he is wanting in self-confidence. Sullivan needed more cheek and though “Able and willing to undergo hardships” was “foolishly kind.” The reading does not include any references to T. Sullivan’s skull or head.

Fred Hornkohl diary, 1875

Fred Hornkohl kept this pre-printed pocket diary while working for St. Joseph, Missouri, liquor merchants Simon Adler & Co. in 1875. For the first part of the year, Hornkohl recorded aspects of his daily life, such as getting married to Alice (January 10), furnishing their new rental home, family and social visits, and work at the store (personnel, orders, administration, employee drinking and related debts and injuries). After the Republican Party “Whiskey Ring” corruption scandal broke, Hornkohl recorded the raid on the store and distillery, interactions with attorneys, his testimony at the trials in Jefferson City, attempted bribery of Hornkohl and co-workers by Simon Adler, travel to Illinois to view the remains of defendant Charles Jagau (who died on falling from a train), and public sentiment in St. Joseph.