Series 52. Miscellaneous manuscripts

The series consists of more than 1100 letters, clippings, reprints, and other documents amassed by John Sanford Barnes and others to, from, and about notable persons including many with named series in this collection (e.g., William Bainbridge [Series 1], John Barry [Series 5], French E. Chadwick [Series 8], Gustavus Conyngham [Series 10], Gustavus Vasa Fox [Series 17], Caspar F. Goodrich [Series 21], Isaac Hull [Series 27], John Paul Jones [Series 28], Richard Worsam Meade 3rd [Series 31], Oliver Hazard Perry [Series 36], Henry A. Wise [Series 48]).

The organization of the materials into this series is somewhat arbitrary. In some cases a document was removed from a named collection and specifically located here (see Henry A. Wise letter removed from letter book). In other cases there was not sufficient material on a particular person to warrant creation of a series. Individual signatures have, in some instances, been cut from their original document for inclusion here, and a name does not necessarily signify an autograph document: the Jefferson material consists of a letter addressed to him. Some folders function more as subject files than manuscript collections: they may include information collected about a person rather than correspondence to or from them.

Some of the letters are addressed to Captain Barnes; others show evidence of having been purchased by him or donated to the Naval History Society. Many are addressed to Captain Garrett J. Pendergrast, commander of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. No explanation is given for their inclusion here in such profusion. Some documents have been mounted for display and/or sale; on a few the purchase price is marked in pencil.

This series functions in parallel and complementary to the previous 51 series in the collection. Together with Barnes's List of officers' autograph letters signed (Series 44) and his documentation of extra-illustrations for Cooper's "History of the Navy of the United States" (Series 11), it further documents his, and the Society's, collection and organization of autograph materials.

The extensive Bainbridge materials in this series provide additional evidence of the Barnes family's interest in, and collecting activities related to, their illustrious forebear. Information organized here on the location and history of documents complements that in Dearborn's extra-illustrated life of Bainbridge (Series 1). The John Paul Jones material (foldered here under John Sanford Barnes) could as well have been part of Series 28, since it includes additional correspondence of Barnes with Jones's biographer Anna deKoven, and about Robert Dale and the donation of a sword purportedly owned by him and now in the collection of New-York Historical Society.

Highlights of the series include documents signed by Presidents John Quincy Adams (Bainbridge folder 5, Barry folder 1) and James Madison; others signed by John C. Calhoun, Salmon P. Chase, Richard Henry Dana, David Farragut, Robert Fulton, John Hancock, Rufus King, Seth Low, Robert Morris, and Matthew C. Perry; and a lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair removed after his death and sent by Robert Todd Lincoln to Gustavus Vasa Fox (removed from Series 17; now in Series 52, Box 5) at the latter's request.

Caspar Goodrich's 1907 letter of thanks for Barnes' sympathies at the death of Goodrich's son includes mention of the young man's portrait as a boy painted by John Singer Sargeant. Among David Porter's letters are cartoons and drawings by him, including one of animal-headed naval officers listening to explanations of the value of steam-powered vessels, which complement others in the Fox collection (Series 17). The William Smith folder includes a map of an attack on Whampoa, China, in 1870. It is unclear what Barnes's connection was to Nikola Tesla: letters from him indicate that he had visited Barnes in New York in 1904. The William C. Whitney document appears to be a personal financial report related to stock holdings but has been retained here.

Historical Note

Miscellaneous manuscripts collections are artificial gatherings of single or small groups of letters, often including individual letters signed by notable persons. As such, they can be troves of autograph or highpoint materials, a specialty of later 19th and early 20th century correspondence collectors. They document that era of collecting tastes and do not reflect modern archival precepts of original order or the maintenance of a document's physical or historical context or provenance.

Arrangement

The series is arranged alphabetically by the subject's name, with Miscellaneous collections placed at the end of a letter's run. It includes an index organized by 200 "portfolio" numbers, probably referring to the collection's original alphabetical order. This provides detailed descriptions of individual documents, which can be matched to the current alphabetical arrangement.

Related Material at The New-York Historical Society

John Sanford Barnes detailed his collecting interests and activities in a lecture he delivered at the Naval War College in 1902, which was published as "Naval Literature" by Captain John S. Barnes in Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute, volume XXIX, no. 2, whole no. 106, p. 32 (XN E182 .B26).