Series I: Family papers

This series consists primarily of correspondence spanning several generations of families related to Henry Fairfield Osborn.

Materials are organized into the following five subseries:

Subseries I.1, Correspondence of Sturges, Cady, Perry and Osborn family members, includes correspondence of HFO's maternal grandparents, Jonathan Sturges and Mary (Cady) Sturges; his parents, William Osborn and Virginia (Sturges) Osborn; and various other members of the Cady family. Henry Fairfield Osborn's personal correspondence with his wife, Lucretia ("Lulu") Perry Osborn, is also included, along with other Perry family correspondence, primarily between Lulu and her mother, Josephine Perry.

Early correspondence between Jonathan and Mary Sturges describes transportation and travel, food, health and medical care in the 1830's.

Cady family correspondence includes letters between Mary (Cady) Sturges and her mother Elizabeth Cady, her aunt Olive Cady, and her sister Elizabeth Cady (later Mrs. Hamilton Murray). Letters span the period from 1832 to 1888, and discuss family news, health and events of daily life.

Correspondence of the children of Jonathan and Mary Sturges includes letters by and between Virginia Osborn's siblings and their families, including a letter from J.P. Morgan, who married Virginia's sister Amelia Sturges. Amelia died of tuberculosis shortly after their marriage, and Morgan's letter to Jonathan Sturges, written December 28, 1861, describes her critical condition.

Of particular interest is a folder of letters between Mary Sturges and her Fredericksburg friend Jane Beale, who remained in Virginia during the Civil War. The letters were written after the war, and describe the difficulties the confederate Beale family endured during and after the conflict.

Subseries I.2, Correspondence of Osborn family children, contains correspondence of HFO's four surviving children (Virginia, Perry, Fairfield Jr., and Josephine) from early childhood, when they were away at boarding school, to adulthood, and includes many letters from their travels abroad.

Subseries I.3, Other family papers and photographs, includes genealogical and biographical information about the various families; a small number of business, and legal papers, including wills and deeds and leases for family property; several folders of ephemera and photographs, including a few of HFO on an expedition in Egypt; and passports and visas issued to Henry and Lulu Osborn in the 1920's and 1930's. This subseries also includes a poignant memorial album for HFO's sister Virginia Reed Osborn, who died when she was only 20 years old.

Subseries I.4, Correspondence and clippings of Lucretia Perry Osborn, includes materials relating to Lulu Osborn's activities outside the family circle, including several boxes of correspondence and clippings, primarily concerning her 1927 monograph Washington in His Own Words.

Subseries I.5, Journals, consists of bound journals, including an 1868 datebook of William Osborn (from Europe), several diaries and "common place books" of Virginia Osborn (1850-1851, 1871, 1875), and an 1883 journal of Lulu Perry.