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What follows is a list of miscellaneous individual manuscripts of Early National and Antebellum America, from the North American manuscript holdings in the Department of Special Collections, University Libraries of Notre Dame. Manuscripts included here date wholly or primarily from the years 1788 to 1860.
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WILLIAM COBBETT. NOTES FOR AN INDEX TO A YEAR'S RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. c1818. 1 vol., 20 cm., 47 leaves, with 55 pages of manuscript in the author's hand. The Englishman William Cobbett (1763-1835) was an enormously prolific author, political journalist, and pamphleteer, whose Year's Residence was the upshot of his occupancy, during 1817-19, of a Long Island farm. The book was published in New York in 1818, and in London in 1819. The manuscript contains alphabetically organized index entries, in Cobbett's hand. Some of these entries appear in the London edition of the book, though only Part I (of three) is indexed in the copy consulted. MSN/EA 9303-1-B.
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ELIJAH GRIFFITHS. "AN ESSAY ON THE CAUSE AND CURE OF REMITTENT FEVER." 1830. 1 vol., 25 cm., 12 leaves, with 13 pages of manuscript, mostly in the hand of Jesse Weber Griffiths. A brief essay by the noted Philadelphia physician Elijah Griffiths (1769-1847). The manuscript is in the hand of the doctor's brother, J. W. Griffiths, with a few penciled emendations in a second hand. The author affirms the notion that remittent fevers are provoked by "exhalations from stagnant water and marshy ground." MSN/EA 9302-1.
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ANONYMOUS MEMOIR, "THE RECOLECTIONS OF A BOATMEN." 1839-1840. 1 vol., 18 cm., 81 leaves, with 160 pages of manuscript in the author's hand. The first 132 pages of the manuscript consists of a narrative entitled "The Recolections of a Boatmen," recounting a six-month river journey from Augusta, Kentucky to New Orleans and back made by the author in 1838-39. The purpose of the trip was to trade along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, wherever the opportunity presented itself. The author's craft was the "store boat" Augusta (named for what was very likely his and his associates' native place, 45 miles above Cincinnati on the Ohio). A second, shorter memoir (pp 133-160) describes a trip east, to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and ultimately to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where the author attended college. The writing is literate, and combines physical observation of the author's changing environs with a penchant for anecdote. MSN/EA 9300-1-B.
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U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AUTOGRAPH ALBUM. c1856. 1 vol. partly printed; 20 cm., 65 leaves, with 75 pages of autographs. An album containing the signatures of approximately 218 different members of the United States House of Representatives, 34th Congress (1855-57). The book was certainly compiled during the third session of the 34th Congress (1 December 1856 to 3 March 1857), as a number of the signers were seated only for that session, and several of the autographs are dated December 1856. The book contains a total of 239 individual autographs, as some members signed more than once. Signatures are typically three or four to a page, and usually include the member's place of residence. There is no indication of ownership. MSN/EA 9301-1-B
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