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Billings/Tyler family papers, 1834-1911.

Title: Billings/Tyler family papers, 1834-1911.

This collection contains a variety of documents, including manuscripts, photographs, a scrapbook, and ephemera, from several members of the Billings/Tyler family of Brattleboro and Washington, D.C., spanning the years 1834 and 1911. Given the bulk and the time span of the collection, it was probably collected by a relative of Cornelius "Cornele" and Almena Billings. Among the correspondence of note are letters with individuals in the White House. Some names represented include: two First Ladies, Helen Louise Taft and Edith Kermit Roosevelt, President Taft's Vice President, J.S. Sherman, President Millard Fillmore and Vice President Henry Wilson. A scrapbook contains letters to members of the Tyler/Billings family from various politicians. In addition to Fillmore and Wilson's signatures, the end of the scrapbook is dominated by a broad collection of autographs, from figures including Horace Mann and Horace Bushnell. Amongst this are a few cut outs from books or magazines of prominent historical figures: Lucretia Mott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In addition to the correspondence, there is also an abundance of certificates, including those for Amelia and Ned Tyler from the Patent Office, for Captain C.C. Billings from the 151st of New York Volunteers, and for Will Tyler's appointment to hospital steward in the military. Also included are pension claims for Elizabeth Billings, warrants from the Treasury Department, and wills for Elizabeth Billings, Amelia Sophia Tyler, and Captain C.C. Billings. Two diaries belonging to Sarah Frances Tyler, one from 1902 and the other from 1905, can also be found in the collection. Three unidentified manuscripts also accompany this collection, one of which is seventy-eight pages of what seems to be either a strange children's story or a bizarre dream. It talks of being struck in the head by a piece of lava after getting too close to "the crater of Vesuvius" and being catapulted to the moon in search of the Man in the Moon. There are also handwritten selections of Miltiades Peterkin Paul, originally by John Brownjohn, a lone page from a larger manuscript or speech, and a musical composition titled "Prof. E Eckhardt's Exercises." Photographs in the collection include images of both the men and women of the Billings/Tyler family. Several images of Elizabeth Billings are included, one in a small frame, and a couple of Sarah Ann Boardman; the rest of the women's photographs are unidentified. Included with the men's portraits are George Tyler, and C.C. Billings' brother, Walter. A rich component of the collection regards the Tyler family genealogy. Around the time of the Tyler Family reunion in 1898 there was a flurry of correspondence in an attempt to clarify family lines. Included are two copies of the program from the reunion, as well as a form letter seeking additional Tyler genealogical information. There are many letters from Rev. Edward Tyler, one to "cousin William," mentioning his intention to send him a portrait of "our ancestor" William Tyler done by Smibert.

ArchivalResource: .75 linear feet.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/770689884 View