William White Chew's accounts consist of general household expenses, tailoring, loans from family members, food, drink and lodging during travel, subscriptions to journals and newspapers, memberships, and expenses incurred while he lived in St. Petersburg. Other materials related to expenditures of the US Legation to Russia are grouped with the Diplomatic Service subseries. William White Chew's correspondence covers a wide array of topics--from the philosophical and political to the scandalous. After his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, William White Chew dabbled in writing, traveled, and moved to New York. The early letters in this subseries document his close friendships with other men of his social class. Chew and his friends discuss their studies, ideas about life, travels, families, and quite often, their involvements with women. Firmly embedded in the bachelor culture of his time, William White Chew wrote about his admiration of various women, but rarely seemed interested in marriage or having a family. Letters from both family and friends suggest their anxiety about his unmarried state, with one friend urging him to marry before having to pay the bachelor tax. William White Chew began his diplomatic service in Russia as part of the legation led by George M. Dallas. Dallas nominated him as Secretary to the Legation in 1837. Chew departed Philadelphia with the Dallas family in 1837, traveling via steam boat through the Atlantic Ocean, stopping for a time in London, and then sailing north to Copenhagen. After their arrival in St. Petersburg, the US Legation was responsible for representing the United States in various diplomatic functions, primarily maintaining ties to important Russian governmental and royal figures, and providing services to American citizens traveling in Russia. The education subseries includes note books, school exercises, and essays document various aspects of William White Chew's formal studies in the areas of mathematics, language, writing, history and law, including courses he took at the University of Pennsylvania. Covering a wide span of William White Chew's life, Ephemera and Printed Material consist of publications to which he subscribed, tickets and programs for events he attended in Russia and the United States, and newspaper clippings related to his appointment to the US Legation to Russia, political events, and land sales. William White Chew was one of the executors of his father's estate, though it appears that he played a fairly minor role in its administration. Many of the papers in this subseries consist of notes and records about claims on the estate, as well as the volatile family dispute between Benjamin Chew III and the rest of the executors. William White Chew's journals and other writings provide a more detailed, private account of his thoughts and motivations than does his correspondence, which is often quite veiled and secretive. Many of his journals offer a daily account of events in his life and the depth of his feelings. William White Chew wrote prolifically, in blank books and on scraps of paper. Some of his memos act as daily diaries, listing what he has done and will do. Other entries serve as a place where he can explore ideas and sketch out topics for essays and letters. His essays and notes illustrate his strong opinions about political and social issues. William White Chew's musings on philosophical topics such as truth and death, as well as moral and political issues like slavery and capital punishment offer a vivid perspective of the social mores of the time, and illustrate his own moral and political beliefs. They tell us a great deal about how he spent his time, and the topics that engaged him and ignited his passions.
