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There is a letter book / account book of 347 p., 1790-1856, containing 466 draft copies of his commercial and social correspondence with shipping agents in Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Germany, China, Canada, as well as in the United States. The correspondence concerns Bell's business arrangements, the various cargos he shipped and their disposal, political affairs affecting the shipping trade, laws and treaties of various countries to be dealt with, taxes, embargoes, piracy, threats of war, and other pertinent events. A second account book of 84 p. (many are blank), 1787-1852, for the Ship Stephania and others contains ships' records for 1799 to 1828 and miscellaneous accounts up to 1857. There is a one volume carbon typescript (113 p.) of genealogical notes and reminiscences by Gordon Knox Bell (Regent of the University of the State of New York and grandson of Isaac Bell) and others, ca.1940. There is also an essay and lists of the residents of Greenwich Street (including the Bell and Rogers families) by Elizur Yale Smith with related correspondence, 1940.

Papers consist primarily of Smith's files relating to his architectural work containing correspondence with clients, colleagues, contractors, suppliers, and others, with related bills, notes, receipts, accounts, estimates, specifications, time sheets, progress reports, and architectural drawings. Also, portrait photographs of young people (possibly classmates?) in Rochester, N.Y. and Evanston, Ill., circa late 19th century; a class roll card, 1901, for a class taught by Smith at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, New York; a memo book, undated, containing miscellaneous accounts, sketches, memoranda; correspondence, 1890s, between Ella Smith (Smith's mother) and Lucien Smith and other family members, Rochester, N.Y., and Elmhurst, Ill.; account book, 1891-1902, of Mrs. H. V. (Ella) Smith, Rochester, N.Y.; calling cards, invitations, photographs, letters, bills, receipts, and other, miscellaneous personal documents; student drawings made by Smith when at Columbia University's School of Architecture; drawings for a proposed "academy of art and archaeology" in Rome, 1905-1906; and drawings for Malvina Hoffman's house and studio in New York City.

Architectural drawings and photographs of buildings designed by the firm dating approximately from its founding to the 1950s. Among those represented are buildings at the World's Columbian Exhibition, Chicago, 1893; Pennsylvania Railroad Station, New York, 1906-1910; restoration, 1903, of the White House, Washington, D.C.; buildings at Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, New York; Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.; E.W. Morgan mansion; Municipal Building, N.Y.; Col. Elliott Shepherd House, Scarborough, N.Y.; buildings at Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.; Bellevue Hospital, New York; various New York City residences; and others. Also included are competition drawings for the New York Public Library; miscellaneous drawings and sketches; photographs of the partners and of other members of the firm; lists of the firm's work; clippings of articles about the firm; lists of the firm's employees; billing records, 1953-1955; account books, 1940s-1950s; bank books, 1895-1955; award certificates; and other office miscellany.

Architectural drawings and specifications for Codman's projects, circa 1890s-1930s, including the Martha Codman house in Washington, D.C.; alterations for Edith Wharton and her husband at their three residences, the Mount in Lenox, Mass., Land's End in Newport, R.I., and their Park Avenue home in New York City; work for the Thayer family of Boston, Mass., specifically Nathaniel Thayer's three homes in Boston, Lancaster, Mass., and Newport, R.I. ("Edgemere"), Bernard Thayer's Beacon Hill houyse in Boston, and Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer's two houses in Boston and Lancaster, Mass.; the Lucy Dahlgren house in New York City; the Archer M. Huntington house on Fifth Avenue in New York City; interior design for John D. Rockefeller in his house "Kykuit" at Pocantico Hills, N.Y.; interior design work for the Vanderbilt family including Cornelius Vanderbilt's "Breakers" at Newport, R.I. and Frederick William Vanderbilt's mansion in Hyde Park, N.Y. and his house on Fifth Avenue in New York City; Oliver Ames' mansion at Pride's Crossing, Beverly, Mass., and his house in Boston; and interior decoration and alterations for Codman's own homes in Newport, R.I. and Roslyn, N.Y. and his villa in France, "La Leopolda", at Villefranche-sur-Mer. Also, lists, descriptions, and postcards of French chateaux, with related correspondence, circa 1900s-1930s, relating to Codman's bibliography on the chateaux of France; and miscellaneous lists of houses in England and France, correspondence, and printed material.

Correspondence, manuscripts of poems, and manuscripts of lectures by Benjamin. The correspondence consists of original letters of Benjamin, typescript and photostatic copies of Benjamin letters in other libraries, and letters to Benjamin from some of his literary contemporaries including Paul Hamilton Hayne, Willis Gaylord Clark, John Lothrop Motley, and Fitz-Greene Halleck. Many of the letters relate to Park Benjamin's lecture tours. There are other family letters and many documents relating to the Benjamin family,and two letterbooks of John Lothrop Motley. Also, a large amount of genealogical material of the Benjamin family, and its related families from the 16th century to the present day. There are also financial records, monographs, clippings, and photographs.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, and newspapers. These include over four hundred letters to Alexander, as well as miscellaneous letters and telegrams; some of his manuscripts and notes; business records of his law firm; military documents of the western divisions of the Confederate Army; copybooks and letter books; and complete and partial newspapers and clippings from the various Southern newspapers (in particular THE SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN, the DAILY DISPATCH of Richmond, and the ADVERTISER AND REGISTER of Mobile) which carried Alexander's dispatches.