Search

Correspondence of Nikola Tesla and Robert Underwood Johnson include letters of Tesla to Johnson's wife and daughter, clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous materials. Letters to George Scherff, 1902-1930, and others, manuscripts, printed articles, patents, and brochures. The material is of a technical nature and the letters deal primarily with Tesla's work on transformers, turbines, steam and gas oscillators, compressors, pumps, induction motors, and wireless transmitters. Also, printed materials by and about Tesla, including DR. NIKOLA TESLA BIBLIOGRAPHY (1979) by John T. Ratzlaff and Leland I. Anderson; and published selections from diary entries, correspondence, patents, and patent wrappers by Tesla published by the Tesla Book Company. There is also a videotape cassette "Nikola Tesla the Genius Who Lit the World".

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, memoranda, notebooks, notecards, proofs, photographs, microfilms, and printed materials. The Papers include the manuscript research materials and correspondence for each of his books except his biography of Theodore Dreiser. Among the correspondents are William Benton, Bruce Catton, Carey McWilliams, Mrs. Fremont Older (Cora Miranda Baggerly Older), and Thornton Wilder.

Correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, contracts, legal briefs, patents, and other documents, music scores, cartoons, technical drawings, account books, blueprints, photographs, clippings, printed legal briefs & transcripts, proofs, scrapbooks, and other printed materials of William M. Speer.

This collection is primarily concerned with Prof. James Renwick and his professional correspondence and papers, both as Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at Columbia College and as a leading engineer. Many certificates of membership in honorary societies are included. There are letters from Washington Irving (1783-1859) to Prof. Renwick and to his mother, Jane Jeffrey Renwick, pertaining to contemporary events and Irving's own activities. The letters to Mrs. Renwick are about the travels and experiences of Irving and Renwick abroad. The collection also covers the affairs of the Prof. Renwick's grandfather, including documents concerning his land grants in New York State, and those of James Armstrong Renwick, including his valedictory address at Columbia College in 1876 and his class reunion in 1916. There are many legal documents, letters, and manuscripts of various members of the Renwick and Brevoort families; among these are Prof. Renwick's notes on his family genealogy and a memoir of Jane Jeffrey Renwick. Correspondents include Clement Clarke Moore, John A. Dix, Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State John Forsyth, and Secretary of the Navy James K. Paulding. There is one letter from Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883), President of the Royal Society, giving his views on the American Civil War.

Personal and professional correspondence, including 25 long letters from Professor Henry F. Herbig; manuscripts (mainly speeches); specifications for patents in electrical fields; technical and personal photographs; and memorabilia. Included is a copy of the famous "shot in hand" x-ray photograph, ca. 1896, one of the first ever to be taken. This collection also contains the correspondence, manuscripts, documents, and memorabilia of Professor Pupin's daughter, Varvara Smith, and his son-in-law, Louis Graham Smith. His daughter's letters and documents deal with her financial difficulties, her administration of Pupin's estate and her claims against Columbia University. Louis G. Smith's letters deal with his anti-Communist sentiments and his manuscripts are mainly ideas for popular songs and plays. There are three letters (photostatic copies) to Smith from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Photostats of letters from Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce to Claude Niépce, written from St. Loup and Chalon sur Saône, all but two in the years 1816-1817. Much of the material in the letters relates to photography and these have been published in part in Foque's LA VÉRITÉ SUR L'INVENTION DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE; NICÉPHORE NIÉPCE, SA VIE, SES ESSAIS, SES TRAVAUX (Paris, 1867).

Letters, photographs, clippings, and printed materials relating to Morse, collected by his granddaughter, Leila Livingston Morse. Much of the material, including the two hundred letters in the collection, relate to the Morse Centennial in 1944.

Material relating to Fulton, including two letters, three deeds, and eight other items dealing chiefly with lands and matters concerning Fulton's steamboats. Also, an unidentified photograph and three letters, 1828-1830, to Walter Edwards, a lawyer living in New York, from his father and two brothers, but having no clear reference to or connection with Fulton. Typescript calendar at the front of the volume.

The collection consists of letters from celebrities in various fields, largely addressed to Harry Harkness Flagler. Included are letters of Ambrose Bierce, Thomas A. Edison, Edwin Forrest, Andrew Jackson, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Mansfield, John D. Rockefeller, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Ruskin, Constantin Stanislavsky, and George Washington. Especially noteworthy are five letters of Charles Dickens, bound together in one volume.

A collection of twenty-nine letters written by and relating to Ericsson. Twenty-three of the letters were written by John Bourne from London. The material all relates to Ericsson's designs for naval engines, their patenting, and execution.