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A collection of letters, documents, manuscripts, and books collected by Dr. Michael Reynard and placed on deposit in The Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs and printed materials. The correspondence is with American and English literary figures and Columbia faculty members. Included are 38 letters from Brander Matthews and 4 from Edmund Gosse. There are 5 letters from Trent to George Whicher, 3 to John Hart, and 180 postcards and letters to John Bell Henneman, as well as a group of miscellaneous letters to and from Trent. Also included are a holograph fair copy of Trent's poem "Germany, 1915" with his covering a.l.s. and several miscellaneous poems; and his contract with J.B. Lippincott Co. for the publication of GEORGE SAND. There are also two documents signed by George W. Maynard. Among the photographs is a photograph album, prepared by Hudson Stuck in 1899, of people and scenes from Dallas, Texas. Among the printed materials are Trent's examinations and outlines for English courses, and THE UNPOPULAR REVIEW with numerous pages of Trent's notes

The materials that comprise the Historical Biographical Files have been collected and added to from a variety of sources over the years by current and previous staff. The files consist of materials related to people who have a connection to the University whether as student, alumni, administrator, faculty, staff, guest lecturer, or honorary degree recipient. Materials generally consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, programs, ephemera, printed matter, lists, reports, and pamphlets.

This group of approximately 1,000 letters from the papers of Hamilton Fish, Sr. relates to the business, functioning, and activities of Columbia College in the 19th century. The letters include those addressed to Fish and those written by him. The earliest material bears on Fish's activities and interests at about the time he graduated from Columbia, but the majority of the letters fall into the latter part of his life, many being written by and to Fish as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Columbia College. The collection includes correspondence with presidents Charles King, F.A.P. Barnard, and Seth Low of Columbia College, also with Edmund Bailey, Charles Davies, Charles W. Harper, William M. Sloan, William C. Schermerhorn, and others. The majority of the letters are original manuscripts and typescripts, but many of the letters from Fish are photostatic and typed copies. Most of the letters are tipped onto manila sheets. Included are two diaries of Mr. Fish's European travels, 1856-1857. There is also a box of printed materials relating primarily to the settlement of the Alabama Claims.

This collection consists primarily of academic robes and hoods of various Columbia professors and administrators, especially those given to these individuals for honorary degrees at other universities. The collection also contains some other textile materials, including the Women's Banner or Butler Library Banner (in two parts), Columbia College banners and flags, and some crew sweaters. Additional textiles can be found in the University Artifacts Collection (UA#0016).

Papers of the Jay family and of those families related to the Jay family, including Bruen, Butterworth, Chapman, Clarkson, Dawson, Du Bois, Field, Iselin, McVickar, Mortimer, O'Kill, Pellew, Pierrepont, Prime, Robinson, Schieffelin, Von Schweinitz, Sedgwick, and Wurts. In addition to family and personal matters, the correspondence deals with anti-slavery, New York State civil service, repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Civil War, the Blair Bill, international affairs, and New York City and State politics and government. There are letters from numerous prominent persons including George Bancroft, F.A.P. Barnard, Bismarck, William Cullen Bryant, Aaron Burr, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hamilton Fish, Albert Gallatin, Horace Greeley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Washington Irving, Frances Anne Kemble, Jenny Lind, Henry W. Longfellow, Seth Low, James Russell Lowell, John Stuart Mill, Alice Duer Miller, Clement Clarke Moore, J.P. Morgan, Thomas Nast, Commodore Matthew Perry, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Carl Schurz, William H. Seward, William T. Sherman, Charles Sumner, and John Greenleaf Whittier.

Professional correspondence of Egleston, consisting of incoming letters and technical reports relating to mining engineering and metallurgy; and carbon copies of correspondence between Egleston and Seth Low for the years 1890 to 1900.