A Sachem and Civil War adjutant to Ulysses Grant, Ely Samuel Parker was an important figure in the Seneca Indian nation during the first half of the nineteenth century. Trained as an engineer, Parker was deeply involved in the Senecas' land disputes with the Ogden Land Company and he played an important role in interpreting Seneca culture for a white audience, most notably as a consultant for Lewis Henry Morgan. Collected by Arthur C. Parker, the Ely Samuel Parker Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, and printed materials relating primarily to Seneca affairs, history, language, and culture, as well as politics, education, engineering, and the Civil War. Among Parker's correspondents were Henry Clay, Millard Fillmore, Henry M. Flagler, Lewis Henry Morgan, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Daniel Webster, and Asher Wright. Several letters relate to Parker's service as engineer of public buildings in Galena, Illinois, and to his Masonic activities. Among the noteworthy items in the collection are several essays on Seneca history and culture, a fragment of Parker's diary, 1847, and a significant quantity of material on the Seneca language assembled by Asher Wright.

These papers include letters on natural history, metals and mineralogy, botany, insects, the geological survey of New York, and analyses of distilled liquors in the cause of temperance.

In 1839-1840, the ichthyologist Richard Parnell left London for a collecting expedition to Jamaica and a tour of museum collections in the United States. An authority on both fishes and grasses, Parnell published two noted works as a young man, his Prize Essay on the Natural and Economical History of the Fishes Marine, Fluviatile, and Lacustrine, of the River District of the Firth of Forth (Edinburgh: Neill and Co., 1838) and The Grasses of Britain, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1842-1845). He appears, however, to have abandoned publication in 1845, although he continued collecting for many years. The notebook kept by Richard Parnell during his voyage to the West Indies and United States in 1839-1840 contains little narrative, but dozens of pencil and watercolor sketches of the marine life that absorbed his interest, primarily fishes. Most sketches are accompanied by brief notes on the anatomy of the fish, sometimes with close-ups of fin structures, air bladders, or the digestive tract and stomach. Although collecting localities are seldom recorded, the majority of specimens seem to have been collected in Jamaica, with at least a few observed in vitro at the New York Museum.

An important 18th century radical republican theorist and political writer, Thomas Paine was a leading figure in the American Revolution. Despite his humble beginnings and lack of formal education, his reasoned and persuasive writings not only influenced nascent American republican ideology, but profoundly affected the perception of government in England and France as well. His three most influential works are Common Sense (1776), The Rights of Man (1791-1792), and The Age of Reason (1794, 1795, 1807). The Richard Gimbel Collection is a heterogeneous mix of items connected only by the fact that they were all collected by Gimbel (1898-1970) and that most were written by, to, or about the revolutionary Paine. Of primary importance are the approximately sixty-five letters or manuscripts in Paine's own hand, including Paine's 1776 manuscript notes for Common Sense, his letter of January 10, 1781, in which he takes leave of his former commanding officer, Nathanael Greene, and his January 6, 1789 letter to Kitty Nicholson Few, in which he writes of his view of matrimony and other personal matters. The collection includes a series of correspondence between Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams, which were originally marked "forgeries," these appear instead simply to be the letters of two men bearing famous names.

The physicist, Emanuel Ruben Piore, emigrated from Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1917 at the age of 9. "Mannie," as he was known, became a naturalized citizen in 1924, and obtained both his BA and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin. After gaining nearly ten years experience as a research physicist, first at the Radio Corporation of American then CBS laboratories, he went to work for the Navy, eventually becoming the first civilian to head the Office of Naval Research and playing a major role in the transition of American science from war to peace. Throughout his career, Piore strove to promote research through a close relationship between government, industry, and universities. IBM realized the importance of developing a strong research department and Piore's key role in this endeavor and offered him the position as their first Director of Research. At IBM he continued to encourage research by establishing the IBM Fellow program rewarded to top researchers. Piore held increasingly responsible positions at IBM becoming a vice president, group executive and finally Chief Scientist. He served as a member of IBM's advisory board well after he retired. The Piore papers contain material relating to his latter years at IBM as Vice President and Chief Scientist, as well as some of his time spent on the Board of Directors. In addition, there are materials, though sparse, concerning his work with the Navy. An extensive series of speeches and lectures illustrates Piore's commitment to scientific research and national policy. In addition to his professional correspondence, the papers contain material pertaining to Piore's involvement in professional organizations such as the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research and the American Philosophical Society. A number of professional and personal photographs are also found within the papers.

A product of the distinctive culture of reform in antebellum Philadelphia, William Parker Foulke was the scion of the old elite who put a conservative stamp on social change. Trained as an attorney, Foulke spent much of his adult life engaging his deep amateur interest in natural history and mental philosophy and devoting himself to a variety of civic and philanthropic causes, including the colonization of formerly enslaved persons, penal reform, and cultural institutions in his native Philadelphia. The Foulke Papers are the product of the diverse social and intellectual interests of the Philadelphia attorney and philanthropist William Parker Foulke. Consisting primarily of correspondence, notes, and essays, the collection touches on Foulke's many interests. The collection includes numerous lectures delivered by Foulke along with material on the Lancaster County Prison, New York Prison Association, and the Philadelphia Society For Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons; notebooks concerning prisons and prisoners, including a 1846-1852 diary, and a listing of prisoners, their race, age, crime, sentence, and observations; a diary concerning the American Colonization Society (1852); a copy of an arctic diary (1853-1854) by John Wall Wilson, in the hand of Isaac Israel Hayes, which recounts much of the journey aboard the brig Advance, commanded by Elisha Kent Kane. There is also a list of buildings (1820-1841) designed by John Haviland, and material on the American Academy of Music, Philadelphia.

A physician, natural historian, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) was one of the central figures in Philadelphia's early national scientific establishment. Having received his medical training in European universities, Barton was appointed Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1789, lecturing on botany, materia medica, natural history. A prolific author, he established his reputation as one of the nation's preeminent botanists through his botanical text book The Elements of Botany (1803), but his contribtions to zoology, ethnology, and medicine were equally noteworthy. Barton's monograph on the "fascinating faculty" of the rattlesnake and his efforts in historical linguistics (New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, 1798) were widely read, and his Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal (1804-1809) was one of the nation's first medical journals and an important outlet for natural historical research. The Barton Papers offer a comprehensive view of the professional work of Benjamin Smith Barton from the time of his return to the United States in 1789 until his death. The collection is divided into five series: Correspondence, Subject Files, Bound Volumes, Graphic Materials, and Printing Plates. The collection includes a particularly valuable series of botanical, medical, and natural historical drawings collected by Barton for research, reference, and publication. Among the many artists represented are William Bartram, Frederick Pursh, Pierre Turpin, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

Bound with this is: Union Canal Company. Report of the President and Managers to the stockholders ... 1813-1814 -- New York. Citizens. Memorial ... in favor of a canal navigation ... -- New Jersey. Legislature. Report of the Commissioners ... for ... a canal ... -- New York (State). Legislature. Report ... on the subject of the canals, from Lake Erie to the Hudson River ... -- New York (State). Canal Commissioners. Report ... on the canals from Lake Erie to the Hudson River ... -- Granger, Gideon. Speech ... on the subject of a canal from Lake Erie to Hudson's River ... -- New York (State). Laws of the state of New York, respecting navigable communications ... -- Considerations on the Great Western Canal ... -- Say, Jean Baptiste. Des Canaux de navigation ... -- Stevens, John. Documents tending to prove the superior advantages of rail-ways ... -- Annesley, William. A description of [his] new system of naval architecture ...

This collection contains mostly entomological material, with much information on the description and identification of particular insects, entomological collections, and the study of entomology in Europe and the United States. In addition, there are materials on medicine and hospitals during the American Civil War, on the Corps of Topographical Engineers, the United States Army, on natural history in the United States, and on the LeConte's family. Some letters are written to President Rutherford B. Hayes and concern the Commissionership of Agriculture, for which LeConte was considered, but not appointed. Letters of John Eatton LeConte and Joseph LeConte are included.

These are copies of letters, chiefly relating to the American Philosophical Society, from Peter S. Du Ponceau, John Vaughan, and James Mease. There are a few original letters, one to Benjamin Franklin Peale.

Relating especially to American Philosophical Society business, these papers contain letters to and from men of science and institutions in Europe on the purchase and shipment of books and on the pubications of the Society. Many of the letters are to or from John Vaughan.

These contain a few notes and memoranda by Van Vleck, but the bulk of the collection is letters to and from him. Correspondents include Raymond T. Birge, Gerhard H. Dieke, Paul A. M. Dirac, Edwin C. Kemble, and Robert S. Mulliken.

The collection of about 850 items covers the period from 1782 to c. 1936, with the bulk dating to the 1780s to 1840s. The collection is divided into four series. Series I contains correspondence relating to a wide variety of topics, including French and English politics, business, trade, religious matters, and personal affairs. Many of the items are letters of introduction. There is also information on John Vaughan's immigration to America, Joseph Priestley, vaccines and inoculation (with Jefferson's comments on the same), Vaughan's business in Philadelphia, and the American Philosophical Society. Also included in this series are 2 boxes with copies of Vaughan correspondence as well as miscellaneous notes by E. W. Madeira, gathered in the course of his research on Vaughan in the 1930s. Series II consists of three volumes. Included are two of Vaughan's commonplace books. One, entitled, "J. Vaughan's book," May 17, 1779 (47 pp., in Latin; 870/L34), includes mostly Latin notations. The other commonplace book, dated 1783 (ca. 66 pp.; B V 462.c), includes comments on several prominent Americans, such as Benjamin Rush and David Rittenhouse, as well as American society generally. The third volume is a copybook with thirty letters spanning the period 1784 to 1801 (B V462.1). Series III includes material relating to Vaughan's administration of the estate of the Philadelphia merchant Samuel Merrick, 1796-1822 (Vaughan-Merrick Papers, B V462.m; 2 boxes). Series IV consists of correspondence between Vaughan and the DuPont Co. for which he served as agent (B V462.4; photocopies of 73 letters).

Written by William Alexander at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, March 27, 1773, this essay appeals to the American Philosophical Society to collect and publish astronomical observations. It was sent to the American Philosophical Society, where it was duly read in May 1773.

These letters concern various scientific subjects, such as fishes, insects, snakes, mice, fossils, and mosses. Other subjects include learned institutions, notably the Smithsonian Institution and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and men of science. Correspondents include S. S. Haldeman, Walter J. Hoffman, Spencer F. Baird, Edward D. Cope, and Leo Lesquereux.

The largest portion of correspondence is with Charles Edwin Bessy on botanical matters, including botanical publications in the United States and Europe, and plants and shell specimens.

The letters in this small collection concern the Smithsonian Institution, the Colorado Territory, and Humboldt's observations, among many other topics.

This is primarily a collection of letters and manuscripts sent to Wistar by prominent men who were among his many correspondents. These documents reflect his broad interests, including botany, paleontology, medicine, the American Philosophical Society, and André Michaux's plans for exploring the Missouri.

Principal correspondents in the lettes of John Fries Frazer include Alexander Dallas Bache, Louis Agassiz, Joseph Henry, and Titian Ramsay Peale who discuss mainly general scientific topics, although personal and family matters are discussed with Bache. Topics include the University of Pennsylvania, boiler explosions, chemistry, education, the National Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian Institution, fossils, magnetism, solar eclipses, the American Philosophical Society, weights and measures, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, scientific instruments, the American Civil War, electricity, the United States Mint, the Franklin Institute, scientists of the period, natural history, and publications.