Born in Königsberg, Prussia, in 1714, the Moravian missionary Johann Jacob Schmick studied theology as a young man and became acquainted with the teachings of the United Brethren as early as 1742, taking his first communion six years later. He was called to become a missionary in 1751, and was appointed to the Indian congregation at Gnadenhutten, Pa., ministering primarily to a congregation of Mahican converts who had settled there. Schmick taught reading and writing, and was particularly known for teaching singing and introducing the spinet and other instruments to the Indians. He continued in his missionary work almost to the time of his death in 1778. Schmick's Miscellanea linguae nationis Indicae Mahikan consists of two volumes (322pp.) of manuscript vocabulary and notes on the Mahican language recorded between about 1753 and 1767. It consists of words and phrases in Mahican, written phonologically, and translated into their German equivalents. The volumes have been edited, translated, and published by Carl Masthay as Schmick's Mahican Dictionary APS Memoir 197 (1991).

This item contains Jefferson's comparative vocabulary, based on his collection of vocabularies taken on printed forms; a second comparative vocabulary; and John Sibley's vocabulary of the Caddo language. This document was damaged in transit from the White House to Monticello in 1809 (see letters of Jefferson to Peter S. Du Ponceau, November 7, 1817, and April 26, 1816.)