Correspondence with Philadelphia institutions, from Accademia delle Scienze. Letters, principally of a formal character, from the APS, Academy of Natural Sciences, Wistar Institute, Wagner Free Institute of Science, and other learned societies and institutions; also a letter from John Vaughan to Prospero Balbo, 1832; with drafts of some replies.

This list was kept on Smith's travels in France and Switzerland, and includes notes by John Vaughan from whose scrapbook these sheets were removed in 1959.

The New Sweden Company was founded as a joint stock enterprise in 1637 including Swedish, Dutch, and German investors seeking to trade in American furs and tobacco. Centered at Fort Christina, near present day Wilmington, Delaware, the colony expanded up both sides of Delaware Bay and the Delaware Reiver to present day Philadelphia, but capitulated to the Dutch in 1655. This volume contains selected transcripts in Swedish and German of documents in Swedish archives relating to the settling and governance of the colony of New Sweden in Delaware and Pennsylvania, made at the expense of Jonathan Russel, United States minister to Sweden, 1820. The documents have all been translated into French, and were printed in Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 4 (1829), 177-8,200, 314-315, 373-374, 398-400; vol. 5, 14-15, 219-221. No. 27 was not printed. Bound in at the end of the volume is Ch. 5 of Per Lindeström, "Description de la nouvelle Suède et des Indes Occidentales, 1691."

David Hosack (1769-1835, APS 1810) was a physician and botanist active in medical education, as well as cultural life of New York City. Hosack founded Elgin Botanic Gardens, the first botanical gardens in America, co-founded the New York Historical Society and the short-lived Rutgers Medical School in New York City.

This volume includes receipts for payments of taxes, ground rents, rents, judgements, bills of exchange, and settlements of estates. Some are for monies collected for the American Philosophical Society, and for Major Zebulon Pike's expedition (1811). The names of Samuel Breck, James Mease, Robert Millegan, and John Vaughan appear. Under date of Feb. 11, 1804 is receipt signed by Jn. Vaughan for admission fee to the American Philosophical Society.

These letters are principally to his brother John Cleaves Short, on personal, family, and general topics.

This volume includes several printed and manuscript items related to the death of Caspar Wistar, in January 1818.

Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864, APS 1805) was a scientist and educator. As a professor of chemistry at Yale University from 1802 to 1853, and pioneering teacher of chemistry, mineralogy and geology, Silliman was largely responsible for the conversion of Yale College to Yale University, with strong medical and scientific departments.

The North Amercian Land Company ledger contains accounts with prominent men of the time; in additon to the ledger are numerous deeds and other documents involving Robert Morris.

In this volume Rush comments on persons and events of the time, mentioning Robert Walsh, John Vaughan, Lafayette, James Rush, Peter S. Du Ponceau, and William Currie. Rush also comments on the Franklin Institute, and the American Philosophical Society.

Correspondence of Joseph Priestley, scientist, Unitarian minister, and republican theorist. The collection includes 41 letters written to John Vaughan, 1791-1800, 5 letters to other correspondents, and manuscripts and photostats of 68 items in the Municipal Library, Warrington, England, on theological issues, the internal development of the United States, the French Revolution and its aftermath, Unitarianism, science, his publications, and American Philosophical Society.

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).

Transcripts and photocopies of Correia de Serra correspondence, made by Richard B. Davis for "The Abbé Correa in America," APS Transactions 45, 2 (1955). Seven mss. letters are also included.

This collection contains miscellaneous letters and papers relating to explorations of South America, Cuba, and Mexico; scientific investigations; Latin American antiquities and linguistics; and publications. There are also copies of 26 letters from Humboldt to Pierre Hyacinth Azais and Jules Berger de Xivrey, from originals at the Duke University Medical Center Library.

This collection of Robert Patterson family papers is composed primarily of the letters of Robert Maskell Patterson (1787-1854, APS 1809), but includes some of the business and personal papers of his father, Robert Patterson (1743-1824, APS 1783), and a series of letters written from Europe in 1855 by Helen Patterson Robins (1825-1919).

The Peale family is best known as a family of artists; however, family interests and activities were much more wide-ranging. The best known Peale is Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827, APS 1786), who produced more than one thousand paintings, including hundreds of portraits of leading Americans during the colonial and early national periods. Peale was married three times, to Rachel Brewster (1744-1790), Elizabeth de Peyster (1765-1804), and Hannah More (1755-1821). He had eighteen children, eleven of whom reached adulthood. Three of Charles Willson Peale's sons became artists: Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825), Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860), and Rubens Peale (1784-1865). A fourth son, Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885, APS 1833), was a naturalist (who made drawings on the exploring expeditions he accompanied) and pioneer in photography, and another son, Benjamin Franklin Peale (1795-1870), became a naturalist and paleontologist. Peale's daughter Sophonisba Angusciola was married to Coleman Sellers (1781-1834), an inventor and manufacturer of machinery, including locomotives. Two of their sons, George Escol Sellers (1808-1899) and Coleman Sellers (1827-1907, APS 1872), were inventors and engineers. The latter served as director of the construction of the hydro-electric power development at Niagara Falls. He was married to Cornelia Wells Sellers (1831-1909). One of their grandsons was Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980, APS 1979), a librarian and historian and the author of several studies of the Peale family, including a Charles Willson Peale biography.

Letters (including some transcripts and photostats) from and to Vaughan from many American and British correspondents, including: Also personal correspondence and business papers of Benjamin, Charles, Petty, Samuel Sr., Samuel Jr., William, William Oliver, and Sarah Vaughan (2 boxes); lectures, mostly in shorthand (3 vols.); a large number of notes and memoranda on a wide variety of topics, such as agriculture, architecture, astronomy, diplomacy, diseases, dueling, electricity, hieroglyphs, internal improvements, medicine, meteorology, land, manufactures, politics, punctuation, religion, silk-manufacturing, stock-breeding, taxation, Unitarianism, Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, Napoleon I, Joseph Priestley, Bowdoin College, town of Hallowell, Maine; notes on the peace negotiations, 1782-1783; miscellaneous legal papers; genealogy of the Abbott-Vaughan families. For a personal account of the collection, see Mrs. Mary Vaughan Marvin, "The Benjamin Vaughan Papers," APS Proceedings 95 (1951): 246-249.

A leading national opinion maker and influential regional politician, tied by marriage to the families of Benjamin Franklin and cognate families, William Duane (1760-1835) played key roles in the field of political journalism, as well as national, Pennsylvania and local Philadelphia politics. Editor of the Aurora, William Duane (1760-1835) assured himself gratitude from Jefferson and the Republicans and enmity from President Adams and the Federalists for his open and effective attacks on Federalist policies. His son William John Duane (1780-1865), was a prominent member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a legal advisor to Stephen Girard, Solicitor for many of Philadelphia's premier institutions, and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States (June-September 1833). The Duane Family Collection contains a diverse assemblage of personal and professional correspondence relating to family members, with interesting material relating to William Duane (1760-1835), his son, William John Duane (1780-1865), grandson William Duane (1808-1882), great-grandson Charles Williams Duane (1837-1915), and other relations. The collection includes unique correspondence from and relating to Benjamin Franklin's family, as well as correspondence with Thomas Jefferson and other leading figures from the early nineteenth century. The collection also includes prints, photographs of family members, as well as some maps.

A pioneer in ethnographic and linguistic studies of the American Indian and one of the most active members of the American Philosophical Society, Peter Stephen Du Ponceau helped to establish the American Philosophical Society's reputation as one of the world's foremost centers for the study of American Indians and their languages. The Peter Stephen Du Ponceau collection consists of correspondence on legal matters, Indian linguistics, silk culture, maritime law, the American Philosophical Society, and various publications of the early nineteenth century. The collection also includes several essays by Du Ponceau, most of which deal with maritime law.