Lyman Family Papers

Consisting primarily of correspondence from four members of the Lyman family -- Benjamin Smith Lyman, his uncle Joseph (1812-1871), and his cousins Joseph (1851-1883) and Frank Lyman Sr.-- the series offers an interesting view into the lives of upper middle class Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century. The letters touch on a variety of topics, from social and family life to personal finances, education and work life, European travel, the Civil War, and politics, with a particularly rich focus on the antislavery struggle and efforts to encourage Free State settlers in Kansas.

The bulk of the antislavery content is located in two places. First, Samuel F. Lyman's letters to his brother Joseph are filled with rich discussion of politics during the early 1850s, the elections and Whig and Free Soil politics, the annexation of Cuba, the influence of the Fugitive Slave Act in dividing George Simmons' flock in Springfield and driving him from the pulpit, and related issues of the day. In a typical letter (Aug. 7, 1851), Samuel writes about his comrade, David Lee Child:

Second, there are nearly 800 pages of correspondence relating to the Kansas Land Trust which were originally bound into a letterbook kept by the Trust's Treasurer, Joseph Lyman. Formed in 1856, the Land Trust was an investment arm of the New England Emigrant Aid Company that raised funds for the purchase of lands in the Delaware Indian Trust tract along the Missouri River for re-sale to Free State settlers. Driven both by antislavery sentiment and the promise of profit, the Trust helped settle the town of Quindaro, now absorbed within the limits of Kansas City, as a center for emigrants, but their operation proved to be short-lived. The financial panic of 1857 brought an effective end to its activities.

The Land Trust correspondence, all in-coming, spans nearly the entire history of the company and includes noted figures in the struggle such as Charles L. Robinson, Gerrit Smith, Sarah Pellett, Amos A. Lawrence, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. While much of the content relates to mundane matters such as advertising and inquiries about investment or emigration, there are occasional oddities as well -- such as the letter and broadside from Charles W. Eldridge offering prefabricated wooden houses for sale, suitable for settlers in new western lands -- and several letters that call out the underlying political and moral struggle. In a letter shortly after the Trust was formed (Oct. 29, 1856), Charles Hale writes about the realities of publicizing the antislavery aims of the endeavor:

Samuel C. Smith (July 23, 1857) writes from Quindaro to describes the impact of the mass emigration on the region:

Lyman provided a name index to the letterbook, with each letter assigned a number sequentially as it arrived. Not every number, however, is represented by a letter, suggesting either that some letters were never retained (or were retained elsewhere) or were separated from the letterbook prior to donation.

The series also includes three diaries of Benjamin Smith Lyman's. Two of these, labeled "Cross section book," record his daily routines, while the third is a diary that includes to-do lists, accounting information, detailed daily happenings, and thoughts. Although no year is specified in either volume 280 or 292, Lyman's diary 278 (in the Benjamin Smith Lyman Papers) is recorded as 1908, while volume 292 contains a reference to his cookbook, which was published in 1917. Also included in the collection is a diary kept by the younger Joseph Lyman (1851-1883), dated 1859, documenting a tour of Europe. Each day, Lyman noted his location and noteworthy events and encounters.

The photographs depict three generations of the Lyman family, centering on Edward Hutchinson Robbins Lyman (1819-1899), his wives, children, and grandchildren. Although mostly portraits, the images reflect the family's elevated social standing and close family bonds. Among the more notable images are a handsome early view of the First Congregational Church in Northampton, three images of the Harvard dorm rooms of Joseph (1873) and Frank (1874) Lyman, a large number of charming turn-of-the-century images of infants and their mothers, and a handsome amateur watercolor painting of the Lyman family pet parrot. The parrot is not named. The collection also includes a handful of images from earlier generations of the Lyman family (mostly photographs of painted portraits) and a small number of images from the family of Samuel Fowler Lyman, father of Benjamin Smith Lyman.

The series is noteworthy for containing a number of striking images taken by the photographer Katherine E. McClellan in the period 1905-1915. An 1882 graduate of Smith College, McClellan returned to Northampton in 1903, becoming the "official" photographer for her alma mater until her retirement in 1918. The beautifully-composed portraits of hers in this collection are delicately toned silver prints displaying a notable Pictorialist influence. Upon retiring, McClellan sold her studio to her long-time collaborator, Eric Stahlberg, who is represented in this collection by a wonderful wedding album put together in 1945 for Hannah C. Lyman and her new husband Roland Blenner-Hassett.