SISTERS IN CRIME.
Records, 1979-1999 (bulk 1988-1999).
7 cubic ft. (6 cartons, 3 boxes and 1 oversize folder).
Organized formally in 1987 "to combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, educate publishers and the general public as to inequities in the treatment of female authors, raise awareness of their contribution to the field, and promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries"; incorporated in 1990; includes as members authors, booksellers, editors, agents, librarians, critics, teachers and readers; organized in part into local chapters whose members are also members of the national organization; meets twice a year in the spring and fall; among its activities, has conducted surveys of book reviews in its field (to document gender inequity), has published a newsletter (since 1988), has created how-to and promotional publications for its members (including a Sisters in Crime Books-In-Print catalog), has exhibited at conventions of booksellers and librarians, has organized a speakers bureau, has sponsored special interest groups within its membership, has organized special events (such as retreats for writers), has sponsored group ads in Publisher's Weekly and has created a website.
By-laws, 1989-1997; minutes, 1991-1997; annual financial reports, 1991-1996; publications, 1988-1998; photographs, 1989-1998; videotape recordings, 1995-1997; memorabilia, 1991-1998; and records of successive presidents, 1979(1989)-(1997)1998, which sometimes also include records from terms of service in other Sisters in Crime offices.
Additional Sisters in Crime records, which document the role played by the organization's founder and first president, are available in the Sara Paretsky papers at the Newberry Library.
SMITH, Rescarrick Moore, 1804-1865.
Papers, 1759-1910.
ca. 4 cubic ft.
Businessman and N.J. state treasurer, of Hightstown, N.J.
Included among Smith's papers are correspondence, 1843-1872, of (his sister?) Sarah B. Smith, a diary of his sister Anna Maria Smith (b. 1811), papers, 1847-1879, of his daughter Mary Elizabeth Moore Smith and a variety of miscellaneous items.
The two volume diary, May 1827-Dec. 31, 1851, of Anna Maria Smith contains information on a prolonged but unhappy love affair; however, her main preoccupations were religious anxieties and death. The diarist lived in the Smith family homestead and then later with relatives and others (chiefly in present-day Mercer County, N.J.), either as a working guest or an employee.
Among the papers of Mary Elizabeth Moore Smith are various essays (at least some of them original school exercises), including a short item entitled "Female Virtues" which is included in a thin notebook. Also among her papers is the draft of a letter (in Smith's handwriting) from Mary Garvey, a servant employed by Rescarrick M. Smith, to her mother in Ireland. This letter relates something of the girl's current situation, her hope that her mother will be able to come to the U.S. and her advice regarding such a journey.
Included among the miscellaneous items is an unsigned verse beginning: "The melancholy days have come, the saddest of the year," which describes a fall housecleaning. The verse is a fair copy and may derive from a printed (but uncredited) source.
SOMERSET BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S CLUB OF SOMERVILLE, N.J.
Records, 1948-1997.
3 cubic ft.
Organized in 1948 at Somerville, N.J., by business and professional women in Somerset County, and chartered the same year; incorporated in 1969; voted in 1996 to dissolve itself; filed a certificate of dissolution in 1997. Despite having a longer official name, the club was known informally (especially prior to 1974) as the Somerset Business and Professional Women's Club.
Articles of incorporation and dissolution, by-laws, lists of members and officers (including member handbooks), meeting notices, agendas and minutes, reports of delegates to the state board, annual reports, newsletters, dinner programs, certificates and proclamations, financial documents, scrapbooks (containing photographs and press clippings), scholarship files and other records.
SOMERSET COUNTY (N.J.). PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE.
Records of the Hall-Mills murder investigation, 1922-1962 (bulk 1922-1926).
ca. .86 cubic ft.
Photocopies.
Hall-Mills murder case: Criminal case concerning the 1922 double murders of the Rev. Edward Wheeler Hall (b. 1881), rector of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, New Brunswick, N.J., and his parishioner Eleanor Reinhardt Mills (b. 1887 or 8), whose bodies were found just outside of New Brunswick in Franklin Township, Somerset County, N.J. Subsequent publicity revealed that Hall and Mills, both married, had been involved in an extramarital affair that had scandalized area residents. Although no indictments were returned in 1922, eventually – following substantial newspaper publicity – Frances (Stevens) Hall (Edward Hall's spouse), her two brothers and a cousin were arrested in 1926. Among the witnesses at the 1926 Somerville, N.J., trial of three of the defendants for the murder of Eleanor Mills was Jane Gibson, dubbed the "Pig Woman" by the press because she raised pigs on her farm. At the conclusion of the trial, the three defendants were found not guilty and the remaining charges against all four of those arrested for the murders were dropped. The case was never officially solved. (Note: In later years, the home of Frances Hall was acquired by Rutgers University and used as the residence for the Dean of Douglass College.)
Correspondence, photographs, autopsy reports, selected evidence, newspaper clippings and other records. Included among the evidence is an annotated 1922 calendar kept by Jane Gibson and letters, 1923-1926, sent by Frances Hall to her brother Henry Stevens (including several posted from Italy).
SOROPTIMIST CLUB OF CAMDEN COUNTY.
Records, 1949-1964.
.33 cubic ft. (1 box).
First Soroptimist club in N.J.; organized in 1930 through the sponsorship of the club in Philadelphia; listed its boundaries in 1949 as the city of Camden and surrounding area of 22 miles in the state of N.J., but changed its boundaries in 1951 to match those of Camden County; drew its membership (by invitation) from women professionals and women engaged in the management of a business or a governmental agency; supported a variety of community projects and organizations (including several relating to health care), participated in homefront activities during World War II and (in the years before government money became available) sponsored scholarship loans for young women seeking to study to become teachers or nurses.
Minutes, June 1949-January 1964, including agendas, reports, correspondence and other supporting documentation. Persons mentioned in the minutes include Hazel B. Hackett.
SPALDING, Clarissa D., d. 1860.
Register of students, 1851-1861.
1 v.
Resident of Elizabeth, N.J.; conducted a school for girls on Jersey Street in a house formerly occupied by Jonathan Dayton.
Register of students, 1851-1861, including each student's name and the date when she entered. Some entries also include the date when a student left the school (or was married or died). The register also includes several unrelated newspaper clippings, 1887-1888 and undated.
"N.D.R." appears in gilt on the volume's front cover.
The reason for the register's attribution to Spalding is not clear from the manuscript.
SPITZER, Albert, 1908-1986.
Albert and Freda Spitzer World War II correspondence, 1943-1947 (bulk 1944-1945).
.8 cubic ft. (2 boxes).
Albert Spitzer (1908-1986), a lawyer and local judge, and his spouse Freda Spitzer (1912-1995), a homemaker, resided in Lakewood, N.J., following World War II.
Approximately 550 letters (some with enclosures), September 1944-October 1945, exchanged by Freda Spitzer and her husband, a major on the staff of the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army's 9th Armored Division serving in Europe, together with a summary (written by Freda Spitzer) of the couple's travels and activities, 1941-1943, after Albert Spitzer had decided to join the army and a few letters, 1943-1944 and 1947, written to Albert Spitzer's mother by her children.
Albert Spitzer's war letters give details of his daily life and activities, his longing for home and his plans and ambitions for postwar life. He includes details of the sights and events of the war as he progresses through Western Europe and some insight into his administrative work.
Freda Spitzer's letters to her husband record, often in great detail, her day-to-day experiences settling into a new house in Lakewood, N.J., while also caring for herself, the couple's young son and their dog, plus preparing for the birth of another child. She also comments on war news and the couple's relationship, including her husband's written expressions of love (which she sees as quite unlike his reserved nature at home). At least one of her letters is missing from the period immediately following the traumatic loss (in February 1944) of the child she was carrying, an event which also affected her health. In mid-1945 her letters pertain to a move to a different, newly-purchased house in the same neighborhood. In a later letter, responding to an observation made by her husband, she reflects upon her experiences during the couple's year apart, suggesting that the time has provided her with ample proof that she is capable and that she's done "more than most women ever do."
Finding aid available.
STANFORD, Thomas Naylor, 1796-1865.
Papers, 1773-1860 (bulk 1810-1860).
ca. .75 cubic ft. (1 manuscript box and 4 v.).
Thomas Naylor Stanford: Publisher and bookseller, of New York City; was the son of the Rev. John Stanford (1754-1834), a Baptist preacher who (until 1813) conducted an academy and (beginning in 1807) ministered to persons confined in New York City's public institutions- -the alms house, prisons, orphanage, lunatic asylum and hospitals.
Diana Sillick: born Diana Richards, a slave, at New Utrecht in present-day Brooklyn, New York City; was purchased by a resident of Manhattan who later set her free; married Charles Syllick or Sillick (d. 1815) and had a daughter; in 1816, as part of a scheme concocted by a man who said that he wished to marry her, took arsenic while intoxicated and may have also given arsenic to two children (including her daughter) who died; was convicted of murder; never recovered her health after taking arsenic and, after a one year reprieve of her death sentence (during which it was expected that she would die in prison), had her sentence commuted by the state legislature to one of perpetual confinement; died in prison in New York City in 1822.
Letters received and other papers of Stanford and various relatives. Included among other materials in two folders of papers of the Rev. John Stanford are approximately eight items relating to Diana Sillick, a free woman of color who was imprisoned for murder. An 1818 letter from "Dianna Syllic" to Sarah Stanford, the daughter of the Rev. John Stanford, comments on Sillick's confinement, her status as a converted Christian and her desire to be visited. Two versions (draft and fair copies) of an unsigned 1818 appeal to members of the state legislature request that the sentence of "Diana Sellick," previously delayed for one year due to her ill health, be commuted to life in prison for the same reason. An 1822 letter from "Diana Sillick" to the Rev. Stanford states that she has not seen her mother or her sister in four months, that she desires an appeal to be made to the legislature for her liberty and that the conditions of her confinement remain unpleasant. A brief note about "D.S." lists her age as about 25 years and describes her physical state, including her disability. Also present are three similar versions of a short narrative of the life of "Diana Syllick." One version (intended for delivery to women prisoners?) mentions the date of Sillick's death, includes reflections on the same and contains inserted notes for a sermon or publication.
Publication (not examined, hence possibly not relevant): Stanford, John. The Converted Negro (Religious Tract Society of Baltimore, [1822]). A quotation from this four-page publication describes it as: "Case of a converted Negro in the State Prison of New-York."
STILL, Peter, b. 1801.
Papers, 1850-1875.
57 items (1 envelope).
African-American resident of Burlington, N.J.; was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child; labored for over four decades as a slave in Kentucky and then Alabama; accumulated sufficient funds to purchase his freedom; subsequently engaged in a successful fundraising campaign in the North, so as to procure the freedom of his spouse and children.
Letters received, 1850-1875, chiefly relating to Still's campaign to free his spouse, Vina Still, and children; memo book, 1853-1854, recording funds collected; and a Still family record.
Persons represented in the correspondence include Harriet Beecher Stowe (1 letter : 1852) and Kate E.R. Pickard (ca. 11 letters : 1852-1857). Stowe's letter is in the form of a statement of support that reads in part: "Having examined the claims of this unfortunate man I am satisfied that his is a case that calls for compasssion & aid." Pickard's earliest letter, written from her home in Camillus, New York, in 1852, is addressed to a Syracuse minister who assisted Still's cause. In it, she tells of knowing Peter Still in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and of his situation and activities there. Pickard's other letters are addressed to Still and primarily relate to the preparation and sale of a narrative of the Still family's experiences. This volume, written by Pickard, was issued as The Kidnapped and the Ransomed (1856).
Publication (Stowe's letter): Pickard, Kate E.R. The Kidnapped and the Ransomed (1856), p. 322.
STOKES, Helen Louisa Phelps, 1846-1930.
Diary, 1883 Jan. 1-1884 Dec. 31.
1 v. (226 pages).
Typescript copy with illustrations.
Homemaker and philanthropist; born Helen Louisa Phelps; married her second cousin Anson Phelps Stokes (1838-1913), a New York City banker and financier; had at least nine children; founded the Grace Home for Children (located on Staten Island) and supported charitable work of various kinds.
Diary containing full entries about social activities, Stokes' household and vacation camping trips. The entries regarding the household include information about servants, visits to the family's second home (at New Brighton on Staten Island) and the care received by Stokes' children during various illnesses.
STRONG, Alan H. (Alan Hartwell), 1856-1925.
Papers, ca. 1800-1931.
10.1 cubic ft. (1 carton and 25 boxes).
Lawyer; resided in New Brunswick, N.J.; married Susan de Lancey Cullen Van Rensselaer (1851-1931) in 1893; moved to Philadelphia in 1912; maintained a summer home at Ortley, N.J.
Papers of Strong, among which are correspondence, bills, a diary and other papers of his spouse Susan (Van Rensselaer) Strong, as well as a diary of her mother Cornelia Josepha (Codwise) Van Rensselaer (1810-1890) who was married to John Cullen Van Rensselaer (1812-1889).
Entries in the diary, 1879-1928 (with gaps), of Susan (Van Rensselaer) Strong were recorded irregularly, although some entries are quite detailed (including those describing a trip to Bermuda in early 1886). The diary reveals that she was active socially and in historical and hereditary society work.
The diary, January 1-December 31, 1889, of Cornelia Van Rensselaer was kept at New Brunswick and contains brief entries, often concerned with expenditures or details about servants, included among informal personal and household accounts.
Advance notice required to consult this collection.
SUYDAM, Mildred Voorhees, 1895-1978.
Papers, ca. 1963-1978.
1 box, 1 v. and 3 envelopes.
Resident of Middlesex County, N.J.; born Mildred DeMott Voorhees; married Lawrence H. Suydam; worked at one time as a bank teller.
Correspondence and other papers, 1963, concerning the fiftieth reunion of the New Brunswick High School class of 1913; photographs of cemeteries in the vicinity of New Brunswick, N.J.; a scrapbook of death notices and obituaries, 1969-1978, clipped from the New Brunswick Home News; and miscellaneous genealogical materials.
SYMINGTON, John Alexander, collector.
Collection, 1622-1937 (bulk 1887-1933).
ca. 25 cubic ft.
Collection incorporating literary and other manuscripts focused primarily on Charles Swinburne and his circle, an autograph collection of notable residents of Great Britain, letters received by Thomas J. Wise and transcribed correspondence and reference materials concerning British literary figures.
Included in the Symington collection is a volume, assembled by T. Crofton Croker, which pertains to Laetitia Elizabeth Landon, also known as L.E.L. The volume consists primarily of 83 letters, 1827-1838, from Landon to Croker (which relate to her literary activity), manuscripts of poems (some in Landon's hand) and a related proof. Among the other women represented in the Symington collection by original manuscripts are: Lady Katherine Bell (1 letter, [1819]), Elizabeth C. Gaskell (5 letters, 1859 and undated
), Violet Hunt (26 letters, 2 postcards and 1 telegram, 1923-1924 and undated, including many sent to T.J. Wise), Harriet Martineau (7 letters, 1832-[1863] and undated, including a short item which pertains to women's rights), May Morris (4 letters and 1 telegram, 1916 and 1931-1932, most sent to T.J. Wise), Christina Rossetti (4 letters, [1870], [1877] and undated) and Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2 poems and 6 letters, 1876 and 1880-1881, sent from various locations in Wisconsin and including a description of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876 and related travel). Also present are research materials of W.T. Freemantle pertaining to the life of Elizabeth Siddall.
-T-
TATUM, Sibyl.
Account of journey of Sibyl Tatum with her parents from N. Jersey to Ohio in 1830 : travel narrative, 1830.
1 v. (16 leaves).
Quaker resident of Woodbury, N.J., who removed to Ohio in 1830 in the company of various relatives.
Travel narrative recording Tatum's journey across N.J. to New York City and from thence by steamboat up the Hudson River to Albany, where she and her party then switched to a canal boat for a journey via the Erie Canal to Buffalo where they transferred to a steamboat which dropped them off in Sandusky two weeks after they had left N.J.
Mimeographed copy of a typed transcript also available.
TEMPLE BETH EL (Rutherford, N.J.). SISTERHOOD.
Records, 1953-1977.
13 folders.
Membership lists, 1970/71-1971/72; membership committee files, 1953-1972 (with gaps); account books, 1955-1957 and 1961-1962; an undated photograph; and congregation calendars, 1974/75-1977/78, prepared by the Sisterhood.
Forms part of a larger collection of the Temple's records.
TEMPLE NEVE SHALOM (Metuchen, N.J.). SISTERHOOD.
Records, 1973-1982.
2 folders.
Membership lists, 1973-1982, accompanied by a 1977 award from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Forms part of a larger collection of the Temple's records.
TEN EYCK, Margaret, 1766-1850.
Diary, 1834-1844 (bulk 1837-1844).
1 v. (24 pages).
Seamstress, of North Branch, N.J.; lived variously with relatives and customers.
Diary containing brief entries concerning visits, finances and sewing and quilting work.
In: Ten Eyck Family Papers.
TERHUNE, Henry S. (Henry Stafford), ca. 1859-1942.
Letters received, 1878-1883 (bulk 1879-1882).
ca. 34 items (1 envelope).
Lawyer and state legislator, of Long Branch, N.J.; was graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1882 and from the Columbia University School of Law in 1885.
Letters, June 15, 1879-August 21, 1882 (and March 21, 1883), received by Terhune while he was a student at the College of New Jersey in Princeton, N.J. Most of the letters were sent from Matawan, N.J., by members of his family, including his father (William), mother (Margaret L.) and sister (Margaret). Also included are three letters (1879) written by Terhune's uncle, Henry Stafford Little, and two letters (1878 and 1879) received by Little.
TERRADELL FAMILY.
Papers, 1873-1983 (bulk 1911-1976).
ca. 2.6 cubic ft. (4 boxes and 5 oversize boxes).
Residents of Mercer County, N.J.: Emma Loretta (Leigh) Terradell (1856-1920) and her spouse Thomas M. Terradell (1852-1928), both of Trenton, N.J., and their children, especially three of their daughters: Eleanor C. (1882-1962), wife of Elliott F. Shepard (d. 1927), who lived in Miami Beach and summered in Lawrenceville, N.J.; (Emma) Loretta (1889-1972), wife of Gelston Bailey Morris (d. 1933), who owned homes in Briarcliff, New York (sold in 1946), and Miami Beach, but lived at least part of the year in Princeton, N.J.; and (Streline) Mercedes (1899-1983), wife of Jean Labatut (b. 1899), who resided in Princeton.
Correspondence, a wartime journal, genealogies (including family Bible records) and biographical data, notes, certificates, press clippings, a scrapbook, several items of verse, photographs (some in albums), printed ephemera, sketches and drawings, estate documents and miscellaneous other papers.
Among the papers of Eleanor Shepard are a corrected typescript and a 1922 printed version of her essay "Veiled Women in Fascinating Algeria," a typescript (3 p.) relating to her summer home (the "Old Davis House") in Lawrenceville and photographs, including views of her homes and of a boar hunt in France.
Among the papers of Loretta Morris is a journal, December 28, 1917-September 18, 1918, and October 17-18, 1918, which she kept while traveling to and from France and while assisting soldiers as a nurse at the Elliott F. Shepard Convalescent Hospital (a converted chateau) in Chantilly during World War I. The journal includes information on her social life, war news and her nursing activities. Morris' papers also include photographs, among which are a wedding album, views of her homes and an album with images from a 1918 trip to Algeria and Tunisia. An inventory of her estate is also present.
Among the papers of Mercedes Labatut are letters, 1916-1922 and undated, from her then fiancé, from a doctor and from various soldiers, most of which she received while in France during World War I. Also included among her papers are undated notes for lectures on her wartime experiences and notes, 1913-1914, on teaching kindergarten.
Some items, chiefly selected letters received by Mercedes Labatut, in French.
Finding aid available.
THOMAS, Ada R.
Certificates, 1893-1894.
2 items (1 folder).
Physician.
Diploma, 1893, received from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania and certificate, 1894, received from the Philadelphia Hospital. The latter certificate attests to Thomas' service (1893-1894) as a resident physician.
THOMSON, Sarah.
Vacation journal, 1809 June 22-Aug. 29.
1 item (10 pages).
Typed transcript.
Resident of Philadelphia?
Vacation journal in which Thomson, evidently still a young woman, describes daily social activities during a visit she made with her mother and brother to the family of Judge Ebenezer Tucker in Tuckerton, N.J.
TRAVELERS' CLUB (New Brunswick, N.J.)
Records, 1916-1946.
.4 cubic ft. (1 box).
Women's organization founded in 1890.
Papers on historical, geographical and other topics read at the Club's meetings. The papers are based on research, not personal experience. One paper, presented by Elizabeth S. Davis in 1928, concerns N.J. women during the American Revolution.
TRENTON SOCIETY FOR ORGANIZING CHARITY (N.J.)
Ledger, 1883-1898.
1 v.
Organized as the Trenton Charitable Society in 1878; adopted the name Trenton Society for Organizing Charity in 1882.
Ledger, 1883-1898, and list of donors and cash donations (grouped by collector), 1883-1885. Accounts recorded in the ledger include books and stationery, clothing and bedding, fuel, furniture, printing, profit and loss, rent, salary, shoes, etc.
TREVETT, Rebecca Angeline Clark, b. 1832.
Diary, 1887 June 1-1890 Dec. 31.
1 v.
Resident of Prospect, Maine; born Rebecca Angeline Clark; married Sewell S. Trevett.
Diary in which Trevett describes farm activities, family and neighborhood social events and the weather. Her son Cyrus Trevett (b. 1858) had earlier kept a diary, January 1, 1879-June 5, 1880, and May 4-7, 1881, in the same volume.
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