Modern Manuscripts & Archives at the Newberry

The papers of San Francisco and Chicago journalist and drama critic Ashton Stevens contain correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues from the entertainment world; works including newspaper clippings, playscripts, articles, and interviews; personal materials including biographical information, memorabilia, and materials pertaining to the banjo; photographs of actors, actresses, family, friends and colleagues; artworks and audio recordings; and a small number of artifacts.

Notes and draft materials for writings on Native Americans, and Indian Claims Commission case documents and research reports, created by anthropologist Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin. Also field notebooks, photographs and correspondence.

Journals, essays, and memoirs written by British businessman Francis Tomes (1780-1869) and his son, American-born physician and author Robert Tomes (1817-1882).

Correspondence of Francis Trowbridge Sherman of Chicago, and his traveling companion, Henry A. Ballentine, documenting their travel overland to the California gold fields and experiences there, 1849-1850. Also photocopies of a few of Sherman's (colonel 88th Illinois Infantry) letters regarding the Civil War and his Chicago business, business and family correspondence of father F.C. Sherman, family records, and newspaper clippings.

Professional and some personal papers of Chicago and California designer and photographer, Gene Dekovic, who worked as a freelancer for most of his life. These files include professional papers relating to design and publishing ventures, and to a lesser extent his career as a photographer and author.

Letters, postcards, drafts of essays; all concerning the origin of the American point system invented by Nelson Crocker Hawks, on Hawks' career as an early California type founder, and on such other early California printing industry figures as W.F. Shattuck, Andrew Foreman, William Faulkner, and others.

Correspondence and papers of lawyer and civic leader Horace S. Oakley. Also photographs, memorabilia, writings, and materials relating to his work with The Orchestral Association in Chicago, the American Red Cross Commission to Macedonia, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

Material relating to the friendship between Clarence Darrow and journalist Mary Field Parton, which includes sixty-one of his letters to her, several other letters, short articles by Darrow, clippings, and photographs. Included are numerous transcripts of Darrow's letters, a biographical sketch of Parton, and excerpts from her journal that refer to Darrow, all done by Parton's daughter Margaret Parton (Hussey).

Fieldwork and correspondence of anthropologist-sociologist Murray L. Wax, primarily between 1962 and 1969. Also copies of published articles and unpublished papers by other anthropologists, newspaper clips, and serials pertaining to Native Americans; field notes of Rosalie Hankey (later Rosalie Wax) from Japanese relocation camp at Tule Lake, 1944-45.

Correspondence, writings, documents of Nathan Kendall and wife Abby J. Reed Kendall of Massachusetts, Indiana and Illinois, including many letters to each other before and after marriage in 1857, as well as numerous letters to and from members of their families, friends and former students. Some correspondence and documents concern travel to California begun in 1849.

Correspondence, dating mainly from 1849 to 1876, of California emigrant Samuel V. Tripp, addressed primarily to his mother and sister in Ohio, regarding his life in the Northern California gold region and later in Southern California.