Correspondence - Index listing names and letterpress copybook page numbers, May 1906-Jan. 1907

File — Box: 1, Folder: 3

Staff Only

Scope and Content of the Collection

From the Collection: Correspondence, both business and personal, account books, and trusteeship documents of Frederick W. Clark, 1857-1916.

The entire collection consists of bound volumes, including letterpress copybooks with handwritten indexes. Almost all of the correspondence is handwritten.

Handwritten cash books and journals containing credit and debit accounts give a good indication of contemporary prices for building supplies and labor. Together with the correspondence, they depict the myriad types of transactions needed in order to manage a construction company with solicitations and bids for incoming work as well as a continual supply of materials needed to complete a project. There is also a bound volume of handwritten account information pertaining to the Trusteeship noted in the Biography section, above. At the front and back of this volume are typewritten documents pertaining to the matter.

Two of the volumes (for 1899-1904 and 1908-1910) have much human interest—from comments on the court case against Caroline Patterson and its effect on the family; to letters concerning Mr. Clark’s travels—especially to the Panama Canal Zone; purchases of what were then luxury foods—oranges, grapefruits, and premium quality coffees, and a “Victoria talking machine”; and letters to Vassar College administrators concerning his daughter’s unhappiness with her rambunctious roommate.