Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79020099
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of the Thomas Ewing family were given to the Library by members of the Ewing family between 1908 and 1978. Additional items were purchased between 1906 and 1998.
The papers were arranged and described in 1965 by Daniel Gilham. Additional material was incorporated into the collection in 1979 by Allan Teichroew and by Margaret McAleer in 1996 and 2005 .
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs and other pictorial material have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Some pamphlets and newspaper clippings have been transferred to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Ewing Family Papers.
Other papers of the Thomas Ewing family are in the Manuscript Division's Charles Ewing Family Papers at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011215. The Library also has microfilm copies of the Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) Papers at Notre Dame University and the Thomas Ewing (1829-1896) Papers at the Kansas State Historical Society.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Ewing family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of the Thomas Ewing family are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Thomas Ewing Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The Thomas Ewing Family Papers span the years 1757-1941, with the bulk of the material dating from 1815 to 1896. The collection contains original and transcribed correspondence, letterbooks, telegrams, autographs, diaries, journals, legal files, military records, drafts and printed copies of speeches, lectures, articles, essays, books, poems, and reports, as well as notes, scrapbooks, biographical material, college lecture notes, commonplace books, financial records, genealogies, photographs, printed matter, and maps. The papers are arranged in thirteen series: General Correspondence; Special Correspondence; Transcribed Correspondence; Letterbooks; Diaries, Journals, and Related Material; Legal File; Military Records; Speech, Article, and Book File; Subject File; Scrapbooks; Miscellany; Addition; and Oversize.
Included in the collection are papers of several generations of the Ewing family, including Thomas Ewing (1789-1871), senator from Ohio and cabinet member under William H. Harrison, John Tyler, and Zachary Taylor; Thomas Ewing (1829-1896), Union general during the Civil War and congressman from Ohio; Ellen Ewing Sherman and her husband, William T. Sherman, Civil War general; and Thomas Ewing (1862-1942), lawyer, writer, and United States commissioner of patents.
The collection documents various aspects of American political, economic, and social life, including westward expansion and frontier life, the disposal of public lands and land speculation, the practice of law in Ohio, local Ohio and national Whig politics, anti-Jacksonianism and the Bank of the United States, the organization of the Department of the Interior, the California gold rush, the rise of the Republican Party and sectionalism, Kansas statehood, the Peace Convention of 1861, the Civil War in Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the currency question and Greenback movement, the Ohio centennial, and the development and administration of patent law from 1913 to 1917.
Prominent correspondents include Philemon Beecher, Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844), James Gillespie Blaine, Orville Hickman Browning, Henry Clay, Thomas Corwin, John J. Crittenden, Charles B. Goddard, Horace Greeley, William Henry Harrison, Britton Armstrong Hill, Hocking H. Hunter, Reverdy Johnson, Abbott Lawrence, Abraham Lincoln, John McLean (1785-1861), Richard Olney, Thomas Collier Platt, S. C. Pomeroy, William S. Rosecrans, William Henry Seward, John Sherman, William T. Sherman, Henry Stanbery, Noah Haynes Swayne, Allen Granbery Thurman, John Tyler, Samuel Finley Vinton, and Daniel Webster. A card file summarizing the contents of correspondence is available in the Manuscript Division reading room.
The collection is arranged in thirteen series:
Letters sent and received.
Arranged as bound and unbound letters and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence to and from members of the extended Ewing family, including Ellen Ewing Sherman and William T. Sherman.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member.
Also includes an autograph collection containing letters, receipts, a deposition, and a commission.
Arranged alphabetically by name of individual or type of material.
Handwritten and typed copies of Ewing family letters from this and other collections. Transcribed by Thomas Ewing (1862-1942) and William Cox Ewing. Letters to and from Thomas Ewing (1789-1871) predominate.
Arranged chronologically and thereunder by name of correspondent.
Letterpress copybooks and letterbooks containing copies of letters sent and received.
Arranged by name of correspondent and thereunder chronologically.
Diaries, journals, and related material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of writer and thereunder chronologically.
Legal papers.
Arranged chronologically by decade.
Correspondence, orders, reports, rosters, historical accounts, and reminiscences.
Arranged by subject or type of material.
Handwritten, typewritten, and printed copies of speeches, addresses, lectures, articles, essays, public letters, briefs, books, and poems.
Arranged by type of material.
Correspondence, financial and legal records, reports, notes, drawings, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically therein.
Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other items.
Arranged chronologically by earliest date in each volume.
Biographical material, college lecture notes, commonplace books, financial records, genealogies, notes, notebooks, photographs, and printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Correspondence consisting primarily of letters written to Thomas Ewing (1789-1871).
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.
Oversize material consisting of correspondence, autobiographies, commissions, certificates, diplomas, genealogical charts, a floor plan, maps, and photographs.
Organized and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.