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/mm2001084834
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 Denby family were given to the Library of Congress by Gilbert Wilkes in 2001 and 2002.
The papers of the Denby family were arranged and described by Laura J. Kells in 2002. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings by members of the Denby family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of the Denby 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, Denby Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of the Denby family span the years 1850-1911 and consist primarily of correspondence and related matter exchanged among family members. The bulk of the letters are between Charles Denby (1830-1904), a lawyer and minister to China, his wife Martha Fitch Denby (“Mattie”), and their children Graham, Charles, Harriet (“Hattie” and “Ethel”), Wythe, Edwin (“Ned”), and Thomas Garvin (“Garvin”). Charles Denby (1861-1938) was also a diplomat in China, and Edwin Denby served as a member of the United States Congress and as secretary of the navy. There are also letters from Martha’s mother, Harriet Satterlee Fitch (“Moo”) and her father Graham Newell Fitch, a doctor who served as United States senator from Indiana.
The major portion of the correspondence from the 1850s is between Charles Denby and Martha Fitch during their two-year engagement. The letters document their long-distance courtship. Charles was a young lawyer in Evansville, Indiana, struggling to make enough money to marry Martha. She was from Logansport, Indiana, and spent part of the time in Washington, D.C., while her father served in Congress.
During the Civil War Charles Denby wrote letters from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama while serving as lieutenant colonel in the Forty-Second Indiana Volunteers. Those from October 1862 describe the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, in which Denby was slightly injured and his horse killed. In late 1862, Denby was appointed colonel of the Eightieth Indiana Volunteers headquartered in Columbia, Kentucky. In addition to describing camp life and home life during this period, correspondence between Charles and Martha Denby indicates that she traveled to visit him while he was in camp in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as at Columbia. An undated account relates to Martha’s stay in the deserted mansion of Clement C. Clay in Huntsville, Alabama.
Correspondence from the mid 1860s through the 1870s records births, deaths, illnesses, and other activities of the growing Denby family, local and national events, and Charles Denby’s work as a lawyer. There are numerous letters from the Denbys’ son Charles (1861-1938) describing his life at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and from their daughter Harriet, who attended Hellmuth Ladies’ College in London, Ontario, Canada.
The Denby family resided in China from 1885 until 1905, starting when the elder Charles Denby was appointed minister to China. He held this post for thirteen years during which time some of the children returned to the United States. Martha Denby made the long trip between the United States and China several times to tend to family members. Son Charles (1861-1938) spent the longest time in China, working in diplomatic service and in business. Edwin Denby served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service for seven years and wrote letters from Macao, where he was stationed for part of this period. Letters from China describe the official, social, and domestic lives of the diplomatic community in Peking. The Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion are discussed in the correspondence. Lengthy letters between family members separated by great distances document efforts to the keep each other informed of events in their lives and indicate the emotional and financial problems caused by the slowness and unreliability of the mail.
The Spanish-American War is also treated in the correspondence. Son Edwin and
son-in-law Gilbert Wilkes served aboard the
Correspondence beginning in the 1890s documents the adult lives of the Denby children. Wythe Denby became a mining engineer in Utah, Arizona, and Alaska. In letters to his mother in 1904 and 1905, Edwin Denby gave accounts of his election to Congress and his early days in Washington. Charles Denby (1861-1938) wrote in 1905 and 1906 describing his work in the State Department. The last letters were written by Edwin Denby to his sister during his honeymoon trip in Europe. The bulk of the correspondence ends with the death of the parents, and subsequent periods of the careers of Edwin Denby and the younger Charles Denby are not documented.
This collection is arranged chronologically; undated material arranged alphabetically by correspondent.
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm2001084834