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: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82033415
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 Alfred Mordecai, United States Army officer, engineer, and ordnance expert, were purchased by the Library of Congress between 1941 and 1950. Additional material was given by Mrs. Leslie Ashburner in 1961 and by John D. Miley in 1999.
The papers of Alfred Mordecai were arranged and described in 1992. An addition of Mordecai’s letters to his sister, Rosa Mordecai Lazarus, was made to the collection in 2000. The papers were reprocessed at that time and the finding aid was revised in 2010.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division, photographs to the Prints and Photographs Division, and printed items to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Alfred Mordecai papers.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Alfred Mordecai is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Alfred Mordecai 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, Alfred Mordecai Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Alfred Mordecai (1804-1887) span the years 1790-1948 with the bulk of material dating between 1833 and 1887. The collection is organized in three series, Diaries , General Correspondence and Related Matter , and Miscellany , which document a lengthy military career that included Mordecai’s work on the development and organization of pre-Civil War weapons systems. Included in the papers are several diaries and journals kept by Mordecai during official trips to Europe and Mexico.
Athough the diaries vary in the amount of detail they provide, they document many aspects of his settlement of war claims in Mexico in 1853, his report on military tactics used in the Crimea War as a member of the United States Military Commission to Europe in 1855-1857, and his work as an engineer with the Imperial Mexican Railway in 1865-1866. More information on his travels, including his trip to Europe in 1840 to study weapons development and manufacture, can be found in letters to his wife and sister and other writings located in General Correspondence and Related Matter .
Mordecai’s personal and professional correspondence is mounted in two sets of bound volumes. Material in these volumes, which also includes drafts of writings, printed essays and addresses, assorted diagrams, news clippings, genealogy charts, maps, photographs, and marriage announcements, is arranged in approximate chronological order although there is some overlap between volumes. There is considerable chronological and subject overlap between the two sets. Mordecai’s correspondence consists chiefly of letters to his wife, Sara Anne Hays Mordecai, and to his sisters and daughters, and concerns personal family matters, though the papers also include some professional correspondence pertaining to his military and professional career. Prominent correspondents include Jefferson Davis, Miriam Gratz, Rebecca Gratz, Mary C. Longstreet, and Owen Wister.
The Miscellany series includes unbound calling cards, certificates, essays and addresses, genealogical material, greeting cards, maps, pamphlets, photographs, poems, postcards, and sermons.
This collection is arranged in three series:
Personal and business journals kept by Mordecai relating to personal and business trips to Europe and Mexico.
Arranged chronologically
Letters sent and received as well as certificates,diagrams, maps, and photographs.
Organized chronologically in two sets of bound volumes with a small amount of unbound family and miscellaneous correspondence organized at the end of the series.
Correspondence, calling cards, certificates, essays and addresses, genealogical research, greeting cards, maps, pamphlets, photographs, poems, postcards, and sermons.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.