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/mm79023945
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 A. W. Greely, explorer, United States Army officer, and author, were deposited in the Library of Congress by his daughter, Rose Greely, in 1959. The deposit was converted to a gift, 1959-1969, and further material was given by Rose Greely in 1962-1963. Other papers were given by A. W. Greely's daughter, Mrs. George H. Shedd, and a single item was added by purchase in 1970. Additional material was given by John Greely in 2004 and the Jane L. Barney Trust in 2012.
The papers of A. W. Greely were processed in 1961 by Allen H. Kitchens, Esther Coles, and Bessie Waters. The finding aid and collection were revised and expanded in 2010 by Melinda K. Friend and in 2022 by Pang H. Xiong. The finding aid was updated in 2024 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
The A. W. Greely Papers are mentioned in the Library's
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 and prints haves been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the A. W. Greely Papers. Patrons are encouraged to contact these divisions in advance of a research visit.
A large collection of A. W. Greely scrapbooks is held by the National Geographic Society.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of A. W. Greely in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of A. W. Greely 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, A. W. Greely Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Adolphus Washington Greely (1844-1935) span the years 1753-1997, with the bulk of the material dating from 1880 to 1935. The papers are organized into eleven series: Personal File; Family Correspondence; Letters to Henrietta Hudson Cruger (Nesmith) Greely; General Correspondence; Letterbooks; Military Papers; Article, Book, and Speech File; Miscellany; Scrapbooks; Additions; and Oversize.
Many facets of Greely's career are represented by this collection, including his service in the Civil War as a Union soldier; his leadership of the ill-fated Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, which reached farther north than any previous exploring party; his direction of the construction of thousands of miles of telegraph wire and cables in many parts of the world; his career in the Signal Corps and as chief signal officer in the army; the reorganization of the United States Weather Bureau; his command of the Pacific Division, Northern Division, and Department of the Columbia; his direction of relief work after the San Francisco, California, earthquake and fire of 1906; his role in the settlement of the Ute Campaign; and his retirement years from 1908-1935.
Over half the collection consists of Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, and Letterbooks. Scientific correspondence after 1877 includes letters on polar matters exchanged with Robert E. Peary and Roald Amundsen; on electrical-radio matters with Guglielmo Marconi, S. P. Langley, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas A. Edison; on the birth of aviation with S. P. Langley and William ("Billy") Mitchell; and on the government's role in science and in the development of Alaska with members of Congress and the cabinet.
Prominent among Greely's other correspondents were Henry T. Allen, Henry Biederbick, Edward William Bok, David L. Brainard, William E. Chandler, Frank Moore Colby, Maurice Connell, Jesse Walter Fewkes, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, Minnie L. Gardiner, William A. Glassford, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, William Babcock Hazen, Francis Long, George W. Melville, Charles Scribner, and William H. Taft. There is an interesting exchange of correspondence in May and June of 1890 between Greely and Theodore Roosevelt concerning the operation of the Civil Service Commission.
The Military Papers contain journals, reports, maps, scrapbooks, and other material related to the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition; the San Francisco, California, earthquake and fire; the laying of telegraph lines; and the Ute Campaign. Rounding out the series are Greely's orders for duty covering his army career from 1863. His Civil War diary from 1864 is in the Personal File.
The Article, Book, and Speech File contains bound volumes and loose materials of drafts and final copies of articles and speeches written by Greely while the book file includes a number of his published works. Included also is a draft of the unpublished "Around the World."
Of interest in the Miscellany series is the material collected on the Arctic including newspaper reports of other polar explorations and printed sketches; invitations and ephemera from events attended by Greely, especially the coronation of George V; biographical material; and a large number of newspaper articles mostly dealing with the San Francisco, California, earthquake and fire of 1906. The Scrapbooks are labeled by topics such as personal, miscellaneous clippings, coronation, places visited, foreigners met and known, and places in South America with overlapping dates. Scrapbooks of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition are in the Military Papers series.
Rounding out the collection is a small amount of correspondence to Henrietta Hudson
Cruger (Nesmith) Greely. Also of interest is a manuscript journal by the mate of the
schooner
Oversize contains an indenture, certificates and citations, coronation booklets, dedication booklet, and a broadside.
The collection includes additions. The 2010 Addition contains biographical material, family and general correspondence, diaries kept by Greely during and after his military career, clippings, printed matter, writings about the Arctic and the Greely and Nesmith families, and miscellany. The diaries kept by Henrietta Hudson Cruger (Nesmith) Greely documenting social events, the family, and the career of her husband are interleaved with correspondence, telegrams, drawings, memorabilia, and clippings. The 2022 Addition contains family correspondence from Greely to his daughter Adola Greely Adams. The letters primarily include updates about the family and social events with some mention of Greely's activities and work.
This collection is arranged in eleven series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79023945
Civil War diary, address books, calendars, and personal memoranda resembling daily entries or notes.
Arranged by type of material and chronologically therein.
Letters sent to and received from family members.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters received by Greely's wife.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged chronologically.
Bound volumes of copies of letters and telegrams sent by Greely or his office with each volume containing an index of correspondents.
Arranged chronologically by the date of the first item appearing in each volume and therein chronologically. Unbound material located in the last box of the series is arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, journals, orders, reports, memoranda, documents, charts, maps, scrapbooks, and printed matter.
Arranged by subject.
Bound and unbound manuscript, typescript, and printed copies of articles by Greely.
The volumes of articles overlap in date and are arranged chronologically using the earliest date in each volume. The unbound material is separated as follows: dated articles, 1889-1923; undated articles; lists of articles by Greely; and articles, 1914-1927, written for encyclopedias and year books including material on Alaska, Greenland, and Polar research. The unbound articles and related items are arranged chronologically.
Manuscript, typescript, galley proof, and some printed copies of books by Greely. Included are notes and a list of Greely's official publications.
Addresses, lectures, and speeches, bound and unbound.
Volumes are arranged chronologically using the earliest date in the volume. There are a few articles by Greely in the bound volumes. The unbound speeches are arranged chronologically.
Material on the Arctic; biographical material containing early family records; financial records; invitations, greeting and calling cards, announcements, and ephemera; maps; memorabilia; newspaper clippings, mostly concerning the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906; notes and memoranda; and printed matter.
Where possible the material is separated by type of material and arranged into well-defined groupings therein, and further arranged chronologically.
Scrapbooks on various topics.
Biographical material, diaries, family and general correspondence, clippings, writings, and printed matter.
Arranged in order of processing date and therein by type of material or name of person.
Indenture, certificates and citations, booklets, and a broadside.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.