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/mm79045997
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 James Harrison Wilson, soldier, railroad builder, and author, were given to the Library of Congress in 1946 by his daughter, May Wilson Thompson, via her cousin, Lucy Bender.
The papers of James Harrison Wilson were arranged and described in 1964. The finding aid was revised in 2011. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of James Harrison Wilson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the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 James Harrison Wilson 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, James Harrison Wilson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of James Harrison Wilson (1837-1925) span the years 1861-1923, with the bulk from the period 1890-1915. Included in the collection are correspondence, letterpress copy books, letterbooks, business papers, speeches, articles, books, newspaper clippings, a scrapbook, and poems by the sculptor James Edward Kelly. The collection is organized in five series: General Correspondence ; Letterpress Copy Books ; Letterbooks ; Book, Article, and Speech File ; and Subject File .
The General Correspondence series forms the bulk of the collection, documenting a portion of Wilson's life and dealing with subjects such as the Civil War, railroad affairs, politics, foreign policy, the Spanish-American War, Cuban affairs, and the China Relief Expedition of 1900. A large amount of the correspondence deals with Wilson's writings and business ventures.
Much of the correspondence is with political figures and military officers. Correspondents include Charles Francis Adams, Adam Badeau, Simeon E. Baldwin, Tasker Howard Bliss, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clark Corbin, E. H. Crowder, Shelby M. Cullom, Charles A. Dana, Grenville Mellen Dodge, Stuyvesant Fish, Hamlin Garland, Frederick John Kingsbury, Robert Todd Lincoln, Henry Cabot Lodge, William McKinley, John Bassett Moore, George Haven Putnam, Whitelaw Reid, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Francis Lynde Stetson, Moorfield Storey, Oswald Garrison Villard, Paul M. Warburg, Horace White, and John Russell Young. An especially large amount of personal and business correspondence is with Edward Francis Winslow, Wilson's comrade-in-arms and business associate on railway construction and operations of the St. Louis and Southeastern Railway Company.
In the Book, Article, and Speech File are drafts and typescripts of a number of Wilson's writings, including his
The collection is arranged in five series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79045997
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization.
Letter press copy books of correspondence dealing mainly with Wilson's railroad ventures. Three of the books contain copies of letters to Edward F. Winslow. Two volumes contain letters by Winslow and other officials of the St. Louis and Southeastern Railway. Some of the volumes contain incomplete indexes.
Carbon copy letterbooks, with indexes, of personal, private, and semi-official
letters. Additional carbons of some of the same letters are filed in the
Handwritten and typewritten notes and copies of speeches, articles, books; also galley proof of
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, tabulations, newspaper clippings and printed items, and poems by the sculptor James Edward Kelly.
Organized by subject.