Here's a message on the Draper Manuscripts that I've kept in my "reference" folder. If you read down through it, it explains not only what they are but how to go about accessing them. University libraries often have the "calendars", which is like a table of contents (they contain a name index) as well as Harper's Guide. Don't know if Teri is still on kyroots. --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Teri Pettit <pettit@ADOBE.COM> To: KYROOTS@LSV.UKY.EDU Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 14:05:20 -0700 Subject: The Draper Manuscripts, overview Message-ID: <v02140b01b22c6fe13bba@[153.32.55.197]> > I have been told that Lyman Draper traveled extensivly in KY-OHIO-IND etc at >the time of the revolutionary war. He kept a diary and interviewed many of the >people that he knew were doing things that he belived would be of importance >later. > He made contact with the BOONE family ,Simon KENTON, etc. Over a lifetime >his diary grew to several volumes. In old age he tried to sell it to the State >of KY.but was turned down and it ended up at the Univ. of Wisc. I understand >it has never been published, but is available on microfilm. To call the Draper Manuscripts collection of Lyman Copeland Draper's research notes a "diary" is quite an understatement. Draper (1815-1891) did not live at the time of the Revolutionary War, but that era was the focus of his research. He intended to write biographies on Boone, Kenton, George Rogers Clark, and Tecumseh, among others, but he was more researcher than writer and never felt like he was done collecting background material. The collection, in the custody of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (not the University), comprises nearly 500 handwritten volumes organized into 52 "series" labelled from A to ZZ. The series collect documents with similar subject matter and dates of collection. The volumes within a series are numbered. Some of the series contain only one volume; series J (George Rogers Clark Papers) is the largest with 64 volumes, series CC (Kentucky Papers) is the second largest with 37 volumes. The collection was microfilmed onto 133 reels in 1949, and again into 123 reels in 1980. Selections from some of the series of most general interest have been published in excerpt form, edited by Reuben G. Thwaites & Louise Phelps Kellogg. They include: Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774. (1905) Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777. (1908) Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1777-1778. (1912) Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779. (1916) Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781. (1917) (A court martial record of my GGGG Grandfather Matthew Pettit is reprinted in the Frontier Advance volume.) These volumes are available in many libraries. Publishing selections proved to require more money and staff than the Historical Society of Wisconsin could muster. They turned to publishing what they called "calendars", which are sort of like annotated Tables of Contents. A calendar takes a series, and provides one or two paragraphs describing each item (article, letter, interview, etc.) in it. The calendars are surname indexed. The calendars include: Preston and Virginia Papers, Series QQ and ZZ. (1915) Kentucky Papers, Series CC. (1925) Tennessee and King's Mountain Papers, Series XX and DD. (1929) In 1983 the Historical Society published Guide to the Draper Manuscripts, edited by Josephine L. Harper. This is commonly known as "Harper's Guide". It is still in print and can be ordered from any bookstore that does custom orders. It takes the "calendar" idea and applies it to the collection as a whole. It has a general introduction to using the Draper Manuscripts for research, and then gives a description of the focus and major contents of each of the 500 volumes. The descriptions vary in length, from 1/4 page to 2 pages, but average about 1/2 page. The descriptions comprise about 240 pages. There is then an index that is about 220 pages long, full names, indexed by volume number. The microfilms are hard to find things in, since there is such a lot of material, nearly all handwritten (there are some newspaper clippings), and no page numbering. Getting a very good idea of where you want to look from Harper's Guide and/or the published calendars is nearly a must if you are to make use of the microfilms. Hope this helps. Teri Pettit Adobe Systems Inc. San Jose, CA 95110-2704