Correspondence

Physics course evaluations, grant funded research applications, experiment notes, related to the T.W. Bonner Lab at Rice University.

The records of the Twenty-Six Literary Club document the activities of this women’s social and philanthropic club established in 1909 by a group of Houston women residing in the Woodland Heights neighborhood. Some members’ daughters became students at the Rice Institute (later University) after it opened in 1912 and continued the Club, expanding its membership over the years and engaging in various community projects, including providing scholarships for young women entering Rice.

This collection is made up of eight boxes containing books, bulletins, correspondence, event materials, financial records, flyers, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, photographs, plaques, programs, scrapbooks, videos, and yearbooks from United Orthodox Synagogues spanning from 1935 to 2023.

While the letters are on a number of different topics, many deal with the Sterling Debenture Corporation and stock offerings in the American Telegraphone Corporation. The corporation was founded in 1903 to manufacture the Telegraphone, a magnetic sound recording device invented by Danish engineer Valdemar Poulson. Although several hundred machines were bought by curious scientists, the product was not a commercial success.

This collection consists of twenty-one letters from various U.S. Civil War military departments to other U.S. military departments, regarding various aspects relating to national cemeteries. These aspects include: the location, construction and inspection of national cemeteries, requests for materials and proposed costs, and reports of appointments and comments of national cemetery superintendents.

Letter written February 12, 1865, by General Horatio Wright (major general of volunteers in the Union Army), probably while at the siege of Richmond, Virginia, and addressed to “My dear Col[onel?]” (addressee's name is Col. Edward H. Wright, Newark, N.J., appearing below General Wright's signature), in which he tells of family news while on a recent leave, mentions troop activity following an unspecified ‘late movement’ of troops in the Army of the Potomac.

The central item in this collection is a remarkable contemporary manuscript report of Robert Schumann's conducting at Dusseldorf, written by W. Wortmann, deputy mayor of Düsseldorf and a leading member of the administration of the Allgemeiner Musikverein (of whose orchestra and chorus Schumann had been appointed director in 1850).

This collection consists of a biography written by Houston Wade about Michel B. Menard, founder of Galveston. Included are newsclippings about Menard, other Texas personalities, and correspondence to Mr. Wade regarding the Menard family history.

The Camille Waggaman/Waggaman Family Collection consists largely of photographs and newspaper articles but also includes some personal correspondence and memorabilia. The bulk of the material regards Camille Waggaman and focuses upon her radio career (1932-1963) and upon the years after her retirement. Regional or local historians may find these of interest since the Waggamans were among the most prominent plantation families of Louisiana.

This collection is comprised of materials which Waldo Greene, a student of Thornton Wilder's, gathered about Wilder during Wilder's lifetime and up until Greene's death. Included among these materials are correspondence, bibliographies, newspaper and journal clippings, photographs, playbills, and copies of Wilder's typewritten journals.