A large collection of papers of diverse dates, format, and content dealing with the early history of Kentucky rather than with the life of any particular person or family. Included are correspondence, notes, reminiscences, and miscellaneous business records. Acquired by Draper from many sources, this series includes many original manuscripts of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century created not only by pioneer Kentucky settlers but by persons representing numerous occupations and professions—land promoters, surveyors, farmers, housewives, historians, teachers, clergymen, merchants, and soldiers. Several volumes relate primarily to events, institutions, and people in the city of Lexington, but material on the development of Louisville and other communities is scattered through the collection.
Volumes 11 CC — 19 CC, 26 CC — 30 CC, and 36 CC — 37 CC comprise a major portion of the papers of John D. Shane (1812—1864) acquired by Draper at auction after Shane's death. Born in Cincinnati, Shane received his college and theological education in Virginia, then returned to Ohio and Kentucky as a Presbyterian minister. In addition to his clerical duties he devoted more than twenty years to historical research. Adopting methods similar to those of Draper, Shane interviewed pioneers, clipped from newspapers and magazines, and copied from family, church, and government records. His interview notes reveal, however, that Shane—unlike Draper—was as interested in the domestic, business, religious, educational, and literary aspects of pioneer living as in the military. With the aid of Draper and Samuel Agnew (See 15 CC 201 and 32 CC 79), the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia acquired and still possesses many other Shane papers, including several volumes originally purchased by Draper. Most of the Shane volumes in Series CC Draper later annotated, underscored, and in some instances, indexed. One of Shane's notebooks, 37 CC, was not included in the microfilm of the Draper Collection done in the 1940s, but the volume was copied for the 1980 microfilm edition.
Manuscripts in volumes 31 CC – 34 CC had been gathered by Thwaites and were bound and added to the Draper Collection in 1915 by Mabel C. Weaks, chief of the Society's division of maps and manuscripts, when she was preparing a calendar for this series. Volume 35 CC had been labeled 31 CC prior to the 1915 additions, but it and volumes 36 CC and 37 CC were not given calendar entries. The calendar was fully indexed and published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as Kentucky Papers (Madison, 1925); it is a prime finding aid for most volumes in this series.
