The Elliott Coues Papers consist of correspondence, materials relating to the Gnostic Theosophical Society, and miscellaneous notabilia pertinent to Coues.
The bulk of the collection is correspondence consisting of Coues' correspondence, 1863-1898, relating to his activities as a member of the Gnostic Theosophical Society; the correspondence, 1820-1829, of Coues' mother, Charlotte Haven Ladd, with her brother, Haven Ladd; and correspondence, 1832-1860, of Coues' father, Samuel Elliott Coues. That of Samuel Coues (1797-1867) relates to his efforts to establish the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane in the late 1830s, and to his work as president of the American Peace Society, 1840-1846. All correspondence is arranged chronologically, which coincidentally separates the correspondence of each of the above named from that of the others.
The materials relating to the Gnostic Theosophical Society, 1885-1893, include the charter of the Washington, D.C. branch of the Society; a pamphlet entitled “Psychometry and Thought-Transference with Practical Hints for Experiments” by N.C., F.T.S. with an introduction by Henry S. Olcott, 1886; the original copy of an article prepared for the New York Sun of July 20, 1890 by Elliott Coues denouncing Madame Blavatsky; copies of complaints in a libel suit, September, 1890, brought against Coues as a result of the article; and a “Provisional List of Papers for the Psychical Science Congress,” August 8, 1893. These materials are arranged chronologically.
The final category of the collection, miscellaneous notabilia, consists of a speech read by Coues as he received his baccalaureate degree from Columbian College on June 26, 1861; a certificate of his election to the Academy of Natural Science, August, 1861; three of Coues' sketches of birds, 1861; a privately printed booklet, “The Generations of a New-England Family,” of “verses recited at the House of Mr. Charles E. Wentworth, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” December 25, 1885; and a “biographical sketch of Col. John Tufton Mason by Charles L. Ladd,” 1888. These materials also are arranged chronologically.
A microfilm copy was made of the Elliott Coues Papers by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in April, 1971.
