The contents of this collection are the calendar cards for much of the work done in the above project. The cards generally are filed by the office whose files were examined and each set has been assigned a different call number. The descriptions below were prepared at the time of calendaring and describe the files as they existed then.
Mss 445: Post Office Files, 1789-1893, 1908 (11 card boxes). These cards are arranged in a single chronological order. They include summaries of seven groups of records:
(1) Letter Books of the First Assistant Postmaster General, Vol. A-C, 1794-1799: Contains copies of letters by the First Assistant Postmaster General. Several letters related to an experiment with boats carrying mail on the Ohio River.
(2) Post Office Department Telegraphic Despatches, 1852-1873: Two volumes containing copies of telegrams sent from the Post Office Department to postmasters and others.
(3) Post Office Department: Contract Office, Letters Received, 1850-1862: The Contract Office was administered by the Second Assistant Postmaster General. It was charged with the making and enforcement of contracts for carrying the mail. The communications received by it embrace bids for contracts, complaints relative to the service, applications for more mails per week, applications for changes in routes, replies by postmasters to requests for information relative to conditions, etc. The papers for each state are filed by routes in numerical sequence and tied in bundles.
(4) Letters of the Postmaster General to the President and Members of Congress, 1842-1845: [no details provided]
(5) Letters to Congress, 1823-1832: Copies of letters written by subordinate officers of the P.M.G. to members of Congress
(6) Letters of the Postmaster General, 1789-1893: Copies of the letters of the P.M.G. which contain instructions for the extension and improvement of the mail service and discloose numerous complaints of irregularities and losses. They decrease in importance subsequent to 1830 when the second assistant postmaster general had been charged with the immediate direction to the operation of post routes.
(7) Letter Books of the Chief Clerk, 1829-1831: Copies of letters of the chief clerk.
Mss 446: War Department, 1789-1870 (19 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 38 groups in which the documents were found; each is summarized in the contents list below.
Mss 447: Interior Department, Indian Division Files, 1838-1873, and Division of Lands and Railroads Files, 1820-1880 (5 card boxes).
The cards for the Indian Division Files are arranged in a single chronological order. They include summaries of eight groups of records: Letter-book Copies of the Outgoing Letters of the Secretary of the Interior Relative to Indian Affairs, 1849-1865 (318 cards); Letters Received; Miscellaneous Letters Received; Letters Received from the War Department; Letters Received from the Treasury Department; Letters Received from the Attorney General; Letters Received from the State Department; and Letters Received from the General Land Office. A total of 387 cards were prepared.
The cards for the Division of Lands and Railroads Files are filed in nine sections, all but one corresponding to the groups in which the documents were found. One of the nine sections is a single chronological arrangement of cards for five separate small groups of documents. Further details are included in the contents list below.
Mss 448: State Department Files, 1670-1865 (5 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 19 groups in which the documents were found; each is summarized in the contents list below.
Mss 449: U.S. Senate Files, 1789-1888 (8 card boxes). These cards are filed in the 2 large groups in which the documents were found:
(1) Senate Files, 1789-1888: These files consist of messages of the President with accompanying papers, reports of cabinet officers with accompanying papers, petitions and memorials (in alphabetical order) from citizens and organizations in the several states and territories, reports of Senate committees, and Senate and House bills. The papers are filed separately for each congress, in some instances for each session, for Congresses 1-50. The cards reflect this arrangement by congress and in addition are numbered and are arranged in numerical order. (This order is not chronological within each congress.)
(2) Senate File Cases, 1789-1886: Bulky papers of each congress, consisting chiefly of papers from the President, reports with accompanying documents from cabinet officers, presidential election returns, and reports of special committees or commissions. They are wrapped in bundles and stored in cased in cases closed with chain doors. Each bundle bears a descriptive label.
Mss 450: L. F. Stock Calendars, 1772-1838 (2 card boxes). These cards were prepared about 1910 by L. F. Stock and were typed about 1931 by Helen Mauer. They describe records of the Indian Office and the Post Office and several manuscript collections at the Library of Congress: the Arthur St. Clair Papers, John McLean Papers, Duncan McArthur Papers, and Hamtramck's “Standing Oders at Detroit, 1802.”
The cards are arranged in a single chronological order. A note at the bottom of a card saying “typed copy” indicates that the Historical Society has a typed copy of the manuscript, located in a separate collection, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs Copied Documents (U.S. Mss BN). If there is no “typed copy” note, the Society has no copy. Stock's original notes were destroyed.
