Summary Information
Edward Daniels Papers
1834-1900
Wis Mss QC; Micro 918
1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 5 reels of microfilm (35mm)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Edward Daniels, a participant in political and social reform movements who was also the first state geologist of Wisconsin and colonel of the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry during the Civil War. The pre-war correspondence contains information on his lectures on geology and on his work for the Wisconsin Geological Survey, 1853-1861. A few letters touch upon his military career, 1861-1862, and some concern his partnership with Joseph Medill and Horace White in a speculative venture into coal mining in Illinois. After the war, Daniels moved to Virginia and the post-war correspondence is largely concerned with Virginia politics, a newspaper enterprise in Richmond, Daniels' attempt to establish a cooperative industrial school on his estate, and a cooperative land colonization project in Mexico in which he was interested. Sixteen diaries, containing brief entries for the period 1862-1894, accompany the correspondence. The collection also includes field notes taken for the Wisconsin Geological Survey and drafts of lectures advocating cooperatives.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000qc ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Edward Daniels, one of Wisconsin's early but little known men of science, was appointed by Governor Leonard Farwell in 1853 as the first State geologist of Wisconsin. Daniels, a young man of twenty-five years of age, had hardly begun his survey before Governor William A. Barstow replaced him with James G. Percival. In 1857, however, Daniels was again appointed as one of the commissioners of the expanded Geological Survey. This position he resigned in 1861 in order to organize the First Wisconsin Cavalry, in which he served as colonel until 1863. After the Civil War he became associated with Horace White in coal mining investments in Illinois. By the 1870s Daniels began to turn his attention to social and political reform movements in the United States and Mexico. In Virginia he attempted to establish a cooperative farm and a cooperative industrial school, projects which proved unsuccessful and impoverished him. Sporadically he still engaged in scientific work, and in 1883 went to Minnesota for brief service as curator and corresponding secretary of the St. Paul Academy of Science.
Scope and Content Note
The Daniels papers are completely lacking in material on the last sixteen years of his life, but the collection does include his notes for the Geological Survey of Wisconsin in the 1850s, correspondence concerning his varied activities in the Middle West and in Virginia, several of his speeches on behalf of the cooperative movement, sixteen diaries in the period from 1862 to 1894, and seven miscellaneous notebooks. Among his correspondents were Horace White, J. A. Noonan, Eleazer Root, S. V. Shipman, Jeremiah Rusk, T. O. Howe, Simeon Mills, Increase A. Lapham, James Hall, Byron Kilhourn, Silas Chapman, Lucius Fairchild, Edward H. Rogers, and Booker T. Washington.
Except for a few transcribed items, the collection is available both in original paper form and on microfilm.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by the Nebraska Historical Society.
Contents List
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Correspondence
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Box/Folder
1/1-5
Reel/Frame
1/1-684
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1834-1884
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Box/Folder
1/6-7
Reel/Frame
1/685-1059
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1885-1887
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Box/Folder
2/1-3
Reel/Frame
2/1-289
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1888-1900
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Box/Folder
2/4
Reel/Frame
2/290-335
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Undated
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Box/Folder
2/5
Reel/Frame
2/336-416
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Business Papers, 1856-1886, undated
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Box/Folder
2/6
Reel/Frame
2/417-931
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Wisconsin Geology Notes, including State Geological Survey and Beloit and Madison Railroad, 1850s-1860s, undated
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Box/Folder
2/7
Reel/Frame
2/932-1094
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Geological Lectures and Non-Wisconsin Geological Notes, undated
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Box/Folder
2/8
Reel/Frame
3/1-45
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Miscellaneous Printed Material, 1855-1891, undated
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Box/Folder
3/1
Reel/Frame
3/46-165
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Articles and Speeches, undated
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Box/Folder
3/2
Reel/Frame
3/166-181
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Patents, 1857 March 31; 1867 June 11
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Box/Folder
3/3-5
Reel/Frame
3/182-1170
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Edward Daniels Autographs, Diaries, Accounts, Bank Book and Mrs. Edward (Ione) Daniels Diaries and Memorial, 1851-1901, undated
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Reel/Frame
4/1-1088
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Edward Daniels Autographs..., continued
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Reel/Frame
5/1-326
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Edward Daniels Autographs..., continued
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