The Dudley Papers consist of papers and photographs. The papers are organized chronologically. They are varied in content, fragmentary in nature, and have large gaps in chronology. Of some significance are the letters (1859-1868) to Dudley's father, Bela De Loss Dudley. For the most part these are personal family letters from Bela's father, mother, and sister in Ashland, Sullivan County, Ohio. They deal primarily with family and health matters, but also contain information about farm conditions and politics, especially on reactions to the Civil War and to enlistment. Of particular importance is one letter dated June 25, 1866 from George M. Taber, a former army comrade of B.D.L. Dudley. Taber, a Union captain turned Southern planter after the war, describes crops and conditions of Negro labor in Decatur, Alabama. Together with B.D.L. Dudley's memoir of his Civil War experiences, these letters are perhaps the most valuable part of the Dudley papers.
B.D.L. Dudley enlisted in the Union Army for three months in May 1862, at the age of 18. During June he trained at Camp Chase, Ohio. Early in July, as a member of Co. B of the 87th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, he went to Baltimore, Maryland. After a few days the company moved to permanent quarters at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Dudley was mustered out of the army in 1865 as a captain in the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The highlight of Bela Dudley's papers is his 203-page, handwritten Civil War memoir, “A Personal Narrative of the Civil War,” which was written in 1906-1907. Dudley writes with great candor about his experiences, saying, “I served during a part of the war only and was not in any of its great battles....I have only a very brief memorandum of only a part of the events that came under my personal observation, and I have forgotten many incidents....” The narrative is based on a contemporary memorandum book, a few letters, muster rolls and company returns, the Official Records, and, primarily, on memory. None of the documentary material is included in the Dudley Papers.
From 1868 to 1886 there are no papers. From 1886 to 1890 there are 23 letters to W.H. Dudley from a South Dakota school friend, Ella R. Ogden, then in Knoxville, Tennessee. These deal with the weather and Miss Ogden's social life. Three letters in February and March 1889, deal with a chain letter attempt to gain support for the work of the Chicago Deaconesses, a proselytizing religious organization.
The bulk of the papers dating from the 1890s consists of letters to Dudley from his mother, father, and brother George in South Dakota and from his future wife, Agnes L. Potter, also in South Dakota. The letters from his father, mother, and brother deal with such matters as health, weather, and local gossip. A few letters from his father and brother contain information about the family business, the B.D.L. Dudley General Store, which was established in 1884 at Canistota. There is also scattered information on farming conditions, business conditions, and the general economic conditions of the area. The letters from Agnes L. Potter deal mainly with personal matters. They constitute one side of a long mail courtship--a restrained, polite, proper, pious courtship. A few of the letters, especially those dating from 1891-1892, discuss education, music, and intellectual and scholarly matters, and are of interest on the development of the University of South Dakota at Vermillion. Also dealing with education and self-improvement are letters from Dudley's former professor, H.E. Kratz (1892), at the time Superintendent of Schools in Sioux City, Iowa. Primarily concerned with Dudley's attempts to get teaching jobs, the letters also deal with the Lake Madison, South Dakota Chautauqua Assembly of which Kratz was director. There is also material on the South Dakota Teachers' Reading Circle.
In 1892 Dudley graduated from the University of Wisconsin, and attempted to get a job as a high school principal or teacher. The correspondence of this period consists of recommendation letters from former teachers, letters from the Teachers Cooperative Agency in Chicago, and several letters from the Hillside Home School at Hillside, Wisconsin. Only a few letters deal with his employment at the University of Wisconsin. Three April 1898 letters are concerned with Dudley's attempts to get free publications for the library; some official correspondence in May 1899 deals with salaries and a leave of absence for Dudley.
From 1901 to 1905, the correspondence is from Agnes Potter Dudley's sister Anna in South Dakota. These 36 letters concern personal and family health matters, home and children, weather, and gossip. There is a partial Potter genealogy in an envelope dated March 19, 1903. In 1907 Agnes and William Dudley went to Europe, and there received a few letters of good wishes from friends and 41 post cards from Dudley's mother and father. These contain reports on the health and growth of the Dudleys' son, Delos. The letters, 1926-1929, are from Dudley's mother, then residing at the Old Soldier's home at Hot Springs, South Dakota. One from the director of the home in 1929 describes Mrs. Dudley's last days.
Dudley's high level amateur photography is represented by black and white prints and negatives and by approximately 1200 lantern slides. The majority of the images are aesthetic landscapes that were probably used for his illustrated travel talks. Only a few depict his personal life or his personal environment. Of these, the most interesting are his University Heights neighborhood and one exterior view of the Historical Society building where his office was located. The black and white prints include landscapes in the Wisconsin Dells area; University Heights; Manistee, Michigan; steamships on Lake Michigan; and boats on the Mississippi River. Additional prints include carte-de-visite portraits of his relatives; portraits of W.H. Dudley himself may be found the Historical Society's Visual Materials Name File.
The lantern slides, many of which are hand tinted, were used for professional talks. They include aesthetic photography of Europe, and a smaller number that relate to the Wisconsin Dells, Devil's Lake, and the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. The slides are arranged alphabetically by place. Dudley has carefully identified and dated the slides, and images that he copied from the work of others are so labelled. These other photographers include Katherine Allen (Africa, Greece, Italy), Charles N. Brown (Venice, Holland, Germany), C.B. Lester (Austria), Ethel Raymer Edmundson (Jerusalem, Turkey, Venice), Reuben Gold Thwaites (Norway), and Frederick Jackson Turner (Venice).
