{"value"=>"<p>Creator history</p> <p>The primary function of the United States Sanitary Commission's Historical Bureau was to collect, preserve, and arrange the Commission’s archives. The Bureau was organized in Washington in the summer of 1865, and moved to New York in October of that year. USSC general secretary John S. Blatchford directed the work of the Bureau. Joseph Parrish, briefly Historical Bureau superintendent while it was in Washington, helped to develop its procedures. In addition to collecting and organizing USSC records, the Historical Bureau supervised the production of various Commission histories and final reports. The Historical Bureau also served as the USSC’s administrative center for post-war activities, including some special relief work in New York City.</p> <p>In October 1865, the Historical Bureau opened its Archive Department, which gathered, organized, and endorsed records submitted from various USSC offices, agencies, and branches. It also checked material out to USSC personnel working on various histories of the Commission, and gathered historical information and samples of USSC forms, stationary, and circulars. Their work came to a close in 1867; similar work was conducted by C.M. Smith and Blatchford until 1872.</p> <p>In addition to its archival and publishing functions, Historical Bureau staff supported Blatchford’s administration of much of the Sanitary Commission’s post-war work, such as the conclusion of pension agency tasks. Limited postwar special relief work in New York City was also conducted from the Bureau, in conjunction with the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP). USSC personnel visited soldiers' widows and families, providing monetary and other assistance, as well as referrals to the AICP. They also visited some discharged soldiers.</p> <p>The Historical Bureau completed the bulk of its work by the fall of 1867 and the Archive Department closed. Its building, located at 21 West 12th Street, was most likely sold in the spring of 1868. Blatchford spent much of his time in his hometown of Boston thereafter.</p> <p>In May 1868, the Standing Committee resolved to present the “Archives of the Commission” as a permanent gift to the Astor Library, located on Lafayette Street in New York City. Records were moved to the Astor Library and housed in a separate room, also used as a meeting place for the Standing Committee. The Commission hired C.M. Smith to organize the collection as a whole, physically arrange the material at the library, and create a catalog. Smith worked on arranging the records, under Blatchford’s direction, until about June 1872. Records continued to arrive at the Astor Library from some USSC departments and agencies during this time period, primarily from claim agencies, and USSC publication efforts and claim-related matters were concluded.</p> <p>The Standing Committee had its final meeting in June 1878, authorizing further arrangement of the USSC material at the Astor Library, carried out by George H. Allen and his assistant. The final disposition of the Sanitary Commission records took place on January 7, 1879, when they were formally transferred to the Astor Library by President Henry W. Bellows.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p>Scope and content note</p> <p>Historical Bureau records consist of general office records, postwar special relief work material, records of the Archive Department, and groups of material known as the Special Relief Archives and the Medical Committee Archives.</p> <p>The Historical Bureau’s Office records comprise much of the department’s correspondence, prospectuses for planned USSC histories and reports, a volume of USSC postwar rosters, a volume listing unsettled claims as of April 1, 1867, and a register of cases and reports of individual relief given. Incoming letters concern the closing up of USSC work and submission of records to the Archive Department, the settlement of accounts, resignations and deaths, meetings, claims work, personnel matters, USSC histories in progress and published, other USSC publications, postwar special relief work, Archive Department work completed, and the disposition of Commission properties.</p> <p>Archive Department files consist of letters sent and circulation records of items borrowed and returned to the Archive, and scrapbooks of sample forms, stationary, and circulars. More important, however, are the registers of and indexes to the USSC Archives prepared by Archive Department staff, and summaries of USSC activities solicited by Historical Bureau for submission to the Archives, including final reports from local aid societies throughout the United States and service narratives written by USSC personnel. The archival registers, although not always accurate or complete, contain item-level inventories of numbered documents found in the various record group of the Archives.</p> <p>The Special Relief Archives records in the Historical Bureau relate to two of the USSC’s histories in progress during the postwar years that were never completed. The Sanitary Commission hired Henry A. Warriner (1824-1871), formerly an inspector in its Western Department, to write a history of the USSC’s extensive supply procurement and distribution system, including its branches and field relief. Rev. Frederick N. Knapp, former head of the USSC’s Special Relief Department, was to complete a history of the special relief service. Both authors began their work in late 1865, with C.W. Christy, formerly of the USSC’s Western Department, assisting Warriner and Rev. John A. Anderson (1834-1892), formerly of the USSC’s Army of the Potomac and Canvassing and Supply Department, assisting Knapp.</p> <p>By October 1867, the Standing Committee had given up on Knapp’s ability to complete the manuscript; his drafts and research material were turned over to Warriner, who was to incorporate special relief into his own volume. Warriner continued work on the history at his home in Massachusetts but, suffering from poor health, he failed to complete it. The project was abandoned in the summer of 1870 and the drafts in progress, as well as the notes and research material accumulated by Warriner, were submitted to the USSC in August. Items received from Warriner, most already organized into topical and geographic bundles (presumably by Warriner’s assistant Christy), were grouped together as the “Special Relief Archives.” Material consists of drafts of chapters (in various stages of completion), copies of correspondence and reports, notes, and supply tables. Some original USSC reports and letters used for research are also present.</p> <p>The Medical Committee Archives document the Committee’s postwar efforts, under the direction of Elisha Harris, M.D., to solicit, collect and organize original reports and treatises concerning sanitary work and medical care during the Civil War, both as a permanent historical record of advancements in those fields, and as a resource for planned USSC publications on such topics. The records, many dating from 1865-1866, contain numbered letters and reports from physicians and surgeons (including Confederate medical personnel) relating to illness, wounds, disease, hygiene and living conditions of the troops, as well as drafts of medical treatises, weather reports, inspection reports, maps, plans, and photographs. General correspondence between USSC staff, editors and physicians; subject files, writings, Army hospital registers, and printed matter are also present. Most of the materials were arranged, numbered and registered by the Historical Bureau’s Archive Department. During the USSC’s 1878 arrangement of its records, some items, especially medical graphics and photographs, were removed to the Condensed Historical Matter record group. These may be viewed in the NYPL Digital Collections, containing images of materials in the United States Sanitary Commission Records.</p> <p>Historical Bureau records post-dating the closure of the premises at 21 West 12th Street chiefly relate to John S. Blatchford’s administrative work and his correspondence with C.M. Smith concerning the arrangement of the USSC records at the Astor Library.</p> <p>The Condensed Historical Matter record group (MssCol 18819) contains additional material collected by the Historical Bureau, and subsequently rearranged by Allen in 1878.</p>"}