Found 3 collections related to Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

George Bancroft (1800-1891) was an American historian, diplomat and public official who wrote the ten-volume History of the United States. Bancroft's positions included Collector of the Port of Boston, Secretary of the Navy under Polk, Minister to Great Britain from 1846 to 1849, and Minister to Germany from 1867 to 1874. In addition to History of the United States, Bancroft wrote other historical studies and biographies. Collection consists of transcripts (and some originals) of letters, dispatches, statistical data, journals, minutes of proceedings, and other papers culled from American, British and European sources by George Bancroft in the course of research for his historical works. Bulk of the collection reflects the economic, political, military, and diplomatic relations between Great Britain and its North American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly the period leading up to the American Revolution of 1775-1783, the war itself, and the immediate aftermath of the war culminating in the writing and adoption of the U.S. Constitution. There are materials on the presidencies of George Washington and James K. Polk, and the 1872 dispute between Great Britain and U.S. over the water boundary between the U.S. and British Columbia. Also, records dealing with relations in the 18th century between the U.S. and continental European countries, and various European countries with each other (especially Prussia, Austria, France, Spain, and Great Britain). less

Edward Stephen Harkness (1874-1940) was a trustee of the New York Public Library. His wife and co-collector, Mary Stillman Harkness, died in 1950. Collection consists of holograph manuscripts, autograph letters, documents, and signatures representing artists and literary and historical figures. Includes 15th-century illuminated Book of Hours and letters and documents of all American presidents from Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt, except for Herbert Hoover. Items are accompanied by typed transcripts, portrait photographs and illustrations, and related letters, clippings and other materials. Persons represented include Shirley Brooks, Frances H. Burnett, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Crane, George Cruikshank, General Henry Dearborn, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Louise, Empress of France, Mary, Queen of Scots, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, John Ruskin, William M. Thackery, Henry D. Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, George Washington, John G. Whittier, and Captain Isaac Woods. less