Scope and arrangement
The collection consists of some 10,000 manuscript letters, documents and papers including printed ephemera, mainly of French origin, but including a few English, Italian and Arabic items. The manuscripts fall in the period from the 17th to the 20th centuries with most of the material concentrated in the period from the French Revolution to the early 20th century. Approximately one-half of the collection (including water-damaged materials) is unsorted. The sorted manuscripts consist of a name file and a subject file. Included in the name file are manuscripts of writers, scholars, journalists, clergymen academicians, artists, political and military figures, and governmental officials. Many of the items have been identified by the dealer who has given the name dates and profession of the author of the manuscript in its upper left hand margin. Included are manuscripts by Jerome Adolphe Blanqui (1798-1854), Jean François Boissonade (1774-1857), Michel Chevalier (l8o6-79), Jean Joseph Dessolée (1767-1828), Nicolas Louis François (1750-1828), Charles Louis Freycinet (1828-1923), François Guizot (1787-1874), Jacques François Halevy (1799- 1862), François Christophe Kellerman (1735-1820), Louis Philippe (1763-1850), Jules Michelet (1798-1874), Emile Ollivier (l825-1913), Nicolas Charles Oudinot (1767-1847), Leon Say (1826-1896), and Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) Included is a lengthy manuscript by Henri Moulin of the Paris bar containing biographical sketches of members of the French Academy. The manuscript is written on the verso of legal correspondence received by Moulin during the 1840s-1860s. Three groups of manuscript letters addressed to Felix Desvernay, Dureau de la Malle, and Charles Fournier have been filed under their respective names as recipients of the letters. The subject file contains manuscripts filed under record type, place name of general subject heading. Subjects include certificates, diplomas, estate papers, France (1st and 2nd Empires, Restoration), French Revolution, medicine, mercantile papers and tax bills. The English autograph manuscripts (one folder) include manuscripts by Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-1941), Anthony Vandyke Fielding (1787-1855), Lord Palmerston (1785-1865) Sir William Sidney Smith (1764-1840), and Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841). Here is one letter (1831 by Aaron Burr, the American politician. The Italian manuscripts (four folders) include manuscripts by Filippo Agricola (1776-1857), Cardinal Benedetto Barberini (1788-1863), Giuseppe Bossi (1758-1823), Luigi Bossi (1758-1835), and Luigi Lambruschini (1776-1854) The water and mold damaged manuscripts cannot be sorted until they have been treated. The printed ephemera include flyers, pamphlets, reports and minutes of the French National Assembly and other administrative bodies during the period of the Revolution, invitations, menus, programmes, menus, posters, and engravings.