Military Affairs and Conflict

George Edward Reed II (1912-1998) graduated from Dickinson College in 1935. This collection contains journals that document his service during World War II. The journals include diary entries, which start in June 1941 and end in November 1945. The journals also include correspondence, photographs, news clippings, and ephemera.

The Charles Arthur Robinson Collection was donated by Charles L. Robinson on January 14, 2012. The collection is housed in two document boxes, one oversized box, 57 photograph folders, and one small artifact box. The collection contains materials related to Charles A. Robinson ('20) and Reba M. Beam’s ('22) Dickinson College careers as well as their married life. It also includes items belonging to Dickinson graduates Harry Delmar Robinson ('18) and Dorothy Anne Robinson ('45). The Collection is arranged into eight series: Academic Papers, Correspondence, Ephemera, Financial Papers, Photograph Albums, Miscellaneous, Oversized, Photographs, and Artifact.

This collection consists of folders in 13 manuscript boxes relating to correspondence and papers of Eli Slifer (1818-1888), an active figure in Pennsylvania politics and the Secretary of the Commonwealth under Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin, 1861-1867. Most of the letters were written during the Civil War and represent the pressures of local politicians, office seekers, and military men upon the Governor's office. There is much material on the enlistment and acceptance of military companies dated 1861 (e.g. Wiliam Foote of the "Lycoming Mountain Ears"), on the operation of the draft law, 1862-1864, on the soldier's vote, election of 1864, and on military surgeons and hospitals. The collection contains 47 letters and telegrams from Curtin, 1852-1866, and 61 from Col. Alexander Kelly McClure, 1851-1866. The political power of Simon and William Cameron is reflected. The political influence of the German and English press appears in letters of Israel Gutelius and his family. Other subjects discussed include banking, transportation, coal, iron, oil industries, military contracts, and the invasion of Pennsylvania.

There is a series of appendices that arranges the correspondence by Civil War Units, Military Affairs, Political Affairs, Business Affairs, and Miscellaneous Affairs.

These images are from a collection of photograph albums compiled by James Gordon Steese, an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers. Steese assembled these albums using photographs he collected while serving as president of the Alaska Road Commission during the construction of the Alaska Highway in the 1920s.

For more information about this collection, see the links under related entries.

James Gordon Steese (1882-1958) was a member of the Dickinson College class of 1902. Among his many activities, Steese served as president of the Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska; the Steese Highway in Alaska is named for him. He later was involved with the development of railroads in both Alaska and Maryland and with several oil companies. Diaries and journals chronicle Steese's military service and his later years. The collection contains mostly professional correspondence, pamphlets, and reports on the Alaskan Road Commission and Steese's military service. Also included are several newspaper articles, maps, charts, and correspondence with Steese's family. A large photograph collection, mainly in the form of photo albums, supplements the document collection.

These images are from a collection of photograph albums compiled by James Gordon Steese, an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers. Steese assembled these albums using photographs he collected while stationed in Panama working on the Isthmian Railroad and the Panama Canal Project between 1907 and 1912.

For more information about this collection, see the links under related entries.

These images are from a collection of photograph albums compiled by James Gordon Steese, an officer in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Steese assembled these albums using photographs he collected on a trip to Europe in 1919 following World War One. Steese served as Assistant Chief of Engineers and chief of a General Staff Section. His mission was to tour the battlefields along what had served as the Western Front and report his findings to the Secretary of War.

James Alexander Streams fought for three years with Company A of the Sixty-First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, which recruited its members from Indiana County. This collection contains 41 letters, most of which were received by Streams while he was fighting with the Union Army. They include information about life on the home front during the war, accounts of fellow soldiers' experiences, and details about the post-war life of members of the Streams family.

The collection consists of the papers of the families of Jacob and Cornelius Vanderbilt, farmers and tax assessors of Newton Township, Cumberland County, Pa. Accounts of the Civil War are included among family correspondence, bills, accounts, and tax lists. Also included in the collection are a Psalm book and a small Civil War photograph.

This collection is mostly comprised of correspondence received by Philadelphia printer William Young from Charles Nisbet, President of Dickinson College. Young was a scotsman who settled in Philadelphia and set up a bookshop, a printing press, and later, a paper mill. As the president of a fledgling college, fellow scotsman Nisbet wrote frequently to Young upon a wide variety of topics, ranging from Nisbet's transactions with Young as a printer and book dealer, to local events and world news. The collection also contains other letters to Young from various clients, as well as one letter from Young to his wife.