Ezra Cornell's diaries and notebooks, thirty-three in number, were kept as companion pieces to his correspondence and served a documentary and communicative function. The diaries sometimes provide a slightly different viewpoint from the one addressed in family correspondence. Topics include travel, plow business, telegraph business, farming, politics, and Cornell family history and genealogy. The letterbooks are bound copies of outgoing letters concerning the telegraph industry and the founding of Cornell University.
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Description
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Box /
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Item
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Letterbook: April 30, 1846 - May 9, 1847
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37 |
1 |
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Letterbook: May 26, 1847 - May 16, 1852
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37 |
2 |
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Letterbook: January 6, 1848 - December 5, 1851
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37 |
3 |
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Letterbook: February 18, 1853 - September 4, 1853
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37 |
4 |
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Letterbook: August 17, 1853 - November 8, 1858
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37 |
5 |
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Letterbook: March 7, 1866 - December 3, 1866
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37 |
6 |
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Letterbook: October 1, 1867 - February 24, 1873
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37 |
7 |
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March 19, 1841 - April 8, 1841; June 9, 1848 - July 18, 1848; May 4, 1851 - September 20, 1851 : [70 digital images]
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38 |
1 |
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Diary of 1841 trip to New England to visit mills, observe uses of waterpower, and promote Ithaca as a manufacturing center. Includes detailed description of Boston and many New England mills and factories. Daily entries in 1848 and 1851 concern telegraph business and travels through New York and New England checking and repairing lines.
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Notebook, includes financial accounts, lists of names and addresses, and copies of letters.
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Diary with daily entries from journey through the South selling plows and plow patent rights. Provides description of travel by railroad, steamboat and foot, reports on personal health and treatments, and details of meals, including "a real log cabin supper." Diary includes observations of Southern businesses and descriptions of Monticello and Mount Vernon.
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Continuation of diary of trip to the South, with descriptions of Washington, D.C., the White House, the Capitol, the Patent Office, and Philadelphia.
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Notebook from trip to the South, includes remedies for the croup and consumption, census figures for counties in North Carolina, plow business notes and accounts, details of routes traveled, and notes on Southern factories.
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Diary of Cornell as the Superintendent of the New York, Albany & Buffalo Magnetic Telegraph Company. Includes details of travel, directives given, and repairs made on lines. Diary ends with resignation submitted to Theodore Faxton.
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August 1847
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38 |
7 |
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Small scrapbook of newspaper clippings concerning the Erie & Michigan telegraph line.
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May 24, 1848 - February 16, 1849
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38 |
8 |
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Notebook, includes details on operation of visual telegraph, and notes on telegraph business concerning routes, the building of lines, finances, and supplies.
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Diary of work on New York telegraph lines. Includes details of line maintenance and operations.
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Diary of Cornell as the Superintendent of the New York & Western Union Telegraph Company. Includes details of travel, line repairs, and line overhauls.
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Dairy of work on New York telegraph lines. Includes details of travel, line repair, building of lines, conflicts with Smith, purchase of Ohio, Indiana & Illinois Telegraph Company, and other telegraph business. Also includes some family news.
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Diary of work in the telegraph business. Includes travels in New York, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, the leasing of the Ohio, Indiana & Illinois line, and sales of telegraph stock.
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Diary of work in the telegraph business in New York and the west. Includes the consolidation with the House Company, Cornell's work as superintendent of part of the Union line (responsible for the Erie & Michigan line from Buffalo to Milwaukee and also of the circuit west of Cleveland), and a description of Hughes printing telegraph. Also includes details of travel and some family news.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes details of visit to oil wells in Titusville, travels on telegraph business, work with the New York State Agricultural Society, and the coal oil business.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes details of life in Ithaca where Cornell is "home all day" and involved in the Tompkins County Agricultural Society, the Farmers Club, raising sheep and cattle, and collecting agricultural statistics. Also includes travels to Washington, D.C. and attendance at Lincoln's inauguration.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes work in the New York State Legislature, interest in agricultural machinery, and a proposal to rescue the agricultural school and start an agricultural and military school. Also includes some detail of trip to England and Europe.
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Diary of trip to England, with details of the crossing from New York to Liverpool, travels in England and herds of pedigreed shorthorns visited. Also includes an alphabetical listing of Cornells in the United States with addresses and dates.
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Diary of travels in England, herds inspected and animals purchased.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes records of telegraph stock and various financial records. Note in back of diary to "enquire what the effect of large endowments are upon colleges in the Old World -- How many graduates do they send out, & c."
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes notes on Cornell family history and genealogy, business notes, and Western Union and Albany Agricultural Works financial statistics.
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Diary of trip to Pennsylvania to examine the coal mines near Towanda.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes details of trip to Wisconsin to "hunt lands" and other work concerning Cornell University and college land scrip. Also includes Western Union business and financial notes.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes notes on Cornell family history and genealogy, applicants for notary public, and collections for the University as well as business and financial information.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes Cornell University business, Western Union statistics, and notes on Cornell family history and genealogy. Also mentions month long illness.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes notes concerning personal finances, photo-lithography business, Western Union, Albany Agricultural Works, and Cornell University. Also describes solar eclipse viewed from Ithaca and the treatment for a liver complaint.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes notes concerning business of Albany Agricultural Works and Western Union and notes on Cornell family history and genealogy. Also, details concerning Cornell University, including listing of where students are from, housing in Cascadilla place, and reports on Wisconsin lands.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes business statistics of Western Union and Albany Agricultural works, railroad business and notes on Cornell family history and genealogy. Also includes details concerning a trip to the Mid-West and land grant business.
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Diary and cash accounts. Includes notes on Western Union business statistics, notes on railroad business and on Cornell University.
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Notebook of reports and notes from articles on telegraph science.
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Notebook of abbreviations used in telegraphic communication.
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Undated
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38 |
32 |
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Undated
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38 |
33 |
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Notebook with listing of Cornells with cities, states, and businesses. Also list of people to whom circulars of Cornell University were to be sent.
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