Scope and Content Note
The papers of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) span the years 1788-1941, with the bulk of the material dated between 1820 and 1856. The greater part of the collection consists of the correspondence of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and his wives, Jane Johnston and Mary E. Howard, and notes, drafts, and manuscripts of Schoolcraft's published and unpublished articles, manuscript magazines (The Cricket, The Muzziniegun, or Literary Voyager, and The Garland), poetry, books, speeches, lectures, government reports, and prospectuses. In addition, there are journals, reports, memoranda, financial records (including ledgers, account books, bills, receipts, and statements), genealogical notes, letter copybook, commonplace book, maps, drawings, lists, statistical compilations, Native American language vocabularies, calling cards, newspaper clippings, and printed material.
The collection includes miscellaneous papers of Schoolcraft's father, Lawrence Schoolcraft, his father-in-law, John Johnston, and his close friend, Lewis Cass. It also includes Joseph N. Nicollet's journal of 1836 concerning an expedition to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, as well as a variety of items submitted or forwarded to Schoolcraft for inclusion in his six-volume work, Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.
The collection reflects Schoolcraft's career as a glass manufacturer in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, mineralogist on an exploring expedition in the Ozark Mountains, geologist on the Cass expedition to the upper Mississippi, Indian agent at Sault Sainte Marie and Mackinac Island, Michigan, superintendent of Indian affairs for Michigan, leader of expeditions throughout the Great Lakes region (notably the 1832 expedition which identified the source of the Mississippi River), member of Michigan's legislative council, ethnologist studying and reporting on the Iroquois in New York, and compiler and editor of Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States for the Office of Indian Affairs. It reflects the contribution and collaboration of Schoolcraft's first wife and Ojibwe author Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (Bamewawagezhikaquay), including as co-editor and author of the literary magazine, Muzzeniegun also known as the Literary Voyager, as well as Jane and her family's work in identifying fieldwork sources and gathering of Chippewa/Ojibwe tales. The collection includes correspondence, journals, poetry and other writings, notes, and other papers of Jane, her father John Johnston, and other Johnston family members. Also included is correspondence and other papers of Schoolcraft's second wife Mary Howard (Mrs. Henry Rowe) Schoolcraft; papers of his father Lawrence Schoolcraft and friend Lewis Cass; and Joseph N. Nicollet's journal (1836) of an expedition to the sources of the Mississippi.
Mineralogy, geology, and ethnology are recurrent subjects throughout the collection. The dominant subject of Schoolcraft's writings is the history, language, mythology, maxims, and characteristics of the American Indian. Schoolcraft also wrote about the past and future roles of the federal government toward Native Americans, American Indian hieroglyphics and picture writing, temperance and religion as practiced by Indigenous peoples, and Christian missionary work among tribal communities. He was also interested in American literature using American Indians as a central motif.
Schoolcraft continuously revised and reissued his published works, often using different titles. He rarely dated his manuscripts or otherwise adequately identified them, often using pseudonyms or not signing his works at all. Among his pseudonyms are Agricola, Albion, Algon, Altamont, Appelles, Brevis, Brutus, Henry R. Colcraft, A Englishman in Search of Amusement, William Hetherwold, Hiokato, Ianosh, Megesthines, Peter Pencraft, and Senex. The titles of writings in the container list of this register were taken from the manuscripts themselves and reflect the variant spellings used by Schoolcraft.
Prominent correspondents in the collection include John Russell Bartlett, John C. Calhoun, Lewis Cass, Ramsay Crooks, James Duane Doty, Edward Everett, Joseph Henry, Washington Irving, Richard B. Kimball, William S. Lee, Francis Lieber, Lucius Lyon, Stevens Thomson Mason, Pliny Miles, John Gorham Palfrey, Ely Samuel Parker, Francis Parkman, Thomas Ritchie, Willett H. Shearman, Benjamin Silliman, William Gilmore Simms, Charles C. Trowbridge, and Henry Whiting. Family correspondents include Schoolcraft's brothers-in-law, John Harrison Howard, John Hulbert, George Johnston, and William McMurray.