Scope and Content Note
The papers of Elisha Hunt Allen (1804-1883) span the years 1849-1934, with the bulk of the material dating from 1867 to 1882. The papers consist of correspondence, speeches and writings, notes, awards and diplomas, invitations, passports, photographs, statistical tables, printed matter, and miscellaneous items and are organized into the following series: Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Hawaiian Legation Correspondence , Subject File , Miscellany , and Oversize .
The Family Correspondence contains letters from Allen to his second wife, Mary Hobbs Allen, and a few letters to other members of the Allen family. Correspondents in the General Correspondence include Charles Reed Bishop, W. L. Green, Charles Coffin Harris, Henry W. Severance, and Andrew Welch. The Hawaiian Legation Correspondence contains drafts and a letterbook of official letters sent from the Hawaiian Legation. Subjects of interest covered in the several correspondence series as well as in the Subject File and Miscellany include the United States-Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty of 1876, the Hawaiian supreme court, sugar plantations and trade, Chinese labor, and Hawaiian economic and political conditions from 1850 to 1882.