Scope and Content Note
The papers of Walter Quintin Gresham (1832-1895) span the years 1857-1932 and include correspondence, telegrams, letterbooks, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, the major portion of which is dated after Gresham's appointment as postmaster general in 1883. The papers prior to that date consist for the most part of Gresham's letters to his wife, Matilda Gresham, written during the Civil War from camps near sites such as Paducah, Shiloh, Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, and Kenesaw Mountain. The largest portion of a Correspondence series, plus letterbooks for the period 1883-1884 and 1895, relate to Gresham's service as postmaster general in the administration of Chester Alan Arthur and judge and secretary of state in the administration of Grover Cleveland. Some subjects touched upon are Indiana and national politics, appointments to positions as postmaster, Louisiana lottery, judicial matters, the presidential elections of 1884 and 1888, the question of Hawaiian independence, and the problem regarding pelagic sealing in the Bering Sea. The collection is organized in three series: Correspondence , Letterbooks and Miscellany , and Oversize .
Prominent correspondents include Thomas F. Bayard, Erastus Brainerd, Benjamin Harris Brewster, Benjamin Helm Bristow, Martin L. Bundy, Noble Chase Butler, Grover Cleveland, David Davis, Charles Denby, Thomas Drummond, Charles E. Dyer, John Watson Foster, Robert Sanford Foster, John Marshall Harlan, R. M. Kelley, Elijah Bishop Martindale, Joseph Medill, John Tyler Morgan, John Overmyer, Baron Julian Pauncefote, James M. Scovil, Thomas C. Slaughter, David W. Voyles, Albert S. Willis, and J. H. Woodard.
Also in the collection is correspondence of Gresham's son, Otto Gresham, which includes information on his father's service during the Civil War and his opinions on prominent topics and people in the Ulysses S. Grant and Cleveland administrations.