Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Riggs family span the years 1763-1945. Although there are some manuscripts of other family members and business associates, the bulk of the collection is composed of the papers of Elisha Riggs , Elisha Riggs, Jr. , Elisha Francis Riggs , Elisha Francis Riggs, Jr ., George W. Riggs , Romulus Riggs , Thomas Riggs, Jr. , T. Lawrason Riggs , and William Henry Riggs , as well as the business papers of Corcoran and Riggs and Riggs and Company .
The papers of Elisha Riggs (1779-1853) cover the years 1813-1896 and consist of family correspondence , letterbooks, general correspondence , business papers , and miscellaneous papers.
The family correspondence contains letters written by his son, Lawrason Riggs, giving a detailed description of a tour through Europe in 1834, and numerous letters from the late 1830s and 1840s relating to the sale of 32,000 acres of land in Illinois which his father had purchased in 1825. There is also a great deal of correspondence with Elisha's brothers, Romulus Riggs and George W. Riggs, and his nephew, Samuel Riggs, all of whom were engaged in the mercantile business.
A large section of general correspondence , 1813-1853, includes letters sent and received by Elisha Riggs that relate to the development of his mercantile business. Riggs corresponded mainly with general commission agents in Central and South America and China for the purchase of fabrics, wines, coffee, copper, and a wide spectrum of other goods. Beginning around 1838, there is a shift in the subject matter of the correspondence from an emphasis on the mercantile business to Riggs's increasing involvement in banking affairs. The most prominent of Riggs's correspondents are two of his business associates, William W. Corcoran and George Peabody.
A large group of business papers for the years 1813-1853 includes invoices, bills and receipts, insurance records, bills of lading, sales accounts, and other financial records. Among the miscellaneous papers of Elisha Riggs are manuscripts relating to the settlement of his estate and some printed material.
The papers of Elisha Riggs, Jr . (1826-1881) include a diary containing a description of his tour of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1844, family correspondence , general correspondence , business papers , and miscellaneous items.
Within the general correspondence are numerous letters from William W. Corcoran for the period when Elisha Riggs, Jr., was a member of the firm Corcoran and Riggs (1848-1854). A large group of business papers contains bonds, deeds, and indentures relating to the Averill Coal and Oil Company of West Virginia and other companies in which he had a financial interest.
A relatively small group of the papers of Elisha Francis Riggs (1851-1910) is made up of family correspondence , business papers , and general correspondence that includes two letters from the historian George Bancroft.
The papers of Elisha Francis Riggs, Jr . (1887-1936) contain family correspondence , general correspondence , and miscellaneous papers. Letters written to his mother, Medora Thayer Riggs, for the years 1911-1915 concern his military career at Fort Riley, Kansas, and in the Philippines. In letters to his aunt, Jane A. Riggs, for the period 1916-1918, when he was assigned to the Office of the Military Attaché at the American embassy in Petrograd, Russia, he makes occasional references to events during the Russian revolution and to meetings with the Czar, Leon Trotsky, and Vladimir Ilʹich Lenin.
The papers of George W. Riggs (1813-1881) include family correspondence , business papers , and general correspondence . Within the latter group are letters received from John Agg, Dion Boucicault, William W. Corcoran (with whom Riggs established the banking firm of Corcoran and Riggs in 1840), Frederick S. Cozzens, J. L. M. Curry, Francis Napier, John Howard Payne, George Peabody, Buckingham Smith, and Daniel Webster.
A group of miscellaneous papers include a scrapbook belonging to his friend John Agg. The scrapbook contains calling cards, invitations, programs, and correspondence, dated in the 1820s, from Nathan Hale (1784-1863), President James K. Polk, Daniel Webster, and others.
The papers of Romulus Riggs (1782-1846) include family correspondence , general correspondence , business papers , and miscellaneous manuscripts. The papers almost exclusively concern the development and management of his extensive business enterprises. Among his correspondence are letters from Robert B. Aertsen and William S. Paradise, who were business partners at various times. There are also many papers relating to the settlement of his estate.
The papers of Thomas Riggs, Jr. , (1873-1945) contain diaries , family correspondence , general correspondence , subject files , a speech, article, and book file , and miscellaneous papers.
The diaries begin in 1898, when Riggs was prospecting for and mining gold in the Yukon Territory of Alaska, and continue, except for an interruption for the years 1919-1927, until 1944. They describe his work with the United States and Canada Boundary Survey, the Alaskan Engineering Commission, and the Alaskan Boundary Survey, where he began as an axeman earning fifty dollars a month and progressed to the position of surveyor in charge of plotting the 141st meridian boundary separating Alaska from Canada. The diaries also describe his successful efforts to contain a smallpox epidemic among the Indians at Rampart House, Yukon Territory, five miles north of the Arctic Circle, in 1911.
His family correspondence contains numerous letters exchanged with various relatives, including his brother-in-law, the lawyer and author Frederic R. Coudert (1871-1955)
A large group of general correspondence covers the years 1889-1945. For the period when Riggs was governor of Alaska, there are letters concerning the establishment of a territorial fish hatchery and experimental station and other matters relating to the territory. Correspondence during the years following his governorship reveals his continuing efforts to influence legislation affecting Alaska. Among his correspondents are George E. Chamberlain, Walter Eli Clark, Ernest Gruening, Joseph F. Guffey, Franklin K. Lane, Noel J. Ogilvie, Julian Street, and Newton Booth Tarkington, who was a classmate of Riggs at Princeton University in 1893.
A subject file contains papers concerning the Alaskan Engineering Commission on which Riggs served from 1914 to 1917, Eskimos, and Riggs's mining interests. There is a group of Riggs's speeches and articles , the manuscript of his unpublished autobiography, and the manuscript and galleys of The Unfortified Boundary, the diaries of Major Joseph Delafield that Riggs edited with Robert McElroy.
Detailed information concerning the early career of Thomas Riggs, Jr., is contained in the numerous letters written to his mother, Catherine Gilbert Rotch Riggs, over the years 1885-1918 (see the Other Family Members series).
The papers of Thomas Lawrason Riggs (1888-1943) include a diary for the year 1920 in which he recounts conversations with his friends Dean Acheson, William C. Bullitt, and Monty Woolley; gives his impressions of contemporary theater, books, and newspapers; and records his activities as a novice priest at St. Joseph's Seminary at Yonkers, New York. There are additional diaries for the years 1921-1926 that contain more abbreviated entries. A small group of correspondence contains one letter each from Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, William Lyon Phelps, Cole Porter, and Monty Woolley. Letters to his aunt, Jane A. Riggs, for the years 1917-1918 depict his life as a member of the American Expeditionary Force stationed at a base hospital in France during World War I.
A group of his writings includes articles, the annotated typescript of his book, Saving Angel: The Truth about Joan of Arc and the Church, and some plays written for amateur theatrical groups. Miscellaneous papers contain lecture notes, school papers, genealogical records, an eighteenth-century wastebook, and a letter from Chevalier de la Anne-César Luzerne to President George Washington dated March 14, 1790.
A small group of the papers of William Henry Riggs (1837-1924) includes diaries describing his travels through Spain in 1859 and Egypt, Syria, and Palestine in 1859-1860. Of particular interest are the occasional diary entries concerning his lifelong passion for acquiring antique armor. In 1913 he donated his magnificent collection of arms and armor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There are a few pieces of family correspondence from his parents, Elisha Riggs and Mary Ann Karrick Riggs, and general correspondence that includes letters from the American artist Albert Bierstadt and eight cards illustrated with pen and watercolor drawings by the French painter Henri Pille.
A series designated Other Family Members is made up of papers of additional members of the Riggs family who are represented by smaller or less significant collections of manuscripts. Among these are Joseph Karrick Riggs (1828-1883), who engaged in the banking business with his father, Elisha Riggs, until the latter's death in 1853; Lawrason Riggs (1814-1884), who was in business at various times with his father, Elisha Riggs, and his cousin, Lawrason Levering; and Medora Thayer Riggs (1852-1915), whose family correspondence contains numerous letters from her sons, Elisha Francis Riggs, Jr., and Thomas Lawrason Riggs, and her husband, Elisha Francis Riggs. Renée Coudert Riggs's family correspondence includes letters from her brother, Frederic R Coudert, and there is a group of children's stories written by her as well as the unpublished manuscript of a book titled “Saints in the Wilderness.”
In a Related Papers series are manuscripts of persons who were associated with the Riggs family in business. Of these, the most outstanding are W. W. Corcoran (1798-1888), John Elliott, and George Peabody (1795-1869). W. W. Corcoran's correspondence, which dates from 1840 through 1854, concerns negotiations for loans, particularly the Mexican War Loan of 1848, and other financial matters. Among his correspondents are President James Buchanan, Ole B. Bull, George Newbold, president of the Bank of America, and members of the Riggs family. John Elliott's papers consist chiefly of general correspondence, 1841-1849, and George Peabody's papers include correspondence, 1839-1863, a letterbook, Nov. 1848-June 1849, and a few miscellaneous business papers.
A series of Business Papers includes records of Riggs and Company and the multiple branches that evolved over the years, resulting from the formation of partnerships with James M. Aertson, John Elliott, William S. Paradise, W. W. Corcoran, and others.
Papers of the banking firm Corcoran and Riggs form the largest part of the Business Papers file. They consist of letterbooks, correspondence, canceled checks, and a wide variety of financial documents extending from 1840, the year in which the firm was established, through 1855. The bank was designated a federal depository in August 1844 and in collaboration with the United States Treasury performed many of the functions formerly assumed by the then defunct Bank of the United States. Of special importance are the papers concerned with Corcoran and Riggs's role in the financing of the Mexican War and the settlement of Indian land claims brought by the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes around 1843.
Other portions of the business papers include manuscripts of Riggs and Company; Riggs, Son and Aertson; Riggs and Peabody; and Riggs, Son and Paradise. Much of the correspondence consists of letters received from business partners such as Aertson, Corcoran, Elliott, Paradise, and the sons of Elisha Riggs, who traveled throughout the country on horseback collecting debts owed to the firms. Among the prominent correspondents included in these papers are Clara Barton, Thomas Hart Benton, President James Buchanan, John C. Calhoun, President Grover Cleveland, Jefferson Davis, John W. Davis, William H. Seward, John Slidell, Daniel Webster, Levi Woodbury, and Brigham Young.
The final series consists of oversize account books, invoice books, checkbooks, business ledgers, and indexes to letterbooks of Elisha Riggs, Corcoran and Riggs, and others. There is also a scrapbook of Thomas Lawrason Riggs, as well as a volume containing military commissions of Elisha Francis Riggs, Jr.