Scope and Content Note
The papers of William Augustus Croffut (1835-1915) contain correspondence, journals, scrapbooks, autographs, reference material, printed matter, and drafts of articles, books, and poems, including a significant portion relating to Ethan Allan Hitchcock. The collection spans the period 1774-1933, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1880 and 1915. The papers are organized into five series: General Correspondence , Business Papers , Ethan Allen Hitchcock File , Anti-Imperialist League , and Miscellany .
The General Correspondence ranges from 1862 to 1933, with the largest part from the period 1880-1915. Correspondence after 1915 is largely that of Croffut's second wife, Bessie B. Croffut. Topics include Croffut's various publications, his activities with the Anti-Imperialist League, and the presidential campaign of 1900. Correspondents include George S. Boutwell, Elwood S. Corser, John William Hayes, John B. Henderson, Patrick O'Farrell, Bertrand Shadwell, Charles A. Towne, George W. Van Siclen, and Erving Winslow, as well prominent figures such as William Jennings Bryan, Samuel Gompers, and Carl Schurz.
The Ethan Allen Hitchcock File contains drafts and copies of Croffut's writings as well as a copy of Hitchcock's memoir that Croffut used for Fifty Years in Field and Camp. This memoir, based on diaries, is not in the Ethan Allen Hitchcock collection in the Manuscript Division. Bessie B. Croffutt, niece of Hitchcock, also made copies of other Hitchcock materials, including correspondence with Sophie Peabody (Mrs. Nathaniel Hawthorne). Also in the collection are an undated letter of John Quincy Adams, a note of Jefferson Davis, numerous autographs, including of James Monroe, copies of George Washington material, and items relating to Joseph Smith Fowler.
Included in the Anti-Imperialist League file are minutes and records of the Washington, D.C., branch, along with other branch and league literature, additional printed matter, and drafts of articles advocating the cause of the Philippines and of the Boers in South Africa. The Miscellany series includes journals of Henry Alfred Robbins containing accounts of his travels in Europe that describe practices on the Continent during the 1870s. Scrapbooks contain newspaper columns and an account of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.