Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Hubbard family span the years 1639-1925, with most of the material concentrated between the years 1830-1897. The papers are composed primarily of correspondence supplemented by drawings, notes, poems, speeches and writings, and printed matter. The collection is organized into seven series: Diaries , Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , and Oversize .
Although the collection centers around the papers of Gardiner G. Hubbard and his wife, Gertrude, it includes papers of earlier generations of the Greene and Hubbard families as well as documents of the McCurdy family. Approximately half the collection consists of Family Correspondence . The earliest letters are written by Daniel and Mary Hubbard and Gardiner and Elizabeth Greene, the maternal great-grandparents and grandparents of Gardiner G. Hubbard. Letters written by Gardiner's parents, Samuel and Mary Hubbard, during the first and second years of their marriage are also included. Gardiner G. Hubbard's first letters date from his school days at Andover, Leicester, and Dartmouth College. They are followed by letters focusing on his choice of a career, the establishment of his financial independence, and letters to his wife prior to their marriage. Most of the letters after 1855 are to his wife, Gertrude, whose family correspondence starts in 1845. In addition to family news, discussions of items of topical interest, and financial matters, the correspondence between Gardiner and Gertrude and with their relatives also highlights Gardiner G. Hubbard's public welfare activities. His crusade to establish a school that would teach lipreading and speech to deaf children and his campaign in behalf of the postal telegraph system are documented in the correspondence. Business ventures, such as the Caledonia Mines, the Moxee Company, and the development of the Bell telephone systems are other topics covered in the family letters. The Miscellany series contains excerpts from and transcripts of many family letters apparently made in preparation for a biography of Gardiner G. Hubbard. These copies are followed by chronological lists that index the subject contents of the letters under categories useful for the biography.
General Correspondence constitutes a small portion of the Hubbard family papers and mainly consists of letters written and received by Gardiner G. and Gertrude Hubbard, Samuel Hubbard, and Robert Henry McCurdy. The most significant letters of Gardiner G. Hubbard relate to the initiation of telephone service in Europe and to his appointment to the Special Commission on Railway Mail Transportation. A number of letters to Harriet Rogers, principal of the Chelmsford School that pioneered speech and lipreading in America, are found in the General Correspondence between 1865 and 1869. The majority of letters received by Gertrude are letters of condolence following the deaths of Gardiner in 1897, their son, Robert, in 1849, and their daughter, Gertrude, in 1886. A few letters concerning the Gardiner G. Hubbard collection of engravings presented to the Library of Congress and replies to inquiries about Gardiner's activities in preparation for the proposed biography are also included in her correspondence.
Letters addressed to Samuel Hubbard are mostly limited to the educational progress and expenses of his children, Gardiner, Caroline and Joanna. The first letters to Robert Henry McCurdy are testimonials to Gardiner's character and financial prospects for the future before his marriage to Gertrude; later correspondence concerns McCurdy's activities during the Civil War. An avid supporter of Lincoln, McCurdy rallied merchants and citizens of New York in support of the Northern cause, and many of the letters are responses to calls for meetings of loyal citizens. Printed material relating to loyal citizen association meetings and the Union Defense Committee are found in the Miscellany series, as are a few manuscripts that McCurdy collected on April 20, 1865, on a visit to Richmond after Lee's surrender.
Among the family correspondents in the Hubbard family papers are Alexander Graham Bell, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, Edgcumb Blatchford, Elizabeth Hubbard Buck, Theodore Frelinghuysen, and Gertrude L. McCurdy. Other correspondents are Gorham D. Abbott, William F. Channing, Joseph H. Converse, Henry L. Dawes, L. de Groof, Edward Everett Hale, Russell Hineman, Eben Norton Horsford, William Ker, S. P. Langley, D. E. Lesh, Nathan Lord, William Orton, Harriet Burbank Rogers, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, Adam Scott, Samuel Storrow, and Ida M. Tarbell.