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Robert H. McNeill family papers, 1839-2008

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BOX 48-73 Mary A. McNeill, 1839-1959
The Mary A. McNeill series documents her family life, her teaching career, her engagement in civic and religious activities, her high school and college years, and her interest in family history and genealogy. This series is comprised chiefly of correspondence, journals, and a subject file. The correspondence consists mostly of incoming letters from family members. The bulk of the family letters are from Mary’s husband, William C. McNeill, prior to their marriage in 1910. His letters pertain to their courtship and highlight his activities as a medical doctor and his duties at the Howard University College of Medicine. Also present are letters from her son Robert describing his experiences in photography school in New York City and his military service during World War II. Topics treated are details about his training (including drawings he made depicting the layout, barracks, and obstacle course at Fort McClellan, Alabama), descriptions of the Desert Training Center in California where he was stationed prior to his deployment to the Pacific Theater, and a few references to Officer Candidate School. Robert applied to the school in 1943 but was not accepted until January 1945. Also present are letters from her son, William Jr., and his wife, Lucille. The majority of William Jr.'s letters convey news about his family, his work as a civil engineer in Liberia during the 1950s, and the living conditions there. Letters addressed to both parents, Mary A. McNeill and William C. McNeill Sr., are filed with Mary's papers.

One of the larger groups featured in the Mary A. McNeill series are her journals from 1935 until her death in 1959. The journals chronicle her daily activities, including details about family and friends, her health, her travels, the weather, her teaching of student nurses at the Freedman's Hospital, and her service as a member of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia for African American schools. Also present in the journals are occasional notes by Mary commenting on issues such as the performance by singer Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1939, the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in 1941, and the desegregation crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. The subject file also features files relating to Mary's service as a member of the Board of Education, including petitions from citizens urging her to remain on the Board past her four successive terms. She was not swayed and left the board in 1938. Files pertaining to Mary’s secondary education (Hartford Public High School, Hartford, Connecticut) and college years (Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts) are also located in the subject file. Material includes class papers, report cards, annuals, notebooks, photographs of friends, reunion files, and a scrapbook.

As a daughter and granddaughter of ministers, Mary’s religious faith is reflected throughout the series. The religious files in the subject files, however, offer the most concentrated documentation, highlighting her activities as a member of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., including her endeavors as part of its Music Committee. The notebooks, notes, and printed matter in the religious files also chronicle her spiritual interests.

The family papers in the subject file relate chiefly to three family members: Mary’s grandfather, Amos Noë Freeman; her sister, Laura Wheeler Waring; and her father, Robert F. Wheeler. Freeman was a Presbyterian minister and a conductor with the Underground Railroad. His files include correspondence, biographical material, and clippings relating to mainly his vocation as a minister. Also present are a typescript of Freeman’s letter to Lewis Tappan describing a journey on the Underground Railroad and a reproduction of an albumen photograph of abolitionist John Brown. Files pertaining to Laura Wheeler Waring include clippings, programs, clippings, and printed matter documenting primarily her work as an artist. Waring’s paintings often depicted prominent African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance. The Robert F. Wheeler files feature biographical material, clippings, and printed matter pertaining chiefly to his work as a pastor in Hartford, Connecticut.

Material types include correspondence, journals, notebooks and notes, speeches and writings, minutes of meetings, petitions, class papers, photographs, genealogical material, financial papers, biographical material, programs, report cards, music books, sheet music, poetry, recipes, scrapbooks, address books, newspaper clippings, printed matter, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically in five groups: address books, correspondence, journals, speeches and writings file, and subject file.
BOX 48 Address books, 1908, circa 1954-circa 1961, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 48 Correspondence
BOX 48 Family
BOX 48 McNeill, Bertha C. (sister-in-law), 1935-1950
BOX 48 McNeill, Lucille G. (daughter-in-law), 1944-1945, 1956-1958
(2 folders)
BOX 49 McNeill, Robert H. (son), 1930-1945, undated
(7 folders)
BOX 49 McNeill, William C., Jr. (son), 1925, 1939-1958
(2 folders)
BOX 49 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1906
BOX 49 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1907, Apr.-Sept.
(4 folders)
BOX 49 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1907, Oct.
BOX 50 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1907, Oct.
BOX 50 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1907, Nov.-Dec.
BOX 50 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1908-1913
(10 folders)
BOX 51 McNeill, William C., Sr. (husband), 1920-1934, 1945-1951, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 51 Other relatives, 1937, 1958, undated
BOX 51 Walker, Kathernine McNeill (daughter), and family, circa 1931-1957, undated
BOX 51 Waring, Laura Wheeler (sister),1923-1929, 1943-1945, undated
BOX 51 Waring, Walter E. (brother-in-law), 1928-1958
BOX 51 Wheeler, Lloyd, and Arthur Wheeler (brothers), 1902-1908, undated
BOX 51 Wheeler, Robert F., and Mary C. Wheeler (parents), 1906-1915
BOX 51 General, 1906-1958, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 51 Get well cards and letters, 1956-1959, undated
BOX 52 Journals, 1935-1938
(6 folders)
BOX 53 Journals, 1939-1940
(3 folders)
BOX 53 Journals, 1941-1942
(2 folders)
BOX 54 Journals, 1941-1942
BOX 54 Journals, 1943-1944
(3 folders)
BOX 55 Journals, 1945-1946
(3 folders)
BOX 55 Journals, 1947-1948
BOX 56 Journals, 1947-1948
(2 folders)
BOX 56 Journals, 1949-1950
(3 folders)
BOX 57 Journals, 1951-1952
(4 folders)
BOX 57 Journals, 1953-1954
BOX 58 Journals, 1953-1954
(2 folders)
BOX 58 Journals, 1955-1956
(3 folders)
BOX 58 Journals, 1957-1958
BOX 59 Journals, 1957-1958
BOX 59 Journals, 1959
(2 folders)
BOX 60 Speeches and writings file
BOX 60 Speeches and related material, 1925, 1935, 1942, undated
(3 folders)
BOX 60 Writings, undated
(7 folders)
BOX 61 Subject file
BOX 61 Anderson, Marian, 1939
BOX 61 Bible, 1911
BOX 61 Board of Education of the District of Columbia
BOX 61 By-laws, Rules and Regulations for the Public Schools of the District of Columbia, 1937
BOX 61 By-laws, Rules, Regulations and Selected Statues for the Public Schools of the District of Columbia, 1906, 1926-1939
(2 folders)
BOX 61 Compilation of Laws Affecting the Public Schools of the District of Columbia, 1929
BOX 62 General, 1925-1928
BOX 62 General, 1929-1939, undated
(15 folders)
BOX 62 Petitions, 1938
(2 folders)
BOX 63 Cards, fortune-telling and extrasensory perception, undated
BOX 63 Death, 1953-1959
BOX 63 Elementary school and junior high school, 1892-1898
BOX 63 Family
BOX 63 Freeman, Amos Noë, and Christiana Freeman (grandparents), 1839-1910, 1951, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 63 Genealogy, writings, notes, and chart, undated
BOX 63 McNeill, William, Jr. (son) 1923-1927
BOX 63 Miscellany, 1908-1913, 1929, 1943
BOX 63 Walker, Katherine McNeill (daughter)
BOX 63 School papers, 1935-1936
(2 folders)
BOX 63 Wedding, 1940
BOX 64 Waring, Laura Wheeler (sister), 1926-1970s, undated
(5 folders)
BOX 64 Wheeler, Robert F. (father) 1874-1921, undated
(4 folders)
BOX 64 Financial papers, 1926, 1947-1959
BOX 65 Hartford Public High School, Hartford, Conn.
BOX 65 Annual, 1902
BOX 65 Catalog, tercentenary edition, 1941
BOX 65 Class papers, 1900-1902
BOX 65 General, 1902, 1942 See also Container OV 3, diploma, high school
BOX 65 Report cards, 1898-1902
BOX 65 Miscellany, 1897-1913, 1925, 1937-1944, 1955, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 65 Music books and sheet music, circa 1890, 1911
BOX 66 Music books and sheet music, 1924, 1954-1959, undated
BOX 66 National Association of College Women, 1933-1937
BOX 66 Notebooks, 1912, 1920-1955, undated
(6 folders)
BOX 67 Notes, 1955-1959, undated
BOX 67 Poetry, 1928-1957
(3 folders)
BOX 67 Postcards and art reproductions, 1910, 1916, 1929, 1957-1958, undated
BOX 68 Printed matter
BOX 68 Books, 1891, 1904, undated
BOX 68 Clippings, 1929-1959
(2 folders)
BOX 68 Miscellaneous, 1933-1948, 1954, undated
(2 folders)
BOX 68 Programs, 1909-1913, 1937, 1949, 1955
BOX 68 Recipes, undated
BOX 68 Religious activities
BOX 68 Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C.
BOX 68 General, 1934-1959
BOX 69 Music Committee, 1945-1953
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