The papers of John George Nicolay (1831-1901) span the years 1811 to 1943, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1860 to 1901. The collection reflects Nicolay’s long political career, particularly his tenure as private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, and documents his numerous literary activities. There is also a limited amount of material relating to the literary activities of his daughter, Helen Nicolay. The collection is composed mainly of correspondence and research material, supplemented by notebooks, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous material and is organized in seven series: Notebooks and Bound Correspondence , General Correspondence , Helen Nicolay General Correspondence , Transcripts , Research File , Miscellany , and Oversize .

The Notebooks and Bound Correspondence series is relatively brief and incomplete, but the General Correspondence series contains a wealth of material pertaining to Nicolay’s public and private activities. The correspondence is especially valuable, though not voluminous, during the years he served as Lincoln’s private secretary. Numerous letters from the young secretary to his future wife, Therena Bates, offer an intimate glimpse into the character and activities of the war president and the men who shaped national policy, as well as Nicolay’s evaluation of the important political and military decisions made during these crucial years. Scattered memoranda made by Nicolay both before and during Lincoln’s administration provide a valuable supplement to this correspondence.

Nicolay’s career as a public officeholder and writer is amply documented in the correspondence for the years after the war, particularly his collaboration with John Hay as coauthor of a multivolume biography of Lincoln. Nine revealing letters, 1861-1870, from Nicolay to O. M. Hatch in the Hatch papers at the Illinois State Historical Library have been photocopied and interfiled in the correspondence series.

Nicolay’s political career brought him into contact with many distinguished public men, and the general correspondence is enriched by numerous letters from American political figures. Prominent correspondents include John Bigelow, Simon Cameron, Schuyler Colfax, William Dennison, John A. Dix, James Harlan, O. M. Hatch, John Hay, Robert Todd Lincoln, Alexander K. McClure, Charles H. Philbrick, and A. C. Woolfolk. There are also scattered letters from Anson Burlingame, Roscoe Conkling, James Dixon, George Gilman Fogg, Horace Greeley, James Tracy Hale, Joseph Medill, Edwin D. Morgan, Whitelaw Reid, Carl Schurz, Charles Sumner, Leonard Swett, Theodore Tilton, and Horace White. Nicolay’s literary career, particularly his years of work on the Lincoln biography, is the subject of the Research File series. The notes, memoranda, and other material collected by Nicolay and his daughter have been organized into material relating to Lincoln and material unrelated to Lincoln. The first half of the series, particularly the copies and extracts from the diaries of prominent Civil War political and military figures, includes much pertinent material relating to Lincoln and his administration. Nicolay’s literary endeavors, other than his works on Lincoln, are represented by notes, memoranda, and other material in the second half of the series.

The collection concludes with a Miscellany series that includes an autograph collection of invitations for the Civil War period.