Edward Parmelee Smith papers

The papers of Edward Parmelee Smith document his family, as well as his service to the U.S. Christian Commission, the American Missionary Association, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The papers are comprised almost entirely of correspondence and photographs, with a small amount of news clippings, Smith's log book for the U.S. Christian Commission, and additional documents present.

The majority of the correspondence, which dates from 1818 to 1876, relates to Smith's family and includes letters to and from Smith's parents, Noah and Laura Smith, as well as Smith's daughter, Mary Gertrude, and Edward himself. The main correspondents are Edward P. Smith and his sister, Mary Shipman Thatcher (nee Smith). Early correspondence includes a long letter of December 1818 from Laura Parmelee to Noah Smith, prior to their marriage in 1820. A letter from Mary Motyer Stone of Isle of Portland, England, to an unidentified uncle in America (presumably a member of the Smith family) provides information on her and her family and includes an appended piece of handwritten music. Noah Smith's May 1830 letter to his father, Edward, relates the news of the birth of his daughter, Mary, and other family news. Later letters are mostly between Edward P. Smith and his sisters in which they share news of their lives. Of particular interest is a draft of a letter, circa 1845-1846, written by Smith to his wife, Hannah, and appended to a letter he wrote to his sister, Mary.

The non-family correspondence includes a small number of letters related to the U.S. Christian Commission, the American Missionary Association (AMA), and the Office of Indian Affairs. Included are from Edward P. Smith to Alexander H. Clapp of the American Home Missionary Society and Rev. G. S. F. Savage, as well as a letter from Rev. George Whipple of the AMA presumably to Smith. Also present is a transcribed letter from a Native American man, Pa-ka-ba-wash, of the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota to Edward Smith regarding his disagreement with efforts by Ojibwe chiefs to have Smith and others removed from the reservation "to be replaced by the Catholics and their Religion." Finally, a July 1876 letter from D. W. Burton, a missionary in Sherbro, West Africa to George Whipple relates the death of Edward P. Smith and a transcription of his final words to his wife and daughter. Also included with this correspondence is Edward P. Smith's commission as a delegate to the U.S. Christian Commission, dated December 1863.

The photographs, including daguerreotypes, tintypes, carte de visites, and other formats, center mainly on the Smith family with some of Union soldiers and Native Americans. Included is a photograph album containing photographs of Smith's daughter, Mary Gertrude, which he kept while away from his family. It also contains photographs of the Smith family while in Germany following Smith's death. Of note are photographs taken by Frederick Gutekunst and Mathew B. Brady of U.S. Christian Commission activities.

Smith's Christian Commission logbook dates from 1863 to 1865, and begins with printed lists of members, agents, and the executive committee, as well as instructions to delegates. It includes Smith's handwritten notes on soldier's names, companies and regiments, names of family members and remarks by Smith; officers of the Army of the Cumberland; regiments without chaplains; chaplains with the Army of the Cumberland; general expenses and notes. Bound with it are the following volumes: The Confederate States Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1862, edited by T.O. Summers (Nashville, TN: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1862); U.S. Christian Commission, A Delegate's Story by Rev. H.Q. Butterfield (S.l.: s.n., n.d.); Among the Wounded, Experiences of a Delegate by Rev. David Weston (Philadelphia, PA: James B. Rodgers, Printer, 1864); Christian Commission for the Army and Navy of the United States of America (Philadelphia, PA: Ringwald & Brown, 1862); Ladies' Christian Commissions: Auxiliary to the U.S. Christian Commission (Philadelphia, PA: C. Sherman, 1864); Information for Army Meetings, issues for June 1864-March 1865 (Philadelphia, PA: James B. Rodgers, 1864-1865); and A Collection of Recipes for the Use of Special Diet Kitchens in Military Hospitals (St. Louis, MO: E.P. Studley, 1864).