Manuscript Collections

The Dayton Collection of local history materials contains many manuscript collections. These collections contain within them letters, photographs, documents, account books, broadsides, postcards, scrapbooks, diaries, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, newsletters, programs, tracts and more.

The manuscript collections in the Dayton Collection of the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library are:

• The Bickham Collection - William D. and Charles G. Bickham's collection of correspondence, photographs, and documents concerning the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, and their respective careers in the military, politics and journalism.

• The Brown-Patterson Collection - Letters, account books, documents, and the personal papers of Colonel Robert Patterson, Indian fighter and founder of the city of Lexington, his correspondence with John Johnston, Indian agent, and letters and account books of Henry Brown, merchant and husband of Patterson's daughter, Catherine (Kitty) Patterson Brown. View Finding Aid
  

• The Doren Collection - The papers of John G. Doren, Dayton newspaper editor, and his daughter, Electra C. Doren, librarian of the Dayton Public Library from 1896-1905 and 1913-1927.  

• The Paul Laurence Dunbar Collection - Correspondence, photographs, poems, sheet music, newspapers, programs, clippings, and more by and about the internationally acclaimed African American poet.View Finding Aid

• The Roy G. Fitzgerald Collection - The papers, photographs, documents and memoribilia of the WWI soldier and Dayton congressman. View Finding Aid

• The Forrer-Peirce-Wood Collection - Family papers, correspondence, documents, letters, diaries, etc., including The Major David Zeigler Papers, 1791-1822. Zeigler was the commander of Fort Washington, the first Mayor of Cincinnati, and the Surveyor of the Port of Cincinnati.

• The Homesteading Collection - Papers and publications chronicling the Dayton Homesteading Experiment from 1932-1936. This was a public welfare project in which the inhabitants produced their own food, clothing, homes, and livelihood.

• The Lowe Collection - Lowe family papers and letters of Thomas O. Lowe, lawyer, judge and clergyman involved in the Copperhead Movement, and his father John W. Lowe, lawyer and military officer in the Mexican War.

• The Montgomery County Historical Society Collection - A variety of materials, including correspondence, membership rosters, newsletters, account books, documents, letters, maps, scrapbooks, pamphlets, and minutes, chronicling the beginning and development of the county historical society. Materials date from 1867 to the present. View Finding Aid

• The Montgomery County Horicultural Society Collection - Minutes, papers, correspondence, programs, documents and scrapbook of the society. (Not available in digital format.)

• The Shaker Collection - Collected diaries, tracts, photographs, correspondence, maps, music, periodicals, and publications of the Shakers from 1808-1893, including material on the Watervliet Community. View Finding Aid

• The Hiram Strong Collection - Family papers of Colonel Strong, a Civil War soldier, laywer and leader in the Dayton community. View Finding Aid

• The Van Cleve-Dover Collection - Papers of the Van Cleve family, including Benjamin Van Cleve, one of Dayton's original settlers in 1796, and his son, John W. Van Cleve, noted naturalist. The accompayning books collection donated by Col. Edward Deeds, is meant to represent the type of collection that would have been found in a gentleman's library in the mid 1800s. View Finding Aid

• The Woman 's Suffrage Association and League of Women Voters Collection - The papers, scrapbooks, correspondence, documents, resolutions, petitions, speeches, newspaper clippings, minutes, publications, financial statements, newspaper clippings, and photographs, of the associations, dating from 1867 to the present, it chronicles the suffrage movement in Dayton, in Ohio and in the nation. View Finding Aid

• The Wright Brothers Collection - This collection includes over 200 newspapers written and published by the brothers, scrapbooks, photographs, manususcripts, account books, broadsides, postcards, programs, newspaper clippings, sheet music and more. View Finding Aid