Rare Documents On Civil War Era Given to Library

A prize collection of manuscripts, including the treasured Biglow papers, is now lodged in Houghton Libary. The documents comprise the papers of Sydney Howard Gay 1833, historian and antislavery editor.

A series of unpublished letters written by James Russell Lowell when Gay was editor of the "Standard," and other pieces of his prose and verse, make up the first portion of the valuable manuscripts presented to the University.

The yellowed papers, which also included Gay's correspondence with some of the most important men of the day, have previously been stored in the trunks and attics of the editor's heirs. It is expected that much of this confidential information will shed new light on the history of the Civil War.

Among the important manuscripts in the Gay collection are letters from war correspondents of both the North and South armies during the war, records of prominent families of the times, and some of Gay's own work.