Finding Aid to the Thomas Winston Papers, 1845-1915 (bulk 1861-1866

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Collection Summary

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Restrictions

Series Descriptions

Series 1: Biographical materials

Series 2: Thomas Winston correspondence

Series 3: Caroline Mumford Winston correspondence

Series 4: Winston family correspondence

Biographical Note

Physician Thomas Winston (1829-1928) was born in Wales, emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two, and was orphaned at the age of ten. He worked as an apprentice to a Milwaukee tailor, leaving the job to head west at the age of seventeen. His trip ended, however, in rural Illinois, where he would live for most of his long life. He began his formal schooling at the age of twenty, earning his M.D. in 1858 from Chicago's Rush Medical School after a six-week course.

Soon after his 1861 marriage to Caroline Mumford and the birth of their first child, Winston went to fight for the Union in the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist and a strong believer in the Union cause, he served as a physician and surgeon to Illinois' 92nd regiment. He spent 1862 and 1863 encamped in the border areas of Kentucky and Tennessee, fighting measles and diarrhea in his regiment under threat of Confederate raids. He witnessed the battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863. His regiment also marched through Georgia in 1865, where Winston viewed the destruction wreaked by General Sherman and his men. He returned home to Illinois in 1866, where he continued to run a country practice. He also served as surgeon to the Illinois Central Railroad and invested in Western land. He spent his last years in Kansas and Nebraska after Caroline died in 1909. Winston died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1928.

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Collection Summary

The Winston Papers consist mostly of the correspondence between Thomas Winston and his wife Caroline Mumford Winston during the three and a half years he was at war (1862-1866; he spent six months at home in late 1864 and early 1865). Also present is a small collection of later family correspondence. The material has been divided into four series. The first series contains biographical materials. The second series consists of correspondence written by Thomas Winston mostly to his wife Caroline Mumford Winston between 1858 and 1866. This material has been divided into four subseries: handwritten originals of the correspondence, typescript copies of the correspondence made in the 1960s by Winston's granddaughter Caroline Newson Beshers, bound volumes of photocopies of the handwritten originals, and bound volumes of photocopies of the typescript copies. A spot-check would indicate that almost all, if not all, of the original handwritten copies have been photocopied and typed.

The third series contains correspondence written by Caroline Mumford Winston to her husband during the war years. This material has also been separated into two subseries, handwritten originals of her correspondence and typescript copies of it. The fourth series of the collection contains the original handwritten copies of Winston family correspondence dating from the 1870s to 1914.

Both Winston and his wife Caroline were articulate and expressive writers. Winston in particular imparts a vivid picture of what he saw and did while encamped with the Illinois 92nd, while also discussing at length many of the most vital and controversial issues of the time. Winston spends much time pondering issues of slavery and race relations. In his descriptions of the frustrations and "red tape" he encountered when finding hospitals for sick men and his opinions on other surgeons, Winston also delivers a full account of the state of military medicine during the Civil War. Contemporary politics, Winston's participation in the Prohibition Party and his land in Nebraska are discussed in the later family letters written by Thomas Winston, Caroline Mumford Winston and their children (1870s-1910s). The Winston Papers would be of interest to those studying the Civil War and late nineteenth-century America in general, as well as to those interested in American medical history.

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Restrictions

Restrictions

Collection is not restricted. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access. For online customer service, please visit custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

Copyright

NLM does possess copyright to the collection. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding use. For online customer service, please visit custserv@nlm.nih.gov.

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Administrative Information

Alternate Forms Available

Microfilm. [Bethesda, Md.] : National Library of Medicine, 1998. 1 microfilm reel : negative ; 35 mm.

Prefered Citation

[Call Number, Collection Name, Series Number], Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, USA.

Provenance

Gift from Mrs. Hugh M. Beshers, 1969.

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Series Descriptions

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