Low-Mills Family

A Register of Its Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Raymond Eichman, George F. Williss, and David Mathisen
Revised and expanded by Karen Linn Femia with the assistance of Marjorie Torney

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2003

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2005

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms005016

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

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Subjects:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of the Low-Mills family were given to the Library of Congress between 1944 and 1981 by Elma Loines, Mrs. James McF. Baker, Mrs. Roger S. Forbes, Josiah O. Low, Abbot L. Mills, Jr., Katherine Andrews, Edwin G. Beal, and Arthur W. Hummel. A later addition was given by Margot Loines Wilkie in 2000.

The collection originally existed in the Library as five separate collections: the Low Family Papers, the Papers of Abiel Abbot Low, the Journals of Harriet Low, the Papers of Edward Allen Low and the Papers of Mary Hillard Loines. The material was consolidated into the Low-Mills Family Papers in 1965. Addition I was appended and the register revised in 1983. Addition II was organized and the register updated in 2003. A description of the journal of Harriet Low Hillard appears in the Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, vol. 2, nos. 3-4 (June 1945), pp.45-60.

Some photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of these papers.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Low-Mills family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on two reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Low-Mills Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

The Low-Mills Family Papers span the years from 1767 to 1971, with the bulk of the material dating from 1806 to 1940. The papers are organized in the following series: General Correspondence, Papers of Mary Hillard Loines, Far East Files, Diaries and Journals, Scrapbooks and Commonplace Books, Miscellany, and Additions. The collection documents the activities of four generations of the Low, Mills, Hilllard, and Loines families from the early years of the nineteenth century until the middle of the twentieth century. The Low family began their shipping business in Salem, Massachusetts, but around 1829 moved to Brooklyn, New York, to make use of the larger harbor there. Family members also lived in Macau/Canton, China, and in England. Of special interest are papers concerning the family's activities in the China trade and the journal of Harriet Low Hillard documenting her stay in Macau, 1829-1834.

Most of the General Correspondence series is personal in nature, discussing family news, vacations, and similar matters. A majority of the letters were exchanges between members of the Mills family who were related to the Low family by the marriage of Ellen Porter Low and Ethelbert S. Mills. Letters in the General Correspondence of the Low family that date from the early years of the nineteenth century are primarily personal. Correpondence concerning Low family commercial enterprises not specifically connected with the Far East are concentrated in the years 1870-1873. Additional Low family correspondence is in Addition II.

The Papers of Mary Hillard Loines include correspondence from her mother, Harriet Low Hillard, and from family friend, George Haven Putnam. Putnam, of the Putnam publishing family, served as adjutant of the 175th New York Volunteers during the years 1863-1865. His letters, written from Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia, portray the life of a Union officer during the Civil War. Attempts to form African-American units within the Union Army are discussed in detail. Also in these papers are clippings dealing with the Paris Commune of 1870 and a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt discussing the candidacy of Al Smith. Papers of Mary Hillard Loines in Addition II include typed transcripts (Notebook No. 1) of post-Civil War letters with George Haven Putnam and members of the Putnam family. In the early 1870s Mary Hillard Loines worked for the G.P. Putnam's Sons publishing company. The letters are primarily personal, but have some business content as well. Also in the addition is Mary Hillard Loines's detailed description of her experience attending the first convention of the American Women's Suffrage Association held in Cleveland, Ohio, in September 1869. There is also a short memoir of her involvement in the early suffrage movement.

The Low family was active in the early trade with China, primarily working with Russell and Company of Canton. Material relating to the trade is in Far East Files in both the main collection and in Addition II. Personal and business correspondence in the series in the main collection covers the years 1795-1849 and 1870-1873. There is no material for the period from 1850 to 1869. The file includes data on types of goods, quantities, and methods of trading. Also included is a license from 1795 issued to a Captain Richard Low of the ship Hope. The license may be the first issued to an American ship by the Philippines government. Besides the Far East File in Addition II, material concerning the China trade can be found in the correspondence of John Hillard during the years 1854-1856 while he was working in Canton. Closely related are the records of Russell and Company, a collection also held by the Manuscript Division.

Further information concerning the Far East is in the journals of Harriet Low Hillard, who wrote her journals while traveling to and living in China from 1829 to 1834. They relate to the life of American and British traders living in China and have been used as sources for two books: My Mother's Journal by Katherine Hillard and The China Post-Bag by Elma Loines. These journals and other material in the Far East Files illustrate the social, political, and military conditions in that area during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The attitudes of traders toward the Chinese are particularly well documented.

Material in other parts of the collection illustrates the social attitudes, cultural tastes, and religious views of the members of an upper stratum of American society during the nineteenth century. There are letters depicting the life of college students in the 1830s and 1870s, reports of visits to a Freedmen's camp, a detailed report of a sermon by Henry Ward Beecher in the diary of Ellen Low Mills, and a certificate appointing Mary Hillard Loines as a teacher for the National Freedmen's Relief Association. The Ellen Low Mills diary includes references to the Emancipation Proclamation as well as a detailed account of Lincoln's second inauguration. Her diary for the Civil War years comments on the sinking of the Monitor, Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, and the attacks of the Confederate Navy on ships owned by the Lows.

Business and personal letters illustrate economic conditions of the nineteenth century, particularly the panics of 1837 and 1873. A letterpress book consisting of correspondence of Josiah O. Low in the years 1871-1873 is especially informative for the Panic of 1873.

Because members of the Low-Mills family traveled abroad a great deal and communicated their impressions in letters and diaries, the papers illustrate the conditions of travel in China, Europe, and the Middle East during the nineteenth century. The journal of Thomas Mills documents a tour he made of western New York state in 1824.

Addition I includes a typed, edited, and annotated transcript of the journal of Harriet Low Hillard prepared by Arthur W. Hummel. Annotations provide identifications of persons, places, and events mentioned in the journal. Also in Addition I are photographs of Low family homes in Salem, Massachusetts.

Addition II contains a wide range of material from the Low, Hillard, and Loines families. Early family correspondence includes letters from many members of the Low and Hillard families dating from the early 1800s to the 1860s. Late nineteenth and twentieth century material centers on Mary Hillard Loines, the daughter of Harriet Low Hillard, her husband, Stephen Loines, and their children, Elma, Hilda, Russell, and Sylvia. Although most of the addition is composed of family correspondence, it also includes genealogical material, photographs, and research and draft material for Elma Loines' China Trade Post-Bag, her book on the journal of Harriet Low Hillard and the Low family's early nineteenth century ventures in the China trade.

The papers of Russell Loines contain correspondence and other material concerning several poets. Loines, though not a professional publisher, was devoted to poetry and involved himself in a number of publication projects. He maintained a close friendship and an active correspondence with the English poet Walter De la Mare. There is also a correspondence file with the California poet Robin Lampson for whom Loines was financing a college education. Poetry drafts are appended to many of Lampson's letters. Loines was also a friend of the English poet Rupert Brooke. Although there is little correspondence from Brooke, there are items related to Brooke's visit to Loines in 1913 and material concerning publication projects and writings about Brooke following his death in World War I. Loines also corresponded with poets Hamilton Easter Field and Christopher Darlington Morely and writer George Edward Woodberry.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in eight series:

• General Correspondence, 1806-1959, n.d.
• Papers of Mary Hillard Loines, 1861-1928, n.d.
• Far East Files, 1795-1873
• Diaries and Journals, 1829-1897
• Scrapbooks and Commonplace Books, 1829-1875
• Miscellany, 1767-1969, n.d.
• Additions, 1800-1971, n.d.
• Oversize, ca. 1822-1849

Description of Series

Container List