The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Reuben T. Durrett Collection of Portraits, Illustrations, and Cartographic Material 1778-1910
© 2016 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Portraits, Illustrations, and Cartographic Material |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1778-1910 |
| Size: | 3 linear feet (3 boxes, 3 oversize folders) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Reuben Thomas Durrett (1824-1913), lawyer, manuscript and book collector, and Kentucky historian. The Reuben Thomas Durrett Collection of Portraits, Illustrations, and Maps consists of images of individuals, locations, and events associated with Kentucky history. It contains maps and plans of Louisville, the Falls of the Ohio, and several early settlements in Kentucky and Virginia. The collection also includes drawing of the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and portraits, in various media, of prominent Kentuckians from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Portraits, Illustrations, and Cartographic Material, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
The existence of the Durrett library first came to the attention of the University of Chicago through William E. Dodd, a professor of American history at the University who had consulted the library as a student. Like other faculty members of the Division of the Social Sciences early in the century, Dodd was concerned about the University's lack of extensive research materials for history and related subjects, and since he was aware of Durrett's advanced age, he persuaded A. C. McLaughlin, also of the history department, to accompany him to Louisville in June, 1910, to see the collection and to make discreet inquiries about plans for its disposition. The two found Durrett himself uncertain about his plans, but learned that the Durrett family opposed making a donation of the collection, and that they were in communication with Princeton University and the University of Illinois about selling the library.
Dodd himself was very enthusiastic about the research potential which Durrett's library represented, and won the support of many of his colleagues on the social science faculties in his efforts to persuade President Judson to consider the purchase by the University of the entire library, numbering some 30,000 volumes. Convinced that the collection would be a valuable addition to the University's holdings, but wary of the expense involved, Judson agreed cautiously to investigate the idea. Although Dodd and his colleagues were anxious to conclude the agreement quickly, fearing competition from other would-be purchasers or the dispersal of the collection upon Durrett's apparently imminent death, the task of deciding upon a fair offer was made difficult by the fact that the collection had never been adequately catalogued.
Durrett's own suggestion made in December, 1912 of $45,000 seemed high, so in February 1913, the University engaged Walter Lichtenstein, a Northwestern University librarian who had previously acted as purchasing agent for the University of Chicago libraries, to assess the value of the Durrett collection. Lichtenstein's report was submitted to President Judson on February 21, 1913, following a trip to Louisville to sample the collection.
The assessment, made on terms of commercial market value rather than scholarly significance, divided Durrett's library into four parts. Some 20,000 bound volumes (including 500 volumes of Kentuckiana) he estimated at $7,200. Two hundred fifty file folders of pamphlet material had no apparent commercial value. Numerous manuscripts and newspapers were difficult to assess but Lichtenstein thought they could be fairly purchased for $15,000. A collection of maps was estimated to have a value around $50. Lichtenstein's estimate, therefore, totaled $22,000-$22,500, considerably less than Durrett's own. When the University authorized Lichtenstein to make this offer to the Durrett family, however, they accepted it, apparently favoring Chicago as the repository of their collection. The purchase sum, which was too high to be taken from the University's ordinary budget, was raised among outside donors, and under Lichtenstein's supervision, the library was dismantled and shipped to Chicago by early May. It filled 287 large packing crates. Its arrival provoked considerable comment in the Louisville and Chicago press, and almost immediately the University began to receive research inquiries from scholars and requests from several libraries for copies of some of the Durrett material to add to their own collections.
In his report Lichtenstein had warned President Judson that considerable effort and expense would be required to process the collection once it was at the University. His warning proved to be justified. Aside from the massive undertaking of unpacking, sorting, and cataloguing the collection, much of the material was found to be in poor condition, requiring cleaning, repair, and binding or rebinding. To facilitate the efficient processing of the Durrett acquisition, the entire operation was assigned to Edward A. Henry of the library staff, who, with the help of his assistants, was to devote most of his attention to the Durrett project for some seven years. It was decided that duplicates should be disposed of, that a number of Filson Club possessions in Durrett's library should be returned to the Club, and that most of the non-manuscript material in the collection would be distributed according to subject matter among the University's various departmental libraries. On several occasions between 1913 and 1937, items of an official character were returned to Kentucky upon request, including records of Jefferson County, journals of Kentucky constitutional conventions, and certain manuscripts and photographs of the Filson Club identified by the club's president, R. C. Ballard Thurston. Most of Henry's time seems to have been devoted to preparing the material for this dispersal. His assignment was expanded in 1914 when the University purchased a collection totaling 436 volumes of Kentucky newspapers and miscellaneous books from Mrs. Joel R. Lyle, sister of Robert C. Boggs of Lexington, Kentucky. It was deemed appropriate to merge the Boggs-Lyle acquisition with the Durrett, and the two were processed together.
By the end of the 1915-16 academic year, about 9,000 of the Durrett and Boggs-Lyle volumes had been processed and distributed to the departmental libraries. It was then that Henry and his staff turned some of their attention to the manuscripts--that is, to the material comprising the Durrett Collection as described in this guide. At that time the Durrett manuscripts were apparently divided into four large groups--the Joel Tanner Hart Papers, the Joshua Lacy Wilson Papers, miscellaneous manuscripts, and miscellaneous separately bound items--either mounted in scrapbooks or bound together. A card catalog was compiled for at least the first three of these groups.
The Durrett Collection remained in this state until the mid-1950s. By then it had been incorporated within the holdings of the Department of Special Collections (1951), and it became clear that reorganization of the manuscripts was necessary. Paul Angle, a member of the staff of the Chicago Historical Society, who had surveyed the University of Chicago's manuscript collection as a consultant in 1944, had pointed out that the Durrett miscellaneous bound manuscripts in particular were of little use to scholars as they were then arranged and described. Moreover, the Special Collections staff had observed that the mountings and bindings done by Henry's staff were detrimental to the lives of the manuscripts, and that the existing catalog and descriptions provided inadequate access to the documents. The manuscripts, therefore, were removed from their bindings and divided into smaller and more coherent sub-collections.
In the 1970s, an effort was undertaken to edit the 1956 guide, to enhance the descriptions of the Durrett codices for greater detail and accuracy, and to differentiate between transcripts and original manuscript material bound together in the codices. Manuscript material also received conservation treatment. In 1983, another attempt was made to write a comprehensive guide to the entire collection. This guide remained in use until 2015. The current guide was completed in 2016.
Born in Henry County, Kentucky, on January 22, 1824, Reuben Thomas Durrett took pride in his descent from a family with an early history of intellectual achievement. The family was of French background (the surname was originally Duret) and counted among its members the authors of several mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth century French treatises on various scientific subjects. The Saint Bartholomew religious persecutions in France forced one branch of the family to emigrate to England. From there three brothers, John, Richard, and Bartholomew Durrett, migrated to Spotsylvania County, Virginia, early in the nineteenth century. Francis Durrett, the grandfather of Reuben, was born there and he returned after serving in the Illinois campaign of George Rogers Clark in 1778-79. Soon after the turn of the century, however, Francis moved to the western country, settling with his family in Henry County, Kentucky.
The son of William and Elizabeth Rawlings Durrett, Reuben Durrett received his primary education in the Henry County schools, and studied at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, from 1844 until 1846. He received the degree of A.B. from Brown University in 1849 and returned to Kentucky where he enrolled as a law student at the University of Louisville. Upon receiving the LL.B. in 1850, he began a practice that was to continue for some thirty years. He served a term in 1853 as a member of the Louisville city council, and from 1857 until 1859, edited the Louisville Courier, of which he was a half-owner. In 1852 Durrett married Elizabeth H. Bates, daughter of Caleb and Elizabeth Humphreys Bates of Cincinnati. The couple had four children, of whom only one, William T. Durrett, lived to adulthood.
The success of his legal practice enabled Durrett to retire in 1880, and for the remainder of his life he devoted himself to his historical and literary interests. Earlier (about 1856) he had begun systematically to build an extensive library on a wide variety of subjects, and now he dedicated his resources particularly to enriching his collection of materials on Kentucky. Having initially “made it an object to secure every book about Kentucky or Kentuckians or that was written by a Kentuckian or even printed in Kentucky,” Durrett expanded his goals and seems in the end to have hoped to acquire every conceivable kind of source material on the history of Kentucky and much of the surrounding region. His Library grew to include not only printed but also manuscript works (including many brief genealogical or anecdotal sketches written in answer to Durrett's queries by descendants of prominent Kentuckians), transcripts of manuscript material on Kentucky located in private collections or in archives outside the state, and sundry books and manuscripts which, whatever their subject, Durrett deemed historically significant because they had once been owned by prominent Kentuckians.
Not content with simply amassing historical source materials, Durrett also made an effort to publish the results of his own researches into his collections. Moreover, in 1884 he persuaded nine other historically-minded Kentuckians to join him in founding the Filson Club, an organization dedicated to collecting primary source materials on Kentucky, encouraging historical study, and publishing literature on historical topics. The club was named after John Filson, who published in 1784 The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, a promotional tract that was later recognized as the first history of the state. From 1884 until his death, Durrett served as president of the society. Durrett also established the Louisville Public Library in 1871, and throughout his life made his own collection available to scholars interested in Kentucky affairs.
Durrett was an active member of his community in many other ways. He served on the Board of Park Commissioners and the Board of Councilmen. He was President of the Children's Free Hospital and the Episcopal Orphans' Home. At various points in his life he directed the Kentucky Title Company, the Kentucky Title Savings Bank, the First National Bank, the Kentucky Heating and Lighting Company, and the Louisville Lighting Company.
To assure that his library would remain accessible to scholars after his death, Durrett began in the last years of his life to make tentative plans to donate his collection to the city of Louisville. His family, however, thought it unwise to make an outright gift of such a valuable collection, and encouraged him to consider offers from would-be purchasers. A stroke in July, 1912, left Durrett unable to take a very active role in the disposition of his library, and after some consideration of other offers, the family concluded a purchase agreement with the University of Chicago early in 1913. Durrett died in Louisville on September 16, 1913.
The Reuben Thomas Durrett Collection of Portraits, Illustrations and Cartographic Materials consists of originals and reproductions of portraits of individuals, and illustrations of locations and events associated with Kentucky history. It contains portrait paintings, photographs, crayon sketches, pencil drawings, photographs of statues, maps, blueprints, and plans. The collection is organized into four series:
Series I, Portraits, consists of photographs of individuals and commemorative statues. It also contains originals and reproductions of crayon sketches, pencil drawings, and portrait paintings. Individuals depicted include George Rogers Clark, Henry Clay, John Filson, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Douglas, Reuben T. Durrett, and others. Materials are split into two subseries. Subseries 1, Photographs, contains all photographic portraits, arranged alphabetically by subject. Subseries 2, Various Media, contains all portraits in other media, whether original or reproduction, again arranged alphabetically by subject.
Series II, Illustrations, contains originals and reproductions of drawings of historical events and places associated with Kentucky history in various media. Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject. Oversize illustrations can be found in Series IV.
Series III, Cartographic Materials, contains maps, blueprints and plans of places associated with Kentucky History in various media. This series includes maps or plans of post routes, Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, Louisville, Falls of the Ohio, Bryant's Station, Floyd Station, Squire Boone's Station, Linn's Station, and others. Materials are arranged according to type (building plan, site plan, map) and then alphabetically by subject. Oversize maps and plans can be found in Series IV.
Series IV, Oversize, contains oversize illustrations and cartographic materials, including sketches of the cabin of Thomas Lincoln and the Long Run Baptist Meeting House, maps of Kentucky and Ohio, and plans of Louisville, Clarksville, Falls of the Ohio, and stations throughout Kentucky and Ohio. Materials are arranged by type (illustration, building plan, site plan, map).
Researchers interested in topics represented in the Durrett Collection should check the author, title, or subject headings relevant to their interests in the Library catalog for potentially useful books and pamphlets from the Durrett Library, which were dispersed among the existing departmental libraries at the time of acquisition. Some of these items have since been transferred to the Rare Books collection and to the Reuben T. Durrett Collection of Broadsides, Pamphlets, and Leaflets, in the Special Collections Research Center.
The Durrett rare book collections include works of literature, travel and description, early histories of Kentucky such as Mann Butler's, biographies, legislative acts, and other legal documents.
Examples include Henry McMurtrie's Sketches of Louisville and Its Environs (1819); a collection of humorous verses, The Kentucky Miscellany, by Thomas Johnson, Jr. (1821), one of two known copies of the fourth edition, the first known to survive; and The Confession of Jereboam O. Beauchamp ... (1826).
Among the newspapers are 135 titles published in Kentucky, beginning in 1788 with the Kentucky Gazette, the first newspaper established in the state. Other important titles include the Mirror, the Palladium, the Guardian of Freedom, the Farmer's Library or Ohio Intelligencer, and numerous campaign newspapers such as The Patriot and The Spirit of '76 from 1826.
Included in the American Paper Currency Collection in the Special Collections Research Center is Durrett's collection of confederate currency, among which are many examples of notes issued by the Bank of Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Correspondence, reports, and clippings concerning the acquisition of the Reuben T. Durrett Collection for the University of Chicago are found in the University of Chicago Library Records Addenda.
In addition, the following collections contain material related in subject matter to various portions of the Durrett Collection:
Codex MS 798 Lettres de Mr. Cahusac, Américain, juge de paix à Fleurance, 1806-1836
Church History Documents Collection
Codex MS 790, Letters to Virgil David, 1828-1838
Douglas, Stephan A. Papers
English, William H. Papers
Ethno-History Collection
Lafayette Manuscripts
Lafayette-Bonaventure. Collection
Lane, Ebenezer, Family. Papers
Lewis, Fielding. Papers
Robertson, Wyndham. Papers
All Durrett sub-collections are as follows:
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Boggs Family. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Boone Family. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Broadsides, Broadsheets, Pamphlets, and Leaflets
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Christopher Columbus Graham. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. George and William Croghan. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. George Nicholas. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. George Rogers Clark. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Government Records
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Edmund Lyne Estate. Records
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. James Wilkinson. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Joel Tanner Hart. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Joshua Lacey Wilson. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Lewis Family. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Louisville, Kentucky Board of Trustees. Records
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Mann Butler. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Michael Walsh Cluskey. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Miscellaneous Manuscripts and Codices
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Portraits, Illustrations, and Cartographic Material
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Reuben T. Durrett. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Richard H. Collins. Papers
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Richard Jouett Menefee Collection on Matthew Harris Jouett
Durrett, Reuben T. Collection. Shelby Family. Papers
Series I: Portraits |
| Box 1 Folder 1 | Portraits – Photographs
|
| Box 1 Folder 2 | Portraits – Various Media [1/2]
|
| Box 1 Folder 3 | Portraits – Various Media [2/2]
|
Series II: Illustrations |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | Illustrations
|
Series III: Cartographic Material |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | Cartographic Material – Building Plans and Sketches
|
| Box 1 Folder 6 | Cartographic Material – Site Plans
|
| Box 1 Folder 7 | Cartographic Material - Maps
|
| Box 1 Folder 8 | Hector, J. – Geographic Sketch – Typescript Transcript 31p. – Undated [1/2]
|
| Box 1 Folder 9 | Hector, J. – Geographic Sketch – Typescript Transcript 31p. – Undated [2/2]
|
Series IV: Oversize |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Illustrations – Various Media
|
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Building Plans and Sketches – "Mouth of Beargrass Station, 1779", undated, ms. copy of ground plan, ink on paper (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 3 | Building Plans and Sketches –"Squire Boone's Station", undated, ms. copy of ground plan, ink on paper (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 4 | Building Plans and Sketches – "Floyd's Station", undated, ms. copy of ground plan, ink on paper |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Building Plans and Sketches –"Plan of block houses and cabins on island at Falls of Ohio, 1778", undated, ms. copies, ink on paper, ink on architect's linen (Initials at bottom G. R. C; cloth copy by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston May 1910) |
| Box 2 Folder 6 | Building Plans and Sketches –"Plan of fort at Falls of Ohio", undated, ms. copy, ink on paper, ink on architect's linen copy, photographic print (cloth copy by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston with his notes) |
| Box 2 Folder 7 | Building Plans and Sketches – "Morgan Hughes Station", undated, ms. copy of ink on paper (Note on recto in Reuben T. Durrett's hand stating that Bland Ballard dated the building of the station to 1780) |
| Box 2 Folder 8 | Building Plans and Sketches – "Lynn [Linn] Station", undated, ms. copy of ground plan, ink on paper (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 9 | Building Plans and Sketches – Spring Station", undated, ms. copy of ground plan, ink on paper (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 10 | Site Plans – Clarksville and Louisville, undated, plot maps, ink on paper (Caption note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 11 | Site Plans – "Location of fort at Falls of Ohio as scaled from George Rogers Clark's plan of Louisville", May 18, 1910, ms. copy, ink on paper, ink on architect's linen (both copies by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston) |
| Box 2 Folder 12 | Site Plans – "Map of the Illinois Grant (1784)", undated, ink on paper |
| Box 2 Folder 13 | Site Plans – "Plan of the town of Louisville showing the lots and numbers and the first letters of the names of those who drew them April 24, 1779, William Bard" ms. copy, ink and gray color wash on paper |
| Box 2 Folder 14 | Site Plans – "A copy from J. Brooks plan of Louisville in the clerk's office of Jefferson County, [Kentucky]", undated, ms. copy, ink on paper |
| Box 2 Folder 15 | Site Plans – "Plan of Louisville, 1779," (initialed G. R. C.), May 17, 1910, ms. copy, ink on paper, ink on architect's linen, photographic print (Note in margin of cloth copy: "Original plan of city of Louisville made by George Rogers Clark in 1779 and traced by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston") |
| Box 2 Folder 16 | Site Plans – "Plan of the town of Louisville on the Ohio by John Corbly, April 24th 1779", undated, ms. copy, ink on paper |
| Box 2 Folder 17 | Maps – Falls of Ohio, undated, ms. copy, ink on architect's linen and photograph (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 18 | Maps – "Early survey map at the Falls of the Ohio, May 27, 1778", undated, ms. copy, ink on paper, (Note on verso in Reuben T. Durrett's hand) |
| Box 2 Folder 19 | Maps – Jefferson County, Kentucky, undated, ms. copy, and pencil on paper (Note on verso, "Showing T. Lincoln's 400 acres; map in greater part in Reuben T. Durrett's hand") |
| Box 2 Folder 20 | Maps – "Survey map noting location of Newburg and Poplar Levee roads, and Hesses lane", undated, ms. copy, pencil on paper. |
| Box 2 Folder 21 | Maps – "Map of the Southern, Western and Middle Provinces of the United States", circa 1800, ink on paper. |
| Box 2 Folder 22 | Maps – "Map of Ohio", January 1804, ink on Paper (Putnam, Rufus, Surveyor General of the United States) |
| Box 3 | "George Rogers Clark's Map of Louisville", 1779, ink on paper |
| Box Oversize Folder 1 | Building Plans and Sketches - "Ground plan of Bryant's Station," ms. copy, ink on paper |
| Box Oversize Folder 2 | Site Plans
|
| Box Oversize Folder 3 | Site Plans – "Thomas's subdivision of lots 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, & 15 in Bullitt's addition to Louisville", July 24, 1833, ink on paper |