Joel Parker business records and estate papers
Overview
Business records and estate papers of American jurist and Harvard Law School professor, Joel Parker.
Dates
- Creation: 1840-1925
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
1.5 linear feet (3 boxes)Primarily consists of business records of land and stock holdings of Joel Parker, and those of other members of the Parker family. Extensive land holdings and land transactions are recorded in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Kansas. Businesses include the Chesterfield Land and Improvement Company, the Sullivan Railroad Company, the Dover Company, the Colorado Mining Exchange Building Company, and others. Records include receipts, deeds, stock certificates, financial records, and correspondence. There are extensive copies of letters and documents concerning the settling of Joel Parkers' estate, by his executors, Horatio G. Parker and Francis J. Parker.
Also included are a small group of papers documenting the Harvard College years of Benjamin Pierce Cheney, Jr. (A.B. 1890). B. P. Cheney Jr. was the son of Benjamin Pierce Cheney (1815-1895), the founder of the firm that eventually became American Express. A few letters concern Cheney's college years, but most of this group consists of printed forms with manuscript additions. Includes grade reports and comments about his poor academic performance each year. It is not known why these papers are among Joel Parker's papers.
Biographical / Historical
Joel Parker (1795-1875) was a jurist and the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School from 1848-1868. His brothers were Edmund, Asa, and Isaac Parker. He married Mary Morse (Parker) Parker (1817-1884) in 1848 and they had three children.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Joel Parker and Parker family business records
- II. Joel Parker estate papers
- III. Other papers
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Bequest of Parker Potter; received 1938 July 29.
Formerly Widener Treasure Room collection 559*.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Part of the MS Storage project, 2008-2009.
- Title
- Parker, Joel, 1795-1875. Joel Parker business records and estate papers, 1840-1925: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01998
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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