COLLECTION ARRANGEMENT
The Lafayette Collection consists of manuscripts, documents, and
correspondence. Facsimiles are noted as such in the folder listing.
Series I, manuscripts, comprises unpublished written or printed
material except for documents and original correspondence.
Series II, documents, comprises written and printed material that has
official or legal import.
Series I and II are each divided into two sections: the first,
material not written by Lafayette, is arranged alphabetically by name, place,
or issuing institution. Manuscripts written by Lafayette come last and are
arranged chronologically.
Series III, Lafayette's correspondence, has been divided into outgoing
and incoming correspondence Outgoing is arranged chronologically except for the
large Beauchet correspondence which is grouped together and comes last (Boxes
34-41). Incoming correspondence is divided into three subsections: in the
first, correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name of sender; in the
second, Boxes 87-89, general correspondence Lafayette received in 1830-1831 is
arranged alphabetically by sender, but individual headings are not listed in
the folder guide; in the third, Boxes 90-94, incoming American correspondence
is arranged chronologically by year only, and alphabetically by sender within
each year. Box 95 contains facsimiles of correspondence and letters from
unknown senders from 1831-1834.
Series IV contains Lafayette family papers and is arranged as follows:
manuscripts and documents and letters related to Madame Lafayette; manuscripts
and documents related to George Washington Lafayette; letters from George
Washington Lafayette arranged chronologically; letters to him arranged
alphabetically; petitions received arranged alphabetically; papers associated
with the Lafayette family in general.
In the folder listing, folder titles include dates and places, most
derived from the item itself; some are supplied. Information supplied by the
editor appears in brackets. Some dates refer to the French Revolutionary
calendar; these are followed by the Gregorian equivalent in brackets. The
folder listing is indexed, using headings derived from folder titles or
supplied as necessary. When a page reference in the index does not adequately
identify an item, it is followed by a specific citation (name and date) in
brackets.
