DESCRIPTIVE INVENTORIES OF THE UNDERHILL COLLECTION
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The inventories linked to this page in the overview that follows are preliminary descriptions of portions of the collection of the Underhill Society of America. Housed in the Society’s archive at 14 Main Street in Oyster Bay, New York, the collection includes artifacts, manuscripts and records, images (including numerous photographs), and books collected since the Society’s founding in 1892. Compiled during the last decade by the late Julia Clark and by Laura Black, the inventories have been revised and expanded by John Catanzariti, Philip Blocklyn, and the current archivist, Steve Boerner. New and updated listings will be posted from time to time. Inquiries concerning the Society’s holdings should be directed to the Archivist's Email.
1. A-Series: Antiquities
Description: Artifacts--gravestones, swords, furniture, clothing, and other objects--acquired from various sources by the Underhill Society of America.
Click usaantiq.pdf for an inventory of this series from A-0251 to A-0543.
2. B-Series: Books
Description: Books donated to or acquired by the Underhill Society divided into the following categories:
B-0001 to B-0999
B-1000 to B-1999
B-2000 to B-2999
B-3000 to B-3499
B-3500 to B-3999 |
Books of General Interest
Books That Mention Underhills
Books About Underhills
Books by Underhills
Books Published by the Underhill Society |
3. D-series: Documents
John Torboss Underhill Papers
Description: Papers of members of the Underhill family, including deeds, mortgages, agreements, wills, letters, military papers, bills, stock certificates, and miscellaneous business records (altogether about 100 items). Many of the papers relate to family members in Westchester County, N.Y. Individuals mentioned include Peter, Nicholas, Lancaster, Effie M. and Lydia E Underhill; Peter Bonnett, Luke Torboss, and Abijah Morgan (about 100 items).
Click John Torboss Underhill Papers finding aid.pdf for a subseries finding aid
Click usad0000.pdf for an inventory of this subseries from D-0000-001 to D-0000-253.
Miscellaneous Documents
Description: Deeds, wills, and estate papers, letters, marriage certificates, bills, receipts, bonds, and other papers of various members of the Underhill family, as well as genealogical records and cemetery transcriptions (about 335 items). Included is a subset of papers of the Underhill and Quinby families, consisting of letters, journals, tax records, poems, obituaries, and records relating to Quaker meetings in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia collected by Elizabeth Cornell Quinby Underhill, the wife of Charles R. Underhill and the mother of Hannah M. Underhill Isaac. Items of note in this group of about 35 documents include a journal of a journey from Westchester County to Cayuga and Tompkins Counties in upstate New York, 1835, with mention of visits with various family members; accounts of Josiah Quinby and Aaron Quinby; a genealogy of the Field family from ca. 1525 to 1850; genealogical notes on the Quinby family; and miscellaneous papers of the Sutton and Isaac families.
Elizabeth Sullivant Collection
Description: “A collection of some 95 letters, written between Matinecock, L.I. (and vicinity), and Hillsboro, Ohio, mainly from 1839 through 1859 but including [a] few from later years. Most of the collection was given to the Society in 1929-32 by Miss Elizabeth Sullivant of Columbus, Ohio,” the granddaughter of John (UG #1510) and Rebecca Underhill. The collection consists of the correspondence of John and Rebecca and their family with relatives they left behind on Long Island after they relocated to Ohio in 1839. Correspondents include Jacob S. Underhill, Thomas Underhill, William Henry Cock, and Ann Feeks Cock. Forty-three of the letters were written in 1839-1840, 24 between 1841 and 1849, 12 in the 1850’s, and the remainder from the 1860’s to 1907. The letters include family news, descriptions of daily life and work in Ohio and on Long Island, commentary on national politics, and changes in the financial fortunes of the families. For a fuller description of the collection, and transcriptions of the first nine manuscripts, see “Letters between Long Island and Ohio, 1839,” Underhill Society of America, Bulletin, August 1982, pp. 11-32.
Click usad9001.pdf for an inventory of this subseries describing D-9000-053 to D-9000-066
Click usad9068.pdf for an inventory of this subseries describing D-9000-068 to D-9000-088
Click usad9090.pdf for an inventory of this subseries describing D-9000-090 to D-9000-099
4. I-Series: Images
Description: Photographs and other images of Underhill family members and their homes, officers and meetings of the Underhill Society of America, and cemeteries, monuments, and churches associated with the family, ca. 1860-ca. 1960 (about 8 cubic feet; 1000+ images).
I-0001 to I-1683 Images recorded in Annual Reports (1896-1933)
I-1684 to I-1703 Images received between 1933 and 1935
I-2000 to 2008 Images acquired significantly later
5. U-Series: Records of the Underhill Society of America
Description: Correspondence, constitutions and bylaws, minutes and reports, membership records, publications (including the Annual Report and Bulletin), genealogical records, scrapbooks, clippings, programs, papers pertaining to the monument commemorating Capt. John Underhill, and other records of the Underhill Society of America, founded in 1892. Included are copies in various formats (photocopies, photographs, and transcripts) of documents from England and the United States pertaining to the Underhill family, some dating back to the 1500s. The records begin ca. 1890 and continue to the present (ca. 5 cubic feet).
Click on usau0001.pdf for an inventory of subseries U-0001 to U-0021 as follows: U-0001 Constitution and By-Laws
U-0002 Certificate of Incorporation
U-0003 Minutes of Executive Committee and/or Board [Officers]
U-0004 Minutes of Annual and General Membership Meetings
U-0005 Annual Reports
U-0006 Financial Reports
U-0007 Officers
U-0008 Membership
U-0009 W. Wilson Underhill, 1st President, 1892-1898
U-0010 Estelle (Skidmore) Doremus, 2nd President, 1897-1905
U-0011 Capt. John Underhill Monument, Matinecock
U-0012 John Torboss Underhill, 3rd President, 1905-1924
U-0013 Correspondence of D. Harris Underhill
U-0014 Genealogy: D. Harris Underhill, Josephine C. Frost
U-0015 Francis Jay Underhill, 4th President, 1924-1932
U-0016 Willard Underhill Taylor, 5th President, 1932-1940
U-0017 John Garrett Underhill, Sr., Corresponding Secretary
U-0018 John Garrett Underhill, Sr., 6th President, 1940-1946
U-0019 Irving Underhill, 7th President, 1946-1950
U-0020 Robert F. Underhill, 8th President, 1950-1954
U-0021 John Garrett Underhill, Jr., 9th President, 1954-1956
NOTE: See below for link to finding aid and inventory for this subseries
U-0022 Charles Alonzo Underhill, 10th President, 1956-1968
The following are links to finding aids and lists of correspondence for some individual subseries:
Click on USAU0023.pdf for an inventory of subseries U-00023 to U-0032 as follows: U-0023 George Townsend Underhill, Sr., 11th President, 1968-1973
U-0024 Le Grand Underhill, 12th President, 1974-1975
U-0025 Thelma Weeks Powell, 13th President, 1975-1979
U-0026 Harry Macy, Jr., 14th President, 1979-1985
U-0027 Andrew Mitchell Underhill, Jr., 15th President, 1985-1987
U-0028 Robert G. Pope, 16th President, 1987-1995
U-0029 Richard W. Decker, 17th President, 1995-1996
U-0030 N. Robert Underhill, 18th President, 1996-1998
U-0031 George Townsend Underhill, Jr., 19th President, 1998-2003
U-0032 Carl J. Underhill, 20th President, 2003-
D. HARRIS UNDERHILL LETTER RECORD BOOKS AND LETTERS
D. Harris Underhill kept three “letter record books” extending from 1879 to 1936. In these registers he listed in rough chronological order incoming letters he had received and assigned a number to each.
The three registers¾kept in stationer’s ledgers of varying types with pre-printed lines and page numbers¾are as follows:
“Letter Record Book No 1. Record of Letters Received [23 February] 1879 to May 6, 1901,” Nos. 1-2225, with Nos. 1-1099 entered on recto pages, Nos. 1100-1225 on verso pages. Written opposite page 3, almost certainly at a later date: “Record of Letters received in connection with Family History and Underhill Society of America” and “Each name is checked as card made out or note of receipt of letter with number and date entered on address card if already made out.” Labeled accession no. #5486 (U-0013-001)
“Letter Record Book No 2. Record of Letters Received May 1, 1901 to Sept 18, 1914,” Nos. 2226-9957, with convoluted numbering and at least one error in numbering (No. 2331 followed by Nos. [3]332 to [3]439). Labeled accession no. #5487 (U-0013-002)
“Book #3 Received”: Record of Letters Received, 19 September 1914-18 May 1936, Nos. 9958-1575221. Labeled accession no. #5488 (U-0013-003)
The numbering of letters received throughout these registers is consecutive, but DHU’s method of entering the numbers in each ledger varied. In the first ledger he listed the letters on recto pages only; when the book was filled he continued the numbering on verso pages starting at the beginning and continuing to the end of the ledger. The numbering becomes more convoluted in the second register, which DHU had used as a personal invoice and cash book in the late 1880s and early 1890s (on the half title page he had written: “Invoice Book D. Harris Underhill. 153 Havemeyer St Bklyn N.Y. July 1889”; he later crossed out the entries recording invoices on pages 1-2 and the cash entries on page 51). DHU resumed the numbering of his correspondence on page 3 of this book and continued, consecutively on recto and verso pages, to page 18, when he reverted to the eccentric scheme he had used in the first ledger: filling the remaining recto pages, starting with page 19, and then continuing the numbering on the verso pages at the beginning to the end of the book. In the third register, which DHU had used as an account and cash book in the 1880s, he crossed out (and in a few cases, tore out) the account and cash entries and resumed the list of correspondence by date and number on consecutive recto and verso pages to near the end of the book. All the entries in each register appear to be in DHU’s hand except some recording letters received in 1935 and 1936, which appear to be in the hand of his daughter, Lucinda Underhill.
Click dhu correspondence.pdf and zoom in for a listing of correspondence in this subseries as follows:
U-0013-004 Correspondence; D. Harris Underhill 1886-1936 Click usau0022.pdf for an inventory of subseries U-0022 as follows:
U-0022 Charles Alonzo Underhill, 10th President, 1956-1968 The finding aid to this subseries consists of an index of names of correspondents.
6. Francis Townsend Underhill Collection
Description: Six manuscripts chiefly concerning parcels of land in the present-day Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island in the 17th and 18th centuries, including an 18th-century copy of the confirmatory patent for the Town issued by Edmund Andros, Governor of New York, 29 September 1677, that were assembled by Francis Townsend Underhill (1863-1929)¾a colorful and talented Oyster Bay-born socialite and eccentric who was, among other things, a celebrated horseman, one-term congressman from New York, and later a scientific livestock breeder, landscape gardener, and architect of Santa Barbara, California¾given by his widow (née Carmelita Dibblee) to the Underhill Society of America in 1960 through Dudley Field Underhill (see Bulletin of the Underhill Society of America, February 1961, p. 10), and recovered by Harry Macy, Jr., from the estate of Dorothy H. McGee in 2005. For genealogical and biographical information about Francis Townsend Underhill, see Josephine C. Frost, Harry Macy, Jr., and Carl J. Underhill, eds., Underhill Genealogy (New York and Baltimore, 1932- ), 5: 562; and an article by Walker A. Tompkins in the Underhill Society Bulletin, June 1963, pp. 26-27.
7. Myron C. Taylor Papers
Description: papers of Myron C. Taylor (1874-1959), New York attorney, businessman, diplomat, and philanthropist, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Steel, 1932-1938, and personal representative of Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman to Pope Pius XII, with the rank of ambassador, 1939-1949.
The collection consists of two segments:
(1) Scrapbooks, 5 in all, with 3 of them oversize, containing diplomas, certificates, honorary degrees, instructions of Franklin D. Roosevelt to Taylor, and commendations and awards presented to him for diplomatic work and relief efforts in Italy after World War II, 1894-1950, genealogies, correspondence, deeds, and wills of the Underhill and Taylor families, 1783-ca. 1932, and speeches and testimonials to Taylor on his retirement as Chairman, marking the tenth anniversary as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United States Steel Corporation, 1938. Persons represented include: Josephine C. Frost, Nathan R. Miller, J. P. Morgan (1867-1943), Junius S. Morgan (1892-1960), Pope Pius XII, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Edward R. Stettinius, Harry S. Truman, Vittorio Emanuele III.
NOTE: no document numbers have been assigned at present.
(2) Correspondence and Papers, 1803-1959, but chiefly 1920-1959, consisting of 13 boxes of correspondence, documents, maps, newspaper clippings, photographs, and photographic reproductions relating primarily to: the history and genealogy of the Underhill and Taylor, as well as Butler and Coles, families; Taylor’s visits to England in search of his Underhill ancestry and family-related buildings and artifacts; his subvention and publication of the first four volumes of Underhill Genealogy edited by Josephine C. Frost (1932), of The Underhills of Warwickshire by John H. Morrison (1932), and of John Underhill: Captain of New England and New Netherland by Henry C. Shelley (1932); his acquisition of colonial and Underhill-related portraits, artifacts, books, and papers for his personal collection; his homes in Manhattan, Locust Valley, N.Y. (Killingworth), Palm Beach, Fla., and Florence, Italy (the villa Schifanoia); and his extensive involvement in the affairs of the Underhill Society of America, the Underhill Burying Ground, and the Underhill Westchester Burying Ground, with some material on Taylor’s role as Chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Correspondents include Hope Emily Allen, William C. Fitch, Josephine C. Frost, John H. Morrison, Anya Seton, Henry C. Shelley, Evelyn C. Shirley, Katherine Shirley, Willard Underhill Taylor, Allen B. Underhill, Charles Alonzo Underhill, David Harris Underhill, Francis J. Underhill, John Garrett Underhill, Sr., John Garrett Underhill, Jr., Irving Underhill, and Robert Feeks Underhill.
NOTE: No folder numbers have been assigned at present.
8. George Sidney Underhill Collection
Description: Photocopies of the Bayley Family Bible Record and the donor's transcription of it; photocopies of 19th-century correspondence of the donor's family, with his transcriptions of some of the letters; transcriptions of letters from the donor's great-grandfather and his brother during the California Gold Rush, 1849-1851; and a photograph of the donor's grandfather and his family in Missouri, ca. 1909. Donated by George Sidney Underhill [UG #1272-G-B-A; UG, VII, 278] on 20 March 2006.Click Inventory of George Sidney Underhill Collection.pdf for an inventory of this collection
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9. Photograph Album of Hannah M. (Underhill) Isaac
Description: This bound album contains cartes de visite of the family and relations of Hannah M. (Underhill) Isaac (UG #2789), and is inscribed by her nephew D. Harris Underhill (UG #4999) on the front flyleaf: "Album of the late Hannah M. (Underhill) Issac who died May 27, 1904. Vacant spaces marked * were taken by members of the different branches of the family." Consisting of 15 unnumbered leaves, each side having two pre-cut frames or slots, the album has space for 60 photographs, of which 32 remain (all but one identified in the album by D. Harris Underhill.) Fourteen items 3/412 marked with an asterisk as noted above (occupying the first three leaves) and Nos. 49-50 3/4 were removed, though likenesses of some of these persons may be found elsewhere in the archives of the Underhill Society of America (see references to the I-Series inthe collation document linked below). The 14 unlabeled slots do not contain photographs.
Click Hannah M (Underhill) Isaac photo album collation.pdf for a collation of this album.
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10. Diary of Sarah Constance Eastman Underhill
Description: Entries from 3 June 1880 to 6 May 1888, with later entries in other hands. Sarah Constance Eastman married William Tarbox Underhill (UG Sampson #209) in 1841. She is great-grandmother of the donor, Arnold E Underhill.
11. Helen Louise Strang Collection
Description: Correspondence of Helen Louise Strang, who served as Historian of the Underhill Society of America. Six folders, 1955-1969. Correspondents include John L. Butler, Edward M. Cameron Jr., Mrs. T. Currie-Bell, George D.W. Ferriss, Madeline Keithley Fitz, Orrena Buchner Hanley, Florence S. Kramer, Arthur Maynard, Eugenia Lawrence Ray, Edward J. Smits, Mrs. David W. Stallard, Charles Alonzo Underhill, Charles S. Underhill, Dudley Field Underhill, Earl A. Underhill, Emily R. Underhill, Marie Underhill, and Peter L. Van Santvoord.
12. Isabelle Hendrickson Malm Collection
Description: Papers of Isabelle Hendrickson Malm, who served as Historian and Genealogist of the Underhill Society of America. 101 folders in 5 boxes, 1977-1992. Papers consist of correspondence, genealogical charts, photocopies of printed matter, obituary clippings, typescripts, newsletters, and manuscript transcriptions of family records.
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