Drama, Essays, Speeches on Literature

Pamphlets on social issues at the local, state, and national levels in the United States, with local and state pamphlets focused mainly but not exclusively on New York State or its localities. Topics include education, religion and moral issues, politics (especially surrounding the issue of slavery and the Civil War), temperance, agriculture, and railroads. Also included are pamphlets relating to libraries, historical societies, and history, as well as literary pamphlets (literary essays, literary criticism, poetry, and one play).

Pamphlets relating to politics include mainly speeches, many of them delivered in Congress. Topics include slavery and the entrance of Kansas into the Union; also discussed are United States foreign policy, tariffs, and immigration. Authors include William Henry Seward, Daniel Webster, James A. Garfield, Charles Sumner, President James K. Polk, and others.

Pamphlets relating to agriculture include award lists and premiums for agricultural fairs in Oneida County and Queens County, New York, and speeches given before the New York State Agricultural Society.

Pamphlets relating to education include essays attacking or defending Horace Mann, reports of various colleges and schools, and proceedings of organizations. Institutions covered include the State University of New York, Union College, Hamilton College, Girard College for Orphans (now Girard College, a preparatory school), the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West, and others. Libraries or historical societies represented in the collection include the American Antiquarian Society, New-York Historical Society, Minnesota Historical Society, and others.

Pamphlets relating to religion include Thanksgiving Day sermons, sermons on religious occasions, and other sermons and speeches; memorial sermons and speeches on individuals; and reports or proceedings of churches and religious societies. Topics include the current moral and political state of the United States; the relation between church and state; the importance of spreading Christianity through evangelism; religious revivals; and others. Speakers include Simeon North, president of Hamilton College; A. Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of western New York; Bishop Horatio Potter; and Reverend R.W. Patterson, among others. Sponsoring or hosting organizations include the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Oneida County Bible Society, Hamilton Literary and Theological Seminary, and others. Religious denominations represented include Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Baptists.

Publications on temperance include pamphlets, leaflets, and single-sheet publications relating to temperance and the possibility and benefits of prohibition. Pamphlets include Drinklets, by Thomas R. Thompson (1908), an illustrated alphabetical primer on temperance and the evils of alcohol; The temperance lecturer, by Samuel Chipman (1846); other polemical pamphlets and leaflets advocating temperance, including sermons and speeches; pamphlets on the activities of temperance organizations, including the American Temperance Union, the Anti-saloon League of America, and the Sons of Temperance; and pamphlets on the legal aspects of alcohol and prohibition, including highlights of federal laws (1920), briefs in Supreme Court cases (1919), Bureau of Internal Revenue regulations (1920), and proposed New York State legislation on the repeal of Prohibition (1930). Also included are a leaflet by advice columnist Ann Landers on teenage drinking (1958), and a pocket calendar prefaced by information on temperance in Germany, Jahrbuch zur Alkohol- und Tabakfrage (1960).