Sword with leather sheath kept by Lafayette

The Arthur H. and Mary Marden Dean Lafayette Collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, documents, broadsides, microfilms, objects, and graphics by, to or about Lafayette and his family, with family documents extending back to 1520 and through the death of Georges Washington Lafayette in 1849. Includes texts of Lafayette's speeches, his commentary on public events, material compiled for inclusion in his memoirs, financial statements, letters he wrote to his wife from America during the Revolution, letters he wrote while imprisoned in Austria (1792-1797); many letters from foreign correspondents on the progress of liberal causes in their countries, including letters from leaders of the Italian revolutionary movement; notes concerning the Belgian revolution, letters and documents on his involvement in the Italian and Polish revolutions, and documents concerning the management of family business affairs, including the management of the family estates. Also included are objects from the Lafayette estate, including two clocks, an oil painting, and a life mask of the Marquis de Lafayette by Pierre Houdon (on loan from the Johnson Art Museum); photographs of modern-day scenes relating to Lafayette; individually cataloged videotapes and DVDs of films in which Lafayette appears as a character: "Lafayette," "Reign of Terror," "America," "Jefferson in Paris," "The Black Book," "Marie Antoinette," and "The Howards of Virginia"; and seven Limoges china plates (dated 1973) decorated with scenes of Lafayette's participation in the American Revolution.

Correspondents include: Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles Lafayette (Lafayette's wife), Georges Washington Lafayette (Lafayette's son), Philippe Beauchet, the Princesse d'Hénin, Thomas Pinckney, Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, Madame de Staël, Mary Shelley, Jeremy Bentham, Robert Owen, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, James Madison, John Adams, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Jared Sparks, Emma Willard, and Frances Wright. Also included is a letter from Lafayette to the American ministers in Paris, namely Benjamin Franklin and his aides, although Franklin is not named in the letter (May 12, 1783). Also, a letter from Lafayette to Charles-Louis Cadet de Gassicourt, on the Garde Nationale and the elections (October 11, 1818).