Blair and Lee Family Papers 1764-1946 (mostly 1840-1920)

Summary

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Overview

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Abstract

The Blairs and the Lees were prominent families in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The Lee papers concern politics, journalism, and naval and domestic interests. There are also letters between Lee family members, naval records, new clippings, lecture notes, and essays. The Blair papers consist primarily of Francis Preston Blair's documents, including family correspondence, articles for The Globe, lectures, estate records, and correspondence with prominent political figures.

Description

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Description

The collection consists of the personal papers of five members of the Blair and Lee families of Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia -- Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), his daughter, Elizabeth Blair Lee (1818-1906), her husband, Samuel Phillips Lee (1812-1897), their son Blair Lee (1857-1944, Princeton Class of 1880), and his cousin, Andrew Alexander Blair (1848-1932) -- reflecting their various political, journalistic, naval, family, business, legal, and domestic interests.

The papers of Francis Preston Blair, journalist and politician, consist of writings, correspondence, documents, Blair as a subject, printed matter, papers of other persons, and additional papers. The writings include his speeches, editorials, addresses, articles, essays, and general works dating from 1830 when he was called to Washington, D.C., by President Andrew Jackson to edit the Globe, the official newspaper of the Democratic administration. Although he never held an elective office, Blair was considered a person of political importance and influence in the mid-19th century, and his correspondence is indicative of this with letters by Jackson, Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), and Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), as well as senators Lewis Cass (1782-1866), John Charles Fremont (1813-1890), and John Jordan Crittenden (1787-1863), and congressmen Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885), Edward Livingston (1764-1836), and Thomas Patrick Moore (1797-1853).

Also included is family correspondence, especially with his sons, Francis "Frank" Preston Blair, Jr. (1821-1875, Princeton Class of 1841), lawyer, general, and politician, and Montgomery Blair (1813-1883), lawyer, statesman, and postmaster general in Lincoln's cabinet, and daughter, Elizabeth Blair Lee, wife of Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee and mother of Blair Lee.

In addition, there are documents including Blair's last will and testament, financial papers such as receipts, checks, checkbooks, and account books. Among papers of others persons, there is included the correspondence of Andrew Jackson, manuscripts contributed to the Globe, and old family papers, many of them relating to the family of Eliza Violet Gist, Blair's wife.

The papers of Samuel Phillips Lee, naval officer and farmer, consist of miscellaneous writings and notes, diaries, memoranda books, and account books (1858-1896), logs and journals (1847-1866), correspondence, documents, naval records (1861-1872), maps, photographs, memorabilia, artifacts, miscellaneous material, printed matter, and papers of others. Although a professional naval officer (1825-1873), Lee spent his retirement years (1873-1897) at Silver Spring farm, the management of which had been transferred to him by his father-in-law, Francis Preston Blair. The collection reflects these dual careers as well as Lee's business interests in real estate, especially holdings in St. Louis, Missouri, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. An avid record keeper and commentator, his logs, journals, notebooks, and correspondence contain memoranda of explanation and insightful personal notations.

Of special interest is the correspondence between Lee and his wife, Elizabeth Blair Lee, during the long periods when he was at sea and she remained at home in Washington, D.C., observing and reflecting on the political and social scenes, especially during the Civil War years (1861-1864). The Civil War correspondence of Elizabeth Blair Lee, dating from December 5, 1861 to March 4, 1865, has been published in Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee, by Virginia Jeans Laas. The correspondence also contains letters by family members such as his brother, John Fitzgerald Lee (1813-1884), and sister, Frances A. Lee (1837-1889), as well as miscellaneous Blair and Lee family members. Also included are naval personnel such as surgeon John Croxall Palmer (1811-1883), scientist John Mercer Brooke (1826-1906), Gideon Welles (1802-1878), secretary of the navy during the Civil War, and Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867), superintendent of the Coast Survey. Many of the letters deal with promotions, transfers, and requests for supplies.

The documents contain both personal (naval appointments, powers of attorney, wills, and financial papers) and real estate (tax receipts, deeds, leases, insurance policies, and memoranda of agreement). About a quarter of Lee's papers contain naval records, coal records, lists of officers, passengers, and seamen, descriptions of ships, and prizes, to name but a few, for ships such as the Brandywine, Young Rover, Vandalia, Newborn, Dolphin, Severn, and Worcester. There are 101 maps in the collection pertaining to Lee's duty with the U.S. Coast Survey and later during the Civil War as commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the Mississippi Squadron. The papers of others contain mainly family correspondence.

The papers of Elizabeth Blair Lee consist of correspondence, documents, photographs, memorabilia, artifacts, miscellaneous material, and papers of others. The correspondence contains letters by her husband, Samuel Phillips Lee, and her father, Samuel Preston Blair, as well as other family members and friends, including Rachel Jackson (1767-1828) and Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902) whose photographs are also included in the collection. Locks of hair belonging to Elizabeth Blair Lee can be found among her memorabilia, while the artifacts contain bobbins, a necklace, a pair of satin slippers, and sewing tapes. Other reminders of her domestic life such as cookbooks, notebooks, recipes, prescriptions, and papers relating to the Washington City Orphan Asylum, of which she was an active member, are included in the miscellaneous material and printed matter.

The papers of Andrew Alexander Blair, son of Francis Preston Blair, Jr., consist of correspondence, miscellaneous material, and papers of others. The correspondence contains primarily letters by family members, especially his mother, Apolline Alexander Blair, written mainly when Blair was a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy (1866). Among the papers of others, Samuel W. Very (1846-1919), Blair's roommate at Annapolis, is represented by diaries (1859-1860, 1863), notebooks, correspondence with family members and friends, photographs, and memorabilia, including an autograph album.

The papers of Blair Lee, lawyer and U.S. senator, consist of his writings, correspondence, legal files, documents, financial material, miscellaneous material, printed matter, and papers of others. The writings contain essays in literature, philosophy, and politics, and course notebooks in languages, science, the Bible, and other subjects while an undergraduate at Princeton (1876-1880), as well as notes taken at Columbian Law School (1880-1883), and manuscripts of political speeches.

The correspondence is indicative of the close relationship between Lee and his parents, Elizabeth Blair Lee and Samuel Phillips Lee, as well as the warm family ties he enjoyed with the extended Blair and Lee families and later with the Brooke family, the relatives of Anne Clymer Brooke Lee, whom he married in 1891. Of special interest are the letters to Lee written from France by his sons who served as officers in the U.S. army during World War I. The active political role Lee enjoyed on a local, county, state, and national level, culminating in his election to the U.S. senate in 1913 to fill the unexpired term of Isidor Rayner (1850-1912), is reflected in the correspondence which includes letters by William Jennings Bryan (1860-1825), congressman and unsuccessful candidate for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908, President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), and John Walter Smith (1845-1925), congressmen and senator from Maryland. The correspondence also includes letters regarding Lee's ill-fated Maryland gubernatorial race (1911) and the presidential election campaign of Wilson (1912).

In addition, there are letters pertaining to Lee's legal and business interests, as well as general correspondence containing letters dealing with Grace Episcopal Church in Silver Spring, recreational clubs such as the Takoma Park Gun Club, Princeton and Ivy Club alumni activities, the administration of Silver Spring farm, and friends dating back to Lee's youth and Princeton years. The correspondence also contains letterbooks including copies of his letters to family and friends, as well as political, legal, and business letters, and invitations, calling cards, and address books. Among the legal files are papers for cases handled by Lee, such as the Brown and Munsell gun case, the estates of Senator James Beck (1822-1890), Morgan Lester, Francis W. Lusby, Allan McLane (1823-1897), and Thomas W. Wise, as well as a challenge to the will of Judge Joseph Holt (1807-1894), references to some French spoliation claims, and many other miscellaneous cases. The documents and financial matters contain receipts, checkbooks, ledgers, account books, canceled checks, and insurance policies for Lee's farm, real estate holdings, and personal matters.

His interests encompassed legal, philanthropic, fraternal, and political groups, and the organizational files include correspondence, documents, and miscellaneous material in varying degrees for the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Metropolitan Club, the National Junior Republic, the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, the National Mary Washington Association, the Washington City Orphan Asylum, and the Democratic National Publishing Company, primarily for the Silver Knight-Watchman.

The collection also includes family photographs, juvenilia, and memorabilia relating to Lee's early academic and religious training as well as his years at Princeton and Columbia Law School. There are political, legal, and business papers contained in the miscellaneous material of the collection, as well as blueprints, maps, and architectural renderings. Scrapbooks containing political newspaper clippings and other printed matter concerning Lee's political, legal, and business interests are included in the papers.

The material in papers of others pertains mainly to Lee's family as represented by his wife, parents, and sons, Edward Brooke Lee and Phillips Blair Lee as well as miscellaneous family members. Also found are the legal papers and correspondence of George H. Lamar (1865-1945) and William H. Lamar (1859-1928), lawyers of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and correspondence and printed matter of Judge Joseph Holt.

Collection Creator History

Biography of Francis Preston Blair

Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876), journalist and politician, was born in Abingdon, Va., and raised in Kentucky. His grandfather, John Blair, held the first chair in theology at Princeton University. He was graduated from Transylvania University in 1811 and married Eliza Violet Gist (1733-1877) a year later. Blair was admitted to the bar in 1817 but never practiced law. He became interested in Kentucky politics joining the New Court party and aiding his political ally, Amos Kendall, in editing the Argus of Western America and the Patriot in Frankfort. Blair became an advocate of Andrew Jackson, and on the advice of Kendall, Jackson called him to Washington in 1830 to become editor of the Globe, which became the official newspaper of the administration. A loyal Jacksonian, Blair was a confidential member of the Kitchen Cabinet and served Jackson faithfully from 1830 through 1837. The Globe continued to be a powerful voice through the Van Buren administration (1837-1841). Blair was forced to resign in 1845 by the new president, James K. Polk.

Retiring to his country estate, Silver Spring, in Maryland, Blair continued to exercise political power and influence, often through his sons, Francis "Frank" Preston (1821-1875) and Montgomery (1813-1883).

Biography of Samuel Phillips Lee

Samuel Phillips Lee (1812-1897), an officer in the United States Navy, was born in Fairfax, Va., the son of Francis Lightfoot Lee, grandson of Richard Henry Lee, and great nephew of Francis Lightfoot Lee, both signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1825 he was appointed a midshipman and proceeded to work his way through the ranks, becoming a rear-admiral in 1870. When commanding the Dolphin in 1851, Lee was employed in coastal survey duty making deep-sea soundings, testing currents, and searching for shallow ocean spots. His report of this work, The Cruise of the Dolphin (1854), was of considerable help to Matthew F. Maury, the oceanographer. During the Civil War, Lee remained loyal to the Union and participated in the Charleston blockade, the attack on New Orleans, and the battle of Vicksburg, and commanded both the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the Mississippi Squadron. After the war, he served at various posts, and his last command was as head of the North Atlantic fleet (1870-1872). In 1873 he retired from the navy.

While a young officer, Lee courted Elizabeth Blair Lee (1818-1906), the only daughter of Francis Preston Blair, the journalist, politician, and personal friend and advisor of Andrew Jackson. After a lengthy courtship, Elizabeth Blair and Samuel Phillips Lee were married in 1843. One child (Francis Preston) Blair Lee, was born in 1857. The family lived in Washington and at Silver Spring, Md., the country estate of Francis Preston Blair. After his retirement from the navy, Lee ran the day-to-day activities of the farm, and it was here that he died in 1897.

Biography of Elizabeth Blair Lee

Elizabeth Blair Lee (1818-1906), the only daughter of Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Gist Blair, grew up in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md., immersed in the politics of the day. A favorite of Andrew Jackson, "Lizzie" lived in the White House for a time to please him. After she married Samuel Phillips Lee, a naval officer, in 1843, she often wrote to him keeping him up to date not only on family matters but also on local and national politics, much of which were gathered through the comments of her father, editor of the Democratic organ, the Globe, and her brothers, Montgomery Blair, postmaster general under Lincoln, and Francis "Frank" Preston Blair, Jr., a general in the Civil War. Also, her political interests included serving as her father's amanuensis and sometime ghostwriter of his speeches.

Beside being an avid follower of the political scene, Elizabeth Blair Lee spent most of her time raising her only child, (Francis Preston) Blair Lee born in 1857, meeting the obligations of a large extended family, and participating in the busy social scene in Washington and Maryland. She also served for many years as a director of the Washington City Orphan Asylum. In 1906, Elizabeth Blair Lee died at Silver Spring where she had lived with her son and his family.

Biography of Andrew Alexander Blair

Andrew Alexander Blair (1848-1932), son of Francis "Frank" Preston Blair, Jr., and grandson of Francis Preston Blair, was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., in 1866, being the youngest graduate to complete the full course up until that time. He served in the navy for two years and then resigned because of illness. Blair then became an analytical chemist and was a founding member of the firm of Booth, Garrett and Blair. He was well-known in his field, publishing many papers and reports.

Biography of Blair Lee

Blair Lee (1857-1944), lawyer, legislator and social reformer, was born in Silver Spring, Md., the only child of Samuel Phillips Lee and Elizabeth Blair. He was educated at Princeton University (Class of 1880) where he was a founding member and president of the Ivy Club, and at Columbian (now George Washington) Law School earning a law degree in 1883. A practicing attorney in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, Lee also participated in Democratic politics, an interest which had been nurtured by his mother and grandfather, Francis Preston Blair (1791-1876). He was twice elected to the Maryland state senate (1905 and 1909), and among his accomplishments there was the passage of legislation establishing the primary law for party nominations and the creation of the Maryland State Roads Commission. Although narrowly defeated in 1911 as governor of Maryland, Lee was elected to the United States senate in 1913, the first senator elected under the l7th Amendment, in a special election following the death of Isidor Rayner. While in the United States senate, he was active in passing legislation such as the Farm Loan law, the amending of the Federal Reserve law, and the Hay-Wadsworth bill. A delegate to eight Democratic national conventions, he worked actively for the election of William Jennings Bryan (1896 and 1900) and Woodrow Wilson (1912 and 1916).

In 1891 he married Anne Clymer Brooke and, after her death (1903), helped raise their sons, Edward Brooke Lee (1892-1984, Princeton Class l916) and Phillips Blair Lee (1895-1983, Princeton Class of l9l8). Lee's interests included social reform and philanthropy, and he was active in the National Junior Republic, National Mary Washington Memorial Association, and the Washington City Orphan Asylum. He also participated in fraternal groups such as the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia, the Princeton Class of 1880 and the Ivy Club, and the K.F.R. Society.

Collection History

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Acquisition

Gift of P. Blair Lee and E. Brooke Lee.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Judith Golden in 1992. Finding aid written by Judith Golden in 1992.

Access and Use

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Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use. Researchers may be required to use surrogates of collection items stored in special vault facilities.

Use Restrictions

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.

Preferred Citation

Blair and Lee Family Papers; 1764-1946 (mostly 1840-1920), Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

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Topics

• American history

Subject Terms

• Administration of estates
• Alumni
• Annapolis
• Bimetalism
• Blair family
• Brandywine (Ship)
• Brooks family
• Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting
• Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography
• Bureau of Provisions and Clothing
• Bureau of Yards and Dock Construction
• Career in politics
• Cases
• City planning
• Clergy
• College of New Jersey (Princeton, N.J.)
• College of New Jersey (Princeton, N.J.). Class of 1880
• College of New Jersey (Princeton, N.J.). Ivy Club
• Columbian Law School
• Committees
• Criminal law
• Democratic National Publishing Company
• Democratic Party (Md.)
• Dolphin (Ship)
• Editors
• Education
• Elections
• English literature
• Episcopal Church
• Estates (Law)
• Fathers and daughters
• Fathers and sons
• France
• French spoliation claims
• Gist family
• Governors
• History
• History, Naval
• Husband and wife
• Journalists
• K.F.R. Society
• Law
• Lawyers
• Lee family
• Lee, Blair,1867-1944
• Lee, Elizabeth Blair,1818-1906
• Lee, Samuel Phillips,1812-1897
• Legare (Ship)
• Local government
• Marion (Ship)
• Maryland
• Mississippi Squadron
• Missouri
• Montgomery County
• Montgomery County (Md.)
• Mothers and sons
• Municipal government
• National Mary Washington Memorial Association
• Nautilus (Ship)
• Naval education
• Naval history
• New Jersey
• Newborn (Ship)
• North Atlantic Blockading Squadron
• Officers
• Oneida (Ship)
• Patronage, Political
• Personal narratives, American
• Political and social views
• Political clubs
• Political conventions
• Politicians
• Politics and government
• Presidents
• Presidents' spouses
• Princeton
• Real property
• Severn (Ship)
• Silver Knight-Watchman (Washington, D.C.)
• Silver Spring
• Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia
• Sources
• St. Louis
• Statesmen
• Students
• Students and war
• Study and teaching
• United States
• United States Naval Academy
• United States. Congress
• United States. Navy
• United States. Navy Dept
• Vandalia (Ship)
• Vincennes (Ship)
• Washington (D.C.)
• Washington (Ship)
• Washington City Orphan Asylum
• Young Rover (Ship)
• lcsh

Genre Terms

• Account books
• Business records
• Case files
• Commonplace books
• Contracts
• Correspondence
• Diaries
• Family papers
• Insurance policies
• Leases
• Legal correspondence
• Legal documents
• Military maps
• Nautical charts
• Photographs
• Scrapbooks
• Ships' logs

Contents and Arrangement

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Papers of Francis Preston Blair, 1791-1876

• Series 1: Writings, 1830-1869
• Series 2: Correspondence, 1789-1883
• Series 3: Documents, 1723-1880
• Series 4: Person as Subject, 1831-1865
• Series 5: Printed Matter, 1826-1876
• Series 6: Papers of Others, 1734-2999
• Series 7: Additional Papers, 1854-1857

Papers of Samuel Phillips Lee, 1812-1897

• Series 1: Miscellaneous Writings and Notes, 1860-1888
• Series 2: Biographical notes, undated
• Series 3: Diaries, Memoranda Books, and Account Books, 1847-1896
• Series 4: Logs, Journals, Notebooks, and Registers, 1827-1898
• Series 5: Correspondence, 1782-1912
• Series 6: Documents, 1834-1987
• Series 7: Naval Records, 1860-1892
• Series 8: Maps, 1854-1920
• Series 9: Photographs and Engravings, 1812-1984
• Series 10: Memorabilia, undated
• Series 11: Artifacts, undated
• Series 12: Miscellaneous Material, 1799-1885
• Series 13: Printed Matter, undated
• Series 14: Newspaper Clippings: A-Z, 1782-1870
• Series 15: Papers of Others: A-Z, 1854-1893

Papers of Elizabeth Blair Lee, 1818-1906

• Series 1: Correspondence, 1791-1905
• Series 2: Documents, undated
• Series 3: Photographs, undated
• Series 4: Memorabilia, undated
• Series 5: Artifacts, undated
• Series 6: Miscellaneous Material, undated
• Series 7: Printed Matter, undated
• Series 8: Papers of Others, undated

Papers of Andrew Alexander Blair, 1848-1932

• Series 1: Correspondence, 1861-1874
• Series 2: Miscellaneous Material, undated
• Series 3: Papers of Others, 1846-1919

Papers of Blair Lee, 1857-1944

• Series 1: Writings and Notes, 1876-1925 June 5
• Series 2: Correspondence, 1812-1984
• Series 3: Legal Files, 1830-1920
• Series 4: Documents and Financial Material, undated
• Series 5: Organizational Files, 1898-1902
• Series 6: Photographs, 1861
• Series 7: Juvenilia, undated
• Series 8: Memorabilia, 1876-1882
• Series 9: Miscellaneous Material, 1912
• Series 10: Printed Matter, undated
• Series 11: Papers of Others, 1783 April 13-1984