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The Correspondence series includes personal letters (both the original letters and typescripts) between members of the Bingham and Warden families. There is extensive correspondence (1848-1861) between Bingham and his wife, Mary Warden Bingham, during his absences while serving in government offices in Lansing, Michigan and Washington, D.C. There is also a substantial correspondence from James W. Bingham, writing to his parents during his boarding school years at the Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan and one year while studying at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Later letters between James and his mother were written while James was serving with Co. H, 1st Michigan Infantry, and then in Co. B, 2nd Battalion, 16th U.S. Infantry. Also of interest are letters in 1850 referring to John, a nephew who participated in the California Gold Rush, where he died.

The Correspondence series includes letters written by Schoening to James Oliver Curwood (seeking literary advice of the author and screenwriter from Owosso, Mich.) and G. Cameron-Émslie (a request for the recipient, an editor at Physical Culture Publishing Corporation, to consider the manuscript of Red Biz). Also included is a letter from one S.G. Randall, a manager at a saw mill in Westwood, California (and personal acquaintance of Schoening and his wife), detailing his experience implementing Schoening's saw hammering methodology.

family correspondence, including materials related to the American Civil War

Nearly 300 letters written to his wife while he was serving in Company B, 19th Michigan Infantry (1862-1865). He is concerned with folks and affairs at home. He comments on guard and picket duty; the officers (especially General McClellan); the Chaplain; the health of the men, deaths and burials; the draft, deserters and Negroes coming into camp; on rumors of battles; and speculates about the end of the war. He tells about boxes and mail from home; explains why he is fighting; and writes often of the ever present food problem. There is an account of a fierce battle near Franklin with a cavalry unit of Bragg's army in which his brother is killed and the regiment captured and marched south to Libby Prison. He tells an interesting story about buckets of burning leather being carried through the camp to smoke out smallpox. Paroled, the men marched or rode in hog cars back to Fortress Monroe and Annapolis where he was hospitalized for a while. After being at home for a short time, he returns to the regiment, and the march south to Atlanta begins. He describes their camps and shanties; trading with rebel pickets; prisoners taken (including a woman in man's clothing); a Sunday in camp with "preaching in one place, firing of guns in another, a brass band playing in another place, and cooking meat and washing clothes most all around you." He visits the Chickamauga battlefield, describes the destruction and evacuation of Atlanta; the march to Savannah; the capture of a rice mill and the burning of towns and plantations along the way through South Carolina. Finally the war is over. He is sent to McDougall Hospital in New York Harbor, and discharged May 26, 1865.