Harry Payne Whitney collection of letters of William Collins Whitney, 1757-1942 (bulk 1883-1904).

Open to research.

Correspondence; business, legal, and financial records; genealogies; scrapbooks; printed matter; photographs; and other papers pertaining chiefly to William C. Whitney's service as corporation counsel in the New York (N.Y.) Law Dept. and as U.S. secretary of the navy in the first Grover Cleveland presidential administration. Documents his work in the modernization of the U.S. Navy and his fight against political corruption and fraud in New York, N.Y., primarily in relation to Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring. Subjects include New York city and state politics; the Democratic Party (N.Y); national politics; and foreign relations. Other subjects include Grover Cleveland's nomination and election as New York state governor and U.S. president; presidential campaigns, 1884-1896; bimetallism; silver question; tariff; social life in New York, N.Y., and Washington, D.C.; horse racing: yachting: and Whitney family affairs. Includes six scrapbooks containing photographs from the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884) led by A.W. Greely.

Photographs of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition transferred to Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

U.S. secretary of the navy, financier, and sportsman.

Collection material in English.

Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and at

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms012064