The O.C. Marsh Papers

The many historically and scientifically important specimens and artifacts assembled by Othniel Charles Marsh during his association with Yale are preserved at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. In addition, the Manuscripts & Archives department of the Yale University Library also houses an invaluable corollary archive consisting of Marsh correspondence, diaries, notebooks, family papers and related materials, as the O. C. Marsh Papers (call number MS 343). This archive is arranged in seven series: I. Correspondence; II. Marsh Family; III. Education of O. C. Marsh; IV. Writings of O. C. Marsh; V. Biographical Information; VI. Cardiff Giant Hoax; and VII. Red Cloud Agency.

An electronic finding aid describing the contents of the O. C. Marsh Papers in MS 343 is available online. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Peabody Museum and Manuscripts & Archives have begun to digitize the O. C. Marsh papers. The first phase of this project focused on the letters in Series I exchanged between Marsh and his more than 1,300 correspondents. Over 18,000 individual scans are in the process of being integrated with MS 343 for online delivery through the Yale University Library system.

The Peabody Museum has recently collated lower resolution derivatives of these 18,000 scans into PDF documents, one document per correspondent. These PDFs are available below, and are organized according to the same organization found in the finding aid for MS 343. Comments and suggestions about these PDFs and the site are welcome.

O. C. Marsh Correspondence (following MS 343)

Bias and content disclaimer

Yale Peabody Museum digital collections portals, including LUX, expose longstanding and deep bias within our acquisition activities, collection systems, and descriptive practices. Some content, and the description of that content, is outmoded, racist, and culturally insensitive. The Yale Peabody Museum and Yale’s cultural heritage institutions commit to identifying and addressing these issues, and also to being transparent about documenting such processes.

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