Archives West Finding Aid

The correspondence, mostly in French, makes up the bulk of the collection. Many of the letters were written by De Smet with the intent that they be published in monographs or journals. They contain detailed descriptions of De Smet's observations of the life, customs, and beliefs of native people, white society, and the natural enviroment.

Among Father De Smet's outgoing correspondence is part of the journal of J. Nobili addressed to Father, a letter by Nicolas Point written to De Smet, and an extract from Point's journal. These are part of a series De Smet used for publication. These have been left in the arrangement in which De Smet placed them and are not in chronological order.

Pierre Jean De Smet's undated correspondence includes a postscript of a letter to Charles De Smet, two fragments of letters, a letter to Francois De Smet, his brother, translations of the Our Father into tribal languages, a Blackfoot glossary, and a list of Rocky Mountain plants.

De Smet's letterbook consists of essay letters to Francois De Smet, published pages of his letters, fifty-seven pencil sketches by Nicolas Point, and twenty-three engravings made after Point's sketches for publication in collections of De Smet's correspondence. Much of this material was recorded during the trip to the Oregon Territory in 1841 and 1842 and published in Oregon Missions and Voyages... (See the drawings series for more of Point's art work.)

De Smet's correspondence filed under Voyages aux Montagnes Rocheuses... is a manuscript, copied in 1873, of a collection of letters originally written in 1841-42 with the intent that it be published. Francois De Smet's incoming correspondence includes letters from Melchoir Kramp, Charles van Kerckhove, Charles and Rosalie Van Mossevelde, Daniel Swagemakers, and John Anthony Elet. His outgoing correspondents include Melchoir Kramp, Paul De Smet, and "Monsieur le Bourgmestre". His letterbook consists mainly of letters to Pierre Jean De Smet, but includes incoming correspondence from his cousin J. B. Duerinck, Joseph Proost, John Anthony Elet, Charles van Kerckhove, "De Bruin", and Pierre Jean De Smet. Loose material from the letterbook is numbered sequentially; these numbers usually reflect chronological order. All of Francois De Smet's correspondence concerns Pierre Jean De Smet's welfare and financial situation. His letterbook contains an account of receipts and disbursements of Pierre Jean's annuity from 1838 to 1873, mention of personal affairs, and comments on current events in Europe, especially those of 1848.

Miscellaneous correspondents in the series include Amandus Makelburg, Mrs. W. P. Hunt, H. Boulpaep, Ferdinand Coosemans, and Francis Deynoodt. Some of their letters pertain to Pierre Jean De Smet's death. The art work by Nicolas Point, spanning the years from 1841 to 1846, deals with things observed during his travels with De Smet. Included within this series are pencil drawings of people, places, plants and animals, as well as ink washes of various secular and religious structures in the west. The engravings are based on Point's drawings and were apparently used as illustrations in several of De Smet's publications. Photocopies of these drawings and engravings are available for inspection. Additional Point sketches are in Pierre De Smet's letterbook, in the correspondence series. All the drawings are related to each other and are separated due to physical limitations.

The legal documents concern the division of the estates of Josse De Smet and his wife Jeanne-Marie Buydens, Pierre Jean De Smet's parents, and of Martin Buydens and his wife Marie-Elizabeth Coutriend, De Smet's maternal grandparents. When groups of related documents are filed together, they are filed by the date of the original document. When two documents appear on the same sheet, they are filed by the earliest date. When several dates appear on a document, e.g. a will, the document is filed by the latest date. The Pierre Jean De Smet subseries contains his death certificate.

The maps include two manuscript maps by Pierre Jean De Smet showing mission sites and surrounding landmarks in the northwestern United States; nine published maps of cities in Flanders, artist unknown; map in seven sections by Captain J.C. Fremont; and two large photocopied maps drawn by others using the maps and notes of Pierre Jean De Smet. (Ask at Reference Desk for assistance in viewing the larger maps.)

The miscellanea series contains marriage announcements of Francois de Smet d'Olbecke and Micheline Dallemagne, a fragment of a poem, and floor plans of the U.S.M. steamer Fulton. Also included are the journal of Father Francis Xavier De Coen, a native of Flanders and nephew of Father Charles Nerinckx, notes of Eugene Laveille for his book on Father De Smet, a brief piece in support of colonization, two newspaper clippings, and the anonymous "La colonisation au point de vue Belge".