Henry Harmon Spalding Papers, 1836-circa 1968

The papers of Henry Harmon Spalding are mostly comprised of materials procured by C. M. Drury from scattered sources for his biographies of Pacific Northwest missionaries. The materials are mostly related to the Spalding's missionary work among the Nez Percé. Also included are account books of Henry Hart Spalding, an Almota, Washington, merchant; and photoprints of the second Mrs. Spalding and Rev. and Mrs. J. S. Griffin.

The correspondence of Henry Harmon Spalding consists of three letters written prior to 1842, one by Mrs. Spalding; a letter from Alvin Thompson Smith at Tualatin Plains in 1843; and eight letters to general O.F. Marshall (1791-1891) of Wheeler, New York during the 1870's (these letters were originally collected be Rev. Samuel Wheeler Pratt, an early biographer of Whitman, whose descendants turned them over to Drury); and a letter to Chief Spokane Garry which was found by Drury in Garry's Bible which was in the possession of a grand-daughter in 1935.

There are nineteen photographs in this collection, of which most are copy negatives or copy photoprints. However, there are three small photographs taken at the Frank G. Abell studios in Portland, Oregon of the second Mrs. Spalding, and the Rev. and Mrs. J.S. Griffin, probably circa 1880.

In addition to clippings concerning Spalding and other missionaries collected by a great grand-daughter, the ledgers and accounts of Spalding's son Henry Hart Spalding (1839-1898) of Almota, Washington, are included. Among these is a school composition book of the 1850's which has been used as a scrapbook for the elder Spalding's newspaper lectures of the 1860's.

Photocopies and transcripts of the Spalding material in this collection and in the collections of other transcription of Eliza Hart Spalding material in this collection and in the collections of other institutions are also present. One item of interest is a transcription of Eliza Hart Spalding's diary of 1836-1840 which may be considered the original diary in the Whitman College Museum. Both items apparently are from family sources.