Gustavus Cheyney Doane was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on May 20, 1840, and grew up in California. He graduated from the University of the Pacific at Santa Clara in 1861, and afterwards enlisted in the "California Hundred," a federal volunteer unit absorbed by the Second Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry. Doane had attained the rank of sergeant by 1864 when he resigned to accept a commission as lieutenant with the first regiment, Mississippi Marine Brigade. After the war Doane lived for a time in Yazoo City, Mississippi where he was appointed mayor by the Reconstruction authorities in 1867. In 1868 he applied for a commission with the army and was appointed second lieutenant in the Second U.S. Cavalry. He served with the regiment for the next 24 years, attaining the rank of captain in 1884. During his postwar career Doane was stationed at a variety of frontier posts in Montana, California, and Arizona, including Fort Ellis, Fort Custer, Fort Keogh, Fort Maginnis, the Presidio, and Fort Bowie. He participated in the Sioux war of 1876, the Nez Pearce War of 1877, and the Apache campaign of 1886. Doane gained a great deal of fame as an explorer, participating in the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition in present-day Yellowstone National Park, as well as a survey of the Judith Basin area in 1874, a trip down the Snake River in 1876-77, and the Howgate polar expedition in Greenland in 1880. Towards the end of his life, Doane attempted unsuccessfully to gain the superintendency of Yellowstone National Park and to influence widespread Army acceptance for his invention, the Doane Centennial Tent. He married twice, to Amelia Link in 1866 and to Mary Lee Hunter in 1878. Neither union resulted in offspring. Gustavus Cheyney Doane died on May 5, 1892.
The Gustavus C. Doane papers consist of personal and military correspondence, orders, reports, property returns, receipt books, and research notes.The development and promotion of the Doane Centennial Tent is well documented and includes Doane's patent and the tent's specifications. Military correspondence, orders, and other documents include materials from Nelson A. Miles, John Gibbon, Samuel D. Sturgis, and James S. Brisbin. The subject files contain more substantial reports created or collected by Doane, including material on the the Judith Basin Survey and the Snake River Expedition, as well as materials such as affidavits and statements such as missing property claims. Military subjects to which the papers pertain are: history of the Second United States Cavalry and the Indian wars, including contact and conflict with the Sioux (Lakota and Dakota), Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), and Apache (Nde). Other topical strengths are the Howgate Arctic Expedition of 1880 and the exploration of the Rocky Mountain area, especially Yellowstone National Park, the Snake River, and the Judith Basin. Family materials consist of portrait photographs of Doane and correspondence with Mary Hunter Doane, Nancy Davis Doane, and Anna G. Doane.
Series 1 Personal correspondence, 1864-1937
Series 2 Military papers, 1864-1893
Series 3 Subject files, 1860-1893
Series 4 Receipt and letter books, 1881-1891
Series 5 Burlingame research notes, circa 1930s
Series 6 Photographs, circa 1870-1880s
This collection is open for research.
Military and personal papers created or collected by Gustavus C. Doane were donated to Special Collections by Merrill G. Burlingame in 1992.
Original letters and papers collected and created by Gustavus C. Doane throughout his life were added to by his widow, Mary Hunter Doane, after his death in 1892. Mrs. Doane became acquainted with Dr. Merrill G. Burlingame in the 1930s and provided him with much of this material to assist him with his research. Dr. Burlingame collected additional Doane papers from the estate of Mrs. Marian Cooper Bunker and the Alderson family, both of Bozeman, Montana, some time after Mrs. Doane's death in 1952. Before donating the material to Montana State University, Dr. Burlingame supplemented the collection with transcriptions from his own research.
This collection was processed 2009 April 6.
While the papers were in the custody of Merrill G. Burlingame, whatever original order of the materials that may have existed was lost during his efforts to transcribe portions of the documents and to write a biography of Gustavus Doane. Burlingame's own correspondence and notes also became interfiled with the papers. By the time the materials were inventoried by Special Collections in 1992, it was no longer apparent which materials were original and which were transcriptions. The folder headings of the first inventory did suggest a rough arrangement based on subjects or proposed chapters for Burlingame's planned biography. The arrangement of Series 3 has preserved some of Burlingame's subject divisions for the military reports, affidavits, and other materials filed together as "case files." Military documents that might pertain to more than one subject file have been arranged in chronological order within Series 2.
For other Doane materials in the Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections of The Libraries, Montana State University, see:
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
Personal and family correspondence written or received by Gustavus C. Doane, his first wife Amelia Link Doane, second wife Mary Hunter Doane, mother Nancy Davis Doane, and sister Anna G. Doane, and a few other friends and relatives. The earliest letters from California describe conditions there during the Civil War. Other exchanges between Gustavus and Mary Doane describe experiences at various frontier posts in Montana and Arizona. The most extensive files contain letters from Mary at the Presidio, California, and Gustavus on duty in southeastern Arizona during the first half of 1886.
The letters have been chronologically arranged, with one folder of Mary Hunter Doane's letters spanning 1894 to 1937 and one folder of undated correspondence placed at the end of the series.
The Military Papers series contains orders, letters, minor reports, clothing and equipment returns, and other military documents created or collected by Gustavus Doane during his post-Civil War career. Correspondents include Nelson A. Miles, Samuel D. Sturgis, and James S. Brisbin. Many of the orders and letters are "true copies," prepared by Doane or at Doane's request from originals held elsewhere.
This series is arranged chronologically.
The subject files contain reports, notes, letters, printed materials, and other original documents pertaining to Doane's life as compiled by Merrill G. Burlingame in preparation for a biographical work. Also part of this series are affidavits for missing property claims, the patent and specifications for the Doane Centennial Tent, and extensive reports and field notes for the Judith Basin Survey and the Snake River Expedition. Correspondents found in this series include John Gibbon, Doane's collaborator in the development of the Centennial Tent. Printed materials in this series pertain to the Second U.S. Cavalry, the Howgate Arctic Expedition, and general topics regarding the Indian wars and the frontier military.
The Subject Files have been arranged first by topic and then largely chronologically by date of event or topic. Printed items are located at the end of the series.
Oversize items have been removed from their original files and placed in appropriately sized containers. The removed items have been marked with separation notices within the files, which point to the new location of the oversize documents.
orders, affidavits
report pp. 1-70
report pp. 71-122
reports, affidavits
This series contains letter books which Doane originally kept to track his own correspondence, but later adapted for the filing of receipts and return letters. Doane pasted the material within the volumes without maintaining any apparent order, and the inclusive dates of any of the four volumes are an estimate. Many of the letters pasted into the 1886-1891 book pertain to Doane's attempts to gain the superintendency of Yellowstone National Park.
This series consists of typed and handwritten research notes and transcriptions of original primary and secondary sources, both from this collection and those held elsewhere, prepared by Merrill G. Burlingame while preparing a biography of Gustavus C. Doane. The material in this series repeats and supplements the documents found in Series 3 Subject Files.
The material has been arranged by subject. Many of the subject file titles duplicate those found in Series 3 Subject Files.
Two copy photographs of Gustavus C. Doane portraits from unidentified originals. The first photograph shows Doane close to the beginning of his post-war career, the second was taken towards the end of his life.