M151.xml AMERICAN FUR COMPANY: An Inventory of Its Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society Finding aid prepared by Alex Kent. Minnesota Historical Society
St. Paul, MN.

Manuscripts Collection

 Finding aid encoded by Alex Kent, March 2010.. Finding aid written in English OVERVIEW Minnesota Historical Society American Fur Company. American Fur Company papers. 1831-1849. Materials in English. Microfilmed papers of the American Fur Company. Includes microfilm copies of unbound letters, invoices, blotters, orders, memorandums, letterbooks, bound volumes and other papers. 38 microfilm reels; 35 mm. M151: See Detailed Description for reel numbers. OTHER FINDING AIDS

Nute, Grace Lee. Calendar of the American Fur Company's papers. Washington, U.S. G.P.O., 1945.

Grace Lee Nute's Calendar, also published as volumes 2 and 3 of the Annual report of the American Historical Association for the year 1944, provides a detailed description in chronological order of the items within the American Fur Company's papers. Items listed within the Calendar are identifed by an item number. These numbers are generally noted in either handwriting or typescript in the upper right hand corner on the first page of each item.

 ARRANGEMENT

These documents are organized into the following sections:

Letterbooks Bound volumes Letters Duplicated items ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Microfilm Production:

[New York]: New York Historical Society, 1951-1953.

 Location of Originals (approximately 18,180 items):

New York Historical Society.

 Accession Information:

Accession number: 10,730.

 Processing Information:

Catalog ID number: 007064654

 CATALOG HEADINGS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics: Fur trade -- Minnesota. Davenport, Ambrose. Davenport, William. Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. Persons: Aitken, William Alexander, 1787-1851. Astor, John Jacob, 1763-1848. Bailly, Alexis, 1798-1861. Borup, Charles W. W. (Charles William Wulff), 1806-1859. Boutwell, William Thurston, 1803-1890. Brewster, William. Cass, Lewis, 1782-1866. Chouteau, Pierre, 1789-1865. Crooks, Ramsay, 1787-1859. Dousman, Hercules L.,(Hercules Louis), 1800-1868. Franchère, Gabriel, 1786-1863. Nicollet, Joseph Nicholas, 1786-1843. Rolette, Joseph, 1781-1842. Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864. Sibley, Henry Hastings, 1811-1891. Taliaferro, Lawrence, 1794-1871. Organizations: Columbia Fur Company. Michilimackinac Company. Gott (Benjamin) and Sons. Hudson's Bay Company. Henry (A and H) Company. North West Company. Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Company. Places: Red River Valley. Mississippi River Valley. Voyageurs National Park (Minn.) Document Types: Microform. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Letterbooks

Reels 1-10 contain the contents of 26 letterpress copy books. Items designated with "L. B. C." in Grace Lee Nute's Calendar of the American Fur Company Papers refer to these 26 volumes.

 M151 1 Volume 1, October 1834-June 15, 1835. Volume 2. Volume 3 (pages 1-264).

Page 265 blank.

 M151 2 Volume 3 (pages 26-end). Volume 4. Volume 5. M151 3 Volume 6. Volume 7. Volume 8 (pages 1-299). M151 4 Volume 8 (pages 300-end). Volume 9. Volume 10. Volume 11 (pages 1-95). M151 5 Volume 11 (pages 96-end). Volume 12. Volume 13 (pages 1-335). M151 6 Volume 13 (pages 335-end). Volume 14. Volume 15. Volume 16 (pages 1-162). M151 7 Volume 16 (pages 163-end). Volume 17. Volume 18 (pages 1-448). M151 8 Volume 18 (pages 449-end). Volume 19. Volume 20. Volume 21. M151 9 Volume 22. Volume 23. Volume 24 (pages 1-214). M151 10 Volume 24 (page 214-end). Volume 25. Volume 26. Bound Volumes

Reels 11-22 contain microfilmed invoices, orders outward and inward, blotters, store books, receiving books, memoranda, cash books, and other bound volumes.

The volumes are arranged according to the numbering sequence used in the Calendar.

 M151 11 16,404: Invoices inward, volumes 1-2, December 24, 1834-June 3, 1846. 16,405: Orders outward, volumes 2-3, March 14, 1827-May 1, 1834. 16,405: New company, volume 1 (pages 1-310), 1834-1847. M151 12 16,405: Order outward, volume 1, undated. 16,405: New company, volume 1 (pages 311-end), undated. 16,406: Store books, volumes 1-6. June 13, 1836-January 6, 1844. M151 13 16,407: Packing books, volumes 1-5. July 1835-September 1842. 16,408: Blotters, volume 1, 1835-1836. M151 14 16,408: Blotters, volumes 2-5, volume 6 (page 1-203). M151 15 16,408: Blotters, volume 6 (pages 203-end), volumes 7-10, volume 11 (pages 1-85). M151 16 16,408: Blotters, volume 11 (pages 86-end), volumes 12-13. 16,409: Receiving book, volumes 1-2, volume 3 (pages 1-141). M151 17 16,409: Receiving book, volume 3 (pages 142-end), volumes 4-5, volume 6 (pages 1-290). M151 18 16,409: Receiving book, volume 6 (pages 291-end). 16,410: Shipments, volumes 1-4. 16,411-16,481: Furs and skins, volumes 1-2. M151 19 16,482: Lading. 16,483-16,484: Sales and accounts current, volumes 1-2 (pages 1-265). M151 20 16,484: Accounts current, volume 2 (pages 266-end), volume 3. M151 20A 16,485: Memorandums, volumes 1-4. 16,486: Postage, 2 volumes. M151 21 16,487: Western Outfit supply lists, 7 volumes. 1835-1842. 16,489: Cash books, 3 volumes. 1835-1843. 16,494-16,500: Miscellaneous papers, bills, reports. undated, 1834, 1838-1839, 1844. 16,508-16,510: Northern Department list of inventories, 1835-1842. M151 22 16,510: Inventory of retail store at Mackinac (concluded). 1835-1842. Letters

Correspondence, arranged chronologically and numbered according to the Calendar. Letters 1-724 are filmed on the second part of roll 22. Letters that were filmed out of chronological order are noted in the reel list below.

Correspondents include John Jacob Astor, Lewis Cass, Ramsay Crooks, Robert Stuart, Henry Hastings Sibley, Joseph Nicholas Nicollet, Lawrence Taliaferro, Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, Sir George Simpson, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Jean Joseph Rolette, Pierre Chouteau, Gabriel Franchère, Charles Gratiot, Alexis Bailly, Hercules Louis Dousman, George Bonga, Allan Morrison, and many others associated with the fur trade in Minnesota.

 M151 22 1-724: 1831-August 1835. M151 23 726-1669: August 1835-June 1836. M151 24 1670-2639: June 1836-May 1837. M151 25 2541-3685: May 1837-December 1837. M151 26 2686-4860: December 1837-July 1838.

Calendar number 4275 is filmed with 4277.

 M151 27 4861-5829: August 1838-March 1839.

5132 filmed with 5152.

5488 filmed with 5533.

5516 filmed with 5533.

5507 filmed with 5508.

5540 filmed with 5533.

5870 filmed with 6322.

 M151 28 5830-6885: March 1839-October 1839.

6024 filmed with 6020.

6608 filmed with 6602.

6752 filmed with 6702.

 M151 29 6886-7935: October-1839-March 1840.

7174 filmed with 7189.

7216 filmed with 9616.

7232 filmed with 7415.

7435 filmed with 7455.

 M151 30 7936-9014: March 1840-July 1840.

8313 filmed with 8412.

8726 filmed with 8838.

8840 filmed with 8825.

 M151 31 9015-10,211: July 1840-February 1841. M151 32 10,216-11,240: February 1841-July 1841.

10,743 filmed with 10,782.

10,860 filmed with 11,656.

 M151 33 11,241-12,312: July 1841-March 1842.

11,744 filmed with 11,718.

11,837 filmed with 11,797.

12,213 filmed with 12,165.

12,302a filmed with 13,350.

 M151 34 12,320-13,405: March 1842-December 1842.

12,351 filmed with 12,428.

12,733 filmed with 12,558.

13,063 filmed with 13,076.

 M151 35 13,406-14,413: December 1842-August 1844.

13,996 filmed with 13,993.

 M151 36 14,417-15,450: August 1844-March 1846.

14,601 filmed with 14,582.

14,746 filmed with 14,772.

14,858 filmed with 14,840.

 M151 37 15,456-16,402: March 1846-February 1849.

15,471 filmed with 15,413.

 M151 37 15,456-16,402: March 1846-February 1849.

16,246 filmed with 16,061.

 Duplicate Items

The following items are duplicates. although not so counted in the Calendar.

 M151 1200 is a duplicate of 163. 2715 is a duplicate of 2719. 5468 is a duplicate of 5469. 9762 is a duplicate of 9726. 9935 is a duplicate of 7203. 13,733 is a duplicate of 12,947. 13,939 is a duplicate of 13,993. 12,973 is a duplicate of 13,974. 14,581 is a duplicate of 14,582. 14,282 is a duplicate of 15,652. 14,602 is a duplicate of 14,601. 14,641 is a duplicate of 14,642.