Notes

Microfilm of original records in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

See "References" on this page for access to: (1) published transcriptions of the Illinois manuscripts, with index, series Z, v. 1; (2) the George M. Bedinger papers, with index, series A, v. 7; (3) a more detailed description of contents, Thwaites, Rueben Gold's "Descriptive list of manuscript collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin"; (4) part indexes--Publications of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Calendar series [this "series" is attached to 7 titles all found in "References"]; (5) other part indexes.

The collection consists of nearly 500 volumes of manuscripts, papers, and books collected by Lyman Copeland Draper about the history of the trans-Allegheny West, a region including the western areas of the Carolinas and Virginia, all the Ohio River Valley, and part of the upper Mississippi Valley from the 1740s to 1830. The collection is divided into 50 series. Some series are titled by geographic area, some by the names of prominent frontier leaders, and some by topic. The bulk of the collection consists of notes from interviews, questionnaires, and letters gathered during Draper’s extensive travels and research to learn about frontier history.