D. DeForrest Douglass papers

The papers consist of correspondence and financial records reflecting the personal and professional activities of Darwin DeForrest Douglass (1828-1902), a designer and maker of artificial limbs, mainly legs.

Included here is correspondence sent to and from Douglass as well as correspondence pertaining to his wife, Susan, and daughter, Jennie Grace. Jennie Grace was a student at the New England Conservatory of Music; this is reflected in the collection. Correspondence often crosses the boundary between personal and professional, discussing family business in the same letter as, for example, Douglass’s travel in pursuit of sales. Included among the correspondence are letters to and from patients requesting Douglass’s services as a limb maker and fitter. Box 2 includes a index card box containing small items found with correspondence: primarily business and calling cards, a single photograph, and a roll of correspondence which could not be disassembled for interfiling. Also included is a large amount of financial documentation, including bills, receipts, and invoices for household, personal, and professional items such as sheet music, wood, paint, clothing, food (tea, sugar, flour, vegetables, meat, milk, coffee, etc.), as well as promissory notes, bills for rentals, gas, coal, and ice bills, and property records. Also included are bills Douglass submitted for payment for his professional services as a prosthetist and copies of his and his wife Susan's wills.

Papers are entirely in English.