James Buchanan Family Papers, Part 1 Papers of James Buchanan, Series 2 Financial and Legal Documents
Description
The James Buchanan Family Papers, Part 1, Papers of James Buchanan, Series 2 contains the financial and legal documents of James Buchanan, including invoices and receipts, ledgers, accounts, deeds and land records, and estate papers, dated 1812-1883. Among these papers are financial papers including bank statements and memorandums; documents related to land in Clarion, PA; legal papers for the settlement of the Boyd estate and other properties; summaries of three cases decided by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; a summary for the cost of a dinner in Russia in 1833; estate papers for family members and James Buchanan's will. Amos Slaymaker, Henry F. Slaymaker, Hiram B. Swarr, Edward Young Buchanan, Harriet Lane Johnston, and Henry E. Johnston are among the names found in these records.
Admin/Biographical History
James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791 to James Buchanan and Elizabeth Speer. He was the second child born out of ten children, and he would go on to outlive all but one of his siblings. Most popularly remembered as Pennsylvania's only President and as a lifelong bachelor, Buchanan committed a lifetime to politics. In 1821, he left his law practice and embarked on his political career after having been voted into the U.S. House of Representatives. He would remain in the House for five consecutive terms before serving as the U.S. Minister to Russia, a Senator in the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Secretary of State, the U.S. Minister to Great Britain, and finally, the 15th President of the United States. He died in his bedchamber at Wheatland at 8:30 AM on June 1, 1868. He was 77 years old. [https://www.lancasterhistory.org/about-wheatland, accessed 10/24/2019]
System of Arrangement
JBFP Part 1 Series 2 Financial and Legal Documents
James Buchanan Papers, Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections http://archives.dickinson.edu/collection-descriptions/james-buchanan-papers
James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Papers, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/james-buchanan-and-harriet-lane-johnston-papers/
James Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/b/Buchanan0091.html
James Buchanan Papers, Penn State University Libraries, https://libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/1458.htm
Related Item Notes
James Buchanan Family Papers
James Buchanan Collection, MG0096
Historical Society of Pennsylvania microfilm
Photograph collections
Curatorial collections
Wheatland Mansion
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images and transcriptions when available.
Original documents may be used by appointment. Please contact archives@lancasterhistory.org at least two weeks prior to visit.
Copyright
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Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Description Level
Series
Custodial History
The James Buchanan Family Papers were collected by the James Buchanan Foundation for the Preservation of Wheatland. This collection was relocated from the Wheatland mansion to the LancasterHistory archives in the Spring of 2009. Digitization of the James Buchanan Family Papers was funded by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, PHMC Appl ID # 201808013051, 2019-2020.
School Masters Desk. Turned legs, slantied hinged desk top, panel in center of interior, three drawers, three open pigeon holes, pigeon holes are topped by two small drawers on either side.
James Buchanan was the second owner of this desk; he gifted the desk to a domestic servant (name unknown) who was the third of eight owners not counting the museum.
Hepplewhite Pembrook Oval Table. Two drop leaves, when opened, are supported by pivoted shaped brackets. End skirts are straight with one containing a full-width drawer. The four slender tapering legs have satinwood inlay at the upper end.
Sheraton/Empire Tabernacle style mirror. Gilt mirror with a flat molded cornice with projecting breaks at the corners and fourteen pendent sphere. Double pilasters have decorative captials, beaded reeds and a rope motif terminating with urn-shaped bases. Frieze has foliate carvings.
Bottom mirror's silvering is delaminating from exposure to moisture; some chipping on the gilt frame.
Object ID
W.1935.042.001
Notes
Mr. Robert K. Cassatt's (donor) aunt was Miss Annie Buchanan. Annie was Robert's mother's sister and niece to James Buchanan. This mirror formerly hung at Wheatland.
Oval top empire-style table with side skirt. Skirt has beaded top and bottom. Table divides to accomodate four leaves. Four-sided reeded central pillar with two turned feet underneath and four c-scrolled supports. Solid base with four radial, long legs w
Undocumented stories claim that this table was ordered by William Jenkins in 1828, the year he had the Wheatland mansion built, and that it has conveyed to each subsequent owner with the deed. The table dates from the first quarter of the nineteenth century and might attributed to the Bachman cabinetmakers.
