{"id":18984,"date":"2026-01-14T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=18984"},"modified":"2026-01-10T02:36:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T02:36:39","slug":"williams-family-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/14\/williams-family-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"Late 19th to Early 20th Century Business in Delaware: The Williams Family Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Collections and Preservation<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Williams Family Papers<\/span><\/a> document the business and personal affairs of prominent Delaware politician and landowner James Williams (1825\u20131899) and his son Nathaniel J. Williams (1857\u20131943). Nathaniel followed in his father\u2019s footsteps as a politician and landowner. The collection also includes records from Parvis & Williams, a Middletown-based fertilizer manufacturing company led by James Williams after he joined John Parvis in 1885.<\/span><\/p>\n

Materials in the collection include correspondence, college notebooks, account books, ledgers, canceled checks, tax forms, stock and real estate transactions, legal records, bills and ephemera. Together, these materials provide insight into late 19th- and early 20th-century business practices in Delaware.<\/span><\/p>\n

One notable item is a <\/span>letter written by Nathaniel\u2019s uncle<\/span><\/a> while Nathaniel was away at college. Although Nathaniel attended the University of Virginia rather than Delaware College, which later became the University of Delaware, the letter offers a vivid snapshot of daily life in Middletown at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Handwritten

Written on June 9, 1899, the letter describes new houses under construction and preparations for hauling a large peach crop, reflecting the region\u2019s economic activity and agricultural roots.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The collection also includes <\/span>a scrapbook created by Martha E. Clayton<\/span><\/a> of Middletown, Delaware. It contains newspaper clippings alongside handwritten notes detailing home remedies, cooking recipes and household cleaning instructions. Among the entries are directions for a sulfuric acid compound believed to prevent illness, a printed home remedy for cholera and advice on helping hens lay eggs during the winter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

\"Clipping<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

While the Williams Family Papers offer valuable documentation of business and agricultural trends during a period of economic transition in the United States, they also reveal the personal lives, beliefs and daily routines of the people behind the records.<\/span><\/p>\n

Digitization of this collection was made possible through the generous support of the Friends of the Library.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Collections and Preservation   The Williams Family Papers document the business and personal affairs of prominent Delaware politician and landowner James Williams (1825\u20131899) and his son Nathaniel J. Williams (1857\u20131943). Nathaniel followed in his father\u2019s footsteps …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":18985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-collections","category-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 11:55:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18984"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18994,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18984\/revisions\/18994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}