This Fall, DLS and Central Technical Services staff have been working on scanning and providing metadata for materials from the Libraries’ Special Collections Department related to the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the building of the Union Pacific Railroad.

The Civil War documents include diaries and letters written by soldiers and female aid workers describing their experiences on the war front –- most of them had never traveled out of their state before, and several of them died before reaching home. One set of correspondence is that between Myron Underwood, a young rural Iowa doctor sent to Vicksburg, Miss., with the 12th Regiment of the Iowa Infantry to serve as a surgeon’s assistant, and his wife Sophie, back in Iowa with their infant daughter. In a long letter sent to Sophie as Christmas nears and he feels keenly his separation from his wife and daughter, Dr. Underwood apologizes for the lack of polish and eloquence in his correspondence, which he attributes to what he assumes is its ephemeral nature:

“I should have written with the same care that I would, if I had known that they were to be published, and then it might have been worth the while of preserving them. And again, they might have been of interest to you in the future and a benefit to our little girl. And by which she could have studied my true character, and known who her father is if any accident should befall me. And further that I was a thoughtful man, and that he looked forward to her education with an intense desire; and every word that he penned was weighed carefully and as though all my soul was in what I have written.”

Check back next month to view similar artifacts when the Libraries launches this collection to coincide with the Lincoln Bicentennial.

–Christine Tade
Library Assistant, Central Technical Services