Hitchcock Coit Collection

Title: Hitchcock Coit Collection

Dates: 1730-1929

Collection Number: Consult repository.

Creator/Collector: Coit, Lillie Hitchcock, 1843-1929.

Extent: 9.84 linear feet (7 cartons, 4 manuscripts boxes, 1 oversize)

Repository: Northeastern University (Oakland)

Abstract: Collection consists of diaries, photographs, correspondence, and papers of the Hitchcock and Hunter families.

Language of Material: English

Collection is open for research.

Contact the Special Collections Curator, F. W. Olin Library, Mills College for copyright and permission to publish information.

[Identification of item]. Hitchcock Coit Collection. Collection Number: Consult repository.. Northeastern University (Oakland)

The collection was donated to Mills by Mrs. Paul Scott Foster of San Anselmo, a cousin of Floride Green, biographer and companion of Lillie during her later years.

Collection consists of diaries, photographs, correspondence, and papers of the Hitchcock and Hunter families. The earliest items in the collection belonged to the James Hunter family of Virginia and include material relating to the Revolutionary War. There are two letters from James Madison, four from James Monroe, and several pieces from General Nathaniel Greene. Edmund Randolph is also represented. Among later materials are letters from Evan Jones and the diaries and the letters of Captain Nathaniel Wyche Hunter (1811-1849), written while he was a cadet at West Point and during the campaign against the Seminole Indians in Florida in 1839 and 1840. The personal papers of Dr. Charles Hitchcock (1812-1885) and his wife, Martha Taliaferro (Hunter) Hitchcock (1818-1899), relate to service with the U.S. Army during the Mexican War and to the life of the Hitchcock family in California from 1851 to 1880. Correspondents include William T. Sherman, Alexander Stephens, and George H. Derby (John Phoenix). Items include Martha Hitchcock’s diaries and personal papers. The letters and diaries of their daughter, Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843-1929), for whom the tower overlooking San Francisco Bay is named, are concerned with her life in San Francisco and abroad. Among her correspondents were Ambrose Bierce, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Joaquin Miller. A drawing by Stephen Masset (James Pipes of Pipesville) shows Lillie rushing to a fire. Collection also contains photographs, including two daguerreotypes of Lillie in youth and adulthood.