Daguerreotype portrait, circa 1850s

The collection consists of materials relating to Charlotte A. Myers, her adopted daughter Caroline Griswold, and Caroline Griswold’s nieces and nephews from the Hartley family. Materials relating to Myers contain correspondence and a newspaper clipping about her divorce from Rufus Wilmot Griswold, including letters from her lawyers Samuel Sherman and David Paul Brown, and letters to her husband’s former brother-in-law Hamilton Randolph Searles. There is also a daguerreotype portrait of Myers, a poem by her aunt, Hesse Myers, and a commonplace book containing paper cuts, art prints and newspaper clippings about the Civil War and military history, poems and short stories. Materials relating to Caroline Griswold include letters from Caroline to Searles, and letters from her father to Searles about her custody. There is also a daguerreotype portrait and a pencil sketch portrait of her, and assorted writings by her, including a poem and fiction stories published in Southern Field and Fireside under the pseudonym Carrie. Hartley family correspondence contains letters between members of the Hartley family about Rufus Griswold and Charlotte Myers. There are also letters between members of the Hartley family and Joy Bayless, author of the biography Rufus Wilmot Griswold.