Guide to the Philip Schuyler papers - New York Public Library

Series descriptions and container list
The Philip Schuyler Papers are arranged in 12 series: Letters Received, Letters Sent,
Indian Papers, Canal Papers, Surveyor General Papers, Public Papers, Mathematics/Engineering
Notes, Financial & Legal Papers, Estate Papers, Land Papers, Family Papers, and Military
Papers.
The first two series contain most of Schuyler’s correspondence, although letters can be
found in several of the other series as well. Letters Received, 1761-1804 consists chiefly of
2,431 letters arranged chronologically. A two volume calendar of these letters arranged
alphabetically by name of the correspondent was prepared by Mrs. Solomon Alofsen in 1851 and
is available in the reading room. The majority of the letters are from military officers, members
of the Continental Congress, committees of safety, and private individuals relative to the conduct
of the Revolutionary War in the Northern Department, 1775-1777. Correspondents include
Benedict Arnold, George Clinton, John Cockran, James Duane, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Glen,
Richard Montgomery, William Smith, Jr., Richard Varick, George Washington, and members of
the Gansevoort, Lansing, Livingston, Van Rensselaer, and Yates families.
In addition to the calendared letters are Schuyler’s letterbook of copies of letters and
instructions from General Washington and the Continental Congress, June 1775-June 1778;
approximately 70 letters, 1769-1796 (i.e. 1769; 1796-1797) from Stephen Theodore Johnson,
Peter R. Livingston, Harmanus Schuyler, and Philip Ten Eyck; and 32 letters written to Schuyler
in 1788 as a member of the New York Council of Appointment recommending persons for
various public offices.
Letters Sent, 1769-1804 include three letterbooks, 1775-1778, of letters from Schuyler to
the Continental Congress, General Washington and others on the conduct of the war; two
volumes of letters and military orders issued by Schuyler and his aides-de-camp, Richard Varick
and John Lansing, Jr., 1776-1777; additional letters and military orders, 1769-1804; and letters to
family members, 1787-1795, the bulk to his son John B. Schuyler, 1787-1794, including John's
wife Elizabeth, regarding personal and business matters, and to his wife and daughter Catherine,
1795, regarding John's death.
Indian Papers, 1710-1797 consist of his papers as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the
Northern Department during the Revolutionary War, and as agent of the state of New York.
They include speeches made at Indian councils; notes of proceedings; minutes of the
commissioners’ meetings; accounts of supplies; expenses of Indian delegates and
commissioners; letters; resolutions of Congress; acts of the New York State legislature; and
various papers relating to the lands of the Six Nations, including numerous claims filed in 1795
by white settlers in the Cayuga reservation. Among the papers are letters of Guy, Sir William,
and Sir John Johnson, a speech of Joseph Brant, and the journal of Marin’s expedition against
Saratoga, 1745.
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