Autobiographical letter from Marcus Junius Parrott to Charles Lanman in response to a circular requesting biographical information prepared by Lanman as he compiled data for the Dictionary of the U.S. Congress, 1851. Also included in the collection is a photographic likeness of Parrott on paper.

This collection contains 40 modern photographic prints of images taken by 19th century American photographer Matthew Brady and copied from prints held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The images are mostly of members of President Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, Supreme Court Justices, and high-ranking or former Civil War miltary figures. Numbers listed in folder titles came from the numbering system used by the National Archives.

Sidney Clarke was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts on October 16, 1831. He was the editor and publisher of the Southbridge Press from 1853 to 1857. He emigrated to Kansas in 1858 and settled at Shawnee. He became a member of the state legislature in 1862 and was a United States Representative at Large, 1865-1871. The collection includes three letters to Charles Lanman, editor of Dictionary of the U.S. Congress (1858), and a portrait of Clarke at RH MS-P P226.