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.

Wilder responds to inquiry by Charles Lanman, editor of the Dictionary of the U.S. Congress (1858), seeking biographical information about Abel Garter Wilder, who was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1863 from Kansas. Daniel Wilder provided the biographical information about his brother, Abel Carter

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.