Horace Porter Collection

The Horace Porter Collection consists of 13.0 linear feet of photographs, manuscripts, letters, clippings, prints, and printed ephemera, together with a large assortment of valuable artifacts connected with General Porter's career. Porter, best known for his role as aide-de-camp to General Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, was a noted soldier, railroad executive, diplomat, and son of Governor David Rittenhouse Porter (1788-1867) of Pennsylvania. The collection includes a variety of materials. From the Civil War period there are four printed notifications in 1865 of Porter's promotions through the ranks, together with the printed General Order No. 144, 4 April 1864, which mentions Porter's becoming an aide-de-camp to Grant. There is also a file of facsimile documents printed about Robert E. Lee's surrender for the 1893 Annual Banquet commemorating the birth of Grant. Perhaps one of the most interesting manuscripts is an original poem entitled "An Application for Office - New Style . . . Respectfully Inscribed to President Grant by J. M. Dalzell, late Private 116 Ohio Vol. Infantry." The collection contains photographs of Brigadier General Quincy Adams Gillmore, Grant and his staff at Lookout Mountain taken in 1863 after the battle (photo by A. W. Judd), the table at Appomattox at which Grant wrote the terms of surrender, and Horace Porter himself. There are some dozen awards and certificates of membership in organizations made out to Porter. Moreover, there are menus of dinners in his honor. The majority of correspondence is to and from Porter's grandson, Horace Porter Mende of Switzerland. The correspondence generally concerns Porter artifacts and the donation of some of these to various institutions. There is some material about Governor David Rittenhouse Porter and his father Andrew Porter. The artifacts among the collection are mainly medals, decorations, and awards, together with some of Porter's military attire. On the whole, the Horace Porter Collection documents tangibly and intangibly the life and career of this important figure in American history.

The Georgetown University Library Special Collections Division also preserves the McHarg Family Papers, which document the Civil War experiences of the family of Horace Porter's wife, Sophie K. McHarg, and include several letters written by Porter. Other Civil War collections found in Georgetown University Special Collections include the Byington Family Papers, the David Rankin Barbee Papers, the E. H. Swaim Collection, the Margaret Bearden Papers, the Julius P. Garesche Papers, the Helen King Boyer Collection, and the Ord Family Papers, among others.

Note: Objects described in Box 12 are located in the Booth Family Center for Special Collections office display cabinet. Consult Manuscripts Librarian for access.