Chapman Grant papers

Collection

Identifier: USGPL-CG

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains photographs, correspondence, clippings, and ephemera from scrapbooks made by Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, Jesse R. Grant, Chapman Grant, and their friends and family. This collection also includes the twenty-three family scrapbooks, with items ranging from the second half of the nineteenth century to the 1970s. Items of interest include military documents, memoranda, and correspondence from Chapman Grant’s service in the United States Army and his professional correspondence and notes as an aquarium director and entomological researcher. Of additional note is one scrapbook containing drawings and sketches by Chapman Grant’s father, Jesse R. Grant and six scrapbooks dedicated to clippings about Ulysses S. Grant’s military career, post-presidential life, and evaluations of his presidency. Notable correspondents outside of the Grant family include Chiang Kai-shek.

Dates

1859 - 1977
Majority of material found within 1885 - 1940

Creator

Grant, Chapman, 1887-1983 (Person)

Biographical Note

Chapman Grant (1887-1983) was the son of Jesse Root Grant and Lizzie Grant and the grandson of Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Dent Grant. Chapman Grant was the last living grandson of President Ulysses S. Grant. Chapman attended the California Academy of Sciences and graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After college he became the curator of the Children’s Museum at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. In 1913, Chapman left the museum to pursue a career in the army and eventually achieved the rank of Major. His military service extended through a short tour of France in World War I, stateside stationing during the 1920s, and a position in the California Civilian Conservation Corps during Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. In 1917, Chapman married Mabel Glenn Ward. Together they had two children, Mabel Chapman Grant and Ulysses S. Grant V, and six grandchildren, Thomas Hazard, Polly Hazard, Terry Hazard, Bonnie Grant, Millard Grant, and Chapman Foster Grant. Throughout his professional career Chapman excelled in natural and biological sciences, with a particular interest in zoology, herpetology, ornithology, and aquarium studies. His studies in the Caribbean found fifteen previously unclassified species, including geckos, a frog, and an iguana. Two West Indian snakes are named in his honor: Chilabothrus granti and Typhlops granti. From 1932 to 1960 he published the magazine Herpetologica.

Beleons, Michael Watkins, and Michael Grayson, The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), 106.

Extent

10.5 Cubic Feet (1 Record Carton 1 Archives Box 13 Oversize Flat Boxes 4 Oversize Flat Folders)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Series Arrangement

This collection is arranged into ten series. Series I: Military Documents includes documents, correspondence, memoranda, and memorabilia related to Chapman Grant’s service in the United States Army from the 1910s into the 1930s. Included are documents related to his deployment to France during World War I and correspondence about his involvement in the Civilian Conservation Corps. The majority of these items were removed from the Chapman Grant scrapbooks, housed in Series VIII. Series II: Correspondence includes personal correspondence between Julia Grant, Jesse Grant, Chapman Grant, and other friends and members of the Grant family, including Mama Tapp, Nellie Grant, and Chapman Grant’s grandchildren. Included also is professional correspondence related to Chapman’s work in biology and aquariums. The majority of these items were removed from the scrapbook housed in Series VIII. More personal and professional correspondence can be found there. Series III: Photographs includes over eighty individual photographs ranging from thumbnail to letter size. Photographs include personal and family photographs, as well as photos of fish and animals taken during Chapman’s nature expeditions. Included as well is a collection of sixty-six small photographs removed from an envelope apparently belonging to Mrs. Julia Grant. All of the items in this series were removed from the scrapbooks housed in Series VIII. Photographs can be found throughout them as well. Series IV: Ephemera includes report cards, paper animals, dinner menus, and reception programs, and other items of memorabilia. Of special note in this series is a 1000 Reichsbanknote from 1910, Red Cross holiday stamps for 1909, and the seating maps from Chapman Grant’s college graduation. The items in this collection were removed from the scrapbooks found in Series VIII. Series V: Notes and Drawings includes childhood drawings by Chapman Grant, school notes, and academic tests. These items were removed from the scrapbooks found in Series VIII. Series VI: Clippings includes newspapers and publication clippings about Ulysses S. Grant, Mrs. Julia Grant, Jesse R. Grant, Chapman Grant, and the Grant family, ranging from the late nineteenth century into the 1970s. Included in this series are some clippings about Abraham Lincoln. These items were removed from the scrapbooks housed in Series VIII. Series VII: Scrapbook Materials includes notes, indices, and order forms for the scrapbooks in Series VIII, as well as a spine and bookmark from one scrapbook. Series VIII: Scrapbooks includes twenty-three scrapbooks grouped into five sub-series. The Ulysses S. Grant Scrapbooks include four scrapbooks, the majority of which contain clippings about the life, presidency, retirement, and death of Ulysses S. Grant. The final scrapbook in this series includes clippings about the life and career of Ulysses S. Grant’s grandson, Ulysses S. Grant III. The Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant Scrapbooks include three scrapbooks that contain photographs, correspondence, ephemera, and personal writings. One of the scrapbooks in this sub-series is dedicated completely to Mrs. Grant’s interest in ghosts, superstition, and spiritualism. The Jesse R. Grant Scrapbooks contain two scrapbooks about the life of Jesse R. Grant, son of Ulysses S. Grant and Julia D. Grant. Of particular interest in this sub-series is a scrapbook dedicated completely to the drawings and sketches of Jesse Grant, which includes pencil, ink, and watercolor art. The Grant/Lincoln Scrapbooks are dedicated entirely to clippings and publications about Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln collected by the Grant family and their friends. The Chapman Grant Scrapbooks contain eleven books dedicated to the life, military career, and professional career of Chapman Grant. They contain numerous photographs, pieces of correspondence, ephemera, clippings, and notes from the late nineteenth century into the 1970s. Series IX: Publications includes two bound volumes that contain one hundred published works by Chapman Grant. These publications are mainly on his interests of biology, herpetology, entomology, and zoology and are from various professional and academic journals. Series X: Oversized Items includes one box containing clippings and a piece of ephemera, an oversized Ulysses S. Grant fifty dollar bill. This series also includes four oversized folders that contain full size newspapers from the 1850s and the 1880s. This series contains no correspondence or photographs.