Sherwood Sterling papers

These papers pertain to manufacturing and mining enterprises in which Sherwood Sterling (1840-\) of Newark, New Jersey, and New Haven and Ansonia, Connecticut, was engaged. The greatest amount of material relates to the Sterling Grate Bar Company of Newark. Included are correspondence about patents for furnace grates and legal problems stemming from the patents, advertising, orders, and so forth; legal and financial papers such as agreements, patents, receipts and bills; and printed circulars, business cards, et cetera. The folio contains several large hand-drawn diagrams of grates and furnace bars.

The bulk of the remaining papers documents Sterling's involvement with the Golden Sands Mining Company of Cape Nome, Alaska, with the Ideal Mining and Development Company, also of Alaska, and with the Sterling Syndicate of New Haven and Ansonia, which was founded to raise money for the mining ventures. Neither mining company was successful, and the correspondence deals largely with difficulties in raising money, legal problems with the claims in Alaska, and the eventual failure of the companies. Items of particular interest include a letter dated 1900 Apr 13 containing a list of food and other supplies deemed necessary for an Alaskan prospector (folder 4), and a series of letters from Sterling's son-in-law Henry Miller discussing Miller's plans to mine the claims in Alaska. Also included among these papers are legal and financial documents and printed matter such as advertising prospectuses. A map of the Golden Sands Mining Company claims is located in the folio.

The final material in the collection is a group of letters and printed items from F. T. McIntyre of the Metropolitan Institute of Sciences advertising his Hypnotic Ball Treatment for the cure of diseases and for psychic self-improvement.