Meserve-Kunhardt collection GEN MSS 1430 Administrative Information Immediate Source of Acquisition Purchased from MKF Funding, Llc, Peter W. Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, III, on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund and with a gift from the Rice Family Foundation, 2015. Gift of Peter W. Kunhardt and Philip B. Kunhardt, III, 2015. Conditions Governing Access Series I. Photographs; Subseries. Workbooks is open for research. As additional series and subseries are processed they will be opened to researchers. For additional information contact the processing archivist. Conditions Governing Use The Meserve-Kunhardt Collection is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator. Preferred Citation Meserve-Kunhardt Collection. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Processing Information This finding aid will be revised as additional parts of the collection are processed and as revisions in arrangement or description are made by sta. During their stewardship of the collection, the sta of the Meserve-Kunhardt Foundation applied "Meserve numbers" (expressed in this guide as a five digit number with the prefix "MES") to photographs in the collection. In doing so, they extended a numbering system established by Frederick Hill Meserve to organize and identify his photographic images. At this point (January 2017), it is not apparent at what number the sta began to apply new numbers. The Foundation also established its own sequence for drafts, galleys, and printed works (expressed as MESB6733-MESB8760). It does not appear that the Foundation used a consistent methodology to assign Meserve numbers; while each Meserve number corresponds to an individual record in a FileMaker Pro database created by the Foundation, the record may describe an individual photograph or a group of related photographs. History of the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection Frederick Hill Meserve (1865-1962) began collecting photographs around 1897-1900 to illustrate the American Civil War memoir of his father, William Neal Meserve (1840-1928) with images of persons and sites mentioned therein. The elder Meserve drafted his narrative during the 1890s; it covers his military service from August 1862 to June 1865, and includes accounts of battles at Antietam (where he reportedly suered two wounds), Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor, as well as engagements outside Petersburg, including the battles at the Crater and Weldon Railroad. A copy of the memoir will become available as other portions of the Collection are processed. Page 18 of 2884