McLane Wills, undated

The McLane-Fisher Family Papers are a collection of correspondence, financial papers, and legal papers from members of the McLane family of Delaware and Baltimore, and the Fisher family of Baltimore.

Almost all of the collection consists of papers of McLane family members including Louis and his wife Catherine; his brother Allan; Louis McLane, Jr. and his wife Sophie; the brothers and sisters of Louis McLane, Jr. inlcuding Rebecca Wells, Robert Milligan, Sally Jones, Lydia Sims, Juliette, and Charles Eugene; and the children of Louis McLane, Jr.--Catherine Milligan, Sophie Hoffman, Elizabeth Curzon, Samuel Hoffman, and Emily Hoffman. The bulk of the material consists of incoming correspondence of Catherine and Louis McLane, circa 1820-1857; incoming correspondence of Sophie and Louis McLane, Jr., 1835-1905, including financial and legal papers; and papers of Charles E. McLane, 1855-1882 while in California. The remainder of the McLane material is made up of correspondence from the other above mentioned members of the McLane family.

Most of the correspondence deals with family and personal matters, however much of Louis McLane's correspondence concerns his political career as a congressman, senator and Minister to England. Louis McLane, Jr.'s papers portray his life in the navy and in California; and the papers of Charles E,. McLane deal exclusively with his legal and financial enterprises in California.

A much smaller section of the collection houses the Fisher papers. This section consists of papers of D.K. Este, circa 1800-1850, including correspondence, legal papers, and writings; and papers of his grandson D.K. Este Fisher, 1875-1911, most of which consists of correspondence while in school at St. Paul's in New Hampshire, and at Princeton University.