WILLIAM BONES CRAWFORD

The Sarah Ann (Gayle) and William B. Crawford papers consist of journals, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and miscellaneous materials.

The journals, with one exception, are those of Sarah Gayle Crawford, covering the period from June 1839 to February 1854. In them she relates her travel to New York City in 1839 to attend school; a visit made with her husband, William B. Crawford, in 1849 to the Crawford family in Columbia, South Carolina; trips to Washington, DC, the New England states and Canada; and their last journey together, to England, France, and Spain in 1853, in search of a healthful environment for William, who died from tuberculosis in Malaga, Spain. The other journal is William’s and dates from his trip to Europe in 1833.

The journals give the Crawford’s observations on geography, architecture, climate, social customs, hotel accommodations, and expenses. There are descriptions of Sarah being introduced to President Zachary Taylor, First Lady Betsy Taylor, and an aged Dolly Madison. They also trace the declining health of William, depicting nineteenth-century medical practices of bleeding and administration of large doses of laudanum, and make reference to the 1839 and 1853 epidemics of yellow fever in Mobile, Alabama.

There is some correspondence to and from Sarah Crawford, to and from William Crawford, and among other family members. Some letters are also found pasted in two scrapbooks kept by Sarah and continued by her daughter Sallie Crawford Hughes.

The scrapbooks include pictures and poems selected by Sarah Crawford, wedding invitations and announcements, newspaper clippings of marriages and funerals of family members and friends, clippings of casualty reports from the Civil War, and the list of wedding presents received by Sallie Crawford Hughes in 1884.

The photographs include one of Amelia Gayle Gorgas, Sarah Crawford’s sister, standing before the Gorgas home on the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of Stanhope Bayne Jones, and views of Cannes, France in 1853. Additionally there is a sketch of the Josiah Gorgas monument. There is also a mourning card with locks of grey hair, presumed to be Sarah Crawford’s hair, stitched onto the card as well as some dried flowers. The handwritten card reads ”Born in Cliborne Alabama March 24th 1824 – Sarah Gayle Crawford – Died in Tuscaloosa Ala – Nov. 29th 1895 – Married in Mobile Dec. 8th, 1842 by the Rev. Dr. Boring, to Dr. Wm. B Crawford.” The name “Sarah Amelia Hughes” is written on the left hand edge of the card.