Yandell Family Papers, 1823-1887
Held by The Filson Historical Society
Creator: Yandell Family
Title: Papers, 1823-1887
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.
Size of Collection: 2.66 cubic feet
Location Number: Mss. A Y21
Scope and Content Note
The papers primarily consist of correspondence, diaries, and medical notes. Most of the letters were written by Wilson Yandell, Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Susan Wendel Yandell, and Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Jr. The letters consist mostly of family news but also contain information relating to a variety of other topics, including medical practice, physicians of Ky., medical politics at Transylvania and the Louisville Medical Institute, state politics and economic conditions in Ky. and Tenn., references to important citizens in Louisville and Lexington, the career of David W. Yandell, disease, slavery, the secession crisis, and the Civil War. In addition to correspondence, the collection also includes lectures of Lunsford P. Yandell, material about his father, Wilson Yandell, notes for medical biographies, diaries of Lunsford P. Yandell, and a scrapbook.
Correspondents include Elisha Bartlett, Charles Caldwell, Daniel Drake, Austin Flint, Timothy Flint, Samuel D. Gross, Philip Lindsley, Henry Miller, and Benjamin Rush. To view a calendar of correspondence for the Yandell Family Papers, please click here. This provides a listing with names, dates, and descriptions of each letter.
Biographical Note
Lunsford Pitts Yandell was born July 4, 1805, in Tennessee. He received a medical degree from the University of Maryland and in 1831 joined the faculty of Transylvania’s Medical Dept. Six years later he founded the Louisville Medical Institute with several colleagues. There he taught chemistry and materia medica. Yandell wrote many articles on medical topics and also served as the editor of the Transylvania Journal of Medicine and the Western Journal of Medicine and Science. Yandell served as the eighteenth president of the Kentucky State Medical Association. Yandell and his first wife, Susan (Wendel) had four children. Yandell died in 1878 and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.
Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Jr. was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee in 1837. He received his education at the University of Louisville where he studied medicine, graduating in 1857. In 1858, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he practiced medicine. In 1859, he was appointed to the Chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Memphis Medical College. When the Civil War began, Yandell enlisted and was appointed assistant surgeon in the Fourth Tennessee Regiment, later becoming its surgeon. At the end of the war he returned to Louisville to practice medicine. In 1869, he was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine in the University of Louisville. In 1867, he married Louise Elliston of Nashville. Yandell died in 1884.
Folder List
Box 1
1 Correspondence, 1823.
1a Correspondence, 1807-1812.
2 Correspondence, 1824.
3 Correspondence, 1825 Jan.-May.
4 Correspondence, 1825 Nov.-Dec.
5 Correspondence, 1826.
6 Correspondence, 1828-1829.
7 Correspondence, 1830 Jan.-July.
8 Correspondence, 1830 Sept.-Dec.
Box 2
9 Correspondence, 1831 Jan.-Mar.
10 Correspondence, 1831 Apr.-Dec.
11 Correspondence, 1832.
12 Correspondence, 1833 Jan.-June.
13 Correspondence, 1833 July-Dec.
14 Correspondence, 1834-1835.
15 Correspondence, 1836.
16 Correspondence, 1837 Jan.-July.
17 Correspondence, 1837 Aug.-Nov.
Box 3
18 Correspondence, 1838 Jan.-May.
19 Correspondence, 1838 June-Dec.
20 Correspondence, 1839.
21 Correspondence, 1840-1841.
22 Correspondence, 1842-1844.
23 Correspondence, 1845-1846.
24 Correspondence, 1848-1849.
25 Correspondence, 1850.
26 Correspondence, 1851.
27 Correspondence, 1852 June-Nov.
28 Correspondence, 1852 Dec.
Box 4
29 Correspondence, 1853 Jan.-July 15.
30 Correspondence, 1853 July 16-Dec.
31 Correspondence, 1854-1855.
32 Correspondence, 1857.
33 Correspondence, 1859 Jan.-Apr.
34 Correspondence, 1859 May-Dec.
35 Correspondence, 1860 Jan.-Mar.
36 Correspondence, 1860 Apr.-May.
37 Correspondence, 1860 June-Aug.
38 Correspondence, 1860 Sept.-Dec.
Box 5
39 Correspondence, 1861 Jan.-Apr.
40 Correspondence, 1861 May-Oct. CLICK TO ACCESS PDF
41 Correspondence, 1861 Nov.-Dec. CLICK TO ACCESS PDF
42 Correspondence, 1862-1863. CLICK TO ACCESS PDF
43 Correspondence, 1864-1867.
44 Correspondence, 1883-1887.
45 Correspondence, n.d.
46 Letter fragments.
47 Lectures of Lunsford P. Yandell on Chemistry, Electricity, Zoology, and
Temperance.
48 Lectures of Lunsford P. Yandell on medicine and medical education.
49 A biography of Wilson Yandell and a discourse given at his funeral by E. MacGowan.
50 Notes for medical biographies by Lunsford P. Yandell.
Box 6
51 Diary of Lunsford P. Yandell, 1824-1843. Includes autobiographical sketch,
excerpts from correspondence, and miscellaneous material.
Box 7
52 Diary of Lunsford P. Yandell, 1861-1862, and 1868, with some entries from
1834-1835.
53 Diary of Lunsford P. Yandell, 1869-1871.
54 Diary of Lunsford P. Yandell, 1872-1874.
Box 8
55 Typewritten copy of parts of Lunsford P.Yandell’sdiary, 1824-1843.
56 Typewritten copy of parts of Lunsford P.Yandell’sdiaries, numbers 52-54.
57 Diary notes of Lunsford P.Yandell, Susan J.Yandell, William Yandell, and
Sally Yandell.
58 Miscellaneous autobiographical notes.
59 Scrapbook.
