Volume 1 of the Draper Series

Lyman Copeland Draper (1815-1891) began research in the late 1830s on frontier days and particularly on the Indian wars of the Ohio River Valley, collecting documents, writing notes, and corresponding with people who had experienced historical events there. He continued his research throughout his life, leaving behind at the Wisconsin Historical Society, which he directed, an enormous volume of materials that are referred to as the ‘Draper Manuscript Collection’.

The Draper Series consists of 5 volumes of documents selected from the Draper Collection, edited by staff of the Wisconsin Historical Society at the beginning of the 20th century. Volume 1 covers Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774, and the remaining four volumes, also found on this web page, cover the period of the American Revolution. The editors began this volume with a 20-page introduction that describes the increasing violence along the Ohio River frontier from 1763 to 1774 and gives a short narrative of Lord Dunmore’s War.