The Holman-Perkins family collection (72 items) contains material pertaining to Catherine Holman Perkins ("Kate") and Daniel Perkins of Temple, Maine.
The Correspondence series (66 items) contains personal letters that the couple received, including early letters about life in Maine in the mid- to late 1850s. During the Civil War, the Perkinses' most frequent correspondents were Isabella Holman, who provided news from Dixfield, Maine; Mary Perkins Woodbury; and William P. Woodbury, who discussed life in Strawberry Valley and San Francisco, California. Correspondents occasionally referred to the draft and to soldiers such as Freeland Holman, who was taken prisoner in 1864 and died in 1865. After the war, Isabella Holman mentioned the administration of Freeland Holman's estate (November 8, 1865).
The Perkinses' other correspondents included friends from Maine; members of the Towle family in Mackford, Wisconsin; and Catherine Holman Perkins's aunt, Rosanna Tibbetts. Betsey Towle commented on political uncertainty following Abraham Lincoln's death (April 28, 1865). Isabella Holman's letter of June 7, 1864, including a small fabric sample, and the envelope for her letter of August 11, 1863 contains inked decorations. Another envelope contains a printed poem about overcoming despair (October 4, 1863).
The Documents and Fragments series (6 items) includes a decorative drawing in green ink, financial records, and an assignment for surveyor Daniel Perkins to amend and repair a road in Temple, Maine (April 15, 1863).
Luther Holman of Dixfield, Maine, and his wife, Olive Newton, had five children: Freeland N. (1834-1865), Emeline K. (b. 1829), William (1832-1833), Catherine K. (1837-1922), and Isabella (1842-1906). During the Civil War, Freeland N. Holman served with Company L, 1st Maine Cavalry; he died in Savannah, Georgia, in 1865. Catherine Holman married Daniel Perkins of Temple, Maine. Daniel Perkins's sister, Mary A. Perkins, married William P. Woodbury, who lived in California in the 1860s.
