This collection contains 15 letters and 1 bill of lading related to Dr. Dennis Delany of Great Mills, Maryland, and St. Louis, Missouri.
Henry S. Wells, a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, and a friend of the Delany family, wrote 11 letters to Dennis Delany between 1832 and 1835. He occasionally commented on ships arriving at Baltimore and shared news of Delany's family, including updates about a brother traveling in France and reports of the death of Delany's father on January 5, 1834. Wells also took interest in the city's health, mentioning the presence of cholera, bilious fever, and smallpox, both locally and in other cities. In two letters, he briefly mentioned political events, such as the Nullification Crisis (April 8, 1833), the failed appointments of Andrew Stevenson and Roger B. Taney (June 24, 1834), and the Baltimore Bank Riot, after which he served in a military guard (August 29, 1835). Delany also received personal correspondence from three other acquaintances. William Ward invited him to a social visit (January 23, 1833), Benedict Millburn wrote of health concerns in Washington, D.C. (April 9, 1833), and Dr. H. Morris wrote an account of the death of Delany's father (January 5, 1834). Two later items are a brief letter that Delany wrote to his wife from Louisville, Kentucky (September 20, 1838), and a partially printed bill of lading from Phineas Janney, a Philadelphia merchant, for a cask of Burgundy wine shipped to Dennis Delany via New Orleans (May 4, 1840).
Dennis Delany (b. 1797), originally from Baltimore, Maryland, received a medical degree before 1834 and practiced in Great Mills, Maryland, where he lived until moving to St. Louis, Missouri, in the later part of the 1830s. He and his wife, Octavia Mullanphy (ca. 1808-1876), had three children: Jane (1839-1910), Elizabeth, and John O'Fallon (b. 1841). Following Dennis Delany's death, Octavia Mullanphy Delany married Henry Boyce in 1848.
