United States - Maryland - Baltimore

The Dawkins Family papers cover the period 1883 to 1931 with most of the material dated between 1912 and 1923. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and photographs.

This collection encompasses the business dealings and personal lives of the extended family of Thomas Swann (1809-1883), the governor of Maryland from 1866 to 1869. The Swanns and Masons were an extended family with a long history in Maryland and Virginia. The invoices, correspondence, checks, and land deeds and indentures in the collection cover such subjects as politics, the Clapham family, and the Virginia connection between the Swann and Mason families.

This collection includes 6 letters written to and by U.S. Navy Assistant Surgeon Aaron S. Oberly. The majority are "love letters" from Oberly to his future wife, Anna M. (Maria A.) Woodford while he was in Baltimore. In 1863, he served aboard the Union gunboat Kineo and in 1865, the steamer Santiago de Cuba.