<span>Manuscripts Relating to the Early History of the Western Reserve, 1795-1869, was the first collection of manuscripts to be assembled by the Western Reserve Historical Society, and its provenance is closely intertwined with the circumstances of the institution's founding. Chiefly responsible for the acquisition of the materials comprising the collection was Charles W. Whittlesey, the Society's first president. According to the Society's second annual report (1869), Whittlesey assembled the </span><span>collection from a variety of different sources and by several means: he purchased the papers of the Connecticut Land Company under the authority of the Cuyahoga County commissioners, solicited accounts and original manuscripts from early settlers and their descendents, and added documents that he and some earlier enthusiasts had gathered as their own personal collections. Prominent among these latter additions were the materials collected by John Barr and Leonard Case for an earlier, failed historical society.</span>