Scope and Contents

The Louis C. Wills papers date from 1791 and the period 1856 to 1975, though the majority of the collection dates from 1900 to 1975. The collection includes autobiographical writings, awards, business cards, certificates, clippings, correspondence, obituaries, photographs, plaques, programs, publications and bound volumes, scrapbooks, and various additional printed ephemera created, received, or collected by Wills over the course of his distinguished career as a lawyer and community leader in Brooklyn. In addition to his law career and leadership role in the Brooklyn community, items also document Wills's personal life, particularly his youth and his relationship to his brother, Anthony E. Wills.

Items documenting Wills's law career relate to his graduation from the Brooklyn Law School, his activities on behalf of the school as an alumnus, certain cases in which Wills was involved, and the law firms in which he practiced, including Fisher & Voltz and Wrenn & Schmid. Items documenting Wills's prominent role as a community leader in Brooklyn illuminate the several civic, political, cultural, charitable, religious, and business organizations in which he served; the activities he carried out in his leadership roles; and the seemingly universal acclaim he received from various sectors of the community for his efforts. Items also document the 1974 memorabilia exhibit held in honor of Wills at the Long Island Historical Society (now the Brooklyn Historical Society).

Items documenting Wills's personal life concern his personal reflections on his youth and interest in amateur theater and journalism, as well as the members of his immediate family, including his older brother, Anthony E. Wills; his mother, Emilie R. Wills; and his father, also named Anthony Wills. Materials relating to Anthony E. Wills, a playwright, novelist, and actor, include photographs (mostly relating to his involvement in amateur theater as a youth with his younger brother), clippings, theater programs, and several of his published plays, stories, and novels. Items also relate to Anthony E. Wills's premature death at the age of 32. Materials pertaining to Louis C. Wills's parents, Anthony and Emilie R. Wills, mostly consist of clippings, photographs, and military certificates, the latter of which span 1856 to 1877 and reflect Anthony Wills's service in the New York State Militia and the New York State National Guard, including his service in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

The collection also includes one letter written by Alexander Hamilton, United States Secretary of the Treasury, dating from 1791. The letter is from Hamilton in Philadelphia, PA to a Theodore Foster, Esquire and is in regards to the debt of the state of Rhode Island. It is unclear how this letter came to be included with the rest of Louis C. Wills's papers, as details regarding the context of Wills's acquisition of this document are not currently known. (The letter is in oversize box 2.)

A card catalog of the contents of this collection is available in Box 23.