Guide to the Chester C. Platt Papers,
1869-1934

Chester Platt operated a drugstore in Ludlowville and later Ithaca, New York. He became successively proprietor of the ITHACA DEMOCRAT, the BATAVIA TIMES, and the Madison WISCONSIN LEADER. He served as secretary to New York Governor William Sulzer, and was a prominent figure in Democratic state and national politics from 1910 to 1920. In Ithaca he was active in the Unitarian Church and in local politics.

Included are carbon copies of a series of articles written by Platt for the BATAVIA TIMES called Human Behavior, which covered a variety of subjects from politics to travel; also included are editorials, articles submitted to other newspapers, speeches, correspondence, and other documents pertaining to Platt's numerous interests. The political correspondence contains interesting Sulzer letters and some from Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Secretary of the Navy. The drugstore correspondence gives a picture of a small town druggist struggling to pay his bills; prices of articles and statements of accounts are included. Newspapers include letters pertaining to the three papers with which Platt was associated. The local history series contains documents concerning the Ithaca Unitarian Church, a suit brought against the Forest City Printing Company, some early letters, and accounts. Also, miscellaneous pamphlets, broadsides, and correspondence.

A. Platt Articles

B. Political Correspondence

C. Drugstore Correspondence

D. Newspapers

E. Miscellaneous Correspondence

F. Local History

G. Pamphlets and Broadsides.