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COLLECTION Identifier: bMS 191

Eliot, Charles W. (Charles William), 1899-. Biography of Samuel Atkins Eliot, ca.1885-1956, 1954-1956.

Overview

Drafts and other material relating to Charles W. Eliot's biography of his father Samuel Atkins Eliot. The biography was not completed.

Dates

  • Creation: 1885-1956
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1954-1956.

Creator

Access

There are no restrictions on access to this collection.

Extent

5 boxes

Some years ago Eliot's son, Charles William Eliot II, undertook to write a biography of his father. His method was to compile selected material in chronological sequence and by subject matter, using connective language to tie together the extended quoted passages. The kind of book he had in mind would have been almost entirely his father's words and writings. He had completed drafts of six chapters and parts of five or so more, and hoped to finish it—in vain, it turned out, because the demands of his professional life required him to abandon the project.

Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr. Pilot of a Liberal Faith: Samuel Atkins Eliot, 1862-1950.

Biographical / Historical

Charles William Eliot II (1899-1993) graduated from Harvard College in 1920 and earned a master's of landscape architecture from Harvard in 1923. He served as director of the National Resources Planning Board, a part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, from 1939 to 1943. Mr. Eliot also held the Charles Eliot Professorship in Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (named after his uncle) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1955 to 1959, at which point he became Professor of City and Regional Planning until 1967.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. Series I. Introductory Material
  2. Series II. Part I
  3. Series III. Part II
  4. Series IV. Part III

Acquisition Information

Gift of Charles William Eliot II; received: 1977.

Title
Eliot, Charles W. (Charles William), 1899-. Biography of Samuel Atkins Eliot, ca. 1885-1956: A Finding Aid.
Author
Andover-Harvard Theological Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
div00191

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University Repository

Special Collections at Harvard Divinity School Library preserves and makes accessible primary source materials documenting the history of religion and theology, with particular historical emphasis on American liberal religious traditions. Though the historical strengths of the collections have been in the field of Christianity, other religious traditions are increasingly reflected, in step with Harvard Divinity School's evolving focus on global religious studies. Known as Andover-Harvard Theological Library since 1911, it was renamed the Harvard Divinity School Library in 2021.

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