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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1130.14-1130.16

Alcott family additional papers

Overview

Part of the family papers of the Alcott family of Concord (Mass.). This family included the writer Louisa May Alcott, and the New England transcendentalist Amos Bronson Alcott. Papers include diaries, compositions, correspondence, business papers, and clippings.

Dates

  • Creation: 1707-1904
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1821-1888

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

4 linear feet (10 boxes)

Alcott family papers (not ABA=Amos Bronson Alcott and LMA=Louisa May Alcott) include diaries of Abigail May Alcott and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt; compositions by many members of the Alcott family, and early documents (beginning in 1707) of the Alcock-Alcox-Alcott and related families, especially the May family.

Alcott family correspondence with others includes letters from various Alcott family members to and from friends and family, including letters from: Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Adams Fields, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, and many others. Many letters are to Amos Bronson Alcott.

Alcott family business papers and clippings includes newspaper clippings concerning LMA, ABA, and the Concord School of Philosophy; and correspondence concerning: the purchase of the Thoreau House, the sale of Orchard House, financial arrangements for Louisa May Nieriker Rasim, and business matters of Louisa May Alcott.

Biographical / Historical

Part of the family papers of the Alcott family of Concord (Mass.). This family included the writer Louisa May Alcott, and the New England transcendentalist, Amos Bronson Alcott. Also includes the May family.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. Alcott family papers (MS Am 1130.14)
  2. Alcott family correspondence with others (MS Am 1130.15)
  3. Alcott family business papers and clippings (MS Am 1130.16)

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

59M-311; 59M-312; 59M-313. Manuscripts deposited by Mrs. F. Wolsey Pratt, Indian Spring Road, Concord, Mass.; received: 1960. June. Part gift and also purchase with Amy Lowell fund: 1992 June.

Related Materials

See HOLLIS and OASIS for addtional materials concerning the Alcott family held by the Houghton Library.

Title
Alcott family. Alcott family additional papers, 1707-1904: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00029

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

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