Overview
Primarily invoices and receipts of Francis Dana, member of the Continental Congress and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
Dates
- Creation: 1757-1929
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1767-1811
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
0.5 linear feet (1 boxes)The collection primarily contains invoices and receipts of Francis Dana and other Dana family members as well as invoices and receipts of Francis Dana's contemporaries including Israel Thorndike. There is correspondence of the Dana family members including letters from William Cullen Bryant to Richard Henry Dana as well as correspondence between Richard Henry Dana III and William Penn Cresson about the latter's biography, Francis Dana, a Puritan in the court of Catherine the Great. Finally, there is a small amount of correspondence and other materials received with the collection whose relationship to the Dana family is unclear.
Biographical / Historical
The Dana family was prominent in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Francis Dana (1743-1811), son of Richard Dana, was a Massachusetts revolutionary leader, member of the Continental Congress, unofficial United States Minister to Russia, and Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Edmund Trowbridge was Francis Dana's brother in law. Francis Dana's son, Richard Henry Dana (1787-1879) was a literary scholar and edited the periodical, Idle Man. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882) was the United States Attorney for Massachusetts during the Civil War and author of Two years before the mast. Richard Henry Dana III, (1851-1931) was a lawyer and civil service reformer.
Arrangement
Arranged into two series:
- I. Dana family papers
- A. Financial records
- B. Letters
- II. Other papers
- A. Financial records
- B. Letters
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
91M-24. Manuscripts presented by Goodspeed's Book Shop; received: 1991 August 1.
Digitization Funding
Collections and items have been digitized with the generous support of The Polonsky Foundation.
Processing Information
Processed by: Jackie Dean
- Title
- Dana family. Dana family financial records, 1757-1929: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00099
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.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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