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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Eng 718-718.16

Harcourt Amory collection of Lewis Carroll

Overview

Materials collected by Harcourt Amory (H.C. 1876) relating to English mathematician, photographer, novelist, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, whose pen name was Lewis Carroll. Includes Carroll's correspondence and drawings, drawings for Alice's adventures in wonderland and Through the looking-glass by Sir John Tenniel, and other materials.

Dates

  • Creation: 1843-1915

Language of Materials

Collection material is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Conditions Governing Use

Images linked to this finding aid are intended for public access and educational use. This material is owned and/or held by the Houghton Library, and is provided solely for the purpose of teaching or individual research. Any other use, including commercial reuse, mounting on other systems, or other forms of redistribution requires the permission of the curator.

Extent

3 linear feet (3 volumes and 6 boxes)

Contains manuscripts of Dodgson's prose and poetry with his illustrations including: drawings in pencil and pen and ink, including his designs of Humpty Dumpty and Tweedledum for Tenniel, and a sketchbook with drawings of girls. Includes letters by Dodgson on both personal and professional matters, including letters, 1844-1852, that he wrote to his sisters from school.

Also includes: Tenniel's studies for his illustrations to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass; drawings by others to illustrate Dodgson's work; portrait photographs of Dodgson and others, some taken by Dodgson; and notes, lists, and correspondence about Dodgson by Harcourt Amory.

Biographical / Historical

Lewis Carroll was a pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist. He is especially remembered for Alice's adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the looking-glass (1871).

Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator and satirical artist especially known for his work in Punch and his illustrations for the Lewis Carroll Alice books.

Arthur Burdett Frost was an American illustrator famous for his drawings of Uncle Remus, Brer Rabbit and others, as well as his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Rhyme? and reason? and A tangled tale.

Sidney Lawton Smith was a well-known bookplate designer and engraver based in Boston.

Harry Furniss (1854-1925) was an English illustrator and caricaturist who was a regular contributor to Punch, the Illustrated London News and other magazines. He also illustrated a range of books including those by Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. MS Eng 718: Dodgson, The rectory umbrella.
  2. MS Eng 718.1: Dodgson, Mischmasch.
  3. bMS Eng 718.2: Dodgson, Hiawatha's photographing.
  4. bMS Eng 718.3: Dodgson, The only sister who would write to her brother.
  5. bMS Eng 718.4: Dodgson, Humpty Dumpty and Tweedledum.
  6. MS Eng 718.5: Dodgson, A series of autograph letters.
  7. bMS Eng 718.6: Tenniel, Studies for illustrations to Alice's adventures in wonderland.
  8. bMS Eng 718.7: Tenniel, Studies for illustrations to Through the looking-glass.
  9. bMS Eng 718.8: Tenniel, Drawings published in Punch.
  10. bMS Eng 718.9: Frost, Drawings for Rhyme? and reason? and A tangled tale.
  11. bMS Eng 718.10: Dodgson, Letters from Dodgson.
  12. bMS Eng 718.11: Dodgson, Compositions.
  13. bMS Eng 718.12: Dodgson, Letters to Dodgson from others.
  14. bMS Eng 718.13: Furniss, Illustrations to Sylvie and Bruno.
  15. bMS Eng 718.14: Photographs.
  16. bMS Eng 718.15: Amory, Papers concerning his collecting of Lewis Carroll material.
  17. ___I. Correspondence.
  18. ___II. Notes and lists by Amory on Lewis Carroll material.
  19. bMS Eng 718.16: Harcourt Amory bookplate.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession. numbers. Gift of Mrs. Harcourt Amory of Boston; received: 1927 Jan. 14.

*42M-187. MS Eng 718.1; Gift of Mrs. Harcourt Amory of Boston; received: 1927 Jan. 14.

*42M-1846. bMS Eng 718.10 (21); Bequest of Samuel Henshaw; received: 1943 June.

*46M-10. bMS Eng 718.10 (22); Gift of Mrs. Flora V. Liningston, Widener Library, Harvard University; received: 1946 July 26.

*47M-46. bMS Eng 718.10 (20); Deposited by Edward Hyde Cox, Esq., Crow Island, Manchester, Mass.; received: 1947 Nov. 15.; gift 1948 June.

General note

For further description (and some images) of these materials, other materials from the Amory collection, and on Amory's collecting, see: Livingston, Flora V. The Harcourt Amory collection of Lewis Carroll in the Harvard College Library. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1932. Tenniel, John, Sir. Tenniel's Alice - drawings by Sir John Tenniel for Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the looking-glass. Cambridge: Dept. of Printing and Graphic Arts, Harvard College Library, 1978. Williams, Sidney Herbert and Falconer Madan. The Lewis Carroll handbook - Revised edition by Denis Crutch. Folkestone, England: Dawson, 1979.

The Houghton printed book collection also housed some original drawings relating to the Carroll books that are inserted into printed books by Carroll that were collected by Amory and others. See the HOLLIS database for further information.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

Title
Amory, Harcourt, 1855-1925, collector. Harcourt Amory collection of Lewis Carroll: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00171

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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