Overview
Correspondence, diaries, family photographs, books, and other material of the family of the Russian-American art historian Bernard Berenson.
Dates
- Creation: 1894-1941
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
7 linear feet (14 boxes)Collection contains seven boxes of correspondence between family members, much of it from the grown children to their mother or between siblings. Includes three boxes of letters from Mary Berenson to her mother-in-law describing life with Bernard Berenson at the Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy, and Mary's manuscript "On meeting Bernard Berenson." Many of the letters or postcards from non-family members are addressed to Elizabeth Berenson. Also contains three diaries, 1925, 1927, and 1932, an address book, a postcard collection, and some books of Elizabeth; 213 family photographs; a few other manuscripts by family members; two boxes of plaster angels; and other miscellaneous material.
Biographical / Historical
Bernard Berenson (1864-1969) was an art historian. Included in the collection are materials by his parents, Albert and Julia (or Judith), his siblings, Senda, Abram, Elizabeth, and Rachel, some of their spouses, and his own wife Mary. The family emigrated from Vilna, Russia to Boston, Mass. in 1876.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by author.
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
*83M-9. Gift of Richard Arthur Berenson; received: 1983.
- Title
- Berenson family. Berenson family papers: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00375
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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