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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1241.1

Oliver Wendell Holmes letters from various correspondents

Overview

Letters sent to Oliver Wendell Holmes by various correspondents.

Dates

  • Creation: 1820-1894

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

5 linear feet (10 boxes)

Many of the letters are from editors and literary friends and acquaintances, usually containing acknowledgments and comments on Holmes' writings or about social affairs; and several letters from other physicians, especially S. Weir Mitchell and James Jackson, concerning medical topics; from college friends Phineas Barnes and Elisha Bartlett about their medical studies; from John L. Motley mostly about British politics and his historical research in Europe; and from a friend in Mass. and in England. Also include a few letters addressed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Biographical / Historical

Holmes was an American essayist, poet, and teacher of anatomy. He received an A.B, degree and M.D. degree from Harvard in 1826 and 1836, and practiced medicine for 10 years, then taught anatomy for two years at Dartmouth College. In 1847 he became professor of anatomy and physiology (and later Dean) at the Harvard Medical School.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

47M-368. Gift of Edward Jackson Holmes, 296 Beacon St., Boston, Mass.; received: 19 June 1941.

Title
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894, recipient. Oliver Wendell Holmes letters from various correspondents, 1820-1894: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01350

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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