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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2539

Mary Hyde Eccles papers concerning the Charlotte Lennox correspondence

Overview

Correspondence, memoranda and articles concerning the efforts of Mary Hyde Eccles to publish a group of letters from Samuel Johnson to Charlotte Lennox.

Dates

  • Creation: 1964-1966

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

.2 linear feet (1 box)

This collection relates to Mary Hyde's essay Not in Chapman, a catalog of unpublished Samuel Johnson letters which was to appear in Johnson, Boswell and Their Circle: Essays Presented to Lawrence Fitzroy Powell in Honor of his Eighty-fourth Birthday. As this project neared completion, a new cache of letters from Samuel Johnson to Charlotte Lennox was discovered in the vault of the British Linen Bank, which triggered a series of negotiations before the Hyde essay could be revised and published.

The correspondents include James Lowry Clifford, Dan Davin, Michael Francis Gilbert, Arthur Amory Houghton, Donald Frizell Hyde, Mary Lascelles, Robert F. Metzdorf, Lawrence Fitzroy Powell, and others. The compositions series includes memoranda and drafts of relevant articles by Mary Hyde and Duncan E. Isles.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Hyde Eccles was one of the world's leading collectors of books and manuscripts from the 1940s until her death in 2003. She was also a distinguished literary scholar, and an important benefactor to numerous libraries and cultural institutions. She was born as Mary Morley Crapo on 1912, married Donald Frizell Hyde in 1939, and after his death in 1966 remarried to David Eccles, Viscount Eccles in 1984.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Correspondence
  2. II. Compositions

Physical Location

b

Provenance:

These papers were apparently given by Mary Hyde to Arthur Amory Houghton on 1966 March 14. They were found in a filing cabinet among official Houghton Library records in 2007 with no further provenance information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2006M-65. Donor and date unknown; accessioned: 2007 April 27.

Related Materials

The Lennox correspondence was soon afterward purchased by Arthur Amory Houghton, who donated it to the Houghton Library in 1968 as MS Eng 1269. See also the Mary Hyde Eccles Papers, MS Hyde 98.

Processing Information

Processed by: Rick Stattler

Title
Eccles, Mary Hyde. Mary Hyde Eccles papers concerning the Charlotte Lennox correspondence, 1964-1966: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01875

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.

Contact:
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Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440