Overview
Correspondence and other papers of American book collector, Carl Tilden Keller.
Dates
- Creation: 1908-1954
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 box)Papers are primarily correspondence but also include a few printed items, compositions, photographs, and notes by Keller. Content deals with Keller's pursuit of collecting rare editions of Cervantes' Don Quixote, as well as translations into all languages. Collection also includes much correspondence with his friend, explorer Sir Aurel Stein.
Biographical / Historical
Carl Tilden Keller (1872-1955) was a Harvard College graduate (AB 1894), an accountant, partner with Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery in Boston, and a book collector. In 1898 he married Marian Mandell Keller (d.1954). He was a vice chairman and trustee of the Harvard Yenching Institute. As a collector of rare materials, Keller was especially known for collecting rare editions of Cervantes' Don Quixote and for attempting to obtain translations of Don Quixote in all major languages of the world. Keller was a friend and supporter of Sir (Marc) Aurel Stein (1862-1943), a Hungarian born, British archaeologist, explorer, and geographer.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Subject files
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
46CM-1F. Gift of Carl T. Keller; received: 1946 August 26.
51M-309F. Gift of Carl T. Keller, 80 Federal Street, Boston 10, Massachusetts; received: 1952.
56M-168. Bequest of Carl T. Keller; received: 1957 April 11.
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Keller, Carl Tilden, 1872-1955. Carl Tilden Keller papers, 1908-1954: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01881
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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