Overview
Letters from Massachusetts native John Batchelder Peirce, sent to wife and to sister while on voyages. Also includes a partial memoir by Peirce.
Dates
- Creation: 1846-1866
Creator
- Peirce, John Batchelder (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Formerly restricted: "Not to be consulted without permission of depositor." The depositor, Philip Putnam Chase, died in 1978.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 box)Autograph manuscript letters from John Batchelder Peirce to his wife and another group sent to his sister. Details trip taken from Massachusetts to New York City, Philadelphia, and Albany (New York) (1846), and one to California (1850-1852). Also includes: an 1866 memoir by Peirce describing some of his family history; and folders with historical manuscript notes apparently not related to this collection.
Biographical / Historical
John Batchelder Peirce was born November 26, 1803 in Danvers (then a part of Salem) and later lived in Lynn, Massachusetts. His father was Andrew Batchelder (1772-1845), mother was Ruth Putnam Batchelder (1779-1805), his grandfather was Ezra Batchelder (1747-), and his grandmother was Mary Woodberry Batchelder (b. ca. 1738). His wife was Sarah Ann "Kitty" Hallowell Peirce (m. October 25, 1831) and his sister was Martha Hallowell. It is recorded in Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts documents that Peirce changed his name in 1824 from John Peirce Batchelder (of Danvers) to John Batchelder Peirce. Peirce died on September 2, 1889. Some records spell his name as Pierce.
Donor had many Harvard connections including: Harvard AB 1900, AM 1901, LLB 1903, and Harvard University Marshall from 1929-1935; he was born in 1878 and died in 1978. His parents were Philip Chase and Alice Breed Pierce Chase and his wife was Anna Cornelia Wigglesworth Chase (b.1879; m.1903).
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
51M-79F. Deposited by Philip Putnam Chase, 241 Highland Street, Milton 86, Massachusetts; received: 1951 November 20.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Creator
- Peirce, John Batchelder (Person)
- Title
- Peirce, John Batchelder, 1803-1889. John Batchelder Peirce papers, 1846-1866: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01989
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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