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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2639

Rudolph Altrocchi papers

Overview

Compositions and correspondence of American professor of Romance Languages, Rudolph Altrocchi.

Dates

  • Creation: 1909-1942

Language of Materials

Collection materials are primarily in English, but include some Italian and French.

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

2 linear feet (4 boxes)

Includes correspondence concerning Altrocchi's research interests and compositions concerning his work on his Ph.D. thesis on the Legend of Saint Alexius and his notes and drafts for other publications. Also includes a 1909 typescript of a play by Leonard Hatch, The heart of the Irishman.

Biographical / Historical

Rudolph Altrocchi (1882-1953) was born in Florence, Italy and his family emigrated to the United States when he was a child. He received an AB from Harvard College in 1908, and an AM in 1909 and PhD in 1914, both from Harvard University. He taught romance languages at Columbia University (1910-1911) and at the University of Pennsylvania (1911-1912), and was an instructor in French and Italian at Harvard (1912-1915). In 1916 he taught at the University of Chicago where he remained until 1927. In 1928 he moved to the University of California, Berkeley and remained there as a professor of Italian until 1952. He was the president of the Harvard Club of San Francisco from 1932-1938 and vice president of the Associated Harvard Clubs from 1934-1941, president from 1942-1947.

Altrocchi married poet and novelist Julia Cooley Altrocchi (1893-1972) in 1920. They had two sons, John Cooley Altrocchi and Paul Hemenway Altrocchi.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Correspondence with Rudolph Altrocchi
  2. II. Compositions and notes by Rudolph Altrocchi

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

58M-252. Gift of Mrs. Julia Cooley Altrocchi; received: 1957 October 16.

Related Materials

Additional papers of Rudolph Altrocchi can be found at the Harvard University Archives. Altrocchi's 1914 Harvard University Ph.D. thesis was titled: Two old Italian versions of the Legend of Saint Alexius and is available at the Archives under number HU 90.992. Other Altrocchi papers are located at the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library and the University of California, Berkeley.

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

Part of the MS Storage project, 2008-2009.

Title
Altrocchi, Rudolph, 1882-1953. Rudolph Altrocchi papers, 1909-1942: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02007

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