Overview
Papers relating to Alexander McElwain's research on English poet George Sandys.
Dates
- Creation: 1925-1956
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.
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
1.5 linear feet (2 boxes)Correspondence concerns McElwain's gathering research on George Sandys from various persons and libraries apparently for graduate work at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Compositions include McElwain's autograph manuscript and typescript research notes and drafts of writings, as well as some of his school papers for English 74 and 186 at Harvard. Some materials seem to have been given to Harvard professor James Buell Munn. There are also manuscript transcripts and notes in other hands; a printed map dated 1867, and genealogies on the Sandys family among other items.
Biographical / Historical
Alexander McElwain (born 1897) received a Harvard AB with the Class of 1921 and attended the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. McElwain as a scholar and was especially interested in George Sandys (1578-1644), who was an English traveller, American colonist, and poet.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Correspondence of Alexander McElwain
- II. Compositions and research notes
- III. Papers given to Harvard professor James Buell Munn
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
56M-167. Gift of Alexander McElwain (AB 1921); received: 1956.
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
- McElwain, Alexander, 1897-. Alexander McElwain papers on George Sandys, 1925-1956: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02306
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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