Frances White Moffat Emerson and Donald Moffat family papers
Overview
Personal and family papers of Frances White Moffat (later Mrs. William Emerson) and her son, the author Donald Moffat.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1892-1958
Conditions Governing Access
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
3.3 linear feet (4 boxes)Materials include corrrespondence, plays, poems, stories, essays, diaries, wills, and photographs.
Biographical / Historical
Frances Hillard White (1869-1957) was the daughter of book and manuscript collector William Augustus White and inherited his collection. She married George Barclay Moffat, with whom she had five children, including Donald Moffat; she was later married to William Emerson.
Donald Moffat (1894-1958) graduated from Harvard in 1916. He volunteered for the American Field Service in France during World War I; he went on to become a writer, authoring at least three books, numerous travel articles for the New Yorker, and amateur plays. In 1918 he married Pauline Baker DeCamp (daughter of the painter, Joseph Rodefer DeCamp); they had four children.
Arrangement
Arrangement is original and materials are not fully cataloged. Readers should note that when fully processed, the order of materials may change.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2012M-144. Gift of Andrew D. Ellison; received: 2013 April 12.
2018M-076. Gift of Patricia Kasdan, 2018 January 22 (2 1946 letters from Donald Moffat to Ilah MacDermot).
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Accessioned by: Melanie Wisner.
- Title
- Emerson, Frances White Moffat. Frances White Moffat Emerson and Donald Moffat family papers, circa 1892-1958 (MS Am 2913): Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02432
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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