Overview
Papers of the New England Guild family and Eliot family.
Dates
- 1741-1847
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.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 box)The papers in this collection all concern family members related to historian Samuel Eliot Morison, the donor of the papers. Primarily includes letters sent by and to Elizabeth Quincy Guild (1757-1825) and her husband Benjamin Guild (1749-1792). Also contains letters to and from other Quincy family and Guild family members such as: Ann Marsh Quincy (1723-1805), Josiah Quincy (1710-1784), Benjamin Guild (1785-1858), Josiah Quincy Guild (1787-1861), Ebenezer Storer (1730-1807), the Storer family, the Cranch family, and others.
Contains a bound volume of letters sent to Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) from his sisters (Mary Harrison Eliot Dwight and Elizabeth Eliot Guild), his mother (Catharine Atkins Eliot), and 1 from George Bancroft.
Also includes autograph manuscript and manuscript transcript journal entries for Benjamin Guild (1749-1792); autograph manuscript diaries belonging to Benjamin Guild (1785-1858) from an 1806 trip to Maine; Elizabeth Quincy Guild's autograph manuscript 1790-1791 journal from Ireland and England; a composition written by Hannah Quincy (1736-1826); and a transcript in an unidentified hand concerning the deaths of Ebenezer Storer and other Storer family members.
Biographical / Historical
Some of the individuals associated with this collection are:
- Elizabeth Quincy Guild (1757-1825): daughter of Josiah Quincy (1710-1784) and Elizabeth Waldron (1722-1760), wife of Benjamin Guild.
- Benjamin Guild (1749-1792): son of Benjamin Guild and Abigail Graves Guild, Harvard College (AB 1769; AM 1772), married Elizabeth Quincy Guild. Bookseller in Boston, and ran a circulating library.
- Benjamin Guild (1785-1858): son of Elizabeth Quincy Guild and Benjamin Guild, Harvard College (AB 1804), married Elizabeth Eliot Guild (1790-1874) and had 7 children.
- Josiah Quincy Guild (1787-1861): son of Elizabeth Quincy Guild and Benjamin Guild, Harvard College (AB 1807).
- Elizabeth Eliot Guild (1790-1874): daugher of banker Samuel Eliot, married Benjamin Guild (1785-1858); her brother was Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862).
- Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862): son of banker Samuel Eliot, Harvard College (AB 1817), Harvard Divinity School (MA 1820), married Mary Lyman Eliot and had four daughters and two sons, including Charles William Eliot, a future president of Harvard University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 1st district (1850- 1851) and 7th Mayor of Boston (1837–1839).
Arrangement
Organized in the following three series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Bound letters
- III. Other papers
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
54M-336. Gift of Samuel Eliot Morison; received: 1955 June 13.
Separated Materials
Most items in this collection were received housed in paper folders which included autograph manuscript notes by an unidentified member of the family. These folders have been marked with the appropriate item number listed below and were removed to the curatorial file. Many of the notes about and identifications of the letters were taken from these folders.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Guild family. Guild family and Eliot family papers, 1741-1847: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02441
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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