Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca papers with Howe and other family papers
Overview
Family papers concerning Scottish-born author, Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca, and her descendents, including the Howe family, and many others.
Dates
- 1799-1988
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, Spanish, and French.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
3.5 linear feet (4 boxes, 1 portfolio box, and 1 oil painting)Collection includes autograph manuscript letters from Angel Calderón de la Barca, Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca, Carlisle Calderon, Mary Howe, Walter Bruce Howe, and many other family members. There is extensive correspondence concerning the publishing rights to Life in Mexico. Significant compositions include: autograph manuscript diaries of Catherine de Bourboulon, Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca, Kate Cornick Thomas Carlisle, Lydia C. Inglis and Kate Macleod, and others; printed ephemera and an autograph manuscript essay of Isabel de Borbon, Infanta of Spain; a printed version of Life in Mexico (1843); a will document of Angel Calderón de la Barca; and unidentified travel diaries circa 1843. There are photographs of Isabel de Borbon, Infanta of Spain, Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca, and Angel Calderón de la Barca; a cut-paper silhouette; and a circa 1850 oil painting of Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca.
The Robins family papers primarily concern the Johnston Robins and John Robins (J. J. Robins Merchants) mercantile shipping business in New York City and the Caribbean (circa 1799-1802). This line of the family is related to Walter Bruce Howe (1879-1954) who married Mary Wortham Carlisle (1882-1964). Also included are details about the discovery of these papers and about the family in Bruce Howe's unpublished manuscript, item (141). These papers include correspondence (most with complete typescript transcripts), a linen bag in which the papers were housed, and stat (copies) of prints of New York City from the early 1800s.
All items are in English unless stated otherwise.
Biographical / Historical
Madame Calderón de la Barca (1804-1882) was born Frances Erskine Inglis (known as Fanny) in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was the 5th of 10 children born to William Inglis and Jane Stein Inglis. Her father, William Inglis, died in 1830 and the family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. In 1838 Fanny married Angel Calderón de la Barca (1790-1861) who since 1835 had been Spanish minister to the United States. In 1839 Calderón was named first Spanish minister to independent Mexico and the couple lived in Mexico from 1839 to 1842. Fanny's journals while in Mexico were published as a series of letters supposedly sent to her friend William Hickling Prescott, and the book appeared in 1843 as Life in Mexico, during a residence of two years in that country. This volume remains the best-known foreigner's description of early republican Mexico. Many passages from the journal were not printed in the published version but can be found intact as part of the 2 journals that are in this collection. In 1844 Calderón was named envoy to Washington and in 1853 he became foreign minister in the administration of the Conde de San Luis. Angel and his wife had to flee Spain for Paris, but returned in 1856. Angel died in 1861 and Fanny first retired to a convent, was then appointed governess to the Isabel de Borbón, Infanta of Spain (1851-1931), and was made a marquesa in 1876. She died in the royal palace in Madrid in 1882. [Source: Malcolm Deas. "Calderón de la Barca, Frances Erskine Inglis [Fanny] (1804-1882)" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online, 2014].
This collection also includes materials related to the Howe family (and other connected families such as the Robins family), the members of which are relations of Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca, many through the family line of her sister, Richmond Margaret Inglis Macleod (1800-1866), wife of Alexander Norman Macleod. Here is a portion only of their lineage showing the connection to the Howe family who gifted this material to Houghton:
- William Inglis (b. ca 1781-1830) m. Jane Stein (b. ca 1786)
- ___Madame Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca (1804?-1882) m. Angel Calderón de la Barca (1790-1861) = no children
- ___Lydia C. Inglis (Countess Llorente) [ "Spanish Aunt Lydia"]
- ___Richmond Margaret Inglis (1800-1866) m. Alexander Norman Macleod
- ______Emmeline Sophia Macleod (1826-1837) m. James Mandeville Carlisle (1814-1877) [second wife: Mildred Butler Ewing (1838-1899)]
- _________Richmond Carlisle (1848-1866)
- _________Mandeville Carlisle (1850-1854)
- _________Anne Mandeville Carlisle (1853-1854)
- _________Emmeline Sophia Macleod Carlisle (1854-1855)
- _________James Mandeville Carlisle (1855-1882)
- _________Katherine Carlisle (d. 1857)
- _________Pierce Butler Carlisle (1873-1886)
- _________Calderon Carlisle (1852-1901) m. Kate Cornick Thomas (1853-1937)
- ____________Mary Wortham Carlisle (1882-1964) m. Walter Bruce Howe (1879-1954)
- _______________Molly Howe
- _______________Bruce Howe (1917-2012)
- _______________Calderon Howe (1916-1999) m. Sarah Ann Drury (1917-2010)
- __________________Sarah Bruce Howe
- __________________Calderon Carlisle Howe m. Penny Howe
- __________________John Robbins Howe m. Anne-Marie Victor-Howe
- __________________Ann Mandeville Howe
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Correspondence concerning Life in Mexico, 1912-1913
- III. Compositions and other papers
- IV. Images
- V. Robins family papers
- ___A. Robins family correspondence
- ___B. Robins family compositions
- ___C. Robins family images
Physical Location
b, pf
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2011M-131. Deposit of John Howe, on behalf of the Berry Hill Trust; received: 2012 June 6; gift, 2012 October.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Calderón de la Barca, Madame (Frances Erskine Inglis), 1804?-1882. Frances Erskine Inglis Calderón de la Barca papers with Howe and other family papers, 1799-1988: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02497
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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