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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2982

Emerson family additional correspondence, compositions and photographs,

Overview

Family papers of the Emerson family of Concord, Massachusetts compiled by Frances Lillian Haskins. Includes letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson and as well as many other Emerson family members.

Dates

  • Creation: 1776-1912.

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

1 linear foot (2 boxes)

Includes letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lidian Jackson Emerson, Mary Moody Emerson, Ellen Tucker Emerson, Charles Chauncy Emerson, Elizabeth Hoar, and others. Collection also contains: photographs of various family members, including the only known image of Mary Moody Emerson (a tintype taken after her death); and a few manuscript compositions by family members, including a poem by Ellen Tucker Emerson, 2 manuscript notebooks of the Emerson-Haskins genealogy, and a eulogy on Charles Chauncy Emerson. Collection was compiled by Frances Lillian Haskins. Formats include: tintype (photographic print), cartes de visite (card photographs), and cabinet photographs.

Biographical / Historical

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American essayist and poet. The Emerson family was prominent in the literary and social life of New England during the 19th-century.

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Emerson family correspondence
  2. ___A. Letters from Charles Chauncy Emerson
  3. ___B. Letters from Ellen Tucker Emerson
  4. ___C. Letters from Lidian Jackson Emerson
  5. ___D. Letters from Mary Moody Emerson
  6. ___E. Letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson
  7. ___F. Letters from Elizabeth Hoar
  8. ___G. Correspondence of other Emerson family members
  9. II. Compositions
  10. III. Emerson family photographs

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2008M-92. Purchase with the Amy Lowell Trust; received: 2009 April 28.

Separated Materials

3 printed publications received with this accession were sent to Houghton's Technical Service's Rare Books Team for processing and accessioning. See curatorial file for details.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt.

Dealer's lists removed to curatorial file, but numbers are cited in entries below. Transcripts of some letters are included in the curatorial file in the dealer's lists.

Title
Emerson family. Emerson family additional correspondence, compositions and photographs, 1776-1912: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02532

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:
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Harvard University
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