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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Eng 1778

Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton

Overview

Letters from the "Bluestocking Circle" including letters from Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More to Mary Hamilton.

Dates

  • Creation: 1778-1815

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 (2 boxes)

Primarily autograph manuscript signed letters and notes from Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More to Mary Hamilton Dickenson, including a few letters from the Mores to John Dickenson and a couple of letters from More's sister Martha More ("Patty"). Additionally there are 2 autograph manuscript and manuscript (copy) poem compositions by More: Le bas bleu or The progress of conversation an epistle and An heroic epistle. To Miss Sally Horne aged three years.

Topics include London society, friendship between women, literary interests, public affairs, and many others.

Biographical / Historical

Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer and translator, and a member of the Bluestocking Circle. Hannah More (1745-1833) was an English religious writer and philanthropist. Mary Hamilton Dickenson (1756-1816), was a courtier and diarist and the wife of John Dickenson (d.1842).

Arrangement

Arranged into the following series:

  1. I. Bound volume of letters from Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More
  2. ___A. Letters from Elizabeth Carter
  3. ___B. Letters from Hannah More
  4. II. Additional letters from Hannah More

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2005M-28. Purchase with the Hyde fund; received: 2006 January 6 and 2007 January 30.

Processing Information

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

See curatorial file for extensive dealer's notes on content of letters.

Title
Hamilton, Mary, 1756-1816, recipient. Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton, 1778-1815: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02617

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:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440