E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings additional papers and oil paintings
Overview
Letters, poems, paintings and other materials of American poet, E. E. Cummings.
Dates
- Creation: 1899-1968 and undated
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 feet (2 boxes)Autograph manuscript (signed) juvenile letters, many with sketches, from E. E. Cummings to his parents and grandmother(s?), 1899-1903; many typescript poems, including autograph manuscript Epithalamion, 1916, in honor of Elaine Orr's wedding to Scofield Thayer; a copy (1968) of a photograph of William Slater Brown; and compositions by and about Elaine Orr. Also includes 2 oil paintings by Cummings: an undated landscape and a 1948 portrait of his daughter, Nancy. Some items in this collection are annotated in the hand of Nancy Thayer Andrews.
Biographical / Historical
E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings (1894-1962) was an American poet and painter. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Edward Cummings, a professor of sociology and political science at Harvard University and later a Unitarian minister, and Rebecca Haswell Clarke Cummings. He was educated at the Cambridge Latin School and then at Harvard College, receiving an AB in 1915 and an AM in 1916. During World War I he volunteered for and served with the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps with his friend William Slater Brown and John Dos Passos. Cummings married his first wife, Elaine Orr, the former wife of his mentor Scofield Thayer, though she divorced Cummings within a year. They had one child, Nancy Thayer Andrews (1919-2006) who first married Willard Roosevelt, a grandson of former President Theodore Roosevelt and later married Kevin Andrews. In 1977 she published Charon's daughter ; a passion of identity under the name, Nancy Cummings De Forêt.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Letters from E. E. Cummings to his parents
- II. Letters from E. E. Cummings to "Nana"
- III. E. E. Cummings poems
- IV. Other compositions and photograph
- V. Oil paintings
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2006M-55. Gift of Elizabeth Aldred Rice and Bob Rice; received: 2007 March 8.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2022 to address racist descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the description of a single item; the derogatory term appears in a direct transcription and thus was not removed, but context was provided as was a processing information note explaining the term's presence were added to the item's description. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Houghton Library. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962. E. E. (Edward Estlin) Cummings additional papers and oil paintings, 1899-1968: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02636
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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