Overview
Personal and professional papers of members of the Ripley, Thayer, Ames, and Simmons families.
Dates
- Creation: 1759-1964
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English and French.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
A portion of this collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
9.8 linear feet (27 boxes)Contains the personal and professional papers of members of the Ripley, Thayer, Simmons, and Ames families as well as other related individuals. Also includes correspondence from notable personalities including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Woodrow Wilson, John Quincy Adams, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Biographical / Historical
The Ripley family had strong ties to 18th and 19th-century Concord, Massachusetts society and the transcendentalist movement. The Thayer family was related to the Ripley family through the marriage of Sophia Bradford Ripley Thayer and James Bradley Thayer, professor at Harvard Law School. Members of the Ripley and Thayer families occupied the Old Manse in Concord from approximately 1778 until 1939 when the property was sold to the Trustees of Reservations.
Notable family members include Ezra Ripley (1751-1841, Harvard A.M. 1776, D.D. 1816) minister in Concord, MA and the first of his family to live in the Old Manse. Ezra married Phebe Bliss (Emerson) Ripley, widow of William Emerson. Samuel Ripley (1783-1847, Harvard A.M. 1804) son of Ezra and Phebe, was a minister in Waltham, MA and married Sarah Alden (Bradford) Ripley (1793-1867), daughter of Gamaliel Bradford (1763-1824). Mary E. Ripley Simmons (1820-1907), daughter of Samuel and Sarah, married George Frederick Simmons (1814-1855, Harvard A.M. 1832). Sophia Bradford Ripley Thayer (1833-1914) daughter of Samuel and Sarah married James Bradley Thayer (1831-1902, Harvard A.M. 1852, LL.B. 1856, LL.D. 1894) lawyer and law professor at Harvard Law School. Ezra Ripley Thayer (1866-1915, Harvard A.B 1888, LL.B. 1891) son of Sarah and James was a lawyer as well as professor and dean of Harvard Law School. Ezra married Ethel Randolph Clark. Sarah Ripley Thayer Ames (1874-1939) daughter of Sophia and James, married John Worthington Ames (1871-1954, Harvard A.B. 1892) son of Margaret Plumley Ames and John Worthington Ames.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- I.A. General correspondence
- I.B. Correspondence removed from William Sydney Thayer album
- II. Family papers
- II.A. Ripley Family
- II.B. Thayer Family
- II.C. Ames Family
- II.D. Simmons Family
- II.E. Related persons
- III. Materials related to the Old Manse
- IV. Photographs
- IV.A. Individuals
- IV.B. Groups
- IV.C. Places
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Physical Location
Boxes 25 and 27 are awaiting end-processing
Provenance:
Collection was deposited at the Old Manse by Mrs. Frederick Starr and was transferred to Houghton by the Trustees of Reservations.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
91M-64. Gift of Trustees of Reservations, ; received: 1991 July 31.
Separated Materials
Several books were removed from the collection and cataloged individually.
Processing Information
Processed by: Ashley M. Nary
- Title
- Ripley and Thayer families papers, 1759-1964 (MS Am 3068): Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02792
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.
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