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COLLECTION Identifier: HUM 412

Edward W. Forbes collection of Harvard photographs

Scope and Contents

The collection contains two photographs documenting Edward Waldo Forbes’s experience as a student at Harvard. It includes an 1893 photograph from Forbes’s sophomore year in a theater performance, labeled “DKE Play,” likely from Delta Kappa Epsilon. The back side of the mount has a handwritten list of the play’s cast, labeled "Dramatis Personae," with the names of each actor.

The other photograph is from the Harvard College Class of 1895 graduation, featuring Forbes and other classmates dressed in caps and gowns. The students pictured include Roland Gray, William Palten, Percy Lombard, Edward J. Holmes, Andrew Peters, Robert Walcott, Richard Wheatland, William Emerson, and [Joseph Lewis] Stackpole.

Dates

  • Creation: 1893, 1895

Creator

Researcher Access

The collection is open for research.

Extent

.6 cubic feet (1 flat box)

Biographical note on Edward Waldo Forbes

Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969) graduated with an AB from Harvard in 1895. He was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, founder and first president of the American Bell Telephone Company, and Edith Emerson Forbes, daughter of poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1907, Forbes taught his first course, on Florentine painting, at Harvard. He became lecturer in Fine Arts in 1909, the same year he became Director of the Fogg Museum. Forbes continued to teach throughout his years as Museum Director and was named Martin A. Ryerson Lecturer in Fine Arts in 1935. He also founded the Center for Conservation and technical studies. Forbes retired from the museum in 1944. He died in 1969.

Acquisition

Gift of Beatrice F. Manz, received July 31, 2019; Accession 2020.067.

Related Materials

The Harvard University Archives also holds:

  1. Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes and the Forbes family, 1856-1970 (HUGFP 139.xx) https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/hua20019/catalog
  2. Edward W. Forbes personal correspondence, 1923-1946 Forbes, Edward W. (Edward Waldo), 1873-1969 (HUM 349)
  3. Correspondence between R. W. Bliss and Edward Forbes and Paul Sachs, 1925-1940 (Accession 13250)
  4. As I remember it : memories of the early development of the Fogg Museum (HUF 401.555)
  5. Notes in Zoology 1, 1893 (HUC 8893.398.1)
  6. Notes in History 2 : lectures by S. M. Macvane, 1891-1892 (HUC 8891.338.2)
  7. Notes on lectures in Philosophy 1a, 1893-1894 (HUC 8893.369.1)
  8. Notes in Botany 1, 1894 (HUC 8893.309.1.48)
  9. Notes and midyear thesis in Philosophy 9, 1894-1895 (HUC 8894.370.9)
  10. Notes in History 12, 1893-1894 (HUC 8893.338.12.10)
  11. Notes in Economic 1, 1893-1894 (HUC 8893.321.1.29)
  12. Notes and themes in English 7 and English B, 1892-1893 (HUC 8892.324.7.80)
  13. Notes for Greek B : lectures by M.H. Morgan, 1891-1892 (HUC 8891.334)
  14. Notes and themes in English 9, 1893-1894 (HUC 8893.324.9.34)
  15. Themes in English A, 1891-1892 (HUC 8891.324.4)
  16. Weekly papers and lecture notes in History 13, 1894-1895 (HUC 8894.338.13.5)
In the Harvard Art Museum Archives:
  1. Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1867-2005 (HC 2) https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/art00005/catalog
  2. Teaching and Research Materials Collection, 1891-1968 (HC 20) https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/art00042/catalog

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Olivia Mandica-Hart in February 2022. Processing included physical re-housing and the creation of this finding aid.

Title
Forbes, Edward W. (Edward Waldo), 1873-1969. Edward W. Forbes collection of Harvard photographs, 1893, 1895 : an inventory
Author
Harvard University Archives
Date
February 23, 2022
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
hua13022

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository

Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.

Contact:
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461