Papers of the Almy family, 1649-1967 (inclusive), 1835-1967 (bulk)

This collection centers on Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy (1856-1938), her parents and her children, and thus includes substantial material on the Cabot and Jackson families as well as the Almy family (see genealogies in folder 1 and oversize folder). The papers are mainly family correspondence between members of these three New England families and from other relatives and friends.

Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy was the daughter of the physician, Samuel Cabot (1815-1885), and Hannah Lowell (Jackson) Cabot (1820-1879). Correspondence between them, and with their children, is included here, as well as Hannah's diaries and numerous letters (1835-1839, 1844) from Hannah to her sister, Sarah (Jackson) Russell. Dr. Samuel Cabot's letters are mainly about family matters, with some references to the Civil War. His other papers include a typed essay (quoting many letters to him) about admitting women to the Massachusetts Medical Society. Hannah's letters and diaries describe her daily activities and include references to Dr. William Ellery Channing and other well-known Bostonians of the 1830s and 1840s.

Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy's papers include two diaries (1877-1878, 1880-1881) and correspondence. The papers of mother and daughter thus document the social network and activities of upper-class Boston families in two different time periods. The bulk of Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy's correspondence consists of letters to her from family and friends; letters by her are mainly to her daughter, Mary. Her work for the establishment of playgrounds and vacation schools in Cambridge is documented in the Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy Papers in the Schlesinger Library (A-84). A few papers of Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy's sister, Lilla, and brothers--Samuel, Arthur Tracy, James Jackson, Guy Chilton, and Godfrey Lowell--are included, most of them letters to Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy.

Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy's husband, Charles Almy (1851-1934), justice of the third district court of eastern Middlesex county for almost thirty years, is represented here by letters, most of them to his daughter, Mary, and by a few articles by him and many newsclippings about him.

Papers of Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy's children include letters from them to her, but a larger part of their correspondence consists of letters from other Almy children to the eldest, Mary Almy (1883-1967), a Boston architect. Papers by Mary are mainly her travel diaries (1909 and 1924). Records of her architectural career are not included here, but are to be housed at the Historical Collections at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Helen Jackson Almy (1884-1976) was the first Chief of the Social Work Section of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Although that part of her career is not represented here, four folders of her letters (typescript carbon copies) to her family do provide substantial information on her service with the Harvard Medical Unit in France during World War I.

Papers of the other Almy children--Anna, Charles, Jr., Elizabeth and Samuel Cabot--include letters to Mary, a few to their parents and some about the death of their parents. Most of Samuel's letters were written from France during World War I..

The Almy family received letters from many well-known Bostonians of the later 19th century, among them: Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Charles W. Eliot, Ellen Tucker Emerson and Ralph Waldo Emerson. (See index of correspondents for a complete listing.)

The nine folders of photographs are mostly of Almy family members but autograph letter, signed o include photographs of Radcliffe College classmates (1905) of Helen and Mary Almy and many photographs related to the Harvard Medical Unit in World War I.