Papers of Eugenie Homer Emerson and Marian Clarke Nichols, 1806-1953

Eugenie Homer was born in 1854, the fourth of the five children of a well-to-do Boston family. She traveled extensively in Europe during her early twenties, describing her travels in letters to her family; during 1878-1879 she visited various cities with her sister and brother-in-law, Augusta St. Gaudens and Augustus St. Gaudens, the latter a well-known sculptor. In about 1890 she began to write from the family home in Roxbury to the Reverend Oliver Pomeroy Emerson (1845-1938) in Hawaii, describing visits with family and friends, plays, concerts, her work with a girls' club, the artists she met through Augustus St. Gaudens, and discussing the annexation of Hawaii. After her marriage to Oliver in 1896 she wrote to her family, especially to her mother, from Hawaii. In the correspondence with her sister Augusta and her cousin Mary Elizabeth Homer Emerson, much attention is devoted to health and illness. Also included in the papers of Eugenie Homer Emerson are letters to Eugenie from various family members; papers (1806-1867) of Sidney Homer; and correspondence and other papers of the Emerson family.

The papers of Marian Clarke Nichols (1873-1963), daughter of Elizabeth Fisher Homer and Arthur Howard Nichols, cover the period 1821-1953, and include her diaries while traveling in Europe in 1891 and again in 1893-1894; family correspondence and photographs; and papers and lantern slides on civil service reform. Marian Clarke Nichols was active in both the Women's Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association and on the Committee on Civil Service Reform of the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs; she served the latter as secretary, 1909-1918, and chairman, 1918-1923. She was also active in the National Civil Service Reform League and collected addresses made to the League by well-known speakers. The Nichols-Shurtleff Family Collection (A-170) contains papers of Marian Clarke Nichols which complement those in this collection.