The New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library Manuscripts and Archives Division Emerson Family

Transcription

1 The New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library Manuscripts and Archives Division Emerson Family Papers, ca. 1840s-1976 Julie Miller May 1989 rev. Mary Bowling, 1991

2 SUMMARY Main Entry: Emerson family Title: Papers, ca Size: 12.5 linear ft. (33 boxes, 12 volumes) Source: Edith Emerson, and Ann Adams Emerson, 1991 Abstract: Special formats: Diaries, photographs 2

3 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The Emersons were an American family who lived in Europe and Japan and traveled widely during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The family consisted of Edwin Emerson, , Mary Ingham Emerson, d.1883, and their children: Harrington, ; Samuel D.I., 1855-ca.1930; Alfred, ; Margaret, b.1863; George Hale, b.1866; and Edwin Jr., b Edwin Emerson was originally from New York City. After early training as a printer and some work as a journalist, he entered Princeton in 1845, graduated in 1849, then attended the Princeton Theological Seminary from In 1852 he married Mary Louisa Ingham, of Trenton, New Jersey, and became the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. Greencastle was the family's home for the next eight years. In 1860 Emerson was made a professor of English literature at the University of Troy, Troy, New York. At Troy, Emerson became an enthusiastic amateur photographer and, along with his colleagues Ogden Rood and Professor Charles Francis Himes, experimented and made contributions to the new field. In 1862, feeling that their children would benefit from European educations and aware that the University of Troy was failing financially, the Emersons moved to Europe, settling in Paris in In Paris, the children attended French schools, and both Edwin and Mary Emerson studied French language and literature. Edwin Emerson attended lectures at the Sorbonne on a variety of topics, and made a particular study of political economy. All of the Emerson sons, once they were old enough, attended the Knaben Anstalt der Brudergemeine (School of the United Brethren) a Moravian boarding school at Neuwied, Germany. During this period Edwin Emerson contributed articles to French journals advocating the Union cause in the Civil War. In May 1864 he became the editor of the British Journal of Photography, but gave the position up six months later, concluding that it "used up too much time and thought." In 1867 the family left their home in Paris and went to London, where they remained for six months. In March, 1868 they left London and traveled in Italy and Germany until June, when they rested in Bonn for five months. In October, 1868 they went to Dresden and remained there until 1872 when they moved to Munich, where they lived for twentytwo years until The Emersons traveled frequently in Europe during their years there, and they also visited the United States, Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. In they visited Strasbourg and the battlefield of Sedan. In 1876 they visited the Centennial Exposition in the United States. The dissolution of the family began in 1876 when Harrington and Samuel moved to the United States. Then, in 1883, Mary Emerson died. Edwin and Margaret Emerson returned to the United States in In the U.S. they stayed with Alfred's family in Ithaca, New York, with Samuel's family in Denver, Colorado, and in a house in Morningside Heights near Columbia University in New York City. They returned to Paris in 1899, and Margaret graduated from the Sorbonne in In that year father and daughter moved to Tokyo, Japan (they later lived in Yokohama) to join Samuel who had already settled there. In 1902 Margaret became a professor of modern languages at the University for Women in Tokyo. Edwin Emerson died in Japan in All six Emerson children eventually returned to the United States. In 1876 Harrington became a professor of modern languages at the State University of Nebraska, remaining in that post for six years. Samuel also settled in Nebraska, forming a bank at Milford. Harrington and George both eventually joined Samuel in the banking business in Nebraska. Together the brothers became involved in other banks, and in business ventures, land speculation, and mining in Nebraska and Colorado. Harrington later became a civil engineer, in partnership with Samuel, an architect, in New York City. Samuel also had a career as a lawyer in Philadelphia, and by the turn of the century was involved with a business venture in Tokyo, Japan. George and Edwin Jr. attended Cornell University. George became a lawyer in New York City, and Edwin Jr. became a writer and journalist and lived on Staten Island. All, with the exceptions of George and Margaret, married and had children. George, Edwin Jr., and Margaret Emerson had all settled in New York City by the ends of their lives. Alfred Emerson was an archaeologist who excavated sites in Greece and North Africa. He was educated at the University of Munich and Princeton University, and then was a fellow at Johns Hopkins University. After holding 3

4 professorships at Lake Forest University in Illinois and Miami University in Ohio, he went to Cornell University where he held a chair in classical archaeology from He also served as an assistant director of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was an art advisor to Phoebe Hearst. Alfred Emerson married Alice Edwards, a pianist, in Their children were Edith, an artist who settled in Philadelphia; Gertrude Sen, an editor of Asia magazine who lived in India; Willard; and Alfred. 4

5 SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE The Emerson family papers, 1840s-1908, consist chiefly of correspondence. Diaries, accounts, school records of the Emerson children, Edwin Emerson's poetry and other writings, photographs, legal documents, and some printed material are also included. A later group of letters, , received by Margaret Emerson from her friend, the author Hilda Rose, is also included. An addition to the collection consists of papers of Alfred Emerson and his daughters Edith Emerson and Gertrude Emerson Sen. The correspondence is among members of the Emerson family in Europe, the United States, and, after the turn of the century, Japan. Edwin Emerson is the principal recipient, and the letters follow the events of his and his family's life from his student years at Princeton, through the family's years in Greencastle, Troy, Europe, and Japan, until his death. There are some letters in French, German, and shorthand, possibly Pittman. Many letters, often including sketches, are from the Emerson sons at their Moravian boarding school at Neuwied and, after 1876, in Nebraska and elsewhere in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Other correspondents are Mary Emerson's brother (and Edwin Emerson's former Princeton classmate) William A. Ingham, her father, former congressman and Secretary of the Treasury Samuel D. Ingham, and other Ingham family members in Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia. Other frequent correspondents include George Hale, husband of Mary Emerson's sister Rebecca; Ogden Rood, Princeton classmate, Troy colleague, fellow-experimenter in photography, and a physics professor at Columbia College; and John Thacher Clarke, an archaeological colleague of Alfred's and a friend of the family. The family was acquainted with the sculptor Karl Bitter, and the letters contain mentions of him and his activities although no letters from him have yet been found. These letters are unusual in a family collection for the wide range of topics outside of family concerns that they contain. Writers on both sides of the Atlantic make comparisons between life in the United States and abroad, and there are substantive discussions of United States national politics, current events, religious questions, and business and economic trends such as: the progress of the Civil War and its political, economic, and social effects; elections; the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln and Garfield; the Panic of 1893 and its aftermath; the bi-metallism debate; the influence of religious groups on United States laws, particularly those concerning Sunday mail delivery and the sale of alcohol; and the Spanish-American War and Edwin Jr.'s experiences as a rough rider under Theodore Roosevelt. The letters also provide a clear and detailed picture of the family's daily life in the United States, Europe and Japan, and, in particular, a view of life in Nebraska, where the Emerson sons were involved with banking, business ventures, mining, and land speculation. Of particular interest in the correspondence is the Emerson family's interest in new technology. During the 1860s there is discussion of the developing science of photography, with which Edwin Emerson was involved, and topics arising from his brief tenure as editor of the British Journal of Photography. Beginning in the 1880s members of the Emerson family bought typewriters and there are many discussions, descriptions, and demonstrations of the new machine. Also beginning in the 1880s the Emersons became interested in bicycles and, again, there are detailed discussions, sometimes accompanied by sketches, of the types of bicycles bought, their prices and attributes, bicycle trips taken, and the number of miles ridden each day by family members. The interest in technology extended to an interest in medical progress. Family members report on the technical details of medical procedures performed on themselves and their spouses and children. George Emerson's treatment for clubfeet in 1867 while the family was in London is among the procedures described. In addition to the correspondence there are six letterbooks, , of Edwin Emerson and four, , of his daughter Margaret. The letterbook paper is generally fragile, and some pages are blurred or fading. PAPERS OTHER THAN CORRESPONDENCE There are thirty-two diaries, , belonging to Edwin Emerson; eight, , of Mary Emerson; and twentyfour, , of Margaret Emerson. These cover a time period within that covered by the correspondence, and 5

6 treat essentially the same subjects. Some additional family papers consist of accounts and account books, 1840s-1908; photographs, ca.1870s-1910s; school reports, certificates, and bills of the Emerson children, 1870s-1880s; legal documents, mainly concerning Mary Emerson's estate, 1890s; notes and lists; an undated constitution of the Greencastle (Pa.) Lyceum; and some medical prescriptions filled at Parisian pharmacies. Also included are manuscripts and typescripts of Edwin Emerson's essays and poetry dating from his college years through the 1890s. MARGARET EMERSON/HILDA ROSE CORRESPONDENCE, Hilda Rose was a writer (The Stump Farm, A Chronicle of Pioneering. Boston : Little Brown, 1928), and schoolteacher who lived in the wilderness with her family near Fort Vermillion and the Peace River, Alberta, Canada. Included are her letters to Margaret Emerson, who was a friend and benefactor. They describe her experiences as a settler and teacher in the area, and her efforts as a writer. Some of these letters were published in the Atlantic Monthly between 1935 and A few photographs of Rose and members of her family are included. ADDITION - ALFRED EMERSON, EDITH EMERSON, GERTRUDE SEN PAPERS Included is correspondence, , of Alfred Emerson on personal, family, and professional topics; manuscripts and typescripts of his writings; poetry, sketches, notes, and a group of eight diaries, notebooks, and address books; drafts, proofs, and notes for the Chicago Art Institute's exhibition and catalog of classical antiquities; photographs, 1880s-1890s, of archaeological sites in Greece and Italy, ancient objects (some of which became part of the Phoebe Hearst Collection now at the University of California), and colleagues Joseph Thacher Clarke and Walter Leaf. Also included is some correspondence of Edith Emerson and her sister Gertrude Sen. Edith Emerson's correspondence, , consists almost entirely of condolence letters she received at the time of her father's death. The rest concerns family matters. Gertrude Sen's correspondence consists of her letters to Gwendolen Penniman, a relative, , containing descriptions of her life in India and family news. ADDITION - EDWIN EMERSON, ALICE INGHAM EMERSON, ALFRED EMERSON, MARGARET EMERSON, EDITH EMERSON PAPERS Included are diaries of the artist Edith Emerson (1914; 1920; ) and additions to the diaries of Edwin Emerson ( ; 1908), Mary L. Ingham Emerson ( ), Alfred Emerson (1880), and Margaret Emerson (1908; 1947). typed transcripts of the letters of Mary Ingham to her brother William and other family members, This addition also includes Edith's reminiscences of Queen Sophia of Greece (sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II), 1929; Edwin Emerson's college notebook with programs from "class days", commencements, and other memorabilia from Princeton, and 1857; Alfred Emerson's Princeton college notebooks, ca. 1881; miscellaneous memorabilia of Edwin and Alfred Emerson, including poetry and essays; and two postcards from Alfred to Edith Emerson, Letters of Mary Ingham relate to family affairs, her activities at Sweet Briar Hall (school) and Abbott's Institute, her pastimes, reading, her literary aspirations, social life/marriages/deaths in their circle of friends, 6

7 EMERSON FAMILY PAPERS - CONTAINER LIST Box Correspondence, Aug Sept Feb March Sept Oct Dec Sept Oct Sept Oct 1895 June July July Aug May June ; n.d. 18 n.d. 35 Mary Ingham Emerson Letters, chiefly to William Ingham, (typed transcripts) 24 Margaret Emerson/Hilda Rose Correspondence, Edith Emerson correspondence, Gertrude Emerson Sen / Gwendolen Penniman correspondence, Letterbooks, Edwin Emerson (Volumes) Jan May Jan Jan Margaret Emerson Jan Aug Sept Sept Sept April

8 June Oct Additional Papers, 1840s-1910s 18 Accounts, 1840s-1890s; Greencastle (Pa.) Lyceum constitution, n.d.; photographs, ca.1870s- 1910s; school notes, n.d.; writings, ca.1840s-1890s; biographical writings. 18a Slipcase Account books, (11 volumes) Poetry, Edwin Emerson, ca School reports, certificates, and bills, 1870s-1880s; legal documents; notes, lists, and printed material; medical prescriptions. 37 Edwin Emerson's account book, 1865; (10 volumes); 8 College of New Jersey (Princeton) school notebook with memorabilia inserted (programs for class orations, commencements, etc.), ; 1857 Miscellaneous printed memorabilia, including poems, reminiscences, and two inserted portrait photographs of Edwin Emerson Diaries, Edwin Emerson Diaries (9) Slipcase (14) (9) ; ; ; ; 1858 (New Orleans journey); ; 1908 (7 vols.) 23 Two notebooks, one travel diary, Mary Louis Ingham Emerson Diaries (8) ; ; ; (4 vols.) 23 Margaret Emerson Diaries (2) 23A (3); (21) 32 Edith Emerson Diaries 1914 Travel diary on Cresson scholarship from Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, with Elsa Laubach and cousin Mary Ingham 1920; ; ; ; ; 1948; 1949 (8 volumes)

9 (7 volumes) (6 spiral bound engagement books) Reminiscences about Queen Sophia of Greece, 1929 (l vol.) 25 Alfred Emerson Additional Personal Papers Correspondence, Writings; diaries Diaries, address books, notebooks 29 Financial documents, notes, poetry, sketches, obituaries. 30 Photographs 38 Diary, 1880 College notebooks, 1881 (?). 6 volumes: Greece and the Greeks; Rhetoric; Prof. Packard: Juvenal; Anglo-Saxon Declension; Contemporary Philosophy (Dr. McCosh); Geology; Psychology; Shakespeare; English Literature Miscellaneous memorabilia and two postcards, 1934,to Edith Emerson 9

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