Thomas Wentworth Higginson Correspondence
Scope and Contents
Of the 159 letters in this collection, many deal with abolition, women’s suffrage, and literature. Correspondents include abolitionists, writers, and suffragettes such as Lydia Maria Child, Sarah Orne Jewett, Louise Chandler Moulton, Harriet Spofford, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, Anne Whitney, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Also included is correspondence from Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Abby Kelley Foster. In addition, there are letters from Una Hawthorne and Rose Hawthorne Lathrop as well as Mabel Loomis Todd.
Contents of these letters range from extending, accepting, and declining invitations to meet, exchanging poetry, soliciting Higginson’s criticism and advice, expressing appreciation of Higginson’s own poetry, administrative concerns relating to the Boston Authors Club, discussion of women’s suffrage events, and inviting him to speak at functions or contribute to literary journals.
Dates
- 1848-1909
- Other: Date acquired: 00/00/1910
Creator
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
Biographical / Historical
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1823-1911, was an abolitionist, author, Civil War colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, and Unitarian minister from Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1841, and went on to study theology at Harvard Divinity School. Higginson became involved in the Abolitionist movement in the 1840’s. He was a member of the Secret Six that supported John Brown and a member of the Free Soil Party. Higginson was a supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and organized the American Women Suffrage Organization in 1869. He served as editor and contributor for The Woman’s Journal. Higginson was also associated with the Atlantic Monthly, having contributed many essays, articles, and poems. It was here where Higginson began corresponding with Emily Dickinson and other women writers. After Dickinson’s death, he helped Mabel Loomis Todd edit her poems for eventual publication.
Extent
159.00 Items
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Source of Acquisition
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Method of Acquisition
Donation
Processing Information
Rare Books and Manuscripts Department staff.
Processing Information
This electronic finding aid is transcribed from legacy data. In many cases, transcriptions were not verified against collection materials at the time of transcription. As a result, this finding aid could be incomplete and might only reflect a partial understanding of the material.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
- Abolitionists — United States — History — 19th Century Subject Source: Local sources
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911
- Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911 — Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women -- Sufferage Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson Correspondence
- Date
- 00/03/2015
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2015-02: Updated by Baylea Jones, February 2015.
About this library
Part of the Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections Repository
