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Creator
Opie, Amelia, 1769-1853
Call number
Pforz MS
Physical description
208 items
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Amelia Opie manuscript material, Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library
Repository
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Access to materials
Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.

Amelia Opie was an English author and abolitionist. The collection consists primarily of correspondence dating between 1795 and 1853. It also includes a number of prose and poetry pieces and over one hundred thirty pencil portraits of friends and relatives.

Biographical/historical information

Amelia Opie, English author and abolitionist. A Whig supporter and Bluestocking, Opie moved in intellectual circles that included Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. In 1798 she married the historical and portrait painter John Opie.

Scope and arrangement

The Amelia Opie manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings, correspondence, and artwork. The writings include a holograph story, "The Birthday," and a number of holograph poems. The bulk of the correspondence is dated 1828-1845. Correspondents include: the writer and actress, Elizabeth Inchbald; the hymn writer and poet James Montgomery; the novelist Jane Porter; the poet Robert Southey; and over thirty others. The artwork consists of over one hundred thirty pencil portraits of friends and relatives, most sitters remaining unidentified.

The Amelia Opie manuscript material is arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

Carl H. Pforzheimer (1879-1957) acquired one Amelia Opie manuscript in 1950 as part of a five letter collection of autographs solicited by an Irishwoman named Susanna Hunter; no further Opie letters were acquired during his lifetime. Over fifty Opie manuscripts, consisting mostly of autograph letters, were acquired under the auspices of the Pforzheimer Foundation in the 1960s and 1970s through individual dealers. Since the Pforzheimer Collection's 1986 move to the New York Public Library, the over 130 pencil drawings by Opie were acquired, as well as several more holograph poems and letters.

Processing information

Finding aid first created by Clare O. Needham and Charles Cuykendall Carter in 2012. Revised and imported into ArchivesSpace by Timothy Gress in March 2025.

Related Material

The Pforzheimer Collection holds about ten letters addressed to Opie from figures such as George Crabbe, William Godwin, The Marquis de Lafayette, Robert Southey, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Several other letters relate to Amelia Opie. The Pforzheimer Collection also holds a representative collection of first and early editions of Opie's published work. Additional printed books are housed in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, the General Research Division, and the Rare Book Division. More Amelia Opie manuscript material can be found in the Berg Collection of English and American Literature and in the Manuscripts and Archives Division.

Using the collection

Location

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 319

Access to materials

Restricted access. Request an in-person research appointment.