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{"value"=>"2780", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 2780", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"ca. 1834-1893", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1834/1893", "certainty"=>"approximate"}
{"value"=>"1849-1891", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1849/1891"}
- date_inclusive_start
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1834
- date_inclusive_end
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1893
- keydate
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1834
- date_start
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1834
- date_end
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1893
- unittitle
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{"value"=>"Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith papers"}
- physdesc
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{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1.7 linear foot (3 boxes, 2 v.)"}], "supress_display"=>true}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"2 microfilm reels"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">Stephen A. Schwarzman Building</span> <span class=\"addressline\">Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith (1806-1893) was an author, lyceum lecturer and early activist on behalf of women's rights. Her writings included novels, poetry, children's books, plays, essays, stories, and articles for newspapers and magazines. She was active in the women's rights movement and in 1848 attended the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. She was one of the first female lecturers on the lyceum circuit. Her husband, Seba Smith, was a newspaper editor and writer. Collection consists of Smith's writings, correspondence, drawings, and printed matter providing information on her literary career and her activities as a lyceum lecturer and early women's rights advocate. Writings include manuscripts of Smith's autobiography; manuscripts and clippings of her articles, lectures, poems, stories, plays, dime novels, and other writings. Among her writings are reminiscences of Ralph Waldo Emerson and several chapters of an unfinished biography of George Washington. Also, a small quantity of correspondence of Smith and her children, materials concerning spiritualism and psychometry, and several drawings and a photograph."}
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{"value"=>"Materials in English"}
- prefercite
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{"value"=>"<p>Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith (1806-1893) was an author, lyceum lecturer, and early activist on behalf of women's rights</p> <p>Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith was born 12 August 1806 near North Yarmouth, Me., the second of two daughters of David and Sophia (Blanchard) Prince. When Smith was two her father, a ship captain, was lost at sea. Her mother soon married a well-to-do merchant who moved the family to Portland, Me. in 1814. Despite suffering a mental breakdown at age 6, Smith was a precocious child who aspired to be a schoolteacher. Bowing, however, to her mother wishes, Smith at age 16 married, on 6 March 1823, Seba Smith, editor of the Portland <em render=\"underline\">Eastern Argus</em> who was twice her age. Over the next 14 years, Smith managed a large household which eventually included five sons (Appleton, Rolvin, Alvin, Sidney, and Edward—all given the surname \"Oaksmith\") in addition to several printers and apprentices.</p> <p>Smith was captivated by Portland's social and intellectual life. Due in part to her husband's occupation and social position, Smith was able to meet many prominent political and literary figures of the time, and she soon began contributing poems and sketches to local newspapers and periodicals. Smith was also enthusiastically followed the various reform movements of the day, joining the American Peace Society and the Unitarian Church, and attending lectures by antislavery and temperance advocates.</p> <p>Seba Smith unexpectedly rose to national prominence in 1830 when his \"Major Jack Downing Letters\", written for his newly-founded newspaper, the <em render=\"underline\">Portland Courier</em>, gained wide popularity. His land speculations, however, plunged the family into bankruptcy in 1837, forcing them to move in with relatives in Boothbay, Me. After an unsuccessful trip in 1839 to Charleston, S.C., where Seba Smith tried to interest planters in a Maine-invented cotton gin, the family moved to New York City. There Seba edited a series of short-lived journals and contributed pieces to other journals and newspapers.</p> <p>In order to ease the family's financial difficulties, Smith embarked upon her own literary career. Often using the pseudonyms \"Oakes Smith\" and \"Ernest Helfenstein\", Smith contributed dozens of poems, stories, and essays to newspapers and prominent magazines such as <em render=\"underline\">Godey's Lady's</em> <em render=\"underline\">Book</em>, <em render=\"underline\">Ladies' Companion</em>, <em render=\"underline\">Graham's Magazine</em>, and the <em render=\"underline\">Southern Literary Messenger</em>. With the publication of <em render=\"underline\">The Sinless Child</em>, and <em render=\"underline\">Other Poems</em> in 1843, Smith gained national attention and her literary career soon eclipsed that of her husband. During the 1840s Smith also published <em render=\"underline\">The Western Captive</em> (1842), her first novel; <em render=\"underline\">The Salamander</em> (1848), a Gothic tale based on the supernatural; several collections of poetry and children stories; and edited several gift-books. Attracted to the theatre during the late 1840s, Smith completed and staged two plays, including \"Old New York\" (1853). Most of her literary energies during the 1850s, however, were devoted to journalism and contributions to her husband's literary journals: <em render=\"underline\">The United States Magazine</em>, <em render=\"underline\">Emerson's Magazine and Putnam's Monthly</em>, and <em render=\"underline\">The Great Republic.</em></p> <p>The Smiths, and especially Elizabeth, soon became prominent in New York literary and intellectual circles, counting among their friends Edgar Allan Poe, William Cullen Bryant, and Horace Greeley. Smith also began to participate much more actively in the various reform movements to which she was attracted. An 1839 lecture by Frances Wright helped stimulate Smith's strong interest in women's rights. Smith attended the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. in 1848 and was nearly chosen president of the second convention held in Worcester, Mass. in 1851. In the late 1840s Smith also began to advocate woman suffrage and women's rights through her journalism, and in 1851 she launched a career as one of the first female lecturers on the lyceum circuit. Until ill health restricted her travels in 1857, Smith regularly toured throughout the United States speaking on women's rights.</p> <p>Her husband's declining health prompted the family to move to \"The Willows\", their home in Patchogue, N.Y. in 1860. There Smith began a new and successful career as an author of several \"dime novels\", such as <em render=\"underline\">Bald Eagle</em> (1867). Smith also remained active in women's affairs, helping to form Sorosis—the first women's club in the United States—in 1868 and serve as its vice president in 1869, but she became increasingly preoccupied with religion and an interest in Roman Catholicism, though she never converted.</p> <p>The death of two of her sons, followed by the death of her husband on 28 July 1868, were severe blows to Smith. She moved in with her son Alvin's family in Blue Point, NY., eventually left to become pastor of an independent congregation in Canastota, N.Y. from April to December 1877, and then moved to Hollywood, N.C. to join her son Appleton's family in 1878. During the 1870s and 1880s Smith continued to write—contributing dozens of poems, stories, and short sketches to many newspapers and periodicals, particularly <em render=\"underline\">Baldwin's Monthly</em> and <em render=\"underline\">The Home Journal</em>, and writing her autobiography—and occasionally lectured on women's rights and famous literary figures she had known. Smith died 15 November 1893 in Hollywood and was buried in Patchogue, N.Y.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Papers consist of items saved by Elizabeth Oakes Smith and in her possession at the time of her death in 1893. In 1924 these papers were in the possession of one of Smith's granddaughters, Miss Geraldine Oaksmith of Newport, N.C.. The New York Public Library purchased the papers in 1935 from Miss Oaksmith; before the sale, however, Miss Oaksmith removed approximately 90 letters from the collection and sent them to the University of Virginia Library.</p> <p>Also in 1935 the New York Public Library acquired from the same source a small collection of papers relating to Smith's husband, Seba Smith (1792-1868). These have been catalogued separately.</p> <p>In 1993 the New York Public Library purchased a Smith letter from James Lowe Autographs Ltd. dated 15, October 1853 Brooklyn, L.I. [NY] to John Hesbreck Esqr..</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The papers document Smith's literary career as poet, playwright, journalist, and novelist; her interest and participation in various reform movements; her career as a lyceum lecturer during the 1850s; her writings and activities in support of woman suffrage and women's rights; and her friendship with prominent authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, Horace Greeley, and William Cullen Bryant.</p> <p>The Papers consist of Smith's manuscript autobiography (ca. 1885); diary for 1887; manuscripts (some incomplete and most unpublished) for several works, including: a life of George Washington, \"Ralph Waldo Emerson: Or Recollections of Him\", \"A Calendar of the Foot-prints of Time\", \"Messiniello\" (a play), sonnets and other poems, \"Thomas Anderson: The Exile of Fayal\" (a novel); clippings of her newspaper and periodical contributions; published reviews of her work; two scrapbooks of her published and unpublished writings; and a small quantity of correspondence.</p> <p>The Papers of Elizabeth Oakes Smith consist of letters, manuscripts writings, clippings and a few miscellaneous items. The collection is a small and uneven one which cannot in and of itself illuminate any aspect of Smith's life in much detail. However, individual pieces in the collection offer important biographical information, insights into Smith's literary career, and information on her activities as lyceum lecturer and early women's rights advocate.</p> <p>The papers contain virtually no documentation on Smith's life prior to ca. 1850, save for a valuable manuscript autobiography. Smith's lengthy account, written during the 1880s, essentially ends in the mid-1850s. Smith did not conceive of her autobiography as a straightforward narrative retelling of her life, and researchers seeking such factual information will be disappointed. Rather, in keeping with her profession as writer and novelist, Smith fashioned her autobiography out of a series of many short, thematic sections—especially profiles of people she had known. Hence its value lies, not only in the richness of its anecdotal material, but in insights it provides into Smith's personality, inner feelings, and intellectual development. The autobiography is most helpful for its coverage of Smith's childhood and life in Portland, Me. but considerably less so for her New York City years, where comments on her own literary activities, lecturing, and women's rights advocacy are few. It suffers somewhat from having been written long after the events described: Smith displays a pronounced tendency to discuss what she thinks a late-19th century audience would expect to hear rather than what she may personally have considered most significant in her life, and to write journalistically, keeping her comments brief. Smith's manuscript recollections of Ralph Waldo Emerson, written at the same time as her autobiography, are much richer in detail and suggest how much Smith failed to record about her life. The autobiography was published in 1924 in a heavily condensed and partially rewritten version which should be used with caution.</p> <p>Apart from a passing mention in her autobiography, Smith's early literary career prior to her move to New York in 1839 is completely undocumented in the papers. Also slighted is Smith's emergence during the 1840s as a popular poet, essayist, and editor. The retained clippings of Smith's writings which date from this period represent only a fraction of her total output; and there is virtually nothing pertaining to Smith's editing of gift books, <em render=\"underline\">The Sinless Child</em> and other long poems, or her lengthier prose works. Smith's literary activities during the 1850s are somewhat better documented. There are some interesting materials, including an incomplete draft of an unpublished play, relating to Smith's brief career as a dramatist. Several manuscript chapters of her unfinished <em render=\"underline\">Life of Washington</em> show Smith's engaging in installment publication during the late 1850s, a time when she and her husband were struggling to keep their literary magazine afloat.</p> <p>Most of the manuscripts, though, date from the last 30 years of her life. And because most are incomplete and unpublished, they are not necessarily representative of her \"oeuvre\". One exception is the incomplete draft of an unpublished novel, <em render=\"underline\">Thomas Anderson</em>, which may date from the 1860s, when Smith was writing \"dime novels\": Smith's prose outline and polished draft show how she may have composed these novels. Other manuscripts and clippings show how Smith continued to write up to the time of her death, earning money by contributing poems and short prose pieces to newspaper and magazines. Smith has annotated many of the later clippings as to source, thus easing the work of any bibliographer seeking to locate Smith's many periodical contributions.</p> <p>Documentation of Smith's career as an early advocate of women's rights, lyceum lecturer, and reformer during the late 1840s and 1850s is weak but helpful. Particularly useful are the clippings Smith mounted in the bound \"Miscellanies\" scrapbook. Many document Smith's own views on women's issues, her interest in the plight of poor women, her analyses of female characters in the works of Shakespeare and other authors, and her use of journalism to promote reformist views. The clippings, many of which have been annotated by Smith, also provide some notion of the extent of her public speaking career and popular reactions to her lectures. Also of considerable interest are Smith's manuscript recollections of her lectures in Concord, Massachusetts and subsequent several weeks' stay in Ralph Waldo Emerson's household in 1852, which give some sense of life on the lyceum circuit. Smith's autobiography slights her own activities but provides perceptive sketches of several prominent women authors and reformers.</p> <p>The papers offer interesting glimpses into Smith's lifelong fascination with spiritualism and the adult lives of her children. Due to her engaging personality and prominence in New York social and literary circles, Smith made the acquaintance of many prominent writers. Her autobiography and clippings contain interesting profiles and anecdotal accounts of Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Greeley, and William Cullen Bryant, among others.</p> <p>Very little correspondence is included in the papers. What is included offers insight into the planning of Smith's lecture tours. There is also very little material pertaining to Smith's husband Seba Smith. (The Manuscripts Section, however, owns material relating to Seba Smith which may have been separated from this collection.) In her autobiography, Smith is reticent in discussing her husband's own literary career and their relationship, though she does provide a valuable account of their financial difficulties and bankruptcy during the late 1830s.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith papers are arranged in five series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/2780#c1075296'>Series 1. Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. It includes four letters (1883-1884) from Helen Stuart (Weeks) Campbell (1839-1918), literary and household editor of \"The Continent\", requesting Smith to write her reminiscences of Ralph Waldo Emerson; a clipping of a letter from Lucretia (Coffin) Mott (1793-1880) concerning Smith's proposed visit to Philadelphia in March 1852 to lecture on women's rights; four letters (1888-1892) from Mrs. C.A. Munson recalling their earlier experiments in spiritualism and a recent séance she attended; a letter (1849) from her son Sidney describing his visit to a horse race; and seven letters (1865-1866) from her attorney, John R. Reid, concerning preparations for defending Smith against a lawsuit.</p> <p>A few other letters to Smith are found elsewhere in her papers:</p> <p>Rouquette, Adrian—Two letters (1867-1868) concerning his poetry and missionary work among Cherokee Indians are tipped into Smith's manuscript \"Autobiography\", pp. 584,586-589 (clamshell box).</p> <p>Sigourney, Lydia Howard Huntley (1791-1865)—one printed letter (1848) relating literary gossip is mounted in Smith's \"Scrapbook\" (Box 3 f.1).</p> <p>Clippings of a few of Smith's published letters to editors of various newspapers are located elsewhere in her Papers:</p> <p>Writings: Prose: Clippings of Published Writings (Box 2 f.8).</p> <p>Scrapbooks (Bound volume, and Box 3 f.1).</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/2780#c1075304'>Series 2. Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Smith's writings are arranged by genre, and alphabetically by title within each genre. The writings include an autobiography, a diary, a play, journalistic contributions, poetry, and fragments of two novels and a biography. All but one of the manuscripts are in Smith's hand. Most are incomplete and unpublished, though two significant manuscripts—Smith's autobiography and her recollections of Ralph Waldo Emerson—have been published in part. There are no manuscripts for prose works published during Smith's lifetime, and most of the poetry manuscripts appear to be fair copies. In date they range from the 1850s up to Smith's death in 1893. Supplementing the manuscripts are dozens of clippings of Smith's published newspaper and periodical contributions: poems, stories, sketches, letters to the editors, book reviews, etc. These range in date from ca.1843 to 1891, though a few may possibly be earlier. The majority have been mounted by Smith in two scrapbooks. Also included are some clippings of reviews of Smith's lectures and writings.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/2780#c1075349'>Series 3. Spiritualism</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series contains several items illuminating Smith's interest in one aspect of spiritualism; psychometry, or the determination of a person's character through handwriting analysis. Included is a one-page manuscript \"psychometrical reading\" of Smith's character by Mrs. J.R. Mettler, \"Psycho-Magnetic Physician\" of Hartford, Conn., dated 9 October 1852; a two-page manuscript note (19 May 1869) by Smith explaining the circumstances behind Mettler's reading; and an article from an unidentified journal (May 1852) reviewing Smith's recent lectures in Cincinnati and appending two pyschometrical readings of Smith's character.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/2780#c1075351'>Series 4. Children of Elizabeth Oakes Smith</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Miscellaneous clippings concerning three of Smith's five sons—Alvin, Appleton, and Sidney Oaksmith—and an inscribed copy of Appleton Oaksmith's pamphlet, <em render=\"underline\">Southern States Debts and the National Currency: their Evils and Their Remedy: A Financial Essay</em> (Baltimore: Turnbull Brothers [1874]).</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/2780#c1075355'>Series 5. Photos and Drawings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>A small portrait in pencil captioned \"Sinless Child/Eva/By H. Jenks\"; a small unsigned landscape drawing in pencil; and an unidentified photo of a woman's head in profile, trimmed and mounted on card.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>Five series: I. Correspondence, 1849-1891; II. Writings, ca. 1843-1893; III. Spiritualism; IV. Children of Elizabeth Oakes Smith; V. Photos and Drawings</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Purchased from Miss Geraldine Oaksmith, 1935; Purchased from James Lowe Autographs, 1 item 1993.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"type"=>"processing", "value"=>"<p>David R. Whitesell, Processed January 1992; Valerie Wingfield, Revised Additions August 1993</p>"}
- altformavail
-
{"value"=>"<p>Entire collection (except for 1993 accession of one letter) available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-279</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Related collections in the New York Public Library - Manuscripts Section: Seba Smith Papers; Rare Books Section: Beadle Dime Novels</p> <p>Related collection in other institutions: Radcliffe College - Schlesinger Library: Alma Lutz, collector. Collection of Documents By and About Abolitionists and Women's Rights Activists, Part 2; Elizabeth Oakes Smith Papers; Special Collections Department, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, IA.: William Fearing Gill. Letter to Elizabeth Oakes Smith. New York. NY. 19 1889 Oct.; Syracuse Univ. - Archives: Gerrit Smith Papers; SUNY, Buffalo - Poetry and Rare Books: E.O. Smith letters; Cornell Univ. - New York Historical Resources: Howard Benjamin Grose Family Papers; Brown Univ. - John Hay Archives: Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith. Poems; Elizabeth Oakes (Prince) Smith, Letter, 11 June 1884.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
1.7 linear feet (3 boxes, 2 v.); 2 microfilm reels
- date_bulk_start
-
1849
- date_bulk_end
-
1891