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Creator
Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891
Call number
Berg Coll MSS Lowell, JR
Physical description
363 items
Preferred Citation

[Identification of the item]. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

This is a synthetic collection consisting of manuscripts, a typescript, correspondence, and financial documents.

Biographical/historical information

James Russell Lowell was an American poet, critic, satirist, essayist, and diplomat. He was appointed United States ambassador to the Spanish court in 1877 and then to the Court of St. James in England from 1880-1885.

Scope and arrangement

This is a synthetic collection consisting of manuscripts, a typescript, correspondence, and financial documents. The manuscript material includes holograph poems, articles, and essays, as well as manuscript poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Edward Waldo Emerson's hand, and a review by Bret Harte in Harte's hand. The correspondence includes letters, dating from 1841 to 1890, from the author to Charles Frederick Briggs, Robert Carter, Eliza Callahan Cleveland, James T. Fields, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Francis Heath, Sir Frederick Locker-Lampson, Julia Prinsep Jackson Stephen, Sir Leslie Stephen, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Bayard Taylor, George Ticknor, Francis H. Underwood, Mary Augusta Arnold Ward, John Greenleaf Whittier, and others. The correspondence also includes letters relating to the author, dating from 1875 to 1903, between various correspondents including George Granville Bradley, Sir Leslie Stephen, Mabel Lowell Burnett, Julia Prinsep Jackson Stephen, George H. Duckworth, Edward Waldo Emerson, Charles Eliot Norton, Sir Edmund William Gosse, O. W. Holmes, Henry James, and others. There are letters to Lowell from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Makepeace Thackeray, and others, dating from [1843] to 1858.

The James Russell Lowell collection of papers are arranged in two series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

The bulk of the materials were previously owned by W. T. H. Howe and Owen D. Young. Other materials were previously owned by William Deming, George S. Hellman, and Joan Howe. The holograph copy of "My Brook" was presented by the author to Dr. M. J. Savage, later given by Dr. Savage to his daughter Mrs. Minot Simms.

Source of acquisition

This is a synthetic collection, created from materials acquired through gift and purchase from various sources.

Processing information

Processed by Staff; Machine-readable finding aid created by Lynn Lobash and Nina Schneider.

Using the collection

Location

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 320

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.