Found 11 collections related to Poetry -- United States

Sir Edwin Arnold was a 19th century English poet and journalist. The collection contains 14 items, including a partly autographed copy of Arnold's poem "Potiphar's Wife," a tracing of "Japonica No. 3," letters from Arnold to Robert Bloom, a business card, and a Japanese railroad map less

Reuben M. Potter was born in New Jersey in 1802. From 1827 to 1833 he was an agent of a commercial house in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, after which he served as the customs comptroller at Galveston, Texas. In December 1846 Potter became secretary to Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jessup, quartermaster general of the United States Army. He was made a prisoner of war in San Antonio during the Civil War. After his parole, he moved to New York to resume his quartermaster duties until his retirement in 1882. less

The Frank Smithson papers date from 1879 to 1919 and include correspondence; synopses of musical comedies and plays; poems; diagrams and plans; and copies of a provisional specification of Smithson's invention for "Improvements in or relating to ships or vessels." less

Marianne Wing was born about 1819 in Braintree, Essex, England, the daughter of William Wing. By 1851 she was living in Chelmsford with her husband, William Abbott, a retired farmer, and their two young children, Joseph William and Clara Maria. Ten years later she was living with her husband in Black Notley. By 1881 she was widowed and living with her unmarried sister, Sarah Wing, in Lambeth. In 1889, at age 70, she married James Raper, a joiner/carpenter, at St Stephen's, Walbrook. She died an inmate at Peckham House Lunatic Asylum on February 17, 1892. Manuscript notebook containing 36 original poems and prose meditations, with 12 original illustrations. A dedication, to the author's brother, is dated January 20, 1836; another piece is dated 1834. Most of the other pieces are undated, but appear to have been written around the 1830's and are signed either "M Wing" or "M W." One poem (leaf 43 recto) is signed "Marianne Wing." The final two poems, dated 1880 and 1881 (each written to one of her grandchildren), are signed "Mrs. Abbott" and "M. Abbott," respectively. An ownership inscription at the front reads: "Mrs. W. Abbott / Original Poems." The illustrations, mostly watercolors of birds and flowers, include pencil drawings of Cowling Castle in Kent, a rose, and a sailboat. In contemporary green calf with gilt border on covers; spine gilt, with two red morocco labels reading "Original" and "Vol. I.". less

Margaret Williams was born on April 6, 1800 in Calcutta, to Robert Williams, a merchant and auctioneer, and his wife, Margaret. Robert Williams died in 1813, leaving his wife to care for Margaret and six other daughters; charitable subscriptions were taken up in India, and donations were solicited in London. At age 16, Margaret married Nathaniel Hudson, a lawyer, with whom she had a number of children. Nathaniel Hudson died in Calcutta in 1846. By the early 1850's, Margaret and her younger children were living in London with her brother-in-law, John Hudson, and other family members, at Upper Lansdowne Terrace in Notting Hill. Margaret Hudson died at age 59, at her home at Avenue Lodge, Southall, on February 19, 1860; she was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. Her youngest daughters, Emily (1836-1904) and Adeline Maria (1838-1911), never married, and lived together into their later years. Reverse calf-bound notebook with "Receipt Book" stamped in black on the spine and "Mrs. N. Hudson / Receipt Book. / 1st Sept 1830" in ink manuscript on the front cover. The first 39 leaves seem to be primarily in one hand, probably that of Hudson herself. Most entries give a source (usually a person, many identified by initials only) and a date. Household and medicinal receipts (for making ink, tooth powder, furniture varnish; cures for the cough, hydrophobia, dysentery, cholera, snake bites, flatulency, etc.) are interspersed with cooking directions for a wide variety of dishes, many reflecting Hudson's life in British India (Cashmerian chutney, Country Captain, fowl curry, kedgeree, etc.). Leaves 40-46 contain mounted recipes written on smaller sheets of paper, some possibly in Hudson's hand. A letter dated 24 August [circa 1860's?] to Emily Hudson from "G. M.," referring to "the accompanying . . . recipes," is laid in. The remaining leaves contain a few printed late 19th century food-related advertisements (Felix Schell, "provider of Parisian dinners"; Domenico Piccirello, "importer of French and Italian produce"; and The American Freezer, "shown in practical operation at The Atomospheric Churn Company") and 20th century recipes, both in manuscript and printed clippings. Five pages at the end, reverso, contain manuscript verses in an early 19th century hand ("Morning Hymn"; "Evening Hymn"; "Lines addressed to Miss M. W."), apparently original and possibly by Nathaniel Hudson. less

Highlights of the collection include an important portion of the "Ktaadn" section of The Maine Woods; "Nature and Bird Notes, " a journal kept by Henry, John and Sophia Thoreau with leaves, grass and wild flowers laid in; and Thoreau's famous letter to his brother addressed to Sachem Hopeful of Hopewell and signed Tahatawan. The Berg also has a daguerrotype of Thoreau ("my friends think [it] is pretty good though better looking than I"), a pencil made by him (his father's company manufactured them), and an original pencil map of Walden Pond. less

This is a synthetic collection covering the years 1854 to 1892 with some material still undated. Strengths of the collection include nearly 30 poems or poem fragments and Whitman's autograph revision of the "Analysis of Poems" by Dr. R. Bucke. This essay was written for Bucke's authorized biography (Walt Whitman, 1883) and Whitman's extensive revisions were incorporated before publication. The correspondence includes two longer runs, one to William O' Connor and the other to his wife Ellen O'Connor. The O'Connors were active in a number of social causes, as well as devoted advocates of Whitman and his writing. William O'Connor, author of The Good Gray Poet (1866), was one of Whitman's closest friends until an argument in 1873 caused a break in their friendship. Others who figure prominently in the Berg Collection's Whitman materials include John Burroughs (1837-1921), nature writer, literary critic, and author of Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person (1867); Peter Doyle and Harry Stafford, young friends of Whitman's; and Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902), Whitman's authorized biographer, friend and literary executor. In addition to writing Walt Whitman (1883) and Walt Whitman, Man and Poet (1897), Bucke co-edited with Horace Traubel and Thomas Harned The Complete Writings (1902). less

This is a synthetic collection covering the years 1821 to 1912 (bulk 1837-1882) with some undated material. The collection is particularly strong on poetry, including over twenty poems in manuscript, most from Emerson's earlier period. The correspondence covers a wide range of correspondents, including Amos Bronson Alcott, H.G.O. Blake, Thomas Carlyle, Horace Greeley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sophie Peabody Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. The collection also contains Whitman's notes about relations between Emerson and himself. less