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Creator
Lamb, Caroline, Lady, 1785-1828
Call number
Pforz Ms
Physical description
56 items
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Lady Caroline Lamb 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.

Lady Caroline Lamb was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist. The collection consists primarily of correspondence dating between 1815 and 1828. It also includes one poem and one prose piece.

Biographical/historical information

Lady Caroline Lamb, Anglo-Irish aristocrat and novelist. She is best known for her 1812 affair with Lord Byron, whom she described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," and her 1816 Gothic novel Glenarvon. Her husband William Lamb became 2nd Viscount Melbourne and British Prime Minister after her death.

Scope and arrangement

The Lady Caroline Lamb manuscript material in the Pforzheimer Collection consists of writings and correspondence. The writings include a holograph poem, "Lines," and a draft fragment of a prose work on Napoleon. The nearly fifty pieces of correspondence date between 1815 and 1828 and deal mostly with her personal and social life, though they also touch on her writing career. Correspondents include the poet Lord Byron (her former lover); her estranged husband, William Lamb (later Lord Melbourne, British Prime Minister); the political economist T. R. Malthus; the novelist Lady Morgan; and over a dozen others.

The Lady Caroline Lamb manuscript material is arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Custodial history

Most of the Lady Caroline Lamb manuscript material was acquired in the 1960s, under the auspices of the Pforzheimer Foundation, through individual dealers; the red morocco album containing autograph letters by and about Lamb (B'ANA 0138-77) was acquired at the Charles E. Feinberg sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, April 1968, lot 405. Since the Pforzheimer Collection's 1986 move to the New York Public Library, its Caroline Lamb holdings have increased through purchase both at auction and through individual dealers. The Julia Conyers album containing artwork by Lamb was acquired at Bloomsbury Auctions in 2009. Because the Pforzheimer Collection collects actively, its holdings may grow in the future as items become available.

Processing information

Finding aid created by Charles Cuykendall Carter. Revised by Timothy Gress in December 2024.

Related Material

In addition to manuscript material created by Lady Caroline Lamb, the Pforzheimer Collection holds a representative collection of Lamb's published work. The Collection also holds letters written by Lamb's husband William Lamb, her brother William Ponsonby, Baron de Mauley, and related manuscripts written by William Beckford, Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, and Madame de Staël, among others. There is one letter addressed to Lamb written by Samuel Rogers. More Caroline Lamb manuscript material and artwork can be found in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.

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.