Manuscript Women’s Letters and Diaries from the
American Antiquarian Society, 1750-1950
Funded By:
Woodward Library |
Simultaneous Users:
Unlimited |
Vendor:
Alexander Street Press |
Linking:
N/A |
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Search Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries
Manuscript
Women’s Letters and Diaries from the American
Antiquarian Society brings together 100,000
pages of the personal writings of women of the
eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries,
displayed as high-quality images of the original
manuscripts, extensively indexed and online for the
first time. The letters and diaries reveal, in each
woman’s own hand, the details of the authors’ daily
lives, their activities and concerns, and their
attitudes towards the people and world around them. The
collection is drawn entirely from the extensive holdings
of the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester,
Massachusetts.
Spanning 1750 to 1950, the database is particularly
strong in nineteenth-century material. Highlights
include:
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The letters of Annie Sullivan detailing her teaching
of Helen Keller, written to Michael Anagnos,
director of the Perkins Institution and
Massachusetts School of the Blind;
- One hundred
letters written by Ellen Tucker Emerson, eldest
daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, describing life in
Concord during the Civil War;
- The papers of
Abby Kelley Foster, noted women’s rights advocate
and abolitionist, depicting the activities of the
antislavery movement in New England, New York, and
Ohio.
Thousands of letters and diary entries from less well
known women vividly document even the smallest details
of their lives and shed light on the roles women played
within their families, their communities, and the social
and political movements of their times. In many cases,
we also include the replies, from both men and women,
placing the letters in their full context. Detailed
biographical notes illuminate the lives of the authors,
including multigenerational details, as exemplified in
the letters and diaries of three generations of women
within the same family.
The writings in
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries are by
women from New England families, but this is by no means
a “New England collection.” The women wrote from the
many places throughout the U.S. in which they lived,
traveled, worked, studied, and observed the lives and
historical events around them—including John Brown’s
raid, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, and numerous
wars.
You may access
Manuscript
Women’s Letters and Diaries from anywhere
with a valid APSU ID. |
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