Garrison family papers

The collection focuses on the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and his descendants, especially his son Wendell Phillips Garrison, literary editor of The Nation (1865-1906). Contains family correspondence including the courtship letters, 1834, of W. L. Garrison Sr. and Helen Benson Garrison; correspondence on his anti-slavery work and his periodical the Liberator; condolence letters on the death of his wife; and a scrapbook of his obituaries.

Many letters to the Garrison children are about their father. W. L. Garrison Jr.'s correspondence is both personal and professional, including 201 letters to his sister Fanny Garrison Villard and 90 to his brother-in-law Henry Villard on business matters. The largest body of correspondence, that of Wendell Phillips Garrison, contains personal correspondence with family and friends and professional correspondence concerning The Nation.

Letters to Fanny are mostly condolence letters on the death of her brother Wendell. Much of the third party correspondence concerns the celebration honoring Wendell's forty years at The Nation, or consists of letters to Elizabeth Pease Nichol, an English abolitionist. Manuscripts are mostly lectures by Wendell or notes of W. L. Garrison Sr. Also contains legal documents, photographs, genealogies, clippings, ephemera, and printed material including books and pamphlets by or about W. L. Garrison Sr. or Wendell Phillips Garrison.