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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 283

William Pleater Davidge papers

Overview

Correspondence and compositions of English actor William Pleater Davidge.

Dates

  • Creation: 1850-1937

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

5 linear feet (10 boxes)

Includes correspondence by Davidge, Sophia M. Clark, Margaret (Harold) Davidge, William Thomas Davidge, and Sara W. Jewett, among others. The letters discuss professional commitments such a speaking arrangements, annual fund commitments, an acceptance by the New York Public Library of a portion of the Davidge collection in 1912, a number of appeals for contributions to charitable events, and museum exhibitions. Letters also include condolences to wife on Davidge's death, writers with editing questions, personal finance, and responses to Davidge's letters that were published in the Sunday New York Times. Some of the correspondence is personal in nature, discussing family and daily life and arranging meetings and dinner parties amongst friends. Correspondence also includes letters from Davidge to his parents when he was a young boy. Also contains compositions by Davidge, including Ejectment, Our Circle, Family Jars, The Widow of the West, Jack Harkaway's Adventure in the Army and Among the Brigands, My Wife's Mother, 102, Minister of Finance, Dominique the Deserter, and Carrots written by Martha Laffitte Johnson. Collection also contains a catalogue to Davidge's library, several lectures, poetry, diaries, expense books, call books, and a commonplace book. Other types of papers include legal papers, plans, props, scene plots, property plots, sound and light cues, telegrams, and songs.

Biographical / Historical

Davidge was an English actor and dramatist.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series:

  1. I. Correspondence
  2. II. Compositions
  3. III. Other papers

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

*69M-147. Purchased with the F.E. Chase fund from Mr. and Mrs. William B. Davidge, 223 Ocean Avenue, Amityville, New York 11701; received: 1970 Mar.

Purchased through Barbara Falk, P.O. Box 87, 58 New Street, Huntington, New York 11743.

Title
Davidge, William Pleater, 1814-1888. William Pleater Davidge papers, 1850-1937: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00942

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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Harvard University
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