Sir J. W. Fortescue letters to Edgar Huidekoper Wells
Overview
Letters from English military historian and librarian of Windsor Castle, Sir John William Fortescue, to rare book dealer Edgar Huidekoper Wells.
Dates
- Creation: 1919-1930
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
.5 linear feet (1 box)Consists of 38 letters from Fortescue to Wells about personal matters, current world affairs, as well as business dealings for the Royal Library concerning purchase and sale of rare materials. Also includes many envelopes and an essay by Fortescue on the Holbein drawings at Windsor Castle.
Biographical / Historical
Fortescue was an English military historian. He served as librarian at Windsor Castle from 1905 to 1926.
Edgar Huidekoper Wells, Harvard graduate of Class of 1897, served in the first World War in the American Red Cross and then as an army officer attached to the U.S. Embassy in London. He operated Edgar H. Wells and Company, a book shop in New York City, from 1921 to 1938. For many years until his death in 1938 he was one of the most respected members of the rare book trade.
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
45M-216 - 45M217. Gift of Edgar Huidekoper Wells; received: 1945 February 20.
- Title
- Fortescue, J.W. (John William), Sir, 1859-1933. Sir J. W. Fortescue letters to Edgar Huidekoper Wells, 1919-1930: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01166
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.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu