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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1184-1184.4

Bradford family diaries and letters

Overview

Diaries and letters of the Bradford family of Massachusetts, detailing their travels and current events, including the Civil War.

Dates

  • Creation: 1809-1866

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

Extent

.6 linear feet (9 volumes)

Consists of diaries, 1833-1839, of Gamaliel Bradford (1795-1839). Includes reflections and notes of his son Gamaliel Bradford (1831-1911) while on a voyage to Europe, 1851-1852, and on a journey to Detroit, Mich., 1854, as well as his diaries, 1854-1856.

Also contains a diary and an herbarium, 1856, kept by Sarah Hickling Bradford on a trip abroad. Typed transcripts of letters that Sarah Ripley wrote to childhood friends discuss her intellectual interests; later letters to her daughter contain news of family, friends, and public events, including the Civil War.

Biographical / Historical

The Bradfords represented in this collection include the father, grandfather, and aunts of the author Gamaliel Bradford (1863-1932). Gamaliel Bradford (1795-1839) was a superintendant of Massachusetts General Hospital. Gamaliel Bradford (1831-1911) was a banker and advocate of political reforms. Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley (1793-1867) ran a small boarding school for boys with her husband, a minister in Waltham, Mass.

Physical Location

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Immediate Source of Acquisition

48M-318 - 48M-321 and 47M-365. Gift of Mrs. Gamaliel Bradford, Wellesley, Mass; received: 1942 May 27.

Title
Bradford family. Bradford family diaries and letters, 1809-1866: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01460

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:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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