Overview
Sermons, compositions, journals, and student papers of the Unitarian clergyman and author James Freeman Clarke. Also includes some family papers.
Dates
- Creation: 1717-1889
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
5.5 linear feet (17 boxes)Includes autograph manuscript sermons preached by James Freeman Clarke in Louisville and elsewhere, papers from his student days at Harvard College, poems, short stories, sketches of Europe and New England, journals, scrapbooks, a commonplace book, etchings of Clarke, and other material.
Family papers include: autograph manuscript sermons by his step-grandfather James Freeman; diaries of his daughter Lillian Freeman Clarke; a scrapbook of photographs of his daughter Cora Huidekoper Clarke; various family letters mounted in a scrapbook regarding family news and financial matters; a Timothy Fuller letter book; and other items.
Biographical / Historical
James Freeman Clarke was a Unitarian clergyman, author, and reformer closely associated with the New England Transcendentalists. He was the son of Samuel C. Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull Clarke. James was essentially raised by his step-grandfather, James Freeman (1759-1835). He received an AB from Harvard College in 1829 and a degree from the Harvard Divinity School in 1833. He was minister in Louisville, Kentucky (1833-1840) and at the Church of the Disciples in Boston (1841-1850, 1854-1888). Clarke was editor of the Western Messenger (1836-1839). In 1839 he married Anna Huidekoper Clarke (1814-1897), the daughter of Harm Jan Huidekoper, businessman, lay theologian, and founder of Meadville Theological Seminary.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Sermons of James Freeman Clarke
- II. Sermons of James Freeman
- III. Compositions and other papers of James Freeman Clarke
- IV. Scrapbooks, journals, sketchbooks, financial records and other papers of James Freeman Clarke
- V. Family papers
[NOTE: During the 2015 recataloging, the order of materials was retained in roughly former call-number order].
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
58M-223, 58M-224, and 58M-225. Deposited by James Freeman Clarke; gift, 1956-1967.
Processing Information
Reprocessed by: Bonnie B. Salt, 2015
This collection was formerly split into 3 call-numbers (MS Am 1569.1; MS Am 1569.2; and MS Am 1569.3). These numbers were combined in 2015 into MS Am 1569.1.
- Title
- Clarke, James Freeman, 1810-1888. James Freeman Clarke additional papers, 1717-1889: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01690
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.
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