Overview
Papers of the Damon family of Arlington, Massachusetts, especially the papers of David Damon (1787-1843) and papers relating to his children.
Dates
- Creation: 1805-1912
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
3 linear feet (7 boxes)Collection primarily of papers concerning various members of the David Damon (1787-1843) line of the Damon family of Arlington, Massachusetts. Includes David Damon (1787-1843) papers: autograph manuscript diaries (1805-1838) and sermons; and a few 1809 letters to others.
Later materials mostly concern David Damon's son, Samuel Griffin Damon (1821-), Samuel's second wife Ella Gertrude Whitman Damon (b. ca. 1825-), and their children. Samuel Damon materials include: business records and correspondence for his company, Damon, Thomas & Lewis (seller of boots and shoes in Arlington); family correspondence with his wife and children, especially while he was conducting business in Omaha, Nebraska; papers and correspondence concerning the writing of the memoir of his father; and a few autograph manuscript sermons and essays. Ella G. W. Damon's papers include: autograph manuscript diaries (1892-1912), with some including lists of her household expenses; and a postcard collection gathered from all over the world. Also with school copybooks of their children, Helen and Vida.
Other papers include: printed pamphlets, leaflets, and ephemera collection by Damon family members; autograph manuscript sermons of Norwood Damon (b 1816-); and an 1861 diary belonging to Benjamin Curtis Lincoln (1840-1865). Lincoln was a bookkeeper in Boston and possibly left this diary behind when he enlisted in the Massachusetts Infantry in 1862 during the American Civil War.
Biographical / Historical
David Damon (1787-1843) was a Unitarian clergyman. He was born in 1787 in Wayland, Massachusetts, son of Aaron Damon (1761-1828) and Rachel Griffin Damon (1761-1839). He graduated from the Harvard Divinity School in 1811 and married Rebecca Derby Damon (1787-1852) in 1815. He also helped found Cambridge's Harvard Lyceum, studied theology at the Andover Theological Seminary, and was pastor in Lunenburg, Massachusetts from 1815 to 1827. He was pastor of the West Cambridge Unitarian Church (now the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington) from 1835 to 1843. In 1841, he gave the Dudleian lecture at Harvard. His children with Rebecca Derby Damon were:
- Norwood Damon (b 1816-).
- Samuel Griffin Damon (b 1821-).
- Hannah Mottey Damon (b 1823-)
- Henry Damon (b 1824-)
- Delia Augusta Damon (b 1826-)
- Franklin Damon (b 1827-)
- Sarah Norwood Damon (b 1829-)
Samuel Griffin Damon (b 1821-) married Julia Fuller Damon (ca. 1825-1850) in 1849 and they had no children. He married Ella Gertrude Whitman Damon (b ca. 1825-) in 1867, and their children were:
- Agnes Whitman Damon (b 1869-)
- David Damon (b 1871-)
- Frederick Whitman Damon (b 1873-)
- Helen Gertrude Damon (b 1875-)
- Vida Damon (b 1877-)
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. David Damon (1787-1843) papers
- II. Other Damon family papers
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
53M-196. Transferred from Widener Library, 1953.
93M-110. Donor unknown. Items (1) and (66).
General note
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Part of the MS Storage project, 2008-2009.
- Title
- Damon family. Damon family papers, 1805-1912: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02008
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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