Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 561

Virginia Woolf Monk's House photograph album, MH-4

Overview

The fourth of six photograph albums compiled by English writer, Virginia Woolf.

Dates

  • Creation: 1890-1947
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1923-1939

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Restricted: fragile; use surrogate. For access to original consult curatorial staff.

Conditions Governing Use

The images linked to in this finding aid are intended for public access and educational use. This material is owned and/or held by the Houghton Library, and is provided solely for the purpose of teaching or individual research. Any other use, including commercial reuse, mounting on other systems, or other forms of redistribution requires the permission of the curator.

Extent

.5 linear feet (1 volume in 1 box)

The majority of the photographs in this album are snapshots possibly taken by Virginia Woolf or by her friends and family. The rest of the photographs include portraits or scenic landscapes of their homes or from their travels. The subject of the majority of the photographs are family and friends of Virginia Woolf. Subjects include Virginia Woolf, Julian Bell, Quentin Bell, Dora de Houghton Carrington, E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster, Roger Eliot Fry, Angelica Garnett, Duncan Grant, Ralph Partridge, and Lytton Strachey.

Some locations of the photographs were identified. Some of these were taken at the home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Monk's House (Rodmell, England). Other locations include the home, Ham Spray House (Marlborough, England), of Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey. Virginia and Leonard Woolf also took photographs during ta vacation to France. Most of these image are of landscapes or buildings.

Biographical / Historical

Virginia Woolf (1882 –1941) was an English novelist, essayist, diarist, publisher, feminist, and writer of short stories.

Virginia Woolf Monk's House photograph album (MH-4) was most likely arranged originally by Virginia Woolf as well as possibly Leonard Woolf, Vanessa Bell and other family members.

Most of the albums are missing photographs that may now be located in the loose photographs listed below in the cataloging. These image may have been removed to serve as illustrations for Leonard Woolf's publications as well as A marriage of two minds by George Spater and Ian Parsons.

Arrangement

The albums were numbered one through six when gifted by Frederick R. Koch to the Houghton Library in 1983. This order was retained in the repository.

Photographs are numbered in order of appearance in the album. In addition, the recto of pages are numbered in order of appearance in the album. Pages devoid of any photographs are not numbered.

Titles devised by cataloger.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Gift of Frederick R. (Frederick Robinson) Koch, received: 1983 March.

Separated Materials

For other Monk's House photographs see: MS Thr 557, MS Thr 559, MS Thr 560, MS Thr 561, MS Thr 562, MS Thr 564.

Bibliography

Humm, Maggie. Snapshots of Bloomsbury: The private lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell (New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2006. )
  • Humm, Maggie. Snapshots of Bloomsbury: The private lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell (New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2006. )

Processing Information

Processed by: Alison Drew Harris with the assistance of Jennifer Lyons.

Title
Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941. Virginia Woolf Monk's House photograph album, MH-4, 1890-1947: Guide.
Author
Harvard Theatre Collection. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02071

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
(617) 495-2440