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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Thr 562

Virginia Woolf Monk's House photograph album, MH-5

Overview

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

Dates

  • Creation: 1892-1938 and undated

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

Images linked to 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 Monk's House album MH-5 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, Leonard Woolf, Julian Bell, Quentin Bell, Vanessa Bell, George Duckworth, Stella Duckworth, T. S (Thomas Stearns) Eliot, Angelica Garnett, Duncan Grant, John Lehmann, Noel Olivier, William Plomer, V. (Victoria) Sackville-West, Adrian Stephen, Julia Duckworth Stephen and Sir Leslie Stephen,

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) and at their publishing business, Hogarth Press. Other family homes included is the childhood home of Virginia Woolf called Talland House, St. Ives (Cornwall, England) as well as the home of her sister, Vanessa Bell, called Charleston Farmhouse (West Firle, England). Other locations included Sissinghurst Garden (England) as well as other locations. Virginia and Leonard Woolf also took photographs during their vacation in England, France and Germany. Most of these images 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-5) 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 images 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.

Photographs found loose inside the album were removed to a separate folder. The original location is documented in the cataloging.

Titles of photographs have been 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 563, 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-5, 1892-1938: Guide.
Author
Harvard Theatre Collection. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02072

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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