Arthur Whittlesey Towne papers on conjoined twins
Overview
Papers assembled by child welfare activitist Arthur Whittlesey Towne concerning conjoined twins.
Dates
- Creation: 1829-1943
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, with a few in German.
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
1.5 linear feet (3 boxes)Includes letters Towne wrote soliciting information about conjoined twins, his drafts of manuscripts for books and articles about various twins, printed material about conjoined twins, and images of various pairs of twins, including photographs, clippings, and prints. Especially includes information and images on twins: Cheng and Eng Bunker and Lucio and Simplicio Godino.
Biographical / Historical
Arthur Whittlesey Towne received an SB from Amherst College in 1901 and an AB from Harvard University in 1902. He was on the New York State Probation Commission in 1907, a member of the Childrens Aid Society in Brooklyn, and superintendent of the Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. While engaged in child welfare in Brooklyn he was involved with a 1918-1919 court case of coinjoined twins (Lucio and Simplicio Godine), and later became personally acquainted with other such twins and collected and wrote materials about them. Towne later moved to Syracuse, New York. It appears that his manuscript compositons on conjoined twins were never published.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Correspondence of Arthur Whittlesey Towne
- II. Compositions by Arthur Whittlesey Towne
- III. Images of conjoined twins
- ___A. Images relating to Lucio Godino and Simplicio Godino, conjoined twins
- ___B. Images relating to Cheng and Eng Bunker, conjoined twins
- ___C. Other images relating to conjoined twins
- IV. Other materials
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Provenance:
Gift of Mrs. Norbert LeVeillie to the Harvard Medical School, 195?
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No accession number. Transfer from Widener Library; received: 1962.
Collection also includes a few items folded in from other sources that concern conjoined twins.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
- Title
- Towne, Arthur Whittlesey. Arthur Whittlesey Towne papers on conjoined twins, 1829-1943: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02080
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.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu