Lawrence Jacob Friedman collection concerning Erik and Joan Erikson
Overview
Transcripts of interviews, research materials for a biographyn, and photographs concerning American psychoanalyst, educator, and author, Erik Erikson, and his wife, Joan Mowat Erikson.
Dates
- Creation: 1892-1992
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
A portion of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Open for research. Box 2, which contains the Photographs series, was missing in 2022 and is not currently available for access.
Extent
.65 linear feet (3 boxes)Transcripts and printed copies of interviews with Erik Erikson and some also with his wife Joan Mowat Erikson, with a letter, picture postcard, notes, and annotations by the interviewers. Interviewers include Margaret Brenman-Gibson, Sanford Gifford, the Harvard Educational Review, Howard B. Levine, and Forrest Glen Robinson.
Photographs (mostly copies) of Erik Erikson, his family, and colleagues, including autograph manuscript notes about the images from Lawrence Jacob Friedman; and images of Joan Mowat Erikson, Anna Freud and many others.
Research material used in writing a biography of Erik Erikson includes photographs, genealogy, and photocopied records.
Biographical / Historical
German-born as Erik Homburger, Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was an American psychoanalyst, educator, and author. In 1930 he married Joan Mowat Serson, a Canadian dancer and artist. In 1933 they immigrated from Vienna to the U.S. He was best known for his work in child development and life-span studies, coining the phrase "identity crisis", and for his work in the field that became known as psychohistory.
Arrangement
Transcripts are arranged alphabetically by author; photographs are arranged chronologically; research materials are unprocessed.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository, GEN
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2002M-33. Gift of Lawrence Jacob Friedman, Indiana University, Department of History; received: 2002 October 18.
2010M-20. Gift of Lawrence Jacob Friedman; received: 2010 September 16.
2011M-41. Gift of Lawrence Jacob Friedman; received: 2011 August 31.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Processing Information
Minimal description derived from existing records used to edit this finding aid, Melanie Wisner, 2020.
- Title
- Friedman, Lawrence Jacob, 1940-, compiler. Lawrence Jacob Friedman collection of material concerning Erik and Joan Erikson (MS Am 2700): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Date
- 2020 June 11
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou02108
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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Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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