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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 2733

Charles Sumner scrapbooks of personal and political clippings

Overview

Scrapbooks of clippings compiled by Charles Sumner, lawyer, Republican senator from Massachusetts, and anti-slavery campaigner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1850-1874

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English, a few in French.

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

4 linear feet (9 volumes in 5 boxes)

Newspaper clippings are primarily from American newspapers, though there are some clippings from foreign sources. The great majority of items deal with Sumner's career in politics; some record his speeches and actions in the Senate and elsewhere. There are a few items that are personal and concern his family. Also included are documents and reports from the United States Congress, regarding the Port Royal Experiment, various Freedmen's Bureaus, self-liberated formerly enslaved people, and contraband. There are a few manuscript documents pasted in these volumes. Titles of volumes were taken from the spines of the scrapbooks or titlepage or were created by cataloger if no title existed. Many pages and items are annotated in Sumner's hand. All volumes include cut-out parts with holes in pages.

Biographical / Historical

Charles Sumner (1811-1874) was a Republican senator from Massachusetts and a principal figure in the anti-slavery movement.

Arrangement

Arranged in volume number order.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

No accession number. Gift of the family of Edward Lillie Pierce, literary executor of Senator Sumner; received: 1897 October 26. Recataloged from US 5249.144*.

Related Materials

See HOLLIS and OASIS for additional papers of Charles Sumner held by the Houghton Library and other repositories at Harvard.

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

Title
Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874, compiler. Charles Sumner scrapbooks of personal and political clippings, 1850-1874: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou02184

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:
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