Almy family Additional papers, 1832-1990
Overview
Addenda to the papers (MC 235) of the Almy family from New England, including correspondence, financial documents, and photographs.
Dates
- Creation: 1832-1990
Language of Materials
Materials in English, French, or German.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Most of the collection is open for research. Folder #116 is closed until January 1, 2038. An appointment is necessary to use any audiovisual material.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by the Almy family is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
6.85 linear feet ((10 file boxes, 2 folio+ boxes) plus 1 folio folder, 1 folio+ folder, 3 oversize folders, 1 supersize folder, 47 photograph folders, 3 folio photograph folders, 1 folio+ photograph folder, 4 slides, 1 microfiche, 3 motion pictures)Additional material received in 1990 (accession number 90-M72) was added to the collection in May 2015. These materials are housed in #138-171+. Folders added in May 2015 are listed in intellectual, not sequential order.
These papers were in the possession of Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall at the time of her death; they consist largely of correspondence, financial documents, and photographs. The early correspondence centers around the Cabot-Almy connection (see the family trees in MC 235), and features the letters of Samuel Cabot to his son Samuel Cabot, Jr., and the latter's letters to his wife, Hannah Lowell (Jackson) Cabot, and their children; also of interest are letters to Samuel Cabot, Jr. from Theodore Parker, written while traveling abroad the year before his death. The rest of the correspondence focuses on Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall, and includes four generations: Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall's parents, Charles and Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy; two of Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall's children, Sidney Cobb and Helen (Cobb) Solomon White; and Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall's grandchildren.
There is an extensive series of courtship letters to Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall from Stanley Cobb, a neuropsychiatrist whom she married in 1915. Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall practiced child psychotherapy, but her career is documented only by papers from a Radcliffe College conference (1963) in which she participated, and a few letters (including one note from Helene Deutsch) and bibliographies.
Photographs are primarily of the Cabot and Almy families and their relations; financial documents pertain for the most part to the estates and trusts of Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall and Stanley Cobb.
The professional papers of Stanley Cobb are at the Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
BIOGRAPHY
For a history of the Almy family, see the inventory for MC 235. The fifth of six children of Charles Almy and Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy, Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall was born on August 28, 1892, in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. In 1915 she married Stanley Cobb, a neuropsychiatrist who in 1934 founded the psychiatric service at Massachusetts General Hospital. During the 1930s Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall became interested in child psychiatry and from 1943 until 1955 worked as a psychotherapist at the James Jackson Putnam Children's Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Following Stanley Cobb's death in 1967, she married Francis Cooley Hall, a specialist in arthritis and related diseases; he died in 1973. Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall died in March 1984.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: 86-M238, 86-M246, 87-M16. Accession number90-M72 was added to the collection in May 2015.
These addenda to the Almy family papers (MC 235) were given to the Schlesinger Library by Sidney Cobb in December 1986, January 1987, and May 1990. The Almy family tree was filmed on microfiche in December 1986 and the original returned to Sidney Cobb.
Related Material:
These papers are addenda to the Almy Family Papers, 1649-1984 (MC 235).
ABBREVIATIONS
- CA =Charles Almy
- EACH =Elizabeth (Almy) Cobb Hall
- EPC = Elizabeth "Eliza" (Perkins) Cabot
- FCH = Francis Cooley Hall
- HCSW = Helen (Cobb) Solomon White
- HJCA = Helen Jackson (Cabot) Almy
- HLJC = Hannah Lowell (Jackson) Cabot
- JFC = James Freeman Clarke
- RWC = Rosalind (Wiggins) Cobb
- SC = Samuel Cabot, Sr.
- SCJr = Samuel Cabot, Jr.
- SidC = Sidney Cobb
- StanC = Stanley Cobb
- THC = Thomas Handasyd Cabot
- THP =Thomas Handasyd Perkins
CONTAINER LIST
- Box 1: Folders 20-22, 24-28, 30-34, 36
- Box 2: Folders 37-48
- Box 3: Folders 49-56
- Box 4: Folders 57-67
- Box 5: Folders 68-78
- Box 6: Folders 79-88
- Box 7: Folders 89-94
- Box 8: Folders 95-96, 98-103
- Box 9: Folders 104-115, 117-123
- Box 10: Folders 124-137, 169-170
- Folio+ Box 11: Cabot family photograph album
- Folio+ Box 12: Cabot family photograph album
Processing Information
Preliminary inventory: May 1987
By: Anne Engelhart
Updated and new material added: May 2015
By: Mark Vassar
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Civil service--Massachusetts
- Courtship--United States
- Families--History--19th century
- Families--History--20th century
- Family records
- Finance, Personal
- Labor and laboring classes--Education
- Psychotherapists
- Voyages and travels
- Women psychotherapists
- Women--Societies and clubs
- Working class
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives
Subject
- Radcliffe College (Organization)
- Title
- Almy family. Almy family Additional papers, 1832-1990: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch00106
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.