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A travel diary written by British artist and amateur historian George Lovell Harrison, describing a trip to Italy he took with his friend, Conservative MP Robert Yerburgh (1953-1916) and their wives in the spring of 1910. The account, titled “A few notes on our little jaunt to ITALY via LUCERNE, Friday, 20 May - Tuesday 7 June, 1910” is full of rich color and often humorous detail. It begins on the 1st of May, 1910 with Harrison commenting on the Yerburgh’s invitation for the couple “to...
Six sketches and a letter by a person signing themself Clifford S. Harrison. The sketches, five of which are pen-and-ink, and one of which is pencil, pertain to the character of Mrs. Camp from Charles Dickens’ 1843-1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit. The letter appears to be addressed to a child or young person, and is humorous. Undated.
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A collection of materials related to British academic Colin Hardie and his involvement in the Oxford Dante Society. Four letters in Hardie’s hand addressed to fellow Oxford academic Charles Alan Robson between 1954 and 1961. The contents mostly pertain to Dante and the Dante Society. Also included are an offprint of Hardie’s 1964 essay “The ‘Veltres’ in the Chanson de Roland and Dante’s ‘Veltro,’” notes apparently related to the same scribbled on the back of a blank army form, a typed...
Correspondence in the hand of English artist, critic, and author Philip Hamerton. 10 letters, all addressed to American author and journalist Horace Parker Chandler (1842-1919), are a mix of personal news and discussion of Hamerton’s publications. Dated between 1874 and 1879, and addressed, with the exception of one letter, to Chandler in Saône-et-Loire in eastern France. Also included is an illustration of Hamerton, apparently removed from a book.
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A letter in the hand of future Governor of Massachusetts John Brooks addressed to American Founding Father John Hancock, then Governor himself. The missive, dated June 8th 1787 from Medford, MA, appears to pertain to elections of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the oldest chartered military organization in America. They have always held their elections on the first Monday in June, which in 1787 would have been the 4th. Several holes and tears are present in the...
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A letter in the hand of British artist Cecil Athur Hunt, dated January 3, 1929. The letter is addressed to lawyer John S. Harrington, the executor of the estate of recently-deceased stained glass artist J. Silvester Sparrow (1862-1929), regarding a window designed for Hunt by noted artist Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) and executed by Sparrow (1862-1929). There appears to have been a conflict over what Hunt perceives to be the exorbitant cost of the project, and he writes to lawyer John S....
Five letters in the hand of British philosopher L.P. Jacks, written between 1938 and 1939 during his time at Manchester College in Oxford. The letters are addressed to a “Mr. Clennell” and largely consist of minor College business.
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A small black notebook, approximately one-quarter filled, containing what appears to be a ledger in Japanese written in several colors of pen and pencil. A later pencil note in English on the first page reads “said to be from Japanese internment camp” but curatorial materials compiled by Scheetz himself suggests overwise: a letter to Scheetz from noted scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene (1922-2019) reveals that the bulk of the document is “a record of property” – perhaps in the...
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A collection of 6 items related to English actor Charles Kean. One complete letter in his hand, dated 1860 and addressed to a “Mr Millward” has a portrait of Kean (apparently clipped from a newspaper) glued to it, and is accompanied by two signatures (themselves removed from two other letters and glued together), a small printed photograph, and a short handwritten biography. Each of the items shows evidence of adhesive on the back, indicating that they may have once been in a scrapbook,...
A black and white photograph of then-first lady Jackie Kennedy, likely taken during her summer 1961 trip to Greece. She is wearing a white suit, smiling, and standing next to a black car, accompanied by a man who may be a bodyguard. A stamp on the back in Greek indicates that this is a press photo dated 1961.
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A typescript of “Wise After the Event: An Index to the Catalogue of the Exhibition of Books, Pamphlets, Manuscripts and Letters By and About Thomas James Wise – Held in the Manchester Cathedral Central Library During September 1964” compiled by G.E. Haslam. 23 pages plus covering title page, stapled in the upper lefthand corner. Dated 1967. A note in blue ink on the cover signs the document to D.A. Low “with compliments” from the author, and a second note below it in black ink passes it on...
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A collection of materials related to British historian William Finney and his interest in the Anglo-Saxon history of Kingston, London, where he himself was seven times mayor. The collection consists mainly of three letters: one in Finny’s hand to an unknown recipient (possibly George S. Dixon) discussing the Egbert stone in Lancashire, dated 1940, accompanied by two others also concerning the stone, neither of which appears to be by Finny (though they may possibly be annotated by him). An...
Four pieces of correspondence in the hand of American dramatist Clyde Fitch, addressed to various recipients, one with original envelope. Also included is a fifth letter in the hand of someone who is presumably Fitch’s secretary. Contents are personal. Dated between 1891 and 1902.
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One letter written to an anonymous recipient by Michael Field, the pseudonym of English poets Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper. The contents refer to a “memorial poem” written by John Gray for Field’s friend and confidant the poet Robert Browning (1812-1889). Undated. The letter is currently housed with a single sheet containing a copy of the sonnet “Helen’s Tower” by Irish poet George Francis Savage-Armstrong (1845-1906) printed in black with a red initial and border (1892)...
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Three items related to English poet and playwright Christopher Fry: one handwritten letter (1947) addressed to the editor of the Arts Theatre Club thanking them for a positive review of his comedy play “A Phoenix Too Frequent”, one typed, annotated, and signed letter (1951) addressed to fellow poet John Bayliss (1919-2008), and a program from a 1969 Chichester Centre of Art poetry reading signed by Fry, as well as fellow poets Laurence Lerner (1925-2016), George MacBeth (1932-1992), Leslie...
Three pieces of correspondence in the hand of American writer Hamlin Garland. Two postcards (1899 and 1917) addressed to a “Geo. P. Butt”, who appears to have some association with Macmillan publishers, and a letter to the “Tenth Grade Students of Literature” at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, MN, dated 1937. Contents are brief and personal.
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Five letters addressed to US Naval Captain James T. Gerry from his nephew, E. T. Gerry between March 1850 and November 1851. Captain Gerry appears to have been stationed on board the USS Franklin, at that time a receiving ship for new recruits in Boston Harbor. The contents are descriptions of family and local life ranging from debate in the parish church about who should be the new rector to a visit to the opera and reports on what the younger Gerry is currently reading. All but one of the...
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Six letters in the hand of acclaimed English actor and director John Gielgud. Five of the letters are written from Cowley Street, London, where Gielgud lived between 1945 and 1976, and are addressed “Dear Mrs. Buckley.” They are brief notes of thanks for a variety of gifts – roses, a piece of embroidery, a book, and a silver bowl. The sixth letter, addressed “Dear Elinor”, is written from Wotton House, in Wotton Underwood, Berkshire, where Gielgud lived at the end of his life. All...
Correspondence and other materials related to the work of American philologist A. E. Gordon. Included are offprints of two articles (1944 and 1947) written by Gordon on a Latin inscription found in a rubbing housed by the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, alongside manuscript notes on the same and correspondence (both typed and handwritten) regarding the inscription between Gordon and his colleague in Oxford, R.H. Burrow.
A photograph of American artists and printers Frederic and Bertha Goudy, along with what appears to be a draft of a border or press mark on white card. One side has a printed design in black ink, while the other has an enlarged version of a portion of it in pencil.
