The Collected Correspondence of Lydia Maria Child, 1817-1880
- Location: McKeldin Library
Call Number: Microfiche E449.C534153 - Child, Lydia Maria, 1802-1880. The Collected Correspondence of Lydia
Maria Child, 1817-1880.
97 Microfiches
Description
The collection contains 2,604 letters, most of which are addressed to and concern contemporaries of Child. Child wrote 2,228 of the letters herself. Letters of the abolition movement figure strongly as do those of personalities in the arts and letters.
Letters are arranged in chronological order.
Child was a civil rights advocate who worked for women, blacks and native Americans in particular. The publication of two popular novels afforded Child entrance into Boston literary circles in addition to those of political activists. Child served on the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society and edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard. She also had a weekly column which ran in the Boston Courier about New York City and the problems of urban environments.
Among the correspondents represented in this collection are John Brown, William Cullen Bryant, Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimke, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Charles Sumner.
The index includes illustrations as well as a chronology, a biography and a bibliography of Child. It also contains a name and subject index to the microfiche collection. References include fiche card number and letter (correspondence) number, e.g., 22/629. At the bottom of the index a chronological key to the letters appears.
Among the sources for the primary material are the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, the Cornell University Library, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, the Boston Public Library and the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Index/Guide
The following source provides more detailed information about the contents of each microfilm reel in the collection:
- REF E449.C534152
- The Collected Correspondence of Lydia Maria Child, 1817-1880: Guide and Index to the Microfiche Edition. Patricia G. Holland and Milton Meltzer, eds.
