Arthur Asahel Shurcliff Papers 1865-1957 Guide to the Collection The Arthur Asahel Shurcliff papers are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode.

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketch Collection Description Acquisition Information Restrictions on Access Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Photographs Removed

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Arthur Asahel Shurcliff (1870-1957) was born Arthur Asahel Shurtleff in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1930 he changed his name to Shurcliff to conform to the old English spelling. He pursued engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in 1894. After conferring with Charles Eliot and Frederick Law Olmstead he enrolled at Harvard University to do graduate work in landscape architecture. When he graduated in 1896 he went to work for the Olmstead firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1899 he and Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. formed the first four year course of landscape architecture in the country at Harvard. In 1905 he married Margaret Homer Nichols, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Howard Nichols of Boston and Cornish, New Hampshire. In that year Shurcliff also established his own landscape practice in Boston.

Shurcliff served as President of the American Society of Landscape Architects from 1928-1932. His work included major work for the Metropolitan District Commission and the Metropolitan Planning Board in Boston in the fields of town planning, engineering, and landscape and park design. He was the chief landscape architect for the restoration at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia from its inception in 1928 until 1941. He served also on the Boston Arts Commission.

He practiced landscape architecture, designed and built furniture (with his wife, Margaret), painted and sketched and invented various labor saving devices until within a year of his death in 1957.

Collection Description

The Shurcliff collection consists of eleven record cartons of papers. A portion of it is devoted to family history, records, photographs, and personal correspondence. Several boxes contain his correspondence with his sister, Gertrude Hope Shurtleff, and with his brother, Rev. Alfred D.K. Shurtleff. Also included in his correspondence are exchanges with his two friends Alexander and William James (sons of the philosopher William James) and with Langdon Warner, professor of Asian art at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University.

Correspondence with J.G. Deering and Nelson Rockefeller reflects his work for them. With Albert B. Wells and J. Cheney Wells the letters combine his personal relationship with them, his work on their private estates and his work on their restoration/reconstruction village, Old Sturbridge Village. Several boxes contain general correspondence which runs from personal interchanges to professional dealings.

Correspondence also reveals aspects of his work at Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts and at Williamsburg. Included in the Williamsburg material is a book called "Southern Palace" which is a portion of the large tome he produced for the Williamsburg Corporation to aid in the restoration process. His work for the Metropolitan District Commission, specifically at the Quabbin Reservoir is also revealed through correspondence.

Represented in the collection are samples of his writings, published and unpublished, including the process of writing and publishing two of his books.

One of the chief sources of his personal and professional activities is found in his diaries spanning the years 1922-1956. Personal and agency accounts are preserved in the collection.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Alice W. Shurcliff, Sidney N. Shurcliff, William A. Shurcliff, John P. Shurcliff, Mrs. Francis P. Lowell (Elizabeth Shurcliff) and Mrs. Franz J. Ingelfinger (Sarah P. Shurcliff), May 1969.

Restrictions on Access

The Arthur Asahel Shurcliff papers are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Arthur Asahel Shurcliff papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Photographs Removed from the Collection

Photographs and glass plate negatives were removed from the collection to the MHS Photo Archives.