Henry Adams Papers 1843-1938 Guide to the Microfilm Edition

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketch Sources Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Other Formats Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 1-9 Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 10-31 Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Henry Adams was the son of Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886) and Abigail Brooks Adams (1808-1889), the grandson of John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), and the great-grandson of John Adams (1735-1826). He worked as a journalist, professor, historian, and political observer and traveled extensively throughout his life, spending time in Europe, Egypt, Japan, Cuba, and the South Seas. In 1870, he was appointed professor of history at Harvard College. He married Marian "Clover" Hooper in 1872. Adams's many books include: Democracy: An American Novel; History of the United States of America, 1801-1817, vols. 1-9; Memoirs of Marau Taaroa, Last Queen of Tahiti; Mont Saint Michel and Chartres; and The Education of Henry Adams.

Sources

For information on Henry Adams's life, see:

Chalfant, Edward. Both Sides of the Ocean: A Biography of Henry Adams, His First Life, 1838-1862. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1982.

Chalfant, Edward. Better in Darkness: A Biography of Henry Adams, His Second Life, 1862-1891. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1994.

Chalfant, Edward. Improvement of the World: A Biography of Henry Adams, His Last Life, 1891-1918. North Haven, Conn.: Archon Books, 2001.

Samuels, Ernest. The Young Henry Adams. Cambridge, [Mass.]: Harvard University Press, 1948.

Samuels, Ernest. Henry Adams: The Middle Years. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1958.

Samuels, Ernest. Henry Adams: The Major Phase. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964.

Collection Description

The microfilm edition of the Henry Adams papers, 1843-1938, consists of 36 reels of manuscripts from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the John Hay Library at Brown University.

Series I and II contain Henry Adams manuscripts from more than a dozen separate collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society, primarily the Henry Adams papers, 1890-1938, and earlier Henry Adams manuscripts (through 1889) from the Adams family papers. (Items from the Adams family collection are designated on the microfilm as "Adams Editorial Office Papers.") Papers from these two collections have been integrated with Henry Adams manuscripts from other MHS collections and filmed in a single chronological sequence on Reels 1-31. These reels consist almost entirely of correspondence, with occasional enclosures, such as newspaper clippings and photographs. Significant correspondents include Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), Abigail Brooks Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1835-1915), Brooks Adams, and Louisa Catherine Adams, as well as Elizabeth Cameron, Charles Milnes Gaskell, John Hay, Clara Stone Hay, Clarence King, Sir Cecil Spring Rice, Henry Hobson Richardson, and others. Miscellaneous papers from MHS collections, primarily papers related to Adams's writings, have been filmed on Reel 32.

Series III and IV contain Henry Adams papers from the collections of Harvard University and Brown University, mostly his correspondence with family and friends.

For an overview of the Massachusetts Historical Society's holdings on Henry and Clover Adams, including this collection and other microfilm and manuscript collections, see "Research Materials on Henry and Clover Adams at the Massachusetts Historical Society: An Overview," available in the MHS catalog room.

Related Materials

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) holds the following collections related to the Henry Adams papers:

Henry Adams photographs, 1866-ca.1900. Photo. Coll. 40. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fap004.

Other repositories holding Henry Adams papers include: the Library of Congress, Houghton and Widener Libraries at Harvard University, the Harvard Law School Library, the Sterling Library at Yale University, Brown University, the New York Public Library, the University of Virginia, the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, and many others. For a guide to additional Henry Adams manuscripts not contained in this microfilm edition, see:

Robbins, J. Albert. American Literary Manuscripts: A Checklist of Holdings in Academic, Historical, and Public Libraries, Museums, and Authors' Homes in the United States. 2nd ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977.

Acquisition Information

Most of the Henry Adams papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society were given to the MHS by the Adams family trust in 1956.

Other Formats

Selections of Henry Adams correspondence have been published in:

Cater, Harold Dean, ed. Henry Adams and His Friends: A Collection of His Unpublished Letters. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947.

Ford, Worthington C., ed. Letters of Henry Adams. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930, 1938.

Levenson, J. C., Ernest Samuels, Charles Vandersee, and Viola Winner, eds. The Letters of Henry Adams. 6 vols. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1982-1988.

William Roscoe Thayer's The Life and Letters of John Hay (1915) prints over 50 of his letters to Adams

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 1-9

Listed below, in alphabetical order, are some of the individuals whose letters appear on Reels 1-9 of this microfilm edition. This index is not comprehensive. Excluded are letters from Henry Adams himself and members of the Adams family, as well as Elizabeth Cameron, John Hay, Clarence King, and individuals with whom Adams exchanged only infrequent correspondence. Except for Reels 8 and 9, which contain the long letters Adams wrote in the South Seas, 1890-1891, the typical reel contains 150 to 250 items. Reel 1 consists primarily of family letters.

Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 10-31

Listed below, in alphabetical order, are many of the individuals whose letters appear on Reels 10-31 of this microfilm edition. (Also listed are some letters on Reel 9.) This index is not comprehensive. Excluded are letters from Henry Adams himself, written to various correspondents but chiefly to Elizabeth Cameron; letters to Adams from Elizabeth Cameron and her daughter Martha; and letters from less significant correspondents. Undated items, when not filmed at the end of a year, are identified with an asterisk after the date of the preceding letter or before the date of the following letter.