1837-1976; bulk: 1874-1945
Guide to the Collection
Restrictions on Access
The Merriman family papers are stored offsite and must be requested at least two business days in advance via Portal1791. Researchers needing more than six items from offsite storage should provide additional advance notice. If you have questions about requesting materials from offsite storage, please contact the reference desk at 617-646-0532 or reference@masshist.org.
Abstract
This collection contains the papers of the Merriman family. The bulk of the material is from Roger Bigelow Merriman and his wife Dorothea Foote Merriman. Other material relates to extended Merriman, Bigelow, and Foote family members. Included in the collection is correspondence, personal and professional papers, financial records, diaries, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, writings, speeches, poetry, student work, and historical and genealogical research.
Biographical Sketches
Roger Bigelow Merriman (1876-1945) was born on 24 May 1876 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Daniel Merriman and Helen Bigelow Merriman. He was raised mostly in Worcester, Massachusetts, where his father was pastor at Central Congregational Church. He attended Noble and Greenough before attending Harvard University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree in 1896 and his Master of Arts (A.M.) degree in 1897. He then attended Balliol College at the University of Oxford (1897-1899), followed by Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (1900-1901), after which Merriman taught for a time in Europe as the John Harvard Fellow. He returned to Harvard and received his Ph.D. in 1902. That same year, he was appointed a part-time faculty member and taught various history courses before becoming a full-time professor in 1908, later holding the position of Gurney Professor of History and Political Science. Known as "Frisky" to colleagues and students, Merriman taught the popular survey course History I for nearly 20 years. He also taught introductory courses to European history, as well as Spanish history, the Tudor and Stuart periods of English history, and the European Renaissance. He served as the first master of Harvard's Eliot House from 1931-1942 and played a large role in establishing the Harvard residential house system based on models from the University of Oxford and Cambridge University in England.
Other positions held by Roger Bigelow Merriman include the James Hazeh Hyde Lecturer to the Provincial Universities in France (1914), Harvard Exchange Professor at the Sorbonne (1925-1926), and the David Murray Lecturer at Glasgow University (1937). He was also given honorary degrees in D.Litt. from Oxford (1922), LL.D. from Glasgow University (1929), Litt.D. from Cambridge University (1935), and L.H.D. from Hobart College (1942). He was also a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Academia de la Historia in Madrid, and the Athenaeum in London; served as Senior Warden of King's Chapel in Boston; and was a chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur, among others. During World War I, he was commissioned captain in the Ordnance Department, then appointed as aide-de-camp to Major Gen. William S. Graves in the American Expeditionary Forces, Siberia. After returning to the United States, he was assigned to the Military Intelligence Division before being discharged (May-December 1918).
Outside his career as a professor at Harvard, Merriman was also a well-known lecturer, speaker, and published author within academia and the history field. He wrote The Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (1902); The Annals of the Emperor Charles V, with the original by Francisco Lopez de Gomara and translated and edited by Merriman (1913); The Rise of the Spanish Empire, vol. I-II (1918), vol. III (1925), vol. IV (1934); and Suleiman the Magnificent 1520-1566 (1944), as well as numerous articles.
He married Dorothea Foote (1880-1970) in June 1904. Roger Bigelow Merriman died at his summer vacation home in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on 7 September 1945.
Dorothea Foote Merriman (1880-1970) was born on 3 November 1880 in Boston to Rev. Henry Wilder Foote (1838-1889) and Frances Anne Eliot Foote (1838-1896). Her father was the minister of King's Chapel in Boston from 1861 to 1889. Her siblings were Rev. Henry Wilder Foote and Frances Eliot Foote Cornish. She became engaged in June 1903 to Roger Bigelow Merriman, and they married the following year in 1904. Roger and Dorothea had five children: Roger Bigelow Merriman, Jr. (1905-1994), Daniel Merriman (1908-1984), Frances Eliot Merriman (1913-1917), Dorothea Foote Merriman (1916-2001), and Helen Prudence Merriman (1920-2008). Dorothea was a founder of the Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and served as its first president. She was also president of the Women's Alliance, Kings Chapel chapter. Dorothea Foote Merriman died at her home at 175 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 24 December 1970.
Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) was born on 3 December 1838 in Manchester, Vermont, to Addison Merriman and Prudence Adams Merriman. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree (1863), Master of Arts degree (1866), and honorary Ph.D. (1881) from Williams College. He also graduated from Andover Theological Seminary in 1868, after which he was ordained as a Congregational pastor on 30 September 1868. During the Civil War, Merriman enlisted in the 132nd Illinois Regiment, serving as a first lieutenant and then adjutant (June-October 1864). After the war, he was pastor of Broadway Church in Norwich, Connecticut (1868-1875), followed by Central Congregational Church in Worcester, Massachusetts (1878-1901).
He was involved in numerous organizations, serving as a trustee of Williams College, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Atlanta University, and Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, as well as being a member of numerous organizations. He was one of the founders of the Worcester Art Museum and was elected as its first president when the museum officially opened in 1898. Merriman traveled extensively and collected art and antiques, many of which were donated to the museum. He would also occasionally publish sermons and contribute articles to several publications. He married Helen Bigelow on 1 September 1974 at St. Anne's Church, Kew, in Surrey, England. The couple returned to the United States, where they raised their son Roger Bigelow Merriman. Daniel Merriman died on 18 September 1912 at Stonehurst, his summer estate, in North Conway, New Hampshire.
Helen Bigelow Merriman (1844-1933) was born on 14 July 1844 to Erastus Brigham Bigelow and Eliza Frances Means Bigelow in Boston, where she was also educated, as well as frequently visiting England and Europe for her father's business dealings. She was an artist and author, contributing to numerous publications. Her published works include What Shall Make Us Whole? Or, Thoughts in the Direction of Man's Spiritual and Physical Integrity (1888), The Perfect Lord (1891), Concerning Portraits and Portraiture (1891), Religio Pictoris (1899), and articles in the Andover Review, which included "The English Pre-Raphaelite and Political School of Painters" (1884) and "Some Philosophical Aspects of the School of 1830" (1891). She was one of the founders of the Worcester Art Museum, serving as a trustee, exhibiting items from her own personal collection, and giving lectures. She traveled extensively with her husband throughout Europe, where they acquired artwork and antiques, some of which were later donated to the museum. She also gave land and money to start Memorial Hospital in North Conway, New Hampshire, and was involved with the North Conway Public Library.
She married Daniel Merriman on 1 September 1874 at St. Anne's Church, Kew, in Surrey, England, while they were both traveling and staying in England. Together they had one child, Roger Bigelow Merriman, whom they raised primarily in Worcester, Massachusetts, where Daniel was pastor of the Central Congregational Church. Helen Bigelow Merriman died at her estate called Stonehurst in North Conway, New Hampshire, on 25 July 1933.
Erastus Brigham Bigelow (1814-1879) was born on 2 April 1814 in West Boylston, Massachusetts, to Ephraim Bigelow (1791-1837) and Polly Brigham Bigelow (1794-1855). He did not receive a formal education as a child, but had a number of business endeavors while still young that included publishing a book on stenography, as well as inventing a handloom for suspender webbing, a machine to manufacture piping cord, a loom for waving counterpanes which he patented, and a machine for weaving coach-lace. He also invented the power loom for ingrain carpets and later a power loom for weaving Brussels tapestry and velvet tapestry carpets. Through the power loom, Bigelow became a successful and prosperous businessman. He established the Bigelow Carpet Company and helped found the town of Clinton, Massachusetts, with his brother Horatio Nelson Bigelow, which was the location of several mills that produced lace and carpets and the location of the Bigelow Carpet Company. Bigelow was also a founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as being involved in numerous organizations. Around 1870, he began purchasing land in North Conway that would become the Bigelow-Merriman family estate, where their summer home Stonehurst was located, eventually accumulating 250 acres between Intervale and North Conway.
He married first in 1838 to Susan King (1818-1841) and second in 1843 to Eliza Frances Means (1823-1888), the daughter of David McGregor Means and Catherine Atherton Means of Amherst, New Hampshire. They had one child, Helen Bigelow. Erastus Bigelow Brigham died on 6 December 1879 in Boston.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Helen Merriman Fernald, Daniel Merriman, Roger Merriman, Jr., and Dorothea Merriman Sims, November 1971.
Restrictions on Access
The Merriman family papers are stored offsite and must be requested at least two business days in advance via Portal1791. Researchers needing more than six items from offsite storage should provide additional advance notice. If you have questions about requesting materials from offsite storage, please contact the reference desk at 617-646-0532 or reference@masshist.org.
Collection Description
The Merriman family papers consist of 14 record cartons, 1 manuscript box, and 2 oversize boxes of manuscripts, printed material, and 21 volumes. They document the Merriman family and their extended families mainly from 1874-1945. The bulk of the collection pertains to Roger Bigelow Merriman and Dorothea Foote Merriman.
Roger Bigelow Merriman's papers consist of correspondence, personal and professional papers, and biographical material compiled after his death. Correspondence (1890-1945) covers his time as a student at Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Friedrich Wilhelm University; his career as a professor and as master of Eliot House at Harvard; a published author; and as a lecturer and speaker. Correspondents include family; friends; acquaintances; classmates; colleagues at Harvard and educational institutions across the U.S. and Europe; peers within the academic and history fields throughout the U.S., England, France, and Spain; and students, advisees, and Eliot House residents from Harvard. His professional papers (1890-1945) contain material pertaining to his education at Harvard, Oxford, and Friedrich Wilhelm University; his career as a history professor at Harvard, as well as the master of the school's Eliot House; his work as a published author with works on the Spanish empire, Emperor Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and numerous articles; speeches and lectures given in the U.S. and England; and his services in World War I with the American Expeditionary Forces, Siberia. His personal papers (1890-1962) contain material pertaining to his social activities, honors, memberships, personal property, and biographical material.
Dorothea Foote Merriman's papers consist of correspondence and personal and professional papers. Correspondence (1899-1976) covers her daily life, her support of her husband in his career, travel, and her involvement with Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Unitarian Church. Correspondents include family, friends, and acquaintances through her personal interests, as well as her husband's work. Her personal (1903-1963) and professional (1933-1969) papers cover her daily life, her role as hostess, running a household, and involvement with numerous organizations to which she belonged, including the Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Unitarian Church.
The papers of Helen Bigelow Merriman consist of correspondence (1851-1929) and personal papers (1869-1934) and contain material relating to her travels in Europe, art collecting, and books and articles she wrote. Correspondents include numerous well-known people from within the art, psychology, and education fields. Daniel Merriman's papers consist of correspondence, personal papers, and financial records. They contain material relating to genealogy and family research, travel, and art collecting. Correspondents include extended family, friends, and acquaintances within the religious and education fields. Erastus Brigham Bigelow's papers (1837-1879) consist of correspondence and professional papers mainly regarding his carpet business and loom patents.
The collection also contains papers from Eliza Frances Means Bigelow, Roger Bigelow Merriman, Jr., Frances Eliot Merriman, Daniel Merriman (1908-1984), Dorothea Foote Merriman Sims, Helen Prudence Merriman Fernald, Henry Wilder Foote (1875-1964), and other extended Merriman and Foote family members. Material consists of correspondence, published works, news articles, social events, and genealogy.
Detailed Description of the Collection
I. Roger Bigelow Merriman papers, 1890-1962
Arranged chronologically within each series and subseries.
This series contains the correspondence and personal and professional papers of Roger Bigelow Merriman during his years as a student at Harvard University, Balliol College at the University of Oxford, and Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin; his tenure as a professor at Harvard; and his career as a professional historian.
A. Correspondence, 1890-1945
Roger Bigelow Merriman's correspondence consists of letters between Merriman and his family, including his wife Dorothea Foote Merriman and their children; parents Daniel Merriman and Helen Bigelow Merriman; members of his extended Merriman, Adams, Means, Noyes, Upham, Foote, Nourse, and Cleaveland families; numerous local friends, including those in Worcester and North Conway, New Hampshire; numerous international friends, acquaintances, classmates, students, and Harvard colleagues; and peers in the academic and history fields at universities and institutions throughout the United States and in England, France, and Spain. Letters discuss his family life and career achievements as he advanced in Harvard's history department, served as master of Eliot House at Harvard, and became a published historian and noted speaker and lecturer. Also included are letters discussing family history and genealogy.
Other correspondents include Mabel Carleton Gage, Elizabeth Bancroft Cheever, Ellen Blake, Louisa Blake, Lucy Walker, Evelyn Walker, Alexander Hamilton Bullock, Jr., Joseph Linville Binfield, Roscoe James Binfield, Merrick Lincoln, Ernest Berkley Balch, Vernon Munroe, Haven Emerson, Archibald Cary Coolidge, Julian Lowell Coolidge, Harold Jefferson Coolidge, Sir George Walter Prothero, Raymond Herbert Asquith, William James, Henry James (1843-1916), Henry James (1879-1947), James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, Harold Temperley, Theodore Roosevelt, Edward Armstrong, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Roger Wolcott, Edith Prescott Wolcott, George Macaulay Trevelyan, Isabel Foulché-Delbosc, Gaillard Lapsley, Garrett Mattingly, Sir Philip Wilbraham Baker Wilbraham, 6th Baronet, Delmar Leighton, Robert Chamberlain, Conyers Read, Harris Harbison, John Milton Potter, Dexter Perkins, Robert Rait, Francis Fortescue Urquhart, Cyril Bailey, Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (Sandie Lindsay), Wilbur Kitchener Jordan, Frank D. Ashburn, Harley Granville-Barker, E. Allison Peers, George Peabody Gooch, Frederick Merk, and John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, George Harold Edgell, George Lyman Paine, Martin Grabau, and Sarah Wyman Whitman.
1890-February 1936
March 1936-October 1945, undated
Helen Bigelow Merriman, 1891-1914, undated
Daniel Merriman (1838-1912), 1891-1911
Extended family, 1891-1935, undated
Merriman children, 1926-1945
B. Professional papers, 1890-1945
The professional papers of Roger Bigelow Merriman consist of material pertaining to his time as a student at Harvard University, Balliol College at University of Oxford, and Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, as well as his professional career as a professor at Harvard and a historian. This includes materials related to courses Merriman taught, students he advised, history department staff he oversaw, committees he served on, and speeches and writings he did for Harvard, as well as material related to his published works, speeches, writings, and lectures as an historian. Also included are documents pertaining to his service as a captain in the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia during World War I.
i. Book publications, 1901-1945
Printing agreement, 1901, 1910
Reviews—The Annals of the Emperor Charles V by Francisco Lopez de Gomara, 1913
Reviews—The Rise of the Spanish Empire , Vols. I and II, 1918-1919
Reviews—The Rise of the Spanish Empire , Vol. III, 1925-1926
Reviews—The Rise of the Spanish Empire , Vol. IV, 1934-1935
Reviews—Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520-1580, 1944-1945
The MacMillan Company financial statements, 1918-1935
Miscellaneous, ca. 1918, 1930-1935
Research—Spanish bibliography, ca. 1914-1916
Research—Spanish history resources, 1926, undated
Research—Philip II (Bodleian Library, Oxford University), May 1926
Research—British history resources, 1926, undated
Research—Finances of Philip II notes, 1929, undated
Research—"El papel conde Duque Olivares," Egerton MS 338 p. 22944 [photocopy and transcript], undated
Research—"Carta del Almirante de Castilla al Senor Emperador Carlos V. Escripta al año de 1523" [transcript], undated
Research—El Conde de Lemos in Naples notes, undated
Research—Notes, 1930, undated
ii. Speeches, writings, and lectures, 1902-1945
Reviews by Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1902, 1936-1941, undated
"Some Notes on the Treatment of the English Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth I," American Historical Review, vol. XIII No. 3 [reprint], April 1908
"The Monroe Doctrine," The Political Quarterly, No. 7 [reprint], June 1915
"A Day at the French Front," The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, September 1915
Lecture, Oxford University, May 1926
Obituaries by Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1928-1945
Sermon, Appleton Chapel, Harvard University, 21 September 1929
"The Spanish Embassy in Tudor England," Massachusetts Historical Society, March 1935
Lecture, Springfield Public Forum, 11 April 1935
"The Empires of Spain and Portugal," Hartford Lecture Series, 11 March 1937
"Six Contemporaneous Revolutions," 1937
"Spain in North Africa: Cardinal Ximenes," University of London lecture series, May 1939
"The Spanish Viceroy in the New World: Francisco Alvarezde Toledo," University of London lecture series, May 1939
"The Palace of Spain in the Spanish Empire," University of London lecture series, May 1939
Speech, Millbrook School, 12 January 1941
Radio broadcast to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, 23 January 1941
Article on Azores, Cape Verde, Canaries, etc., 16 May 1941
Radio broadcast on WRUL, 14 October 1941
"Japanese during WWI" radio broadcast on Crimson Shortwave Network, December 1941
Speech at annual dinner of St. George's Society, New York, 23 April 1942
Reviews by Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1923-1943
"An Historian Looks at the Young Entry," The Atlantic, vol. 176, no. 4, October 1945
"The Problem of Permanent Appointments in History and Literature," ca. 1940s
"A Retrospect and a Prospect or Lest We Forget," ca. 1940s
"Another Contemporary Historian of Charles V," undated
On Theodore Roosevelt, undated
Bibliography of Roger Bigelow Merriman, undated
iii. Harvard University, 1890-1947
Course admission, mid-year, and final exams, 1890-1897
Roger Bigelow Merriman student records, 1890-1910
Class of 1896, 1896-1946
Bachelor of the Arts (A.B.) degree, 14 June 1896
Master of the Arts (A.M) degree, 30 June 1897
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in History degree, 25 June 1902
Teaching appointments, 1902-1918
Administrative papers, 1916, 1937-1942
Miscellaneous, 1917-1940
Committee on Regulation of Athletic Sport, 1919
Speeches and writings, 1926-1943
Freshman advisees, 1931-1942
History I directories, 1931-1941
History department staff, 1932-1941
Certificate from Eliot House, ca. 1932
Select student material, 1933-1934
History 40 (History II) course, 1934-1941
History I course, 1935, 1941
History 48 course, 1939-1942
History 30 course, 1941-1942
'96 Dinner Club, 1933-1939
Roarin' Forties Dinner Club, 1937-1947
Board of Freshman Advisers, 1937-1939
The House Plan, 1943, undated
Commemorative plate inscription text, undated
iv. Balliol College, University of Oxford, 1898-1934
1898-1934
The Balliol College Register, 1833-1933, 2nd ed., 1934
v. Friedrich Wilhelm University, Berlin, 1900-1901
Enrollment certificate, 1900
Census and certificate, 1900
General German History, Prof. Max Lenz, course notes, 1900-1901
Ancient Church, Prof. Adolf von Harnack, course notes, 1900-1901
vi. World War I, 1914-1948
Correspondence in this subseries includes letters from Japanese General Otani Nakajima and memoranda from Major General William S. Graves.
Enlistment records, 1917-1918
Memoranda, April-December 1918
Trench warfare and ordnance material, May-September 1918
Correspondence, June 1918, September 1918
Diary excerpt, 2-5 September 1918
Communiques, 11-12 September 1918
Committee on Information, 18 September 1918
General courts-martial, September-October 1918
Orders and proclamations, September 1918
Diary, 9-12 September 1918
Reports by Roger Bigelow Merriman, October-December 1918
Notes, 1918
Ordnance notes, 1918
Dans La Mêlée! Souvenirs de Guerre by Leon Miot, 1917
Scrapbook, July 1914-January 1915
Scrapbook, January-April 1915
Scrapbook, Paris, February-April 1915
Scrapbook, April-November 1915
Scrapbook, November 1915-April 1917
Scrapbook, 1917
C. Personal papers, 1890-1962
The personal papers of Roger Bigelow Merriman include poetry and verse mostly written to or about Merriman; honors bestowed for personal and professional achievements, including honorary degrees, invitations, and programs to events in the U.S. and Europe; personal and professional memberships; inventories and estimates for real estate and personal property for his home at 175 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Stonehurst, the family estate in Intervale and North Conway, New Hampshire; and biographical material, which includes contributions written by numerous friends and colleagues of their memories of Merriman following his death.
1904-1945, undated
Poetry and verse, 1890-1910, 1937, undated
Honors, 1891-1942
Honors—University of Oxford Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) candidacy certificate, 1 December 1922
Honors—Exeter Chapter, Cum Laude Society, Phillips Exeter Academy fellowship certificate, 28 February 1927
Honors—Glasgow University, Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree, 12 June 1929
Honors—Hobart College, Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) degree, 1942
Honors—Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor certificate, 29 September 1936
Newspaper clippings [copies], 1890s-1940s, undated
Financial records, 1904, 1918, 1929, 1942
Invitations and programs, 1907-1942
Invitations and programs—University of Oxford convocation and encaenia programs, 1907, 1929
Account of French front, 1914
Memberships, 1917, 1937-1945, undated
Memberships—Massachusetts Historical Society certificate, 11 February 1904
Memberships—Hispanic Society of America certificates, 1909, 1924, 1945
Memberships—Real Academia de la Historia certificate, 11 Nov. 1922
Travel ephemera, ca. 1910s-1930s
Real estate and property, 1934, undated
Real estate and property—Hemlocks, Kimball Island, Squam Lake, New Hampshire, guestbook, 1910-1928
Real estate and property—175 Brattle St., Cambridge, Massachusetts, inventory, undated
World War II related material, 1940, undated
Obituaries [transcripts], 1945-1946
Funeral, 12 September 1945
Biography—Notes, 1946-1947
Biography—Notes by George W. Robinson, 1947
Biography—Notes by Theodore Spencer, ca. 1946-1947
Biography—Recollections of Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1946
Biography—"The Historian of the Spanish Empire," professional biography, 30 June 1947
Memorials, 1946, 1962, undated
Notes and memoranda, undated
II. Dorothea Foote Merriman papers, 1899-1976
Arranged chronologically.
A. Correspondence, 1899-1976
Dorothea Foote Merriman's correspondence consists of letters between Dorothea and her husband Roger Bigelow Merriman and their children; in-laws Daniel Merriman and Helen Bigelow Merriman; brother Henry Wilder Foote; sister Frances Eliot Foote Cornish; extended Eliot, Means, Bigelow families, and friends and acquaintances met through her personal interests and work at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, as well as through her husband's work, travel, and her role supporting Roger as master of Eliot House at Harvard. Letters discuss daily life, Roger's professional achievements, travel and hosting arrangements, and her professional work. Correspondents include friends, colleagues, and students of Roger Bigelow Merriman, as well as friends and acquaintances of Dorothea's from throughout the U.S., England, and France.
Other correspondents include Annie Oakes Huntington, Eliza Orne White, Mary Wilder Foote Tileston, John Gorham Palfrey, Horace Howard Furness, Edgar Huidekoper, H. Morse Stephens, Robert Wolcott, Henry James (1843-1916), Henry James (1879-1947), Conyers Read, Lady Elizabeth Marion Bryce, Mary Venables, Angela Mary Kay-Shuttleworth James, Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth, Amy E. Jervois, Mary Frances Butcher Prothero, Georgeanna Hopkins Musgrave, Violet Birch-Reynardson, Irene Pelham, Theresa Coolidge, Gaillard Lapsley, Susan Charlotte Buchan, Baroness Tweedsmuir, George Russell Agassiz, Bernadotte Everly Schmitt, Robert Dudley French, Kathleen Wylie, Vere Gordon Childe, Joseph Bottkol, Harumichi Yatsuhashi, Eleanor Mabel Sarton, Elizabeth Sedgwick Crafts, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Ralph Barton Perry, Julian Lowell Coolidge, George Harold Edgell, George Macaulay Trevelyan, Sir Philip Wilbraham Baker Wilbraham, 6th Baronet, Frederick Merk, Kermit Roosevelt, Julia Gardner Coolidge Richards, Caroline Cope Lewis, Norbert A. Wilhelm, Robert Cutler, George Lyman Paine, Constance Savage Keith Lowell, Mary Lyman Bullard Day, Theodore Spencer, Martin Grabau, T. S. Eliot, and Garrett Mattingly.
1899-1909
1900s-1976, undated
Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1900-1933
Foote family, 1899-1945, 1959, undated
Helen Bigelow Merriman, 1903-1914
Daniel Merriman (1938-1912), 1904-1911
Extended family, 1903-1945
Children and grandchildren, 1939-1962, undated
Christmas card list, undated
B. Personal papers, 1903-1963
Material in this subseries includes poetry and verse written for or about Dorothea Foote Merriman, social events she attended or was invited to, financial records, diaries, membership documents, and information on businesses in the U.S. and United Kingdom that helped her run her household and host events for her family or in support of her husband Roger Bigelow Merriman's role as a professor at Harvard and as master of Eliot House.
1930s-1950s
Poetry and verse, 1903-1911, 1937, undated
Diary, 1915
Social events, 1917, 1946, 1958
Financial records, 1920s-1940s
Financial records—Property inventory and appraisal, 1949
Calling cards and invitations, 1920s-1940s
Calling cards and invitations, 1932-1950
Passport and driving license, 1936, 1939, 1948
Memberships, 1938-1945
Memberships—Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1937, 1939, 1957, undated
Memberships—Tuesday Club, 1941
Memberships—Parliamentary Law Club, 1941
Newspaper clippings, ca. 1950s-1960s
Travel diary, 6-14 April 1963
Business addresses—Boston, undated
Business addresses—New York, United Kingdom, and Europe, undated
C. Professional papers, 1933-1969
The professional papers of Dorothea Foote Merriman consist of speeches and articles she wrote as part of her membership in the Tuesday Club, Parliamentary Law Club, and for numerous other organizations or topics that were of interest to her. Also included in this subseries is material related to her work for the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in particular during her tenure as president of Friends of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, as well as her work for King's Chapel Branch of the Alliance of Unitarian Women, the Unitarian Church, and the General Alliance of Unitarian Women and Other Liberal Christian Women.
i. Speeches and writings, 1933-ca. 1950s
Tuesday Club—on life's values, 5 December 1933
Tuesday Club—"Can a Country Be Self-Sufficient (European)?" 7 December 1937
Tuesday Club—"Alice James" on her death, undated
Parliamentary Law Club—"That Chamberlain was Right in His Solution of the Czechoslovakian Problem," 13 December 1938
Radio Broadcast WNAC with Connie Stackpole [transcript], 9 December 1943
Harvard Society of Fellows—Walter B. Rosen and the Rosen Professorship, 11 May 1951
Parent's League—"Pros and Cons of Boarding School," 8 March [1930s]
Community claims on women, 1930s
"How Well is the Human Mind Adjusting Itself to the Modern Tempo," 1930s
Notes, 1930s, undated
King's Chapel Alliance, ca. 1950s, undated
"Fashion and Convention Govern Us," undated
"Fashion and Convention Govern Us," undated
"That Variety Rather than Quality is the Ambition of the American Woman," undated
"That Life 50 Years Ago was Happier and More Worthwhile than It Is Today," undated
Travel—Spain, undated
Travel—Spain and Portugal, undated
Travel—Balearics, undated
Modern music and jazz, undated
Women's careers and homemaking, undated
The school's relation to the new ideas in education, undated
Carl Sandberg, undated
"What is the Future of Film?" undated
"Has Patriotism or National Feeling Taken the Place of Religion in the World As Man's Primary Obligation?" undated
ii. Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1948-1969
Publications—Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Newsletter, 1948-1959
Publications—Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Newsletter, 1948-1959
Publications—Brigham Bulletin, 1950-1958, 1967
Publications—Staff newsletter, 1952, 1957-1958
Publications—Board of Trustees bulletin, 1957
News releases, 1957, 1963
Reports, 1950-1969
Fundraising, 1951-1952, 1959
Board of the Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital meeting minutes, 1951-1967
Board of the Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital officers and committee chairmen, 1951-1952
Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital membership lists, 1952-1956, undated
Governance and administrative records, 1955
Honorary President for Life of Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital certificate, 19 May 1959
Miscellaneous, 1940s-1950s
Printed material, 1950s
Committees, 1950s
Notes and speeches, 1950s
Other hospitals and organizations, 1950s
iii. King's Chapel Branch of the Alliance of Unitarian Women, 1957-1959, 1969
iv. Unitarian Church, 1959
v. General Alliance of Unitarian Women and Other Liberal Christian Women, 1959
III. Helen Bigelow Merriman papers, 1851-1934
Arranged chronologically.
A. Correspondence, 1851-1929
Helen Bigelow Merriman's correspondence consists of letters between Helen and various family members, including her husband Daniel Merriman (1838-1912); son Roger Bigelow Merriman and daughter-in-law Dorothea Foote Merriman and their children; mother Eliza Frances Means Bigelow; extended Means, Adams, and Noyes families; and friends and acquaintances mainly in the U.S. and abroad, as well as within the art and literary world.
Correspondents include William Michael Rossetti, William James, Ethel Lyman Paine, Mary Caroline Hardy, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields, Josiah Royce, William Dean Howells, William Wetmore Story, Elihu Vedder, Alice Have Gibbens James, Sarah B. Earle, Samuel Chapman Armstrong, Owen Wister, Adelaide Eliza Payson Palfrey, and Sarah Wyman Whitman. Of interest are letters from William James in which he provides light critiques of Helen's article on "The School of 1830" (1885) and her manuscript for Religio Pictoris (1898); William Michael Rossetti answering her questions on the Pre-Raphaelite movement (1884); George Frederic Watts discussing his interest in having his work represented in the United States with the possibilities being his study of Eve or Clytie (1892); William Wetmore Story providing assistance in Rome for a cast of the Eros of Centocelle held at the Vatican ordered by Helen that was lost in transit (1893); Samuel Chapman Armstrong discussing his thoughts on one of Helen's recently published books; and Philip J. Gentner providing a detailed account of his experience in Europe during World War I.
1874-1904, undated
Eliza Frances Means Bigelow, 1851, 1879-1883, undated
Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1883-1898
Roger Bigelow Merriman, 1899-1929, undated
Daniel Merriman (1838-1912), 1891, 1898, 1912
Extended family, 1891-1897, 1924, undated
Dorothea Foote Merriman, 1911-1929, undated
Grand children, 1915-1926, undated
B. Personal papers, 1869-1934
This subseries contains the personal papers of Helen Bigelow Merriman. They include a guest book and compiled history of Helen's estate in Intervale, New Hampshire, called Stonehurst; poems and verse written to or about Helen; a copy of her published work Concerning Portraits and Portraiture (1891); biographical information; and papers regarding her death and estate.
Guests at Stonehurst include members of the Adams, Noyes, Means, Bigelow, Lawrence, Nourse, Foote, and Merriman families, as well as local and international friends and acquaintances in the art, literary, education, history, and science fields, including the Gage family, Gaillard Lapsley, Robert Wolcott, Vernon Munroe, Edith Loring Getchell, G. Stanley Hall, William Thomas Sampson, Adolf Meyer, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Jewett, James Mason Crafts, Emily Davis Tyson, Sir John Kennaway, William James, Alice H. James, Edward Twichell Ware, Booker T. Washington, James Hardy Ropes, Gretchen Osgood Warren, Mary Alden Osgood (later Childers), Edwin Bale, Lincoln Newton Kinnicutt, Edward Everett Hale Benjamin Wisher Bacon, Rev. Robert Allan Hume, Ethel Lyman Paine, John Chipman Gray, and Lillian Horsford Farlow, among many others.
1883, undated
Annals of Stonehurst Vol. I, 1869-1901, 1889-1901
Annals of Stonehurst Vol. II, 1902-1924
Concerning Portraits and Portraiture, read before Worcester Art Society, 17 February 1891
Stonehurst, Intervale, New Hampshire, guestbook, 1898-1932
Poems and verse, 1910, 1924, undated
Cookbook, ca. 1910
Biographical and death papers, 1933-1934
IV. Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) papers, 1851-1912
Arranged chronologically.
A. Correspondence, 1851-1908
Daniel Merriman's (1838-1912) correspondence consists of letters from his wife Helen Bigelow Merriman, their son Roger Bigelow Merriman, friends, and mostly distant relatives concerning family research and genealogy of the Merriman, Adams, and White families. Correspondents include Erastus Brigham Bigelow, Sarah Jane Merriman, Clark Spencer Merriman, Orel Louise Adams, James Hosmer, Rev. Joseph Edmund Wildman, David H. Lovejoy, James Shepard, Sarah C. Adams Hendrie, John Calvin Crane, Eli Ives Merriman, George Frisbee Hoar, Anton Mensing, Damaris Merriman, Edward Everett Hale, and Louella Merriman Doughtery.
1851, 1874-1903, undated
Helen Bigelow Merriman, 1873, 1887, 1898
Roger Bigelow Merriman, October 1897-April 1899
Roger Bigelow Merriman, October 1900-1908, undated
B. Personal papers, 1863-1912
The personal papers of Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) consist of material pertaining to ancient armor purchased in England and later donated to the Worcester Art Museum, poetry and verse mostly written by Merriman, his degrees from Williams College and Andover Theological Seminary, and an obituary.
1884-1912
Gradus Primi (A.B.) degree, Williams College, 1863
Gradus Secundi (A.M.) degree, Williams College, 1866
Doctor of Theology (Ph.D.) honorary degree, Williams College, 1881
Andover Theological Seminary certificate, 6 Aug. 1868
C. Financial records, 1875, 1891-1892
The financial records of Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) include a receipt from art and artifact dealer Arthur Smart of London detailing the sale of pieces of ancient arms and armor (1892).
V. Bigelow family papers, 1837-1891
Arranged loosely chronologically within each subseries.
A. Erastus Brigham Bigelow papers, 1837-1979
The papers of Erastus Brigham Bigelow consist of correspondence, biographical, and professional papers relating to carpet looms. Correspondence mostly pertains to Bigelow's business producing carpets, maintaining his loom patents, and investigating patent infringement. Correspondents include his daughter Helen Bigelow Merriman and brother Horatio Nelson Bigelow, as well as law and patent professionals assisting Bigelow with his business operations and providing legal advice and services. They include Charles M. Keller, B. R. Curtis, A. P. and C. Browne, Peter Graham, John Augustus Griswold, Joel Giles, and John Hazelhurst Boneval Latrobe, and mostly pertain to addressing patent infringement by John Johnson, E. S. Higgins and Co., William Webster, William Weild, and George Roberts.
Material pertaining to patents includes Bigelow's patents and the patents of others, including Augustus Faulkner, Thomas Flint, John Haight, John Goulding, William Weild, John Johnson, Frank T. Hastings, and James H. Murrill, with attached plans and renderings. Other material includes certificates for the Massachusetts Historical Society (resident member) and the Museum of Fine Arts (founding member) and honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale Universities.
Correspondence, 1848-1859, 1879, undated
Biographical material, 1860, 1866, 1927, undated
Death, 1879
Honorary degrees, undated
Patent documents, 1837-1863
Patent documents, 1842-1857
Indentures, agreements, etc., 1837-1852
Patents of others, 1841-1860
Patents of others, 1834-1860
Infringement cases, 1849-1850s
Certificates, 1864, 1871
Honorary degrees, undated
B. Eliza Frances Means Bigelow correspondence, 1866-1891, undated
Arranged chronologically.
The Eliza Frances Means Bigelow correspondence includes letters between Bigelow and her daughter Helen Bigelow Merriman, grandson Roger Bigelow Merriman, sisters Mary Jane Means Adams and Nancy Ellis Means, and niece Catherine Cleaveland Lawrence.
VI. Extended Merriman family papers, 1842-1942
Arranged loosely chronologically.
This series contains material for extended Merriman family members consisting of correspondence; Merriman, Adams, Means, Bigelow, and Foote family genealogy; and the personal and professional papers of Roger Bigelow Merriman and Dorothea Foote Merriman's children: Roger Bigelow Merriman (1905-1994), Frances Eliot Merriman, Daniel Merriman (1908-1984), Dorothea Foote Merriman Sims, and Helen Prudence Merriman Fernald.
A. Family papers, 1842-1942
Arranged loosely chronologically.
This series contains papers of extended Merriman family members and mainly consists of correspondence between unidentified relatives. Correspondence includes letters from Roger Bigelow Merriman and Dorothea Foote Merriman to their children. Correspondence from Addison Merriman to his sons, including one to William Edward Merriman (1845), discusses his memories and knowledge of the Merriman family history.
1842-1942, undated
Addison Merriman correspondence, 1845, 1847, undated
B. Genealogy, 1878-1960
Arranged loosely chronologically.
This subseries contains genealogy mostly complied by Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) and later by his son Roger Bigelow Merriman. Material includes handwritten and typed notes, genealogies, and histories, as well as official records pertaining to the Merriman, Adams, Means, Bigelow, and Foote families. Of interest is material for the "Merriman Tri-Centennial" held on 4 June 1913 in Wallingford, Connecticut, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Nathaniel Merriman and a gathering of his descendants.
Adams family, 1878, 1894, 1913, undated
Merriman family history, 1894-1913
Descendants of Nathaniel Merriman (1613-1694), 1894-1913
Foote family, ca. 1934, undated
Roger Bigelow and Dorothea Foote Merriman family, 1960, undated
Means-Bigelow family, undated
Notes, ca. 1890s, undated
C. Roger Bigelow Merriman, Jr. (1905-1994) papers, 1905-1941
Arranged loosely chronologically.
The papers of Roger Bigelow Merriman, Jr. (1905-1994) consists mainly of correspondence from his parents Roger Bigelow Merriman and Dorothea Foote Merriman, as well as poems written by his grandfather Daniel Merriman (1838-1912) and articles about the start of his tenure as headmaster at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1941).
D. Frances Eliot Merriman papers, 1917
Arranged loosely chronologically.
This subseries contains the funeral service for Frances Eliot Merriman held at King's Chapel on 30 October 1917.
E. Daniel Merriman (1908-1984) papers, 1918-1946
Arranged loosely chronologically.
The papers of Daniel Merriman (1908-1984) consist mainly of correspondence from his parents Roger Bigelow Merriman and Dorothea Foote Merriman, as well as published works relating to his profession as a marine biologist. Subjects include Squam Lake trout, tethys willcoxi, striped bass, systematist and ichthyologist Peter Artedi, Connecticut marine fishes, gametogenesis in the four-spined stickleback, the sea raven, and studies on the marine resources of Southern New England.
F. Dorothea Foote Merriman Sims papers, 1939, 1952, undated
Arranged loosely chronologically.
Material in this subseries consists of invitations and programs for events that Dorothea Foote Merriman Sims attended or participated in.
G. Helen Prudence Merriman Fernald papers, 1941
Arranged loosely chronologically.
Material in this subseries consists of the invitation to the wedding reception of Helen Prudence Merriman and Mason Fernald on 1 March 1941.
VII. Foote family papers, 1863-1964
Arranged loosely chronologically.
The Foote family papers consist mainly of correspondence between various Foote family members, including Caleb Foote writing to his sister-in-law Elizabeth Amelia White Dwight about her son William Dwight (1863) and son Henry Wilder Foote; Henry Wilder Foote (1875-1964); Lyman family cousins; and a letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes addressed to a Miss Foote. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters from Dorothea Foote Merriman to her brother Henry Wilder Foote, sister-in-law Eleanor Tyson Cope Foote, and sister Frances Eliot Foote Cornish. Other material includes articles and sermons by or about Henry Wilder Foote (1875-1964), Wilder Foote (1905-1975), and Charles William Eliot.
Correspondence, 1863-1935, undated
Charles William Eliot articles and obituaries, 1926
Henry Wilder Foote (1875-1964) papers, 1954, 1956, 1964
Wilder Foote (1905-1975) papers, November 1959
Preferred Citation
Merriman family 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.
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Materials Removed from the Collection
Original drawings and watercolors of birds and scenes from an 1875 European trip by Helen Bigelow Merriman and World War I cartoon drawings have been removed from this collection and are now stored with the MHS Graphics Collection.
Photographs from this collection were removed to the MHS Photo Archives.
Some artifacts were removed to the Artifacts Collection.