COLLECTION GUIDES

1843-1938

Guide to the Microfilm Edition


Collection Summary

Abstract

This microfilm edition consists of the papers of author and historian Henry Adams from the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the John Hay Library at Brown University. Included is correspondence with family members, friends, and many notable figures of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

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.

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

Detailed Description of the Collection

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II. Miscellaneous manuscripts, 1888-1909

This series contains miscellaneous Henry Adams manuscripts, other than correspondence, from the holdings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The bulk of the material relates to Adams's research for and writing of Memoirs of Marau Taaroa, Last Queen of Tahiti (1893) and its retitled 1901 revision. Also included in this series is a notebook on the cathedral at Chartres; copies of several poems in Adams's hand; a handwritten copy of his "The Rule of Phase Applied to History"; a fragmentary diary for 1888-1889; and other papers.

Close II. Miscellaneous manuscripts, 1888-1909

III. Manuscripts from Harvard University, 1861-1922

Arranged alphabetically, then chronologically.

This series contains papers from the Houghton Library at Harvard University and consists almost entirely of letters to and from Henry Adams. Correspondents include his brothers Charles Francis Adams and Brooks Adams, Henry Lee Higginson, William Dean Howells, Mabel Hooper La Farge, and Louisa Hooper Thoron. The series also contains Adams's critique of Brooks Adams's manuscript on John Quincy Adams.

Reel 33

Letter from Samuel Abbott to Henry Adams, 29 Nov. 1912

Reel 33

Letters from Brooks Adams to Henry Adams, 7 Mar. 1887-7 Mar. 1916

287 letters
Reel 33

Letter from Charles Francis Adams (1866-1954) to Henry Adams, 7 July 1896

Reel 33

Letter from Charles Francis Adams (1835-1915) to Henry Adams, 12 Dec. 1905

Reel 33

Letters from Evelyn Davis Adams (wife of Brooks Adams) to Henry Adams, 24 Feb. 1896 and undated

4 letters
Reel 35

Letter from Mary Ogden Adams (wife of Charles Francis Adams, Jr.) to Henry Adams, 8 Oct. 1915

Reel 35

Letter from Harry Lyman Koopman to Henry Adams, 22 Jan. 1912

Reel 35

Letters from Louisa Hooper Thoron to Henry Adams, 2 Feb. 1910-10 Aug. 1914

7 letters
Reel 35

Letter from Ward Thoron to Henry Adams, undated

Reel 35

Letter from Henry Adams to Osward Garrison Villard, 15 June 1914

Reel 35

Letters from Osward Garrison Villard to Henry Adams, 5-18 June 1917

2 letters
Close III. Manuscripts from Harvard University, 1861-1922

Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 1-9

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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

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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.

Preferred Citation

Microfilm edition of the Henry Adams 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.

Persons:

Adams family.
Adams, Abigail Brooks, 1808-1889.
Adams, Brooks, 1848-1927.
Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886.
Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915.
Adams, Elizabeth Ogden, 1873-1945.
Adams, Louisa, 1831-1870.
Cameron, Elizabeth, 1857-1944.
Ford, Worthington Chauncey, 1858-1941.
Gaskell, Charles Milnes.
Hay, John, 1838-1905.
James, Henry, 1843-1916.
King, Clarence, 1842-1901.
La Farge, John, 1835-1910.
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924.
Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891.
Parkman, Francis, 1823-1893.
Richardson, H. H. (Henry Hobson), 1838-1886.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907.
Spring Rice, Cecil, Sir, 1859-1918.
Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937.

Subjects:

Authors, American.
Diaries--1888-1889.
Family history--1850-1949.
Historians--Diaries.
History--Research.
Poetry.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Henry Adams photographs (Photo. Coll. 40).

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