Univ of Pennsylvania Epp, Ronald From: Nancy M. Shawcross [shawcros@pobox.upenn.edu] Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 8:06 AM To: Epp, Ronald Cc: University of Pennsylvania Library Subject: Re: [Fwd: Reference Question] I can certainly send you the very brief register to the S. Weir Mitchell Collection at Penn, if you provide a mailing address. But I can tell you that I consulted the register, and there is no correspondence to or from Dorr in the collection. Sincerely, Nancy M. Shawcross Curator of Manuscripts Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania > Original Message > Subject: Reference Question > Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:25:11 -0400 (EDT) > From: r.epp@snhu.edu > Reply-To: r.epp@snhu.edu > To: library@pobox.upenn.edu > > > > Reference Question: > Name: Ronald H. Epp, Ph. D. > Status: Other > School: Southern New Hampshire University, Manch > E-Mail Address: r.epp@snhu.edu > Question: Would it be possible to have the register and container list > for the S. Weir Mitchell Collection, 1861-1935 copied and mailed to me at my expense? Four the past four years I have been researching the life > of George B. Dorr (1853-1944), founder of Acadia National Park. Mr. Dorr > was a lifelong friend of Dr. Mitchell and his Bar Harbor > (Maine) conservation ally. I am trying to determine whether there would > be any correspondence between the two of them (c. 1895-1914). As a > library director, I appreciate this professional courtesy. > End forwarded message 1 07/08/2004 12:33 FAX 2155739079 UofP RARE BOOKS 002 REGISTER RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Title: S. Weir Mitchell Collection, 1861-1935 Call Number: Ms. Coll. 413 Size: 4 boxes Status: Donation; Purchase Source: S. Weir Mitchell; various Received: Unknown; various Restrictions: None Processed by: Amey A. Hutchins Date Completed: April 2002 07/08/2004 12:3 33 FAX 2155739079 UofP RARE BOOKS 003 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Silas Weir Mitchell was born in Philadelphia in 1829. In 1844 he entered the University of Pennsylvania but illness forced him to withdraw in his senior year. He studied medicine at Jefferson Medical College, from which he graduated in 1850, and in Europe. Upon his return to Philadelphia in 1851, he joined his father's medical practice, and in 1853 he was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1858 Mitchell married Mary Middleton Elwyn, and in 1859 she gave birth to their first son, John Kearsley Mitchell. During the Civil War, Mitchell served as an acting assistant surgeon for the Union army at Turner's Lane Hospital in Philadelphia. As a result of this experience he co-authored two books on neurology and continued to focus on that specialty. Also during the war, in 1862, Mitchell's second son, Langdon Elwyn Mitchell, was born and his wife died of diphtheria. Following the war, in 1866, Mitchell published his first story anonymously in the Atlantic Monthly. William Dean Howells was the new assistant editor there, and he remained an editor through 1881. His correspondence with Mitchell extended beyond his tenure at the Atlantic through to Mitchell's death in 1914. In the 1870s, Mitchell's medical research and writing focused increasingly on rest in the treatment of disease. He also lectured on this topic at the Infirmary for Nervous Diseases of the Orthopedic Hospital in Philadelphia, where he worked for 40 years. He became a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. In 1875, Mitchell married his second wife, Mary Cadwalader, and also became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. As a trustee, he worked to raise funds for the medical school, particularly the department of hygiene, and for a library. He also served on the Seybert Commission, convened by the University and active from 1884 to 1887, which investigated spiritualism. In Mitchell's literary career, the 1880s were the decade in which his novelettes and then historical novels began to appear, in addition to his first volume of poetry. Some of his novels first appeared serially in the Atlantic Monthly and the Century Magazine. He had also published poems in magazines since the 1860s, a frequent topic of discussion in his correspondence with Richard Watson Gilder of the Century Magazine. Mitchell's second son Langdon also had a literary career, primarily as a playwright. His first produced play ran in London in 1892. In the same year he married Marion Lea of Philadelphia, who was an actress in London. She had starred in the first English production of Hedda Gabler and was the sister of Anna Lea Merritt, a painter who lived in England and was associated with the pre-Raphaelites. His two most popular plays were Becky Sharp (1899), a stage adaptation of Vanity Fair, and The New York Idea (1906), both written for the actress Minnie Madden Fiske. Langdon and Marion Mitchell had three children: a son, Weir, and two daughters, Susanna Valentine (who married William Gammell) and Helena Mary Langdon (who married Kenneth Day and had two sons, Kenneth and Miles). Langdon Mitchell died in 1935. In addition to the materials in the S. Weir Mitchell Collection, this sketch is based on the entries for S. Weir Mitchell and Langdon Elwyn Mitchell in the on-line version of American National Biography. i 07/08/2004 12:34 FAX 2155739079 UofP RARE BOOKS 004 SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE The S. Weir Mitchell Collection at the University of Pennsylvania brings together materials from diverse sources concerning Mitchell and other members of his family between 1861 and 1935. The collection consists of one box of documents, one scrapbook, an album of almost sixty photographs and three oversize photographs. Most of the documents are correspondence or writings of S. Weir Mitchell or correspondence of his son Langdon Mitchell. The S. Weir Mitchell Correspondence series consists of 23 folders containing letters from 15 correspondents. Most of these correspondents are connected with Mitchell's literary efforts: they include James Lane Allen, Richard Watson Gilder of the Century Magazine, William Dean Howells of the Atlantic Monthly, Robert Underwood Johnson of the Century Magazine, Henry C. Lea, James Russell Lowell, Charles Leonard Moore, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Apart from the letters to Johnson and Moore and one of the letters from Whittier, these literary letters were purchased in a sale of S. Weir Mitchell's library by William D. Morley in 1941. The letters to Lea include much discussion of different fundraising campaigns at the University of Pennsylvania, and there is also a brief letter to Morris Jastrow, librarian at the University. Letters to Bayard Kane and a pair of notes to unidentified recipients, which were purchased from McManus at an unknown date, concern the workings of Mitchell's medical office in Mitchell's absence, and a letter to Mrs. E. S. Farrow shows Mitchell in the acts of diagnosis and prescription. Mitchell also was a doctor to William Dean Howells's daughter, so his letters with Howells are another location of some medical discussion. The S. Weir Mitchell Writings series is divided into subseries for Medical Writings and Other Writings. The Medical Writings subseries consists of typescripts of two lectures on the rest treatment which were gifts from Margaret McHenry, a biographer of Mitchell. One is from 1875, when the rest treatment was a relatively new concept; the other is a retrospective lecture from 1904 that considers the evolution of the rest treatment. The Other Writings subseries includes manuscript drafts of two stories, "These Ought Ye to Do..." and "Thou art the Soul of Thy House galley proofs of "Haroun the Caliph, and Others" for the Century Magazine; and a few notes. Two small series contain papers from S. Weir Mitchell's second son and daughter-in-law. The Langdon and Marion Mitchell Correspondence series consists of five folders containing letters from five correspondents. Three are actors of the day: John Drew, Minnie Maddern Fiske, and Lillian Gish. The other folders are family-related, one containing the baptism certificate for Langdon and Marion Mitchell's daughter Helena Mary Langdon Mitchell and the other containing postcards from Marion Mitchell's sister Anna Lea Merritt. The Langdon and Marion Mitchell Clippings series consists of two folders: one contains obituaries for Langdon Mitchell from several newspapers; the other contains two articles written about Langdon Mitchell in 1935, one before his death and one after, and an article on Anna Lea Merritt. A scrapbook documenting a year of the Civil War is a series unto itself. Mary Cadwalader, S. Weir Mitchell's second wife whom he married in 1875, kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles in 1861. The articles include coverage of events at Harper's Ferry. S. Weir Mitchell gave this scrapbook to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania as a gift with the ii 07/08/2004 12:35 FAX 2155739079 UofP RARE BOOKS L 005 suggestion that the materials might be "preserved as memorials of the war." A series of almost 60 photographs spans five generations of S. Weir Mitchell's family, beginning with his father, John Kearsley Mitchell and including only a few photographs of S. Weir Mitchell himself; two photographs of Langdon Mitchell and his wife; many photographs of S. Weir Mitchell's grandchildren, the children of Langdon Mitchell; and one photograph of Langdon Mitchell's grandchild and S. Weir Mitchell's great-grandchild, Kenneth Day. There are also numerous photographs of relatives of Langdon Mitchell's wife Marion, including her sister and brother-in-law Anna Lea and Richard Merritt, a few pictures of acquaintances of the family, and approximately 20 unidentified photographs. The three oversize photographs in this collection are a photograph of S. Weir Mitchell and a friend, possibly John Cadwalader, on a fishing trip in Canada and two photographs of S. Weir Mitchell's granddaughter Helena Mary Langdon Mitchell. The S. Weir Mitchell Collection may be examined by researchers in the reading room of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Permission to quote from and to publish unpublished materials must be requested in writing from the Curator of Manuscripts. iii Epp, Ronald From: Nancy M. Shawcross [shawcros@pobox.upenn.edu] Sent: Friday, March 25, 2005 8:32 AM To: Epp, Ronald Subject: Van Wyck Brooks I regret to write that I could locate no correspondence between Brooks and either Royce, James, or Higginson (or Dorr, for that matter) . Sincerely, Nancy M. Shawcross Curator of Manuscripts Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania 1 Epp, Ronald From: Epp, Ronald Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 9:25 AM To: 'Nancy M. Shawcross' Subject: RE: RE: Van Wyck Brooks Ms. Dear Ms. Shawcross, I apologize for not responding to your November email; somehow it excaped my attention until I was forced to purge my vast email accumulation. To the point. If you could check the inventory of Van Wyck Brooks Papers to determine whether there is any correspondence to or from members of the Dorr Family, Charles Hazen Dorr (1821-1893), Mary Gray Ward Dorr (1820-1901), or their son George Bucknam Dorr (1853- 1944). I have rather thoroughly researched the life of the George Dorr to complete a biography of the father of Acadia National Park (that is, G.B. Dorr). Van Wyck Brooks "New England Summers" contains so many references (especially in chapters 9 and 20) to Boston friends and acquaintances (e.g., Josiah Royce, Henry Lee Higginson, William James) that Broooks and Dorr shared that I wondered whether there was any correspondence between the two--and if so, what was the content of that communication. Is there much in the way of correspondence with the three acquaintances named above? I appreciate your willingness to pursue this matter for me. Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. Director of Shapiro Library Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH 03106 603-668-2211, ext. 2164 603-645-9685 fax -Original Message From: Nancy M. Shawcross [mailto:shawcros@pobox.upenn.edu] Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 2:02 PM To: Epp, Ronald Subject: Re: RE: Van Wyck Brooks Ms. Are you looking for something in particular in the Van Wyck Brooks Papers? Something he wrote or correspondnece? I have an inventory. Sincerely, Nancy M. Shawcross Curator of Manuscripts Rare Book & Manuscript Library University of Pennsylvania > Original Message > From: Epp, Ronald [mailto:r.epp@snhu.edu] > Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 11:38 AM > To: ryan@pobox.upenn.ed > Subject: Van Wyck Brooks Ms. > > > > According to the essay on Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963) in "The > Dictionary of American Biography" (Supp. 7, pg. 81) the "Van Wyck > Brooks papers are held at the University of Pennsylvania library." 1 Message Page 1 of 3 Epp, Ronald From: Kim Nusco [knusco@masshist.org) Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 3:55 PM To: Epp, Ronald Subject: RE: Thomas Wren Ward Papers Dear Mr. Epp, The Thomas Wren Ward Papers are part of our on-site collection, so there should be nothing to prevent you from viewing the collection. In general, we ask for advance notice only for collections that are stored off-site, as we require some time to recall materials from the repository. Any restrictions on collection use should be indicated in the online catalog, with the exception of some printed materials in our special libraries that have been moved off-site temporarily. If you have any questions about the other holdings you would like to use, please let me know at least 24 hours before your visit, and I will ensure that they will be available to you. We look forward to your visit on May 27th. Best wishes, Kimberly Nusco Reference Librarian Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02215 (617)646-0509 Original Message From: Epp, Ronald [mailto:r.epp@snhu.edu] Sent: Thursday, May 20, 2004 2:41 PM To: library@masshist.org Subject: Thomas Wren Ward Papers Following through on Michael Rush's suggestion, do you forsee any difficulty in my use of the Thomas Wren Ward Papers and other holdings if I schedule a visit on the 27th of May? Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. Director of Shapiro Library Southern New Hampshire University Manchester, NH 03106 603-668-2211, ext. 2164 603-645-9685 fax 5/26/2004