Finding Aid to the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Finding Aid Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, 1610-1971 (Bulk dates: 1745-1950) Catalog No. LONG 27923; Individual Numbers: LONG 21294, 21295 Longfellow National Historic Site Cambridge, Massachusetts LONGFELLOW NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE 105 BRATTLE STREET CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS FINDING AID FOR WADSWORTH-LONGFELLOW PAPERS, 1610-1971 (BULK DATES 1745-1950) COLLECTION NO.: LONG 27923; INDIVIDUAL CATALOG NUMBERS: LONG 21294, LONG 21295 PREPARED BY LAUREN MALCOLM MARY P. PERREAULT MARGARET WELCH Northeast MUSEUM SERVICES CENTER SPRING 2003 REVISED 2006 Cover Illustration: Silhouette of Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829) , n.d. Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, Box12, Folder 1. Courtesy of Longfellow National Historic Site. Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers – i CONTENTS Preface............................................................................................................................................ iii Restrictions ......................................................................................................................................v Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 Part 1: Collection Description........................................................................................................... Scope and Content Note .....................................................................................................5 Series Descriptions .............................................................................................................9 Part 2: Biographical Data..............................................................................................................21 Genealogical Charts...........................................................................................................39 Part 3: Collection Listing..............................................................................................................59 I. William Longfellow (1650-1690) and Family Papers, 1610-1923 ..................................61 II. Stephen Longfellow (1685-1764) and Family Papers, 1710-1948 ..................................63 III. Papers Related to Additional Longfellow Family Branches, 1790-1971 .........................77 IV. Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829) and Family Papers, 1771-1948 .......................................78 V. Stephen Longfellow (1776-1849) and Family Papers, 1748-1948...................................94 VI. Unassociated Materials....................................................................................................102 VII. Separated Items ...............................................................................................................104 VIII. Oversize Materials ...........................................................................................................105 IX. Oversize Newsprint Materials .........................................................................................109 X. Photographic Materials ....................................................................................................111 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................115 ii – Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers – iii PREFACE This document, the Finding Aid for the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, 1610-1971 (Bulk dates 1745-1950), describes the correspondence, journals, genealogical records, and other materials related to the ancestors of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882). This collection was present in the Longfellow House before the National Park Service assumed control in 1972. Staff from the Northeast Museum Services Center (NMSC) catalogued the papers from Fall 2002 to Spring 2003 and produced a finding aid. NMSC staff added previously unidentified materials in Summer and Fall 2006 and revised the finding aid. The cataloguers would like to express their gratitude towards the Longfellow National Historic Site staff, particularly Jim Shea, Site Manager, Janice Hodson, former Curator, and Anita Israel, Archives Specialist. This document represents many hours of work recording details about the archival collection herein described. The reader should expect a reasonable degree of human error and consequently rely on personal observation of the actual items. iv – Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers – v RESTRICTIONS The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 United States Code 552a) governs the use of materials that document private individuals, groups and corporations. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include: • non-commercial and non-profit study, scholarship, research or teaching • criticism or commentary • as a NPS preservation or security copy for research use • as a research copy for deposit in another institution If the researcher later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the researcher is personally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement and agrees to indemnify the NPS from any legal action as a result of the error. Permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital or other copy of a document doesn't indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute or prepare derivative works from the document without permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group or corporation shown or otherwise recorded. Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups or corporations whose name, image, recorded words or private information (e.g. employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright isn't necessarily the National Park Service. The National Park Service is not legally liable for copyright, privacy or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use." This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy or publicity law. This institution also places restrictions on the use of cameras, photocopiers and scanners in the research room. vi – Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers – 1 INTRODUCTION This document, the Finding Aid for the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, 1610-1971 (Bulk dates 1745-1950), presents the papers of two New England families who were united by the marriage of Stephen Longfellow (1776-1849) and Zilpah Wadsworth (1778-1851). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881-1950), the family historian who lived and worked in the Longfellow House, collected these papers (now LONG 27923) which remained in the House until the National Park Service (NPS) took control of the property in 1972. Thus, they are part of Accession LONG-1, the House’s contents donated by the Longfellow House Trust to the NPS. These families’ members, including the most renowned descendant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, revered their ancestors and therefore kept their correspondence, journals, and other personal documents as relics. Annotations on the documents by Longfellow’s siblings Anne Longfellow Pierce (1810-1901) and Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Sr. (1814-1901) reveal their interest in and study of the papers. In addition, Alexander and his children, particularly Lucia Wadsworth Longfellow Barrett (1859-1940), compiled genealogical information about the Wadsworth and Longfellow families. It is believed that the materials, which comprise the bulk of the Wadsworth-Longfellow Family Papers, resided for most of the nineteenth century in the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland, Maine in which Anne Pierce lived until her death in 1901. They probably were transferred to Lucia Barrett’s custody before the Maine Historical Society took over the house in 1904. After Barrett’s death, her sister Mary King Longfellow (1852-1945) gave them to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881-1950) and the Longfellow House. Dana and his associate, Thomas de Valcourt who became House curator after Dana’s death in 1950, worked with the papers extensively. They probably rearranged the materials to a large extent and added their own research notes. In the 1970s National Park Service staff gathered documents, including the papers which form this collection, from various locations in the House and placed them in the archives. Researchers thereafter, including staff from the Maine Historical Society, relied heavily on them for several publications. Under a cooperative agreement with NPS, employees from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) with LONG Archives Specialist Anita Israel surveyed the unprocessed archival material in the LONG archives in February 2001.