Samuel Eliot Collection of Personal and Family Papers

Special Collections, Boston Athenæum

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© 2001 Boston Athenæum.

Descriptive Summary

Acquisition Information

This collection formerly known as the Morison Collection of Autograph Letters comprise materials accumulated by various members of the Eliot and Otis families of Boston and inherited by a descendant, Samuel Eliot Morison. Admiral Morison later transferred the papers to the Athenaeum, in stages, during the 1960s until 1967.

Related Materials

The Athenæum owns most of Eliot's many printed works as well as speeches and addresses on historical, social and political topics.

Biographical Note

(22 December 1821-14 September 1898) Historian and educator, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a well-known business and literary family, the son of William Havard Eliot and Margaret Boies (Bradford) Eliot. His father, a brother of Samuel Atkins Eliot, built the Tremont House, participated in the musical life of the city, and died suddenly in 1831 while a candidate for mayor. His mother was a daughter of Alden Bradford. Eliot graduated first in the class of 1839 at Harvard and after two years in Robert Gould Shaw's counting house in Boston, Eliot traveled for four years in Europe in the first half of the 1840s. During the decade following his return, he devoted himself to writing, his first historical work being the short Passages from the History of Liberty (1847). Two years later he published The Liberty of Rome: A History (two volumes), which he expanded in 1853 as History of Liberty, Part I, the Ancient Romans (two volumes) and History of Liberty, Part II, The Early Christians (two volumes). In these works he maintained that the history of liberty could be fully understood only by viewing it as the progress of the divine plan. He planned three subsequent parts to his history of liberty, "Papal Ages," "Monarchical Ages," and "American Republic," but never wrote them because of the increasing pressures of his humanitarian work and public service.

Eliot married Emily Marshall Otis of Boston on June 7,1853. She was the daughter of William Foster and Emily (Marshall) Otis. Although he didn't stop writing completely, he turned his attention to educational and philanthropic work. One of his earliest endeavors was his free teaching of workingmen and the opening of a charity school for homeless children in Boston. He became professor of history and political science at Trinity College, Connecticut, in 1856 and served as its president from 1860-1864. In 1864 Eliot returned to Boston, though he continued to teach classes periodically at Trinity until 1874. At Harvard, he was an overseer from 1866 to 1872, a lecturer in history from 1870 to 1873, and president of the alumni association for two years. He also served from 1868 to 1872 as president of the American Social Science Association. In 1872 he accepted the somewhat modest position of headmaster of the Boston Girls' High and Normal School, where he remained until 1876. From 1878 to 1880 he was superintendent of Boston Public Schools, later serving from 1885 to 1888 on the Boston School Committee.

Eliot's distinguished philanthropic work and public service are particularly well illustrated by his lengthy trusteeship of Massachusetts General Hospital and of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded as well as his twenty-six years as president of the Perkins Institute for the Blind. Other institutions that benefited from his association as member, trustee, chairman, or president included the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Athenaeum, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Bible Society, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. All these activities were enhanced by Eliot's extensive social connections, his outstanding public speaking, and his masterful administrative skills. Eliot received an honorary LL.D. from Columbia in 1863 and from Harvard in 1880. He died at Beverly Farms, Massachusetts of heart trouble, leaving a widow and a daughter; his two sons had died earlier. He is buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

Biographical Information taken directly from: Dictionary of American Biography, New York : Scribner ; London : Collier Macmillan, 1990, and Dictionary of American Biography, New York, C. Scribner's sons, 1928-58.

Written Works: Translations form the Spanish Poet Jose Zorilla, (1846). Passages from the History of Liberty, (1847). The Liberty of Rome, (2 volumes, 1849) which was revised to form Part I of the History of Liberty: Part I, The Ancient Romans; Part II, The Early Christians, (4 volumes, 1853). Manual of United States History: From 1492 to 1850, (1856). Manual of the United States: From 1492 to 1872, (1874). Poetry for Children, (1879). Selections from American Authors: A Reading Book for School and Home, (1879) and The Arabian Nights' Entertainments: Six Stores, (1880). Eliot also published numerous addresses, essays, and articles in periodical and pamphlet form.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of diaries and scrapbooks, letters, miscellaneous documents and assorted printed matter. Though the great bulk of the papers derive from Samuel Eliot, other family members are represented in the collection (and as recipients of letters) including his father, William Havard Eliot (1795-1831), his wife, Emily Otis Eliot, and certain of his wife's relatives: Harrison Gray Otis, Alleyne Otis (1807-1873) and Emily Ladenburg. A few more contemporary letters are addressed to Mrs. John H. Morison, mother of the donor.

This collection most clearly illustrates the background, education and activities of Samuel Eliot, Harvard Class of 1839, American historian and social reformer. The Eliot papers are anchored by his carefully written twelve volume diary, 1839-1898, in which he records his daily activities (with major trips taken to the South, Cuba and Europe) and observations as well as religious and philosophical reflections. Also noteworthy are Eliot's perceptions of the slavery issue, Whig politics, and his thoughts on the reform of education. Covered in greatest detail are the years prior to 1870. Allied to the diary are the letters received by Eliot from 1829 to 1898, which demonstrate the full range of his familial and professional ties. Many of the correspondents, such as Phillips Brooks, Charles W. Eliot, Julia Ward Howe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jared Sparks and George Ticknor were important local and national figures. The sum of the papers paints a vivid portrait of an enlightened, progressive and articulate civil servant of mid-century Boston.

Series I. is comprised of all the correspondence present in the collection including letters received by Samuel Eliot, Mr. and Mrs. William Havard Eliot, Emily Otis Eliot, Allyne Otis, Emily Ladenburg, and Mrs. John H. Morison.. Series II. is comprised of William Havard Eliot's scrap and commonplace books. Series III. is comprised of Samuel Eliot's diaries. Series IV. includes miscellaneous items.

Local Subject Headings

Eliot, Emily Marshall Otis, 1832-1906.

Eliot, William Havard, 1796-1831.

Otis, Alleyne, 1807-1873.

Otis, Harrison Gray, 1765-1848.

Ladenburg, Emily.

Social reformers--Correspondence.

Clergy--Correspondence.

Art, Italian.

Education--Massachusetts--Boston.

Cuba--Description and travel.

Southern States--Description and travel.

Arrangement

Letters in the collection are organized chronologically without regard to recipient.

Series Description/Holdings

List of Correspondents, Letters Received by Samuel Eliot

List of Correspondents, Letters Received by Emily Otis Eliot

List of Correspondents, Letters Received by Mr. and Mrs. William Havard Eliot

List of Correspondents, Letters Received by Allyne Otis

Miscellaneous Letters: Letters to Emily Ladenburg

Miscellaneous Letters: Letters to Mrs. John H. Morison

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