1843-1938
Guide to the Microfilm Edition
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
I. Correspondence, 1843-1938
Arranged chronologically.
This series contains Henry Adams's correspondence with members of the Adams family, especially his parents Charles Francis Adams and Abigail Brooks Adams, his brothers Charles Francis Adams and Brooks Adams, and his sister Louisa Catherine Adams. Also included are letters to and from friends Elizabeth Cameron, John Hay, Charles Milnes Gaskell, Clarence King, John La Farge, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Cecil Spring Rice, as well as prominent individuals such as Henry James, James Russell Lowell, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Francis Parkman, Henry Hobson Richardson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Edith Wharton. Reels 8 and 9 consist primarily of long letters written by Henry Adams while traveling in the South Seas. Reels 10-31 contain letters to Adams and a few other papers, including newspaper clippings, publishers' statements of accounts, a translation by Adams, his manuscript of "The Rule of Phase Applied to History," and related extracts.
See the Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 1-9 or the Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 10-31 below to locate specific letters.
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.
A. Tahiti papers, 1890 and undated
This subseries contains notes, printed matter, and other papers on the history and culture of Tahiti, compiled by Henry Adams for his book on Marau Taaroa.
B. Miscellaneous notes, writings, and graphic material, 1891-1909
This subseries contains notes on Chartres by Henry Adams; copies and translations of poems; photographs and watercolors; original writings, including a manuscript copy of "The Rule of Phase Applied to History"; and papers related to some of Adams's publications.
This copy of Adams's essay is apparently one of two holograph copies that Adams made.
C. Diary of Henry Adams, 1888-1889
This fragmentary diary contains only a few weekly entries.
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.
Letters from Henry Adams
Included is Adams's 82-page critique of Brooks Adams's biography of John Quincy Adams.
The original letters of Bernhard Berenson are located at I Tatti, Harvard University.
Included are typed transcripts of these letters, with letters from Bliss Perry to Worthington C. Ford, 19 Dec. 1921, and Ford to Ida A. Higginson, 16 Jan. 1922.
Included are typed transcripts of some of these letters.
IV. Manuscripts from Brown University, 1871-1912
Arranged chronologically.
This series contains papers from Brown University, primarily letters written by Henry Adams to Herbert Baxter Adams, George William Curtis, Worthington C. Ford, John Hay, Charles F. Thwing, Emory Washburn, and others. The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters from Henry Adams to John Hay, including several lengthy letters written while Adams was traveling in the South Seas and Europe, 1890-1892. The series also contains a typed copy of an address delivered by Adams to the American Historical Association in 1894 and a list, in the hand of John Hay, of members of the American Academy of the Arts and Letters for 1905.
This letter has been dated "189-," but was almost certainly written in 1881 to Herbert Baxter Adams of Johns Hopkins, not to Henry Adams.
Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 1-9
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.
Agassiz, Alexander
Bancroft, George
Bayard, Sen. Thomas F.
Bright, John
Browning, Robert
Chamberlain, Joseph
Child, Francis James
Cobden, Richard
Cox, Interior Secretary Jacob Dolson
Dana, Charles A.
Doyle, Sir Francis
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Evarts, William Maxwell
Forster, William E.
Freeman, Edward A.
Froude, James A.
Garfield, James Abram Garfield
Garrison, William Lloyd
These letters were filmed twice by accident and mistakenly filed at 1873.
Hacknel, Julius
Hewitt, Abram S.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr.
James, Henry
Three of these letters have been published in: James, Henry. Letters. Ed. Leon Edel. Vol. II. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1974.
Jenckes, Sen. Thomas A.
La Farge, John
Lamar, Sen. L. Q. C.
Lecky, Mrs. W. E. H.
Lodge, Henry Cabot
Lowell, James Russell
Lyell, Sir Charles
MacVeagh, Wayne
Maine, Sir Henry
Millet, Francis D.
Milnes, Richard Monckton (Lord Houghton)
Motley, John Lothrop
Palfrey, John Gorham
Palgrave, Francis Turner Palgrave
Parkman, Francis
Procter, Anne B. (or Mrs. "Barry Cornwall")
Pumpelly, Raphael
Richardson, Henry Hobson
Some of these letters are quoted in: Friedlaender, Marc. "Henry Hobson Richardson, Henry Adams, and John Hay." Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Vol. 81. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, [1970]. 137-166.
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
Schurz, Carl
Sherman, Gen. William T.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Stoddard, Charles Warren
Story, William Wetmore
Sumner, Charles
Taylor, Gen. Richard
Tilden, Samuel J.
Trevelyan, George Otto
Walpole, Spencer
Warner, Charles Dudley
Welling, James C.
Wells, David Ames
White, Stanford
Woolner, Thomas
Index of Select Correspondents for Reels 10-31
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.
Adams, Brooks
Henry Adams's younger
brother
Adams, Charles Francis
Henry Adams's older
brother
Adams, Charles Francis (1866-1954)
Nephew
of Henry Adams, son of John Quincy Adams
Adams, Elizabeth Ogden
Niece of Henry
Adams, daughter of Charles Francis Adams
Adams, Evelyn Davis ("Daisy")
Wife of
Brooks Adams
Adams, Frances Crowninshield
Wife of John
Quincy Adams
Adams, Henry
Nephew of Henry Adams, son of
Charles Francis Adams
Adams, Herbert Baxter
Adams, James Truslow
Adams, John
Nephew of Henry Adams, son of
Charles Francis Adams
Adams, John Quincy
Henry Adams's oldest
brother
Adams, Mary Ogden
Wife of Charles Francis
Adams
Agassiz, Alexander
Agassiz, George
Anderson, Elizabeth Kilgour
Wife of
Nicholas Longworth Anderson
Angell, James B.
Arii Taimai
Mother of Tati Salmon and
Queen Marau of Tahiti
Bacon, Martha Cowdin
Wife of Robert
Bacon
Bancroft, Frederic
Barnes, Grace
Secretary to John La
Farge
Belmont, Perry
Berenson, Bernard
Berenson, Mary
Bigelow, John
Bigelow, Melville
Bigelow, William Sturgis
Brice, Kate
Bryce, Marian
Wife of James
Bryce
Bumstead, Henry
Burgess, John W.
Burlingame, E. L.
Cameron, Senator James Donald
Carter, Morris
Chanler, Laura
Chanler, Margaret
Wife of Winthrop
Chanler
Chanler, Winthrop
Channing, Edward
Chapin, Horace Dwight
Henry Adams's
financial agent from 1909, brother-in-law of Edward William
Hooper
Chapman, John Jay
Charlton, Mary
Choate, Joseph
Clark, Sir John
Cook, Albert S.
Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson
Cortissoz, Royal
Cram, Ralph Adams
Croly, Herbert
Cross, Wilbur
Cunliffe, Sir Robert
Curtis, Greely Stevenson
Husband of Fanny
Hooper Curtis
Curtis, Lise
Wife of Ralph
Curtis
Curtis, Ralph
Curzon, George
Curzon, Mary
Dana, Charles A.
Draper, Ruth
Dwight, Theodore F.
Eliot, Charles W.
Endicott, William
Eustis, Edith
Farrand, Max
Ford, Worthington C.
Frewen, Moreton
Gardner, Constance Lodge
Wife of Augustus
Peabody Gardner, daughter of Henry Cabot Lodge and Anna Cabot Mills
Lodge
Gardner, Isabella Stewart
Gaskell, Lady Catherine
Wife of Charles
Milnes Gaskell
Gaskell, Charles Milnes
The Charles Milnes Gaskell letters consist of transcripts written by Worthington C. Ford, not originals.
Gay, Matilda
Wife of Walter
Gay
Gay, Walter
Gilder, Helena de Kay
Wife of Richard
Watson Gilder
Gilder, Richard Watson
Godkin, Lawrence
Granby, Violet
Gray, William
Servant
Green, Samuel S.
Greenslet, Ferris
Grinnell, Charles
Griscom, Lloyd
Hadley, Arthur
Hale, Chandler
Hart, Albert Bushnell
Hartwell, Alfred S.
Harvard College
Hay, Clara Stone
Wife of John
Hay
Hay, John (d. 1 July 1905)
Hay, Mary
Hewitt, Abram S.
Higgins, Cecil
Higginson, Henry L.
Higginson, Ida A.
Wife of Henry L.
Higginson
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Holt, Henry
Homans, Abigail Adams ("Hitty")
Niece of
Henry Adams, daughter of John Quincy Adams
Homans, Robert
Husband of Abigail Adams
Homans
Hooper, Edward William
Brother of Henry
Adams's wife Marian and father of Ellen, Louisa, Mabel, Fanny, and
Mary
Houghton Mifflin Company
Hoyt, Elizabeth
Hubert, Henri
Huntington, Ellsworth
Iddings, Joseph P.
James, Henry
Jameson, John Franklin
Johnson, Allen
Johnson, Bradley T.
Johnson, Robert Underwood
Jones, Beatrix
Daughter of Mary Cadwalader
Jones
Jones, Mary Cadwalader
Jordan, David S.
Jusserand, Elise
Wife of Jules
Jusserand
Jusserand, Jules
Kaneko, Kentaro
Keep, Florence
Wife of Frederic
Keep
King, Clarence
Kipling, Rudyard
La Farge, Bancel
Husband of Mabel Hooper
La Farge
La Farge, Christopher Grant
La Farge, Florence
Wife of Grant La
Farge
La Farge, Father John
La Farge, John
La Farge, Mabel Hooper
Daughter of Edward
William Hooper
La Farge, Margaret
Wife of John La
Farge
Langley, Samuel P.
Lincoln, Waldo
Lindsay, Ronald
Little, Brown & Company
Lodge, Anna Cabot Mills
Wife of Henry
Cabot Lodge, referred to by Henry Adams as "Sister Anne"
Lodge, Elizabeth Frelinghuysen Davis ("Bessy")
Wife of George Cabot Lodge
Lodge, George Cabot ("Bay") (d. 21 Aug. 1909)
Son of Henry Cabot Lodge and Anna Cabot Mills
Lodge
Lodge, Henry Cabot
Longmans, Green & Company
Low, Seth
Lowell, Abbott Lawrence
Lowell, Francis
Luquiens, Frederick Bliss
Lyall, Alfred
MacVeagh, Wayne
Marau, Queen of Tahiti
Marbury, Elisabeth
Martin, Edward Sandford
Mayo, Lawrence Shaw
Miles, Sherman
Mitchell, Langdon
Morgan, Anne
Morison, Samuel Eliot
Nevins, Allen
Olney, Richard
Palmer, Ralph
Parkman, Francis
Phillips, William Hallett
Potter, John Briggs
Husband of Ellen
Hooper Potter
Pritchett, Henry S.
Pumpelly, Raphael
Putnam, G. P.
Quesada, Gonzalo de
Quincy, Mary Adams
Henry Adams's younger
sister
Reid, Elisabeth Mills
Wife of Whitelaw
Reid
Reid, Whitelaw
Rhodes, James Ford
Rice, Sir Cecil Spring
The bulk of this correspondence consists of Sir Cecil Spring Rice's letters to Elizabeth Cameron.
Robinson, Edward
Rockhill, William Woodville
Rodgers, T. Slidell
Rodin, Auguste
Roosevelt, Edith
Roosevelt, Ethel
Wife of Richard Derby
Roosevelt
Roosevelt, Theodore
Root, Elihu
Ropes, John Codman
Russell, Archibald
Saint-Gaudens, Augusta
Wife of Augustus
Saint-Gaudens
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus
Saint-Gaudens, Homer
Salmon, Tati
Charles Scribner's Sons
Sorchan, Charlotte
Speck von Sternburg, Baroness
Stanton, Theodore
Stickney, Lucy
Stickney, Trumbull
Stoddard, Charles Warren
Storer, Maria Longworth
Wife of Bellamy
Storer
Storey, Moorfield
Taylor, Henry Osborn
Thayer, William Roscoe
Thoron, Ward
Husband of Louisa Hooper
Thoron
Thurston, Sir John
Thwing, Charles F.
Tone, Aileen
Trescot, Edward
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto
Trevelyan, Lady
Trevelyan, Robert Calverley
Villard, Oswald G.
Wadsworth, Alice Hay
Daughter of John Hay
and Clara Stone Hay
Walcott, Charles D.
Wallace, David Duncan
Ward, Humphry
Ward, Jean Reid
Wife of John
Ward
Ward, Mary A.
Wife of Humphry
Ward
Warner, Langdon
Weeks, Raymond
Wendell, Barrett
Wharton, Edith
White, Henry
White, Muriel
Wife of Henry
White
White, Stanford
Whitney, Helen Hay
Daughter of John Hay
and Clara Stone Hay
Wister, Owen
Woolner, Alice
Wife of Thomas
Woolner
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:
Subjects:
Materials Removed from the Collection
Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Henry Adams photographs (Photo. Coll. 40).