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William Wordsworth collection

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: 4621

Scope and content

Letters, manuscripts, broadsides, pictures, documents, sound recordings, and objects by, to, belonging to, about, or relating to Wordsworth or his family. Includes first drafts of poems Wordsworth later published in Yarrow Revisited (1835); 51 of the sonnets published in Ecclesiastical Sketches, in an early fair copy before final revision for publication; manuscripts of 10 additional sonnets sent to Wordsworth's first American editor, Prof. Henry Reed; and a transcript made before publication of the poem "Composed Upon an Evening of Extraordinary Splendour and Beauty." Also included are manuscripts by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sara Hutchinson, Dorothy Wordsworth, Mary Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, Robert Southey, Lord Byron, and John Keats. Byron manuscript is a draft of an unfinished short story; Keats manuscript is a fragment of his poem "Isabella." Coleridge manuscripts include a first version of "Dejection: An Ode," a draft of a variant of "The Eolian Harp," and other poems; fragments of essays; and notes on Schiller's plays The Piccolomini and The Death of Wallenstein. Autograph manuscript of Mary Monkhouse sonnet "Unquiet Childhood here by special grace", likely in the hand of Dora Wordsworth.

Scope and content

Correspondence includes letters between the Wordsworth family and Henry Reed; letters from the Wordsworths to George Huntly Gordon, former secretary to Sir Walter Scott; correspondence with fellow writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and Thomas De Quincey; and extensive correspondence among members of the Hutchinson, Monkhouse, and Wordsworth families. Also included are a few letters each from Thomas Carlyle, Walter Savage Landor, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Thomas Babington Macaulay. In addition, there are letters concerning the building of the Wordsworth Collection, from Cynthia Morgan St. John and Lane Cooper. Other correspondents include Elizabeth Smith Aders, John T. Barker, James Dykes Campbell, Catherine Clarkson, Derwent Coleridge, Sara Coleridge, Joseph Cottle, William Rowan Hamilton, John Louis Haney, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Herbert Hill, Hannah Hoare, Leonard Huxley, William Jackson, William Angus Knight, Charles Lamb, Charles and Sophia Lloyd, Thomas Manning, Basil Montagu, Edward Moxon, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Edward Quillinan, Henry Crabb Robinson, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Jonathan Walton, John Wilson.

Dates

  • 1656 - 1987
  • Majority of material found within 1798 - 1850

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

Access Restrictions:

Access restricted to the permission of the curator.

Restrictions on Use:

Researchers may view one folder at a time.

Restrictions on Use:

Copyright restriction: reproductions can only be made from originals held by this Division.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

English poet, one of the founders of the Romantic movement in English literature.

Extent

35.8 cubic feet. (35.8 cubic feet.)

1 DVDs. (1 DVDs.)

3 mapcase folders. (3 mapcase folders.)

Abstract

Items relating to Wordsworth and his family. Includes first drafts of poems written by Wordsworth. Also included are manuscripts by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sara Hutchinson, Dorothy Wordsworth, Mary Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, Robert Southey, Lord Byron, and John Keats.

COLLECTION ARRANGEMENT

Organized into the following series: Bound manuscripts; documents; reviews, pamphlets, etc.; letters by Wordsworth; letters to Wordsworth, together with manuscripts by other writers; objects; broadsides; portraits and other pictures.

Bound manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title keyword; letters by Wordsworth, in chronological order; and letters to Wordsworth, alphabetically by correspondent.

RELATED MATERIALS

Large collection of books by and about Wordsworth is also held in the repository, including all editions of his published works, books from his personal library, and works on the Lake District.

SEPARATED MATERIAL

Manuscripts - cataloged individually in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

  1. 4621 Bd. Ms. 2; Circa 1840; Harriet L. Barnes, Journal of a tour to the Lakes in the autumn of 1840
  2. 4621 Bd. Ms. 3 +; 1799-1800; William Wordsworth, The brothers: a pastoral poem
  3. 4621 Bd. Ms. 4 +; Circa 1834-1837; Baron George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron "Childe Harold" proofs and letter
  4. 4621 Bd. Ms. 5 +; 1822-1823; Baron George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron story and letter page with seal
  5. 4621 Bd. Ms. 6 +; Oct. 13, 1806; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letter to Thomas Clarkson
  6. 4621 Bd. Ms. 7 tiny; Jun. 25, 1799; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letter to Parry
  7. 4621 Bd. Ms. 8 ++; 1656-1828; The Cottle album
  8. 4621 Bd. Ms. 9; 1809; Thomas De Quincey, Notes on Wordsworth's Convention of Cintra
  9. 4621 Bd. Ms. 10 +; 1883-1887; Harry Goodwin, Pen and ink drawings illustrating Wordsworth's poems
  10. 4621 Bd. Ms. 11-13 +; 1949; Everett M. Hankins, Literary criticism by William Wordsworth
  11. 4621 Bd. Ms. 14 +; Circa 1830-1899; Fanny Johnstone, "Dorothy Wordsworth" play
  12. 4621 Bd. Ms. 15-17; 1809-1823; Lady Diana Le Fleming, Le Fleming family account books
  13. 4621 Bd. Ms. 18-19; Circa 1800; Charles Lloyd, Isabel, a domestick tale, or, Godwin vs. Godwin
  14. 4621 Bd. Ms. 20; 1845; Rachel Myers Meakin, Album
  15. 4621 Bd. Ms. 21 +; Circa 1840; C. Partridge and M. Partridge, Smiles and tears
  16. 4621 Bd. Ms. 22 ++; 1892-1955; Cynthia Morgan St. John, Scrapbook on Wordsworth
  17. 4621 Bd. Ms. 23; 1829; Emily Trevenen, Album
  18. 4621 Bd. Ms. 24 +; Circa 1890; J.R. Tutin, The Wordsworth year-book
  19. 4621 Bd. Ms. 25; Circa 1900-1919; Cynthia Morgan St. John, A scrap book of parodies
  20. 4621 Bd. Ms. 26 ++; 1890s; A Wordsworth scrap-book
  21. 4621 Bd. Ms. 27; 1823-1868; Dora Wordsworth, Commonplace book
  22. 4621 Bd. Ms. 28; 1800s; Foreign inns
  23. 4621 Bd. Ms. 29 ++; Circa 1839; William Wordsworth, Poem and note
  24. 4621 Bd. Ms. 30 tiny; Circa 1833; William and Mary Wordsworth, Notebook
  25. 4621 Bd. Ms. 31; Circa 1828; Wordsworth portrait and letter
  26. 4621 Bd. Ms. 32 ++; Circa 1800-1848; Wordsworth portraits and letter
  27. 4621 Bd. Ms. 33 +++; Circa 1807; William Wordsworth, Poems in two volumes
  28. 4621 Bd. Ms. 352 tiny; 1827; Silhouette portrait album of the Hutchinson family
  29. 4621 Bd. Ms. 353 +; Circa 1830-1839; Benjamin Robert Haydon, Album
  30. 4621 Bd. Ms. 354 ++; 1888-1919; Lake District scrapbook
  31. 4621 Bd. Ms. 355 +; 1964; Dove cottage films and xerographs in the Department of Rare Books, Cornell University Library

Physical Description

Letters, manuscripts, broadsides, pictures, documents, and objects.

General

Contact Information:
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:
Liz Muller
Date completed:
March 2009
EAD encoding:
Liz Muller
Date modified:
Kristen Reichenbach, January 2019

General

The container list below currently includes only the bound manuscript items in the collection.

Dove Cottage manuscripts are reproductions of the originals.

Status
Completed
Author
Compiled by Liz Muller
Date
March 2009
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Revision Statements

  • 12/07/2018: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
  • 2007-05-29: converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002

Repository Details

Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository

Contact:
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)