Search this guide

Note: enter only one keyword. For the most targeted highlighting, choose the least common term, i.e., the surname of Sedgwick rather than the first name Theodore. To search for phrases and multiple keywords, use the Search button below the Find box.

Collection Summary
Biographical Sketches
Collection Description
Related Materials
Acquisition Information
Other Formats
Detailed Description of the Collection digital content
Appendix
Preferred Citation
Access Terms

FIND Keywords

Dana Family Papers

1654-1950

Guide to the Collection

browse digital content

Representative digitized documents from this collection:

Collection Summary

Creator:	Dana family
Title:	Dana family papers
Dates:	1654-1950
Physical Description:	89 document boxes, 293 bound volumes (9 extra tall), and 2 oversize boxes
Call Number:	Ms. N-1088
Call Number:	Special Colls. Washington Allston sketch books (vols. 177-180 only)
Microfilm Call Number:	P-646, 6 reels (microfilm) (vols. 1-25, 39-103 only)
Microfilm Call Number:	P-202, 2 reels (microfilm) (Washington Allston papers only)
Repository:	Massachusetts Historical Society 1154 Boylston StreetBoston, MA 02215library@masshist.org

Abstract

This collection consists of the personal and official documents of Francis Dana, Massachusetts revolutionary leader, minister to Russia, and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; Richard Henry Dana, noted poet and essayist; Richard Henry Dana, Jr., author and United States attorney for Massachusetts during the Civil War; Richard Henry Dana III, civil service reformer; and other family members.

Biographical Sketches

Francis Dana (1743-1811), Massachusetts revolutionary leader, Continental Congressman, unofficial United States minister to the Russia of Catherine the Great, and chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Richard Henry Dana (1787-1879), son of Francis Dana, poet, essayist, literary scholar, and editor of the periodical Idle Man.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882), anti-slavery lawyer, United States attorney for Massachusetts during the Civil War, and author of Two Years Before the Mast (1840).

Richard Henry Dana III (1851-1931), lawyer, civil service reformer, and author of the Massachusetts Ballot Act of 1888, the first Australian ballot law enacted in the United States.

Collection Description

The Dana family papers, 1654-1950, consist of 89 boxes, 293 bound volumes, and 2 oversize boxes of 17th, 18th, and 19th century official documents. The collection contains primarily the papers of four generations of the distinguished Dana family: Francis Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Richard Henry Dana III. Other family members of importance represented in the collection include: Richard Dana (1700-1772), Edmund Trowbridge (1709-1793), Edmund Dana (1739-1823), Luther Dana (1763-1832), Washington Allston (1779-1843), Edmund Trowbridge Dana (1779-1859), Martha Remington Dana Allston (1784-1862), Elizabeth Ellery Dana (1789-1874), Sarah Ann Dana (1791-1866), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Ruth Charlotte Dana (1814-1901), Sarah Watson Dana (1814-1907), Edmund Trowbridge Dana, Jr. (1818-1869), Elizabeth Ellery Dana II (1846-1939), Frances Longfellow Dana (1853-1915), Helen Sherwood Ford Mumford Dana (1865-1934), Richard Henry Dana IV (1879-1933), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana (1881-1950), and Edmund Trowbridge Dana III (b. 1886). Also in the collection is a small body of papers of statesman Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848), a Dana client and friend.

As the Dana papers were acquired over a period of 41 years, the Massachusetts Historical Society has elected to maintain the integrity of each donation by arranging the material into twelve distinct series, organized mostly by family member.

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Dana family.

Other Formats

Digital facsimiles of portions of this collection are available on Life at Sea, a digital publication of Adam Matthew Digital, Inc. This digital resource is available at subscribing libraries; speak to your local librarian to determine if your library has access. The MHS makes this resource available onsite; see a reference librarian for more information.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Expand all

I. Dana family papers I, 1654-1933

This series consists of correspondence, legal documents, miscellaneous notes, lectures, speeches, clippings, and printed material. Subseries A contains general family correspondence. Subseries B-G are arranged by family member.

A. General correspondence, 1654-1933

Box 1 of this subseries contains 17th and 18th century legal documents, including some belonging to Richard Dana and Edmund Trowbridge. Boxes 2-4 contain almost exclusively the correspondence and legal papers of Francis Dana. Among his more notable correspondents were: John Adams (1735-1826), Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), Robert R. Livingston (1746-1813), and Theophilus Parsons (1750-1813). Some Francis Dana material can also be found in boxes 1 and 5.

Boxes 5-15 contain primarily the correspondence of Richard Henry Dana, 1811-1860. His letters are mostly to and from Dana family members, although there is also correspondence with William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), Edward Tyrrel Channing (1790-1856), Caleb Sprague Henry (1804-1884), George Ticknor (1791-1871), and Gulian Crommelin Verplanck (1786-1870). In addition, there are Richard Henry Dana letters in boxes 16-23.

Boxes 6-23 contain the correspondence of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., with the greatest concentration of his letters in boxes 16-23. His important correspondents included: Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), George Douglas Campbell, Duke of Argyll (1823-1900), George Bancroft (1800-1891), William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), William Henry Seward (1801-1872), Charles Sumner (1811-1874), and Anthony Trollope (1815-1882).

The papers of Richard Henry Dana III are located in boxes 16-33. The bulk of his letters is concentrated in boxes 25-33 and covers the years 1884-1931. His most notable correspondents were: Charles Francis Adams, Jr. (1835-1915), Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921), Charles William Eliot (1834-1926), Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), Henry Lee Higginson (1834-1919), William Lawrence (1850-1941), Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856-1943), and Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). Roosevelt's letters, 1885-1896, are especially important on the issue of civil service reform.

Box 1

Legal documents, etc., 1654-1769

Box 2

Correspondence, etc., 1770-1782

Box 3

Correspondence, etc., 1783-1795

Box 4

Correspondence, etc., 1796-1808

Box 5

Correspondence, etc., 1809-1824

Box 6

Correspondence, etc., 1825-1834

Digital facsimiles of materials in Box 6 are available on Life at Sea, a digital publication of Adam Matthew Digital, Inc. This digital resource is available at subscribing libraries; speak to your local librarian to determine if your library has access. The MHS makes this resource available onsite; see a reference librarian for more information.

Box 7

Correspondence, etc., 1835-1840

Digital facsimiles of materials in Box 7 are available on Life at Sea, a digital publication of Adam Matthew Digital, Inc. This digital resource is available at subscribing libraries; speak to your local librarian to determine if your library has access. The MHS makes this resource available onsite; see a reference librarian for more information.

Box 8

Correspondence, etc., 1841-1842

Box 9

Correspondence, etc., 1843-1844

Box 10

Correspondence, etc., 1845-1848

Box 11

Correspondence, etc., 1849-1850

Box 12

Correspondence, etc., 1851-1852

Box 13

Correspondence, etc., 1853-1854

Box 14

Correspondence, etc., 1855-1856

Box 15

Correspondence, etc., 1857-1860

Box 16

Correspondence, etc., 1861-1864

Box 17

Correspondence, etc., 1865-1867

Box 18

Correspondence, etc., 1868-1870

Box 19

Correspondence, etc., 1871-1872

Box 20

Correspondence, etc., 1873-1875

Box 21

Correspondence, etc., 1876

Box 22

Correspondence, etc., 1877

Box 23

Correspondence, etc., 1878-1879

Box 24

Correspondence, etc., 1880-1883

Box 25

Correspondence, etc., 1884-1890

Box 26

Correspondence, etc., 1891-1900

Box 27

Correspondence, etc., 1901-1909

Box 28

Correspondence, etc., 1910-1914

Box 29

Correspondence, etc., 1915-1918

Box 30

Correspondence, etc., 1919-1923

Box 31

Correspondence, etc., 1924-1926

Box 32

Correspondence, etc., 1927-1929

Box 33

Correspondence, etc., 1930-1933

B. Francis Dana papers, 1749-1810

Box 34

Miscellaneous papers, including an account book, legal notes, writings on Russia, and part of a typescript of the secret journal (1782) of John Jay (1745-1829), 1749-1810

C. Richard Henry Dana papers, 1812-1854

Box 35

Miscellaneous notes on literature and religion, clippings, and letters written between 1840 and 1854 to Henry Reed (1808-1854), 1812-1854

Box 36-37

Handwritten lectures on Shakespeare and typescripts of the lectures, [1839-1840]

Box 38

Miscellaneous notes, clippings, and printed material, n.d.

D. Richard Henry Dana, Jr., papers, 1832-1915

Box 39

Miscellaneous papers, including college themes, a typescript of a journal kept aboard the Alert (1836), a dissertation on the "Moral & Literary Character of Bulwer's Novels" (1837), and miscellaneous material relating to a Boston dinner for Charles Dickens (1842) and an 1860 trip to China, 1832-1872

Digital facsimiles of materials in Box 39 are available on Life at Sea, a digital publication of Adam Matthew Digital, Inc. This digital resource is available at subscribing libraries; speak to your local librarian to determine if your library has access. The MHS makes this resource available onsite; see a reference librarian for more information.

Box 40

Miscellaneous legal papers, including a copy of the indictment in the case of freedom seeker Shadrach Minkins (1851); notes, clippings, and a "recollected journal" of the Anthony Burns case (1854); notes concerning sedition and treason during the Civil War; drafts of prize bills (1864); notes and printed material relating to the Lawrence-Dana controversy (1876); and an inventory and other documents concerning the estate of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 1851-1908

Box 41

Miscellaneous articles, lectures, and speeches of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 1841-1891

Box 42

Miscellaneous clippings and printed material concerning the life and writings of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., as well as a diagram of David Glasgow Farragut's entrance into Mobile Bay (1864), 1841-1915

E. Edmund Trowbridge Dana, Jr., papers, 1837-1850

Box 43

Miscellaneous drawings, law notes, and newspaper clippings, 1837-1850

F. Richard Henry Dana III papers, 1862-1931

Box 44

Miscellaneous papers, including biographical notes, drawings, notes on rowing at Harvard (1870-1872), a Harvard Law School paper: "Should a Lawyer Accept the Side of a Case which Appears Wrong?" (1877), a law notebook, an appointment book (1875-1876), reminiscences of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and correspondence and printed material relating to reunions of the Harvard class of 1874, 1862-1905

Box 45

Miscellaneous legal papers, invitations, and printed material, 1877-1931

Box 46

Notes, printed material, and clippings relating to the Associated Charities of Boston, ballot law reform, the Charles River Dam, civil service reform, and other organizations and issues, 1878-1925

Box 47-48

Miscellaneous speeches and writings, including "An American View of the Irish Question" and drafts of Hospitable England in the Seventies, 1902-1921

Box 49-51

Rough drafts of Dana's unpublished autobiography Activities of Seventy Years and Patronage under Eight Presidents, n.d.

Box 52

Part of a draft of Activities of Seventy Years and Patronage under Eight Presidents and drafts of An Autobiographical Sketch: Richard Henry Dana 3d to His Descendants, 1907

Box 53-54

Clippings and copies of articles by or about Richard Henry Dana III, 1872-1920

G. Washington Allston papers, 1801-1929

This subseries contains the correspondence and writings of Washington Allston. Among Allston's correspondents were: John Stevens Cogdell (1778-1847), Richard Henry Dana, James McMurtrie, Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872), and Francis Bayard Winthrop (1754-1817).

Also on microfilm, P-202.

Box 55

Correspondence, clippings, etc., 1801-1929

Box 56

Miscellaneous writings of Washington Allston and printed material, etc., by or about Allston, n.d.

H. Miscellaneous Dana papers, 1800-1932

Box 57

Miscellaneous Dana family papers, including correspondence, genealogical notes, a bibliography of works published by or about members of the Dana family, notebooks containing family letter indexes compiled by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and miscellaneous papers of Allston Dana, Edmund Dana, Edmund Trowbridge Dana III, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, Luther Dana, Martha Remington Dana Allston, Richard Dana, Richard Henry Dana IV, and Sarah Watson Dana, 1800-1907

Box 58-59

Miscellaneous notes and papers concerning the estates of Martha Remington Dana Allston, Thomas Gold Appleton (1812-1884), Ruth Charlotte Dana, Sarah Watson Dana, Sarah Dana Swayne, and others; bills and receipts for the upkeep of Dana property in Cambridge and Manchester, Massachusetts, 1830-1932

Box 60-61

Miscellaneous clippings concerning the careers of Richard Henry Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Richard Henry Dana III, with some notes and printed material, 1846-1909

Box 62

Mostly undated photographs of Dana family members and property; business cards; postcards, 1866

Box 63

Notes and extracts of legal cases of Edmund Trowbridge, n.d.

Close I. Dana family papers I, 1654-1933

II. Dana family papers II, 1658-1926

Box 64

Miscellaneous legal documents and correspondence, mostly concerning the legal practice of Edmund Trowbridge, 1658-1759

Box 65

Miscellaneous legal documents and correspondence of Edmund Trowbridge and Francis Dana, 1760-1790

Box 66

Miscellaneous papers of Francis Dana, 1791-1811

Box 67

Miscellaneous legal documents and correspondence of Richard Henry Dana, including a small amount of material of Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Richard Henry Dana III, 1812-1899

Box 68-69

Incoming correspondence of Richard Henry Dana III, 1900-1926

Close II. Dana family papers II, 1658-1926

III. Dana family papers III, 1731-1930

Box 70

Miscellaneous correspondence, notes, etc., of Francis Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Richard Henry Dana III (including his diary of a European voyage, 1875), Edith Longfellow Dana, and others, 1731-1930

Close III. Dana family papers III, 1731-1930

IV. Dana family papers IV, 1658-1840

Box 71-72

Miscellaneous legal documents and correspondence, mostly concerning the activities of statesman Harrison Gray Otis, 1658-1840

Close IV. Dana family papers IV, 1658-1840

V. Dana family papers V, 1861-1866

Box 73

Photostats of correspondence between Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Secretary of State William Henry Seward (originals at the University of Rochester Library), 1861-1866

Close V. Dana family papers V, 1861-1866

VI. Bound volumes, 1724-1931Digital Content

This series contains the Dana bound volumes, originally numbered 1-193 and arranged by individual. Additions to the collection have been placed under the appropriate individual and have been designated by decimal points and additional numerals, e.g. 1.1, 1.2, etc. The bound volumes consist of diaries, journals, letterbooks, notebooks, account books, law minutes, writ books, and assorted other items of Richard Dana, Francis Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana III, Edmund Trowbridge Dana, Edmund Trowbridge Dana, Jr., and Elizabeth Ellery Dana.

A. Richard Dana volumes, 1724-1785

Vol. 1-2 (XT)

Court account books, 1724-1785

Also on microfilm, P-646, reel 1.

Vol. 3-5 (XT)

Writ books, 1733-1768

Also on microfilm, P-646, reel 1.

Vol. 6-9

Writ books, 1752-1772

Also on microfilm, P-646, reel 1.

Vol. 10-16

Court books, 1734-1772

Also on microfilm, P-646, reel 2.

Vol. 17-19

Justice of the Peace records, 1757-1772

Also on microfilm, P-646, reel 2.