COLLECTION GUIDES

1660-1870

Guide to the Microfilm Edition


Collection Summary

Creator: Otis, Harrison Gray, 1765-1848
Title: Harrison Gray Otis papers
Dates: 1660-1870
Physical Description: 11 microfilm reels and 2 manuscript boxes.
Microfilm Call Number: P-228
Call Number: Ms. N-617 (boxes 13 and 14)
Repository:
Massachusetts Historical Society
1154 Boylston StreetBoston, MA 02215library@masshist.org

Abstract

This collection consists of the business, political, and personal papers of Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848) and other family members.

Biographical Sketch

Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848) was a lawyer, congressman, United States senator, and mayor of Boston.

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Sources

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Harrison Gray Otis, 1765-1848: The Urbane Federalist. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765-1848. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.

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Collection Description

This microfilm edition of the Harrison Gray Otis papers, 1660-1870, contains the business, political, and personal correspondence of Harrison Gray Otis and, to a lesser extent, the papers of his father Samuel Allyne Otis, his grandfather James Otis, his uncle James Otis, Jr., his half-sister Harriet Otis, and other family members. The microfilm consists primarily of the manuscript collection of Harrison Gray Otis papers (Ms. N-617), but also includes, in Series II, the Harrison Gray Otis papers II (Ms. N-618).

Personal papers include the correspondence of Harrison Gray Otis with his wife Sally Foster Otis and their children, particularly Sophia H. Otis, describing both private matters and his public activities as a congressman and senator. Among the business papers are receipts, deeds, accounts, and correspondence documenting Harrison Gray Otis's speculation in undeveloped lands, particularly in Maine and western Massachusetts. Political papers include correspondence with John Adams, Mathew Carey, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, Josiah Quincy, Theodore Sedgwick, Daniel Webster, and others on such topics as the Embargo of 1807, the Hartford Convention, slavery, Massachusetts state politics, and the Bank of the United States.

Bound volumes include a Harrison Gray Otis letterbook, 1788-1807; three account books, 1810-1820, 1814-1817, 1817-1819; and an 1806 diary of a tour in Canada. The collection also contains two diaries of Harriet Otis describing her life in Washington, D.C., and Boston, 1811-1814, and a trip to Vermont, 1817; and an unidentified diary of an 1840 trip to England and France.

Also includes unverified transcriptions of some of the Otis family correspondence, 1790-1820, and professional, business, and personal letters of Harrison Gray Otis, 1793-1816. The transcriptions were created by volunteers from the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) and are not included on Harrison Gray Otis microfilm.

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Acquisition Information

Gift of Samuel E. Morison, Sophia H. Ritchie, and others, 1926 and 1957.

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Other Formats

Digital facsimiles of the Harriet Otis diaries and the Harrison Gray Otis travel diary are available on Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture: The History of Tourism, 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.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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III. Bound volumes, 1788-1840

Close III. Bound volumes, 1788-1840
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List of Items in Series I

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Preferred Citation

Microfilm edition of the Harrison Gray Otis papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

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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:

Adams, John, 1735-1826.
Carey, Mathew, 1760-1839.
Clay, Henry, 1777-1852.
Otis, Harriet, 1788-1826.
Otis, James, 1702-1778.
Otis, James, 1725-1783.
Otis, Sally Foster, 1770-1836.
Otis, Samuel Allyne, 1740-1814.
Otis family.
Ritchie, Sophia Harrison Otis, 1799-1874.
Sedgwick, Theodore, 1746-1813.
Webster, Daniel, 1782-1852.

Subjects:

Family history--1750-1799.
Family history--1800-1849.
Family history--1850-1899.

Prepared by Robert V. Sparks, November 1979.

Revised 2 Feb. 2021

Encoded by Susan Martin, January 2008

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