1787-1940
Guide to the Collection
Abstract
This collection consists of the papers of educator and folklorist Francis James Child, primarily correspondence with the Child and Sedgwick families, as well as correspondence of Sedgwick family members, including Theodore Sedgwick, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and William Ellery Sedgwick.
Biographical Sketch
Francis James Child (1825-1896) was born in Boston, Mass. on 1 Feb. 1825, the son of sailmaker Joseph Child (1792-1878) and Mary James Child (1799-1839). After graduating from Harvard College at the top of his class in 1846, Francis J. Child became a Harvard tutor in mathematics, history, political economy, and English. From 1849 to 1851, Child left teaching to continue his studies in Germany at the Universities of Berlin and Gottingen, returning to Harvard to accept a position as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory and, in 1876, as Harvard's first professor of English. Child was the editor of Four Old Plays (1848), an author of seminal research on the works of Chaucer, and beginning in 1855, the general editor for a 150-volume collection of the works of British poets. He is perhaps best known for Child's Ballads, a collection of English and Scottish ballads published between 1882 and 1898. He served as president of the American Folklore Society from 1888 to 1889.
In 1860, Child married Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick (1824-1909), the daughter of Robert Sedgwick and Elizabeth Dana Ellery Sedgwick of New York. The couple had four children: Helen Maria Castillia Child Sargent (1863-1903), Susan Ridley Sedgwick Child Butler (1866-1946), Henrietta Ellery Child (1867-1968), and Francis Sedgwick Child (1869-1935). Francis J. Child died on 11 Sep. 1896 at the age of 71 and was buried in Stockbridge, Mass.
Collection Description
This collection primarily consists of the family, personal, and professional correspondence of Harvard professor Francis James Child. Also included is correspondence of the Sedgwick family, relatives of Child's wife, Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child.
Sedgwick correspondence includes a 5 Dec. 1787 letter of Theodore Sedgwick (1746-1813) on a legal matter, as well as family correspondence of Catharine Maria Sedgwick written from 1817 to 1867, primarily letters written to her brother Henry Dwight Sedgwick and his wife Jane Minot Sedgwick. (See the appendix below for a list of these letters.) Letters of Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child include correspondence with her mother Elizabeth Dana Ellery Sedgwick from 1849 to 1860; her sister Susan Ridley Sedgwick Butler from 1842 to 1859; her cousin Elizabeth Sedgwick Rackemann from 1845 to 1863; and her brother William Ellery Sedgwick from 1849 to 1872. Of interest is William's eyewitness account of the Macready riot in New York included in an 11 May 1849 letter.
Francis J. Child's family correspondence includes a large volume of letters between him and his wife Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child from 1852 to 1890; letters to his daughters Helen and Susan written from 1869 to 1896, including letters written while Child traveled in Europe in 1873 and 1885; and letters to Theodora Sedgwick written from 1863 to 1874. Correspondence with Child's future brother-in-law and Harvard classmate William Ellery Sedgwick, written from 1849 to 1865, reflects a long and close friendship. Letters from Child to Charles E. Guild from 1849 to 1859 document Child's activities in Boston and Cambridge, Mass. Other correspondents include W. F. Bartlett, J. Ingersoll Bowditch, Daniel Curtis, Henry James, Revery Johnson, Charles R. Lanman, James Barclay Murdock, W. Herbert Story, W. H. Turner, and R. A. Wight. In an 1869 letter to Francis Parkman, Child describes his views on the presidency of Harvard and his preference for Eliot for the office.
Later papers include letters from Gamaliel Bradford in 1923 discussing his study of Francis J. Child for the Atlantic Monthly. A letter written by Van Wyck Brooks on 4 Oct. 1940 describes Child's circle of friends at Cambridge, including James Russell Lowell, William James, Edwin L. Godkin, and Phillips Brooks.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Marjorie Russell (Mrs. Ellery) Sedgwick, Boston, Mass., 1968.
Organization of the Collection
The collection is arranged chronologically.
Box List to the Collection
1787-[1859]
1850-[1869]
1860-1873
1874-1893
1894-1940
Appendix: Catharine Maria Sedgwick Letters
Listed below are letters from Catharine Maria Sedgwick in the Francis James Child papers.
| Letters to Jane Minot Sedgwick | Letters to Henry Dwight Sedgwick | Letter to Mary Bruin |
| 23 November 1815 | 30 September 1824 | 9 July 1840 |
| 5 March 1817 | 13 [______] [1825?] | |
| 17 April 1817 | 18 February 1825 | |
| 13 June 1817 | 1 June 1825? | |
| 18 August 1817 | ||
| 25 August 1817 | ||
| 10 October 1817 | ||
| 16 November 1817 | ||
| 30 November 1817 | ||
| 1824 | ||
| 1 January 1824 | ||
| 8 July 1826 | ||
| 9 November 1826 | ||
| 24 January 1830 (also cataloged as a letter to her niece) | ||
| 14 February 1832 | ||
| 21 February 1832 | ||
| 21 March 1832 | ||
| 9 December 1832 | ||
| 20 January 1833 | ||
| 8 February 1833 | ||
| 24 February 1833 | ||
| 24 March 1833 | ||
| 13 December 1833 | ||
| 22 December 1833 | ||
| 27 March 1834 | ||
| 27 February 1837 | ||
| 1 May 1837 | ||
| 13 May 1837 | ||
| 27 May 1837 | ||
| 3 June 1837 | ||
| 5 August 1837 | ||
| 14 January 1838 | ||
| 1 February 1838 | ||
| 6 February 1838 (on the back of a letter received by CMS) | ||
| 25 February 1838 | ||
| 18 May 1838 | ||
| [1839] | ||
| 20 March 1839 |
Preferred Citation
Francis James Child 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:
Materials Removed from the Collection
Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Francis James Child family photographs (Photo. Coll. 217).