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University of Michigan William L. Clements Library

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Elizabeth Sedgwick Child family collection, 1826-1918 (majority within 1826-1837, 1855-1885)

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Summary

Creator:
Sedgwick family and Child family
Abstract:
This collection contains correspondence related to the family of Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child, granddaughter of politician Theodore Sedgwick and wife of Harvard professor Francis James Child. The collection also includes several photographs and printed items.
Extent:
1 linear foot
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Meg Hixon, July 2013

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection (1 linear foot) contains correspondence related to the family of Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick Child, granddaughter of politician Theodore Sedgwick and wife of Harvard professor Francis James Child. The collection also includes several photographs and printed items.

The Correspondence series, which comprises the bulk of the collection, contains letters the Sedgwick family wrote to and received from family members and friends, as well as several poems. From 1826-1842, Robert Sedgwick, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter Elizabeth ("Lizzie") corresponded with family members including Catherine Maria Sedgwick of Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts, and Jane Minot Sedgwick of New York City. Most of the early correspondence pertains to the writers' social lives and family news, and to travel around New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Catharine Maria Sedgwick also reported on acquaintances such as the actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whom she deemed "fated to suffer" (May 27, 1834), and the writer and social theorist Harriet Martineau (November 2, 1834).

The bulk of the remaining correspondence is dated 1855-1885 and pertains to the relationship between Lizzie Sedgwick and her husband, Frank James Child. Child wrote to Sedgwick from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Paris, France, and received letters from Sedgwick and others. The couple's other correspondents included at least one writer in Italy who commented on their relationship and health, family news, and the Civil War. Postwar correspondence includes letters to Susan Ridley Sedgwick Butler. Three late postcards to Mrs. G. A. Stanger of Springfield, Massachusetts, concern her son Herb's experiences in Georgia while serving in the armed forces during World War I.

The Photographs series (5 items) contains 3 photographs of Helen Child (later Sargent), a photographic print of Elizabeth Sedgwick Child, and a photograph of the Child family's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Printed Items (9 items) include a certificate regarding Francis Child's qualifications as an instructor of Greek at Harvard University (September 22, 1846), 2 illustrated Christmas cards (1881 and undated), a copy of the Boston Daily Advertiser (August 1, 1884), an obituary for Francis Child from The Nation (September 17, 1896), and copies of the poems "From My Arm-Chair" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "The City of the Living" by Elizabeth Akers Allen. The series also includes a biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes that George B. Merrill presented to the Harvard Club of San Francisco on October 18, 1894, and an advertisement for the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women.

Biographical / Historical:

United States Congressman Theodore Sedgwick (1746-1813) and his first wife, Pamela Dwight (1752 or 1754-1807), had seven surviving children: Elizabeth Mason (1775-1827), Frances Pamela (1778-1842), Theodore (1780-1839), Henry Dwight (1785-1831), Robert (1787-1841), Catharine Maria (1789-1867), and Charles (1791-1856). Henry Dwight Sedgwick, who married Jane Minot (b. 1795), graduated from Williams College in 1804 and became a lawyer in New York City. Catharine Maria Sedgwick, along with her sister-in-law Elizabeth, the wife of Charles Sedgwick, ran the Lenox Academy, a women's school in Lenox, Massachusetts; she became a successful novelist with publications such as A New-England Tale (1822) and Hope Leslie (1827).

Robert Sedgwick married Elizabeth Dana Ellery (1799-1862), a granddaughter of Declaration of Independence signer William Ellery, on August 21, 1822. Their surviving children included Elizabeth Ellery (1824-1909), William Ellery (1825-1873), and Susan Ridley (1828-1883). William Ellery Sedgwick graduated from Harvard in 1846 and became a lawyer in New York City. Susan Ridley Sedgwick married New York City lawyer Charles E. Butler on October 1, 1855.

Around 1860, Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick ("Lizzie") married Boston native Francis James Child ("Frank") (1825-1896), who was appointed chair of English literature at Harvard in 1876. They had four children: Helen Maria Castilia (b. 1863), Susan Sedgwick (b. 1866), Henrietta Ellery (b. 1867), and Francis Sedgwick (1868 or 1869-1935).

Helen Maria Castilia Child married Frederick LeRoy Sargent, and Francis Sedgwick Child married Caroline Stanger.

Acquisition Information:
1996. M-3223.14; M-3229.5 .
Processing information:

Cataloging funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). This collection has been processed according to minimal processing procedures and may be revised, expanded, or updated in the future.

Arrangement:
The collection is arranged in the following series:
  • Series I: Correspondence
  • Series II: Photographs
  • Series III: Printed Items

The Correspondence series is arranged chronologically, with undated items placed at the end.

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

Using These Materials

Info for Visitors

How to Request

Ordering Reproductions

Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown

PREFERRED CITATION:

Elizabeth Sedgwick Child Family Collection, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan