Special Collections

Department of Archives & Special Collections
Ask A Librarian

Archives and Special Collections will be closed to the public May 11 – June 9 for installation of new flooring.

Finding-Aid for the Sherwood Bonner/Hubert McAlexander Collection (MUM00038) The Department of Archives and Special Collections. The University of Mississippi Libraries

Finding Aids >>
MUM00038

Finding-Aid for the Sherwood Bonner/Hubert McAlexander Collection (MUM00038)

Questions? Contact us!

Table of Contents

Descriptive Summary
PURL:
http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00038/
Creator:
McAlexander, Hubert, Dr.
Title:
Sherwood Bonner/Hubert McAlexander Collection.
Inclusive Dates:
ca. 1870-1983
Materials in:
English
Abstract:
This collection of 12 boxes covering the time period from, c. 1870s through 1983 chronicles the research of Dr. Hubert H. McAlexander into the life and career of Katherine “Kate” Sherwood Bonner McDowell, known as the author Sherwood Bonner. Dr. McAlexander completed his masterful work on Bonner entitled, The Prodigal Daughter: A Biography of Sherwood Bonner in 1981.
Quantity:
1 box.
Number:
MUM00038
Location:
B-7.
Repository :
The University of Mississippi
J.D. Williams Library
Department of Archives and Special Collections
P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848, USA
Phone: 662.915.7408
Fax: 662.915.5734
E-Mail: archive@olemiss.edu
URL: https://www.olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/
Cite as:
Sherwood Bonner/Hubert McAlexander Collection (MUM00038). The Department of Archives and Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library, The University of Mississippi.
Biographical Note
Catherine Sherwood Bonner was born February 26, 1849, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. “Kate,” as she was called, experienced the Civil War first-hand in Holly Springs, which served for a time as headquarters for Union General Ulysses S. Grant during his Vicksburg campaign of 1862-63.
On February 14, 1871, she married Edward McDowell in Holly Springs and on December 10 gave birth to a daughter, Lilian. In an attempt to provide for his family in the postwar South, McDowell took his family to Texas, but they returned to Mississippi in 1873 when his plans failed to blossom. Bonner left her child with relatives and traveled alone by train to Boston in hopes of seeking education and opportunities to earn money. Bonner had published her first story in 1869 and had corresponded with editor Nahood Capun; now, he helped her to get her start in Boston, first as his secretary and later working for temperance reformer Dr. Dio Lewis and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who would become her literary patron and lifelong friend.
Through her association with Capun, Lewis, and Longfellow, and her friend James Redpath, director of Boston’s first Lyceum Bureau, Bonner gained acceptance among Boston’s literati, and over the next ten years she built a successful freelance writing career, first signing her work as “Katherine McDowell,” and then “Kate McDowell” or “Kate Bonner” before settling on the gender-ambiguous “Sherwood Bonner” in 1875.
Up until that point, she had published in a number of genres and styles, including humorous travel letters, sentimental romances, and satiric poems, and had patterned her works upon similar work by such writers as Mark Twain, Sir Walter Scott, and Edgar Allan Poe. In 1875, however, after a friend criticized her work because “the influence of your reading was noticeable through every composition,” Bonner published “Gran’mamy’s Last Gift,” a story later expanded and collected as “Gran’mammy’s Last Gifts” in Suwanee River Tales.
Bonner’s Gran’mammy tales appeared in publication from 1875 to 1880. The tales — whose title character was based on Molly Wilson, the black matriarch who had nurtured Bonner’s family for three generations before the war — were among the first and most popular black dialect tales published in northern magazines following the Civil War. Preceding such classics in the genre as Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus by more than a year and Irwin Russell’s “Christmas Night in the Quarters” by three years, Bonner’s Gran’mammy tales were, according to critic Wade Hall in The Smiling Phoenix: Southern Humor from 1865-1914, “probably the first Negro dialect stories widely read in the North,” and Bonner was “the first Southern woman to deal with the Negro, and the first writer to treat him separately from the white man.”
It was in 1878 that Bonner reached the pinnacle of her career when she published her novel Like Unto Like, a regional romance set in the Deep South during Reconstruction but departing significantly from the so-called reconciliation novels of the period in which national union was represented by a marriage between a southern beauty and a northern hero. Instead, the novel follows the romantic involvements of three young women, but most especially Blythe Herndon, a free-spirited intellectual who becomes engaged–and later breaks off that engagement–to Roger Ellis, a former abolitionist and Union soldier. The novel is notable for its strong local color and regional dialects, its frank depiction of post-war politics, and its depiction, twenty years before Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, of a southern woman’s search for herself.
The partially autobiographical novel also revealed some of the problems Bonner faced in acceptance in Boston. Though she was eventually able to bring Lilian to live with her in Boston, her lifestyle and ambiguous marital status scandalized some of the patrons who had initially supported her. She and her husband tried several times to reconcile, but finally, she divorced him in 1881 on the grounds of abandonment and nonsupport.
Soon after the divorce, periods of ill health Bonner had suffered were diagnosed as breast cancer. She returned to her childhood home in Holly Springs, where she died on July 22, 1883.”
Note: From the Mississippi Writers Page, https://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/bonner_sherwood/ by John Padgett
Scope and Contents Note
This collection of 12 boxes covering the time period from, c. 1870s through 1983 chronicles the research of Dr. Hubert H. McAlexander into the life and career of Katherine “Kate” Sherwood Bonner McDowell, known as the author Sherwood Bonner. Dr. McAlexander completed his masterful work on Bonner entitled, The Prodigal Daughter: A Biography of Sherwood Bonner in 1981.
Restrictions
Access Restrictions
Open.
Use Restriction
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use”, that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Collection History
Donated by Dr. McAlexander
Container List

Box 1 Folder 1: Perhaps only extant version of Helen Craft Anderson’s copy of Like Unto Like with her annotations.

Folder 2: Seven Nights at Edgewood, MSS

Folder 3: Boston Manuscripts

Folder 4: Sherwood Bonner

“Gran’Mamy’s Last Gift” By Sherwood Bonner published in The Youth’s Companion Number 30, Volume XLVIII, Thursday July 29, 1875

“A Southern Authoress” about Mrs. Katherine McDowell (Sherwood Bonner)

“From ’60 to ’65” By Sherwood Bonner published October 1976

Folder 5: My Like Unto Like Notes from 60 to 65

Like Unto Like

Like Unto Like Sherwood Bonner N.Y. Harper & Bros. 1878

Sherwood Bonner Letters Literary

“A Reappraisal of Sherwood Bonner’s Like unto Like” by Hubert McAlexander, Jr., published in the Southern Literary Journal

Folder 6: Hilen Letters

TLS from Andrew Hilen to Mr. Alexander dated September 14, 1978 Envelope. Postmarked September 13, 1978 from Seattle, Washington.

Envelope from Hilen to Mr. Herbert McAlexander

“Introduction”

TL to Professor Hilen from Hubert H. McAlexander dated July 25, 1978

TLS to Professor Hilen from Hubert H. McAlexander dated November 20, 1978

TLS to Professor Hilen from Hubert H. McAlexander dated October 4, 1978

Folder 7: Master’s Thesis: “Our Most Noble Stranger”: The Mystery, Gallantry and Civicism of Colton Green By Charles Steven Palmer (1995)

Folder 8: Master’s Thesis: Life and Works of Sherwood Bonner By Dorothy L. Gilligan (1930)

Folder 9: Master’s Thesis: Katherine Sherwood Bonner: A Study in the Development of a Southern Literature By: Nash Kerr Burger, Jr. (1935)

Box 2 Folder 1: Master’s Thesis: An Annotated and Indexed Edition of the Letters of Sherwood Bonner (Catherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell) By Jean Nosser Biglane (1972)

Folder 2: Sherwood Bonner letters

Copy of ALS from David Ford to Mrs McDowell dated January 18, 1877

TLS Mrs. Jean Biglane to Mrs. Hubert H. McAlexander dated December 7, 1971

TLS George M. ____emus to Mr. McDowell dated May 26, 1958 attached typed transcript of letter to Miss Longfellow from Katherine McDowell dated April 5, 1882 April 28, 1882

Copy of ALS from Katherine McDowell to Miss Longfellow dated April 28, 1882

Folder 3: 1867-1869 Letters

Copy of ALS from Laura Pickett Thomas Robinson to Kate S. Bonner dated April 15, 1869

“St. Katherine” written by Edward McDowell

Folder 4: 1870-1873 Letters

Copy of ALS to My Dear Ruth[ie] dated November 13, 1873

Note concerning letter of Miss Mary Mills to James R. McDowell dated January 8, 1873

On back of p. 16 of MSS with character Patikee & Alonzo “Seven Nights at Edgewood” MS

Copy of ALS to My Dear James

Copy of ALS to My Dear Sir Boston from Dr. [Cha.] Bonner Holly Springs

Folder 5: 1874 Letters

Copy of ALS Theodore W. Dwight to Katherine McDowell dated February 21, 1874

Copy of ALS Katherine McDowell to Mr. Emerson dated March 23, 1874

Copy of ALS to My Dear Ruthie dated September 22

Copy of ALS to Dear Ruthie dated fall of 1874 or spring 1875

Folder 6: 1875 Letters

Copy of ALS to “My Dear Sherwood” from Howard Falconer dated December 6, 1875

Copy of ALS to Sherwood Bonner from Andrew J. Kellar dated December 12, 1875.

Folder 7: 1876 Letters

Copy of ALS to “Dear Ruthy”

Copy of ALS to “My Dear Little Ruthy” dated August 18 from Paris

Copy of ALS dated March or April 1876

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Ruth Bonner dated March 22, 1876

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Ruth Bonner dated March 1, 1876

Copy of ALS to “Dear Ruthy”

Copy of ALS to “My dear Ruthy” from your loving sister written from Paris

Copy of ALS to “My dear Ruthy” dated May 25, 1876 from Paris

Copy of ALS to “Beloved Carry” dated February 22, 1876 from Rome

Copy of ALS to “Dear Father” dated October 16, 1876 from Boston

Copy of ALS to “Dear Ruthy” from Katherine dated December 12, 1876 from Boston

Copy of ALS to “Darling Little Ruthy” from K

Copy of ALS to My Dear [L.V.Bonner] dated December 12, 1876

Copy of ALS to My Dear Ruthy from Paris

Folder 8: 1877 Letters

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated December 18, 1877.

Copy of article from Daily Memphis Avalanche Sunday March 18, 1877

Copy of ALS to Lilian McDowell from James Redpath dated April 18, 1877

Copy of ALS to Cora Carey from James H. Watson dated Arpil 5, 1877.

Copy of ALS to Ruth McDavid dated July 8, 1877

Folder 9: 1878 Letters

Copy of Longfellow’s Journal dated September 1878

Handwritten notes re: Butler library, Harper Bros. Collection, contract for Dialect Tales, Like Unto Like, Pierpont Morgan Library, Steadman Collection

TLS to Mr. McAlexander from Andrew Hilen dated November 15, 1978 re: transcripts of letters and reference to letter dated September 11, 1878

Typed copy of letter to George Washington Greene from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dated September 8, 1878 re: telegram sent by McDowell regarding the death of her father and brother and her return to Boston

Copy of postcard from Kate McDowell to Prof. Longfellow dated September 5 re: father and brother sick with fever, fears she has fever

Copy of ALS to Dear Sir from Harper and Brothers dated May 8, 1878 re; Mrs. McDowell’s novel

Handwritten notes re: Butler Library, Harper Brothers Collection, contract for Like Unto Like

Copy of ALS to My Dear Sir from [unintelligible] dated September 10, 1878

Copy of ALS to My dear father from Kate dated May 21, 1878 from Boston

Notecard re; Samuel Longfellow’s final memorials dated August 30, 1878

Newspaper article by Mary Ann Lee “Memphis History as Prelude to 1978”

Photocopied pages from Walt Whitman Daybooks and Notebooks Volume I: Daybooks 1876-November 1881 edited by William White published by New York University Press, 1978, pages 126-127, 131-132

Photocopy of article concerning yellow fever in Holly Springs, from the Memphis Avalanche dated August 13

Copy of ALS to K.S. McDowell from Harper & Brothers dated May 17, 1878 from New York re: contract for Like Unto Like

Typed copy of letter to Nathan Appleton from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow re: Mrs. McDowell’s hours

Copy of AL to Dear R dated Sunday 1878

Folder 10: 1879 Letters

Handwritten note Book 43-209 Edw. & Kate, David & Ruth to [Mar__ ] Bonner

Handwritten note re Clipping from Helen Craft Anderson’s Scrapbook regarding Madame Helena Modjestsa

Copy of ALS to Ruth from Kate dated December 19, 1879

Copy of ALS to David from Kate dated August 15, 1879

Folder 11: 1880-1881 Letter

Copy of article from the Reporter July 7, 1881

Copy of ALS to Ruthie from Kate dated May 10, 1881

Copy of ALS to Ruth B. McDowell to Katharine McDowell re: furniture

Copy of ALS to David McDowell from Katharine McDowell written from Illinois between 1880-1881, probably 1881

Copy of ALS to Lilian McDowell from Longfellow dated December 29, 1880

Copy of ALS to Lilian McDowell from Longfellow dated July 16, 1880

Copy of inscriptions to Lilian from Longfellow

Handwritten notes concerning Illinois divorce law 1874 in effect by 1880

Handwritten notes concerning Divorce laws of Massachusetts

Typed and handwritten notes re Miss Martha Bonner in custody suit, Boardman to Longfellow January 20, 1881, and Pulsifer to HWL (Longfellow) August 23, 1881

Copy of ALS to Ruth from Kate dated February 26, 1880

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated May 31, 1881

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated July 7, 1880

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated January 17, 1881

Copy of 1879-1880 Census record from Perry County, Illinois, page 28, lists Catharine and Lilian McDowell

Handwritten note re Boardman to HWL (Longfellow) February 4, 1880

Copy of inscriptions to Lilian from Longfellow

Handwritten notes re: Letter to HWL of August 7, 1881, David McDowell wants $1500 for Ruth’s interest

Typed notes re Moulton to Longfellow March 18, 1880, HWL to Moulton march 21, 1880, Moulton to HWL, Sherwood Bonner letter to HWL March 14, 1880

Folder 12: 1882-1883 Letters

Handwritten notes re: 47-273, July 27, 1882

Handwritten notes re: Book 47, p. 44, Partition of Settlement of estate of Dr. Chas. Bonner

Handwritten notes re: Daily Memphis Appeal 1883

Handwritten notes re: Butler Library, Columbia, Harper Bros. Collection

Typed note re: last illness, Bondurant 53-54, Stephenson 20

Handwritten notes re:Boardman to HWL February 24, 1882 and HWL’s failing health

Handwritten notes re: 1879, 1880, 1881 Shepherd, Sophia, home J8 Cedar, Roxbury, 1881 Shepard, Miss Sophia, boards Boudoin near Percinal Ave.

Copy of poem “Dispondency” by Sherwood Bonner from Harper’s Weekly Volume XXVII, No. 1391

Copy of poem “Two Smiles” by Sherwood Bonner from Harper’s Weekly

Copy of ALS to Mrs. Addison Craft from Kate dated June 24, 1882

Copy of poem “With Her Picture” by Sherwood Bonner from Our Continent Volume 1, April 12, 1882

Copy of ALS to Ruth McDowell from E.A. (Elizabeth) Capen dated July 31, 1883.

Folder 13: Reviews of Like Unto Like

Handwritten note: Reviews of Like Unto Like

Copy of review from December 26, 1878 Memphis Avalanche

Copy of review from October 20, 1878 Boston Courier

Copy of review by Paul Hayne in November 17, 1878 Louisville Sunday Argus

Copy of review from December 9, 1878 Boston Advertiser

Copy of review from October 5, 1878 Portland Press

Copy of review from October 16, 1878 St. John, NB Globe

Copy of review from December 15, 1878 Memphis Avalanche

Copy of review from November 1, 1878 Boston Literary World

Copy of review from October 4, 1878 Boston Transcript

Copy of review from October 8, 1878 Louisville Evening Post

Copy of review from October 17, 1878 New York Intelligencer

Copy of review from December 1878 Harper’s Monthly

Copy of review from December 4, 1878 Huntsville, Alabama Democrat

Copy of review from October 1, 1878 American Bookseller

Copy of review from October 3 Publisher’s Weekly

Copy of review from December 1878 Atlantic Monthly

Copy of review from unnamed source/date pages 764-766

Folder 14: Misc. Sherwood Bonner Materials

TD poem by Kate Bonner entitled “Verna”

Handwritten notes re: David McDowell, Lilian, Orlando Hammond, and James McDowell

Handwritten notes re: Longfellow Collection

Handwritten notes re: The Year in Illinois

TD: no title concerns McAlexander’s plan for book about Sherwood Bonner dated 1977 for summer 1978

Folder 15: David McDowell letters (permissions)

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated November 9, 1981 and postmarked 1981from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: bad health preventing McDowell from being with McAlexander on Sunday, check for books, McAlexander’s success, McDowell family appreciation

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated December 14, 1981 and postmarked December 15, 1981from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: McAlexander’s book, dedication to McDowell’s copy. Enclosed Christmas card.

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated October 25, 1983 and postmarked October 25, 1983 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: new book, future generations–ideas about service and table manners, George operation, friend w/ heart problems, McAlexander’s mother,

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated June 15, 1981 and postmarked June 1981 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: McAlexander’s book, price, wants copy for the public library, natal date of Martha, new address for the Reverend George R. Stephenson

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated Thursday evening and postmarked September 24, 1982 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: Charles, childhood remembrance, diary

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated March 13, 1982 and postmarked March 13, 1982 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: return of Bonner material, McDowell’s health, “the book” and unanimous praise

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated April 13, 1982 and postmarked April 14, 1982 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: arrival of envelope, ill health, close friends, lettuce

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated December 3, 1980 and postmarked December 3, 1980 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: Cotton Greene, local library meet the author guests of Willie Morris and a Faulkner niece, fall coloring, “All My Children.”

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated Saturday afternoon and postmarked December 6, 1980 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: brought pictures back from Oxford, gas prices, weather

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated 15 days till Xmas and postmarked December 10, 1980 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: delivered pictures to Mr. Lewis, pictures

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated January 22, 1980 and postmarked January 22, 1980 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: Stark Young–only Miss. Writer of consequence up until Welty and Faulkner, party, “Romantic” period

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated January 11, 1980 and postmarked January 12, 1980 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: concern for McAlexander, enclosed article, burglars, radio, Bill and his book about “The Valcours”

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated July 31, 1979 and postmarked August 1, 1979 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: McAlexander’s book, ask McAlexander to take on Holly Springs in a different light, Jimmy Carter

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from [Tom] dated May 23, 1979 and postmarked May 23, 1979 from Boston, Massachusetts. Envelope. Re: notes for McAlexander concerning book

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from [Tom] dated July 29, 1979 and postmarked July 30, 1979 from Boston, Massachusetts. Envelope. Re: McAlexander’s tenure recommendation, promotion process at Harvard, class on comparative business/government relationships in different countries

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated February 16, 1978 and postmarked February 16, 1978 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: Hamiltons of Strabane, Sherwood’s granddaughter–a nun in New York, material in McAlexander’s possession. Enclosed: TD Reward of Merit given to Kate Bonner from Mary Bonner

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated Monday and postmarked October 9, 1978 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: wants to be given credit for having material in his possession, wants McAlexander to use his full name–David McDowell III, family sweeping Green and [Harvey Lexham] under the rug

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated Friday morning March 3, 1978 and postmarked March 3, 1978 from Memphis, TN. Envelope. Re: acknowledge arrival of all material, “Wilson” Bible as the Bonner Bible, Martha Hammond–nun in NY ancestor research not concerned w/ Bonners or Hamiltons, Gault family, Sherwood Bonner’s relationship with Longfellow

TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated June 18, 1957 from Irvington 11, New Jersey. Re: registered package/itemized receipt for contents (enclosed), Sister Frideswide–burials of members of the Bonner family in Bonner plot, location of Longfellow letters, marriage record of Edward McDowell and Katherine Sherwood Bonner, baptismal record of Lilian Kirk McDowell. Enclosed list of materials Polhemus received from David McDowell

Handwritten note: David McDowell; Copy of diary of 1869

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from Dave [McDowell]. Envelope. Postmarked July 28, 1978 from Memphis, Tennessee. Re: McAlexander’s busy schedule, meeting w/ McAlexander next time he is in Mississippi, Rusk [heir?] affirmative action

Handwritten note: Xerox, Cemetery sketch, etc.

TLS to Dave [McDowell] from Hubert (McAlexander) dated August 23, 1978. Re: material found on Boston research trip, returning McDowell’s materials, list of materials that he wants to see when he visits Dave.

TLS to Mr. McDowell from Dorrie B. Norwood dated April 1, 1970. Re: letters borrowed, questions concerning researcher Mr. Polehemus, her research in Tennessee concerning Bonner and trip in 1879

ALS to “My dear Dave” dated February 19. Re: travel plans in spring of 1958

TLS to Mr. McDowell from Mrs. Dorrie B. Norwood dated October 11, 1966. Re: desire for historical evidence for paper concerning Mrs. McDowell, concerning 1877 letter and setting for Like Unto Like, Mrs. McDowell’s secretary Sophia Kirk, Mrs. McDowell’s daughter Lillion (Lilian) and her writings, Mrs. McDowell’s cause of death and statement about slavery, dedication in McDowell’s work to Mrs. S.B.S., Mrs. McDowell’s relationship with Longfellow, McDowell’s connection to the feminist movement

ALS to Hubert (McAlexander) from Dave (McDowell) postmarked September 16, 1981 from Memphis, Tennessee. Re: McAlexander finished with book–McDowell considers the work “definitive” and tells McAlexander he’s closing shop to all future Bonner enthusiasts, McDowell’s opinion of the picture of Sherwood Bonner, Bonner (House) being off-limits, wants two of McAlexander’s books and will pitch the book to local librarian for one

Handwritten notes: David McDowell material/Millsaps envelope-sketches

Box 3 Folder 1: 1983 MLA Paper

TD “Convention and Success: The Literary Careers of Two Women of 1883” Re: Louise Chandler Moulton and Katharine Sherwood Bonner

TLS to Hubert Alexander [sic] from Nan Bauer Maglin dated January 24, 1983 and postmarked January 25, 1983 from New York, New York. Re: request for McAlexander to submit a paper for consideration related to topic of Women Writing in 1883 and 1983, MLA conference.

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Nan Bauer Maglin dated September 20, 1982 and postmarked September 26, 1982 from New York, New York. Re: acknowledgement of receipt of paper/abstract, decisions to be made at December MLA meeting

MLA Newsletter Spring 1982. Re: 1983 Convention Notes, announcements concerning division meetings: Women’s Studies in Language and Literature: ’83 to ’83: Women Writing in 1883 and 1983

TD Abstract, “Conventionality as the Key to Success: The Literary Careers of Two Women of 1883.

TD “Convention and Success: The Literary Careers of Two Women of 1883.

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Nan Bauer Maglin dated April 28, 1983, and postmarked April 27, 1983 from New York, New York. Re: rejection of McAlexander’s paper for MLA Conference; personal note that Maglin might contact McAlexander later in regards to book on Women Writing in 1883 and 1983.

Folder 2: 1977 MLA Paper Sherwood Bonner

TD “A Southern Woman’s Search for Selfhood: Sherwood Bonner’s Like Unto Like”

TD Nineteenth Century American Women Writers. Re: lists panel of papers including “A Southern Woman’s Search for Selfhood: Sherwood Bonner’s Like Unto Like,” presented by Hubert McAlexander, Jr., University of Georgia

TD Nineteenth Century American Woman Writers. list of women writers from nineteenth century, including McDowell, Katharine Sherwood Bonner

Copy of section of MLA conference schedule for Friday, December 30: Nineteenth Century American Women Writers

TD A Feminist Heroine Breaks the Pattern of the Sectional Romance

TD with personal note: Call for Papers Proposed 1977 MLA Convention Special Session on Nineteenth Century American Women Writers; note from Joan Samson to McAlexander that Bonner might be more minor of an author than the session wanted to treat. Envelope. Postmarked March 10, 1977

Folder 3: Stephenson, George Royster, “Sherwood Bonner: Life and Letters” 1932

TD: “Sherwood Bonner: Life and Letters” by George Royster Stephenson, 1932. 2 copies.

Copy of TLS to Dr. Stephenson from Hubert McAlexander. Re: discovery of undiscovered pieces by Sherwood Bonner not seen by scholars or others since 1898, on writing a definitive book–of interest because of feminist ties, trip to Holly Springs, wants to look at letters directly because transcription has mistakes, list of materials he wants to examine

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Pothemus. Re: death certificate for Edward McDowell, Mrs. Cora Watson Carey and relationship w/ Edward McDowell–letters, materials in possession of Dr. Stephenson and his mother in 1935, asking McDowell for advice in how to talk to Stephenson about materials

Handwritten notes: Margaret Kent, The Story of

ALS to Mrs. Hammond from Hubert McAlexander dated February 6, 1977. Re: George Stephenson’s current address, mentioned an enclosed envelope; note at bottom from Pauline H. [Hammond?] with Stephenson’s address. Included: postcard with an address for Stephenson at Millsaps College

ALS to Mr. McAlexander from George R. Stephenson dated March 1, 1977. Re: letter McAlexander sent, book by Bill Frank, paper written on Sherwood Bonner, Longfellow letters, McAlexander in Holly Springs–pitcher

Copy of ALS to Dr. Stephenson from Hubert McAlexander dated February 15, 1977. Re: need of Stephenson’s aid for Bonner project, request copy of manuscript, request information concerning Bonner and prominent 19th century figures she might have known besides Longfellow, including Redpath

Folder 4: Sherwood Bonner Diary

“Sherwood Bonners Diary for the Year 1869” by William Frank

Handwritten notes: Ruth Bonner’s Diary

Handwritten notes: Connections in diary

Photocopy of Sherwood Bonner’s Diary, 1869.

Folder 5: Longfellow February 27, 1807-March 24, 1882

Copy of TDS : checks to K. McDowell from Henry W. Longfellow for the amounts of $100 and $500 dated August 25, 1881 and September 18, 1878.

Copy of ALS to Aurora from HWL dated February 27, 1876. Re: his birthday, Aurora’s letter from Paris, his experience in Rome

Booklet: The Longfellow House: History and Guide. By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana

Receipt for electroprint from Harvard University Library for Hubert McAlexander for letters copied from collection, including letters from Lilian McDowell and Katharine McDowell

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Elizabeth Egbert (United States Department of the Interior–Longfellow National Historic Site) dated June 14, 1979. Re: information on Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell and materials sent

Copy of ALS to Miss Longfellow from Katharine McDowell dated April 5, 1882. Re: offering sympathy for HWL’s passing, thoughts on HWL, offering sympathy to she and her sisters

Copy of ALS to Miss Longfellow from Katharine McDowell dated April 28, 1882. Re: letter to her father, HWL, and his “generous gift,” life “since the fever,”loss of her father and brother–being head of family, going into debt to save home, “art is cruelly intolerant of the necessity of making a living”

Postcard: Longfellow’s Study, Longfellow National Historic Site, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Postcard: Library, Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Postcard: Dining Room, Longfellow National Historic Site, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Postcard: The Longfellow House.

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Elizabeth S. Banks United States Department of the Interior, Longfellow National Historic Site, dated August 11, 1978. Re: material on Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell at the Houghton Library at Harvard, McAlexander has most material in their holdings

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Pothemus dated August 26, 1957. Re: date/place of Edward McDowell’s death in order to get a death certificate, excerpts from Sherwood Bonner’s letters to Longfellow, loan for a vegetable growing business, financial relationship b/t Longfellow and Bonner

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Pothemus dated October 25, 1957. Re: photograph of Sherwood Bonner, writing to Longfellow estate for Sherwood Bonner-Lilian Kirk McDowell photographs, B.M. Drake biographical sketch of Sherwood Bonner, Longfellow letters in possession of Charles Hunter Ross–gave papers to the Auburn library, Bonner/Longfellow letters, Mrs. Olga Reed Pruitt from Holly Springs, Sherwood Bonner’s height

Postcard: To Mr. McAlexander from Andrew Hilen. Re: HWL’s address book, two cancelled checks in Longfellow House

Copy of ALS from Henry W. Longfellow to Ruth Bonner dated August 11, 1876. Re: her sister Kate and arrival in Cambridge/Boston, invitation to lunch

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Pothemus dated January 21, 1960. Re: Longfellow letter enclosed, photocopy delay, questions concerning the financial transaction b/t Sherwood Bonner and Alice Mary Longfellow in 1882 upon Longfellow’s death–checking old draft books of Bank of Holly Springs

Copy of TLS to Professor Hilen from Hubert McAlexander dated January 26, 1979. Re: Longfellow letters to the Bonners and McDowells, Lilian McDowell–Longfellow’s godchild, Longfellow’s address book and cancelled checks

Handwritten note: Lamar’s Eulogy on Sumner 2 May 1874 quoted

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated December 18, 1877. Re: birthday present and party, Boston friends

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated May 31, 1881. Re: book sent/birthday book, outdoor activities, shearing sheep

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow dated July

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Lilian McDowell dated January 17, 1881 Re: Christmas cards and book, Christmas, outdoor activities, Fourth of July

Copy of postscript from Longfellow letter to Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell letter

Copy of inscription in Disorderly Girl to Lilian McDowell from Henry W. Longfellow

Handwritten note: Mary F. Eastman, Biography of Dio Lewis (1891)

Receipt for Reproduction Service by Harvard University Library for Hubert McAlexander for letters copied from collection, including Katharine McDowell and Longfellow letters

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Andrew Hilen dated February 4, 1979. Re: Longfellow letters to Lilian and date for Disorderly Girl, Longfellow’s MS letter calendar, HWL letter to Ruth Bonner attributed to David McDowell III, Longfellow House and cancelled checks, Bonner and stamps, death date of John Callaway Langston

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Andrew Hilen dated March 9, 1978. Re: dedication of HWL’s The Masque of Pandora, Blanch Roosevelt

TD: Letters to Sherwood Bonner, Ruth Bonner, and Lilian McDowell, as listed in Longfellow’s MS Letter Calendar

TLS to Mr. McAlexander from Andrew Hilen dated November 29, 1978. Re: “Dear Aurora” letter, letters from HWL to Sherwood Bonner, Longfellow’s MS letter calendar, two letters to Lilian from HWL

Handwritten note: Boardman to L

Pamphlet: Henry W. Longfellow

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Elizabeth B. Egbert of the United States Department of the Interior, Longfellow National Historic Site. Re: materials sent, photographs of Mrs. McDowell’s house in Holly Springs

Postcard: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from George Stephenson dated September 12, 1980. Re; letters attached–to Aunt Kate, to Ruth, from Harper Brothers, visit to Holly Springs in February for funeral, progress on the publication

Copy of ALS to Mrs. McDowell from HWL dated April 4, 1874. Re: photographs, illness and bad weather,

Copy of ALS to Mrs. McDowell from HWL dated April 22, 1876. Re: Mr. [Emer–] calling, writing an article upon him and his works and their influence–making matters right, in town and will call on her at her hotel

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from Henry W. Longfellow dated February 15, 1876. Re: her sister’s arrival on the other side of the sea, bring letters from her to read to each other, invitation to Ruth to hear whole letter

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from HWL dated March 1876. Re: meeting on Monday–bring any letters from Sherwood,

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from HWL dated March 17, 1876. Re: Exhibition of Pictures–sending her a ticket to visit

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from HWL dated March 26, 1876. Re: her illness, letters from Sherwood

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from HWL dated June 23, 1876. Re: box left behind, seeing the college grounds illuminated, regret her early departure

Copy of ALS to Miss Ruth from [HWL–cut from original] dated August 15, 1876. Re:meeting on Friday, sister Kate not coming home as soon as intended, Paris

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from [Millie M. Calkias] dated 1895 from Oxford, MS. Re: Merry Christmas, gift, picture Kate has of you. Attached memo from Harvard College Library

Copy of ALS (illegible) with transcription ALS to Mr. Longfellow from [Millie M. Calkias] dated December 24, 1877. Re: picture, lock of his hair, correspondence with HWL, getting his autograph for Nellie Halliday, his birthday/happy New Year

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Millie M. [Calkias] dated November 1874. Re: sending a picture of her boy, he is her friend as he is Kate’s

Folder 6: The Radical Club

Copy of The Radical Club: A Poem, Respectfully Dedicated to “The Infinite” by “An Atom” By Sherwood Bonner. Published by The Times Publishing Company, Boston, 1876.

Copy of “Reminiscences” by Mrs. John T. Sargent, published in Boston by J.R. Orgood Company, 1880. Re: The Boston Radical Club

Copy of “The Radical Club” by Sherwood Bonner. Published in the Wit of Women (1885?)

Copy of ALS to Professor Longfellow from Mary E. Sargent dated Jan 19, 1875. Re: lady friend interested in Radical Club, extending an invitation.

Copy of The Radical Club A Poem respectfully dedicated to An Atom. By a Chip. Published in Boston, by William F. Gill and Company 1876. 27 pages.

Copy of The Radical Club A Poem respectfully dedicated to “The Infinite” By An Atom. 1 page.

Copy of The Radical Club A Poem respectfully dedicated to “The Infinite” By “An Atom.” Published Boston: The Times Publishing Company, 1876. 14 pages.

Copy of citation for Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney from Notable American Women Volume 1.

Handwritten note: Check Bonner’s friendship with Julia Ward Howe

Copy information concerning the Massachusetts Historical Society and Edward Gove and Mrs. Katherine McDowell’s poem “The Radical Club”

Handwritten note: Mass Hist. Soc.

Handwritten note: Radical Club

Folder 7: Bonner Circle–Boston

TLS to Mr. Hubert McAlexander from Andrew Hilen dated July 30, 1978. Re: Volume V and VI of Longfellow letters and references to McDowell in the last volume, Cornelia Bowman and relationship with Longfellow, Houghton Library at Harvard for Longfellow letters

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Tom McCraw dated February 28, 1979 and postmarked from Boston, Massachusetts. Re: Widener’s copy of Like Unto Like, research on women Bonner knew: Mrs. Ward Thoron, Sophia Shepard, Sophia Kirk, Nellie Willard, A.S. Whitney

Handwritten note: Nahum Capen

TLS to Mr. Hubert McAlexander from Lisa Backman dated August 17, 1978, and postmarked from Boston, Massachusetts. Re: citation for a Graniteville in Westford, Massachusetts a community near Lowell

Copy of biographical citation for Theodore William Dwight from the National Cyclopedia of American Biography.

Copy of 1880 census (information for Nahum Capen) from 6 Precinct, 24 Ward, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, page 54.

Copy of biographical citation for Nahum Capen from the National Cyclopedia of American Biography

Copy of biographical citation for Anne Whitney from Notable American Women.

Copy of biographical citation for John Conant from Appleton’s

Copy of biographical citation for Henry Mills Alden from DAB (Dictionary of American Biography?)

Handwritten note on page from calendar January 15 Re: Sherwood Bonner article

Copy of biographical citation for John Townsend Trowbridge from DAB (Dictionary of American Biography).

Copy of biographical citation for Kate Field

Copy of biographical citation for Mrs. Alice E. H. Peters from “American Women” 1897

Copy of map of Massachusetts

Copy of page from Historical Data Relating to Counties in “Cities and Towns in Massachusetts”

Copy of TLS to Lloyd from Hubert dated October 3, 1978. Re: biography of Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell, McAlexander’s family history, information needed from 1880 census of Boston, Dorchester, and Grantville Massachusetts

Copy of map of Massachusetts and Boston and vicinity and related index for map

Copy of citation for Henry Souther from Who Was Who in America Volume 1, 1897-1942

Copy of biographical citation for Mrs. Mary Frances Scott Siddons from “A Woman of the Century” 1893.

Copy of page from “Biographical Register”

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Tom dated December 21, 1978 and postmarked from Boston, Massachusetts.

Handwritten notes: 1873 7pages.

Handwritten note: 1882, 83, 84

Handwritten note: Boston Directories

Folder 8: James Redpath

Copy of “Some Thoughts Concerning the Love Life of Sherwood Bonner” By Daniel E. Sutherland, from Southern Studies, 26 (Summer 1987)

Handwritten note on the back of envelope: Harpers Weekly

Copy of TDS to Faculty members from Ms. Claire Colombo–see notes on back of second page

Copy of Counties of Enumeration 1850 Federal Population Census of Michigan, pages viii and 335, page 335 listing for “Redpath”

Copy of 1850 Census from Watson, Allegan County, Michigan, information for Ninian D. Redpath, page 102.

Copy of 1850 Census from Martin, Allegan County, Michigan, information for John Redpath, page 12 (2 copies, one from lower on census page to get all of Redpath’s household)

Copy of biographical citation for James Redpath from Who Was Who in America 1667-1896, p. 506.

Handwritten note: Harvard University, Houghton Library

Copy of ALS James Redpath to Caroline H. Dill, reproduced for handwriting sample, from Massachusetts Historical Society collection

Handwritten note: p. 94 of Redpath Lyceum Thesis

ALS to Mr. James Gregory, librarian at the New York Historical Society, from Hubert H. McAlexander, dated August 4, 1978. Re: James Redpath and Redpath collection

Handwritten note: Bank of H.S., Robert, Lexington

TD Extract from 1870 Census form, filled out for information from Midd County/Parish, Malden for Redpath, J., Ridher C.M., and Culloch C.M.

Handwritten note: Dio Lewis a lecturer for Redpath

TD Extract from 1860 Census form, filled out for information from Massachusetts, Midd County, town of Malden for James Redpath etc.

Copy of 1880 Census from Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, page 22, information for Mary Redpath

Copy of 1880 Census from Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, page 21

Copy of TD, lists Year, Number, Estate, Will Book, Inventory Book, Account Book–begins with “Kerns”

Copy of 1860 Census from Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, page 117, information for James Redpath

Copy of 1870 Census from Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, page 74, information for J. Redpath (2 copies)

Copy of biographical citation for Robert Green Ingersoll from DAB (Dictionary of American Biography)

Copy of TD, index of names, NY State, information for James Redpath

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from Lloyd Alexander. Envelope. Re: 1850 Census of Michigan, John Redpath, Cherokee Records

ALS to Hubert from Lloyd Alexander. Re: No Redpath in New England States, only New York, marriage record after 1856, Wheeler Records

Handwritten note: 1881 NYC Directory

Copy of 1850 Census from Fifth Ward, New York, New York. Information concerning James Redpath

Copy of dedication from John Brown’s Biography (handwritten note), James Redpath

Handwritten note: New York Historical Society

Handwritten note: Miss R [?] 1867

Copy of TD regarding marriage records in Massachusetts (and other states)

TD James Redpath Re: information concerning letters, handwritten notes, Lamar, Walthall, citation from DAB for James Redpath pages 443-444

TLS to Professor McAlexander from William Asadorian curator of NY Historical Society. Re: letters requested, from Jefferson Davis manuscript collection: Copies of ALS September 5, 1875 to James Redpath from Jefferson Davis; September 30, 1886 to James Redpath from Jefferson Davis; February 3, 1888 to James Redpath from Jefferson Davis; April 24, 1889 to James Redpath from Jefferson Davis; September 16, 1886 to James Redpath from Jefferson Davis

ALS to Mrs. McDowell from James Redpath dated [August?] 20, 1890.

TD Copy of Record of Death for Mary Redpath from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, State Department of Public Health, Registry of Vital Records and Statistics

Handwritten note: Higginson, Thomas W.

Folder 9: Willard-Boardman-Jenness

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from H[elen?] Willard dated January 13, 1880. Re: money to Cornelia, Mrs. McDowell,

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from CLB dated February 4, 1880 from Dresden. Re: Nellie Willard, return to Boston, Longfellow’s health, Miss Abrams translation of Goethe’s lfe, Kate McDowell and Lillian, picture

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Helen Willard. No date. Re: talk to/reason w/ Kate–“throwing herself away in the most foolish manner”

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from “C.” dated January 20, 1881 from St. Louis. Re: Christmas letter, new home, “first patient,”giving series of talks on Physiology and Hygiene and Nursing to ladies/girls school, letter from Kate about coming to live with “C” in Boston, Nellie Willard,

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Cornelia Boardman Pulsifer dated August 23, 1881.from St. Louis. Re: marriage/wedding, Mr. Pulsifer, will not have a private practice, Longfellow’s health, Mrs. McD. in Holly Springs “has accommplished her end by her residence in Illinois and is free again”

Copy of ALS to Mr. Longfellow from Helen Willard. No date. Re: Kate, ill, “is there anything that can be done to save her”

Handwritten note: Hilen

TD “Boston Evening Transcript Wed. 9 October 1878”

Copy of 1880 Census from[Needham], Norfolk County, Massachusetts, page 34.

TD “Extract from 1880 Census” information from Needham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, for Osgood and Malch households

Folder 10: Dio Lewis

Handwritten note: p. 76 Dio L left Boston for Cal in 1875

Copy of biographical citation for Dioclesian Lewis from Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XI, p. 209

Copy of biographical citation for Dio Lewis from The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. X, p. 381-382. ; attached handwritten note: Magazines, Journals edited by Dio Lewis

Handwritten note: Dorland’s or Steadman’s Medical Dictionary

Excerpt from Vessel of Wrath: Life and Times of Carry Nation p 290-293. Re: Dioclesian Lewis

Handwritten note: Dio Lewis, M.D.and excerpt from Prohibition in the United States, p. 116-117.

Handwritten note: p. 124 The Bellvue

Copy of excerpt from The Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson pp 248-249

Box 4 Folder 1: Harriet Waters Preston

ALS to Hubert from Rayburn. Re: H.W. Preston letter to PHH

Booklet Notes, Queries and Documents “Merlin and Vivien”? Some Notes on Sherwood Bonner and Longfellow by Rayburn S. Moore, reprinted from The Mississippi Quarterly, Volume XXVIII, Spring 1975, Number 2

TD “Letter from Harried Waters Preston to Phil Hamilton Hayne, 25 December 1878, Hayne Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University

Copy of biographical citation for Harriet Waters Preston from the Dictionary of American Biography p. 202

ALS to My Dear Friend from Harriet Waters Preston dated December 22, 1878. Re: Sherwood Bonner, Like Unto Like. Bonner’s relationship with Longfellow

TD Receipt for photocopy reproduction for Hubert McAlexander of the Paul Hamilton Hayne MSS, letter from Harriet Waters Preston to Paul H. Hayne, December 22, 1878.

TDS from Sharon E. Knapp to Mr. Hubert McAlexander dated July 28, 1978. Re: photographic services –December 22, 1878 letter from Harriet Waters Preston to Paul H. Hayne from Duke University’s Paul Hamilton Hayne Manuscript Collection

Folder 2: Louise Chandler Moulton

Copy of ALS to Edmund Clarence Stedman from Louise Chandler Moulton dated 1873. Re: marriage, female poets mission… 4 pages

Copy of ALS to Edmund Clarence Stedman from Louise Chandler Moulton dated February 10

Copy of ALS to Edmund C. Stedman from Louise Chandler Moulton dated May 18, 1873

Copy of ALS to Edmund Clarence Stedman from Louise Chandler Moulton dated October 27.

Copy of Daily Memphis Avalanche Sherwood Bonner article “A Southern Woman’s Impression of England and the English” dated from February 10, 1876.

Copy of biographical citation for Louise Chandler Moulton from Notable American Women p. 595-596

Handwritten note: Moulton

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Richard Foster dated February 28, 1977. Re: Bonner or McDowell, Louise Chandler Moulton and Bonner, book on Louise

Copy of The Cottage Hearth, January 1877, Vol. IV, No.1, article on Louise Chandler Moulton by Sherwood Bonner.

Handwritten note: Moulton

Copy of ALS to Laura Stedman from Louise Chandler Moulton dated February 12. Photocopy from Columbia University Libraries Special Collection

TLS to Hubert McAlexander from Richard Foster dated April 11, 1977. Re: letter of March 31, thesis

Copy of TLS to Richard J. Foster from Hubert McAlexander dated February 16, 1977. Re Louise Chandler Moulton and friendship with Sherwood Bonner, travels together in Europe in 1876, correspondence, James Redpath

TD “thing, New England Republicanism?” with handwritten notes

TD “Moulton to HWL 10 March 187_” with handwritten notes

Folder 3: Modjeska (Helena)

Copy of article from the Memphis Avalanche February 9, 1879 “The Modjeska. Sherwood Bonner’s Impression of the Great Artist.”

ALS to Mr. McAlexander from Laetitia Yeandle of the Folger Shakespeare Library dated July 26, 1978. Re: letter from Helena Modjeska to Mrs. McDowell, Mrs. Ellen K. Lee’s work on Helena Modjeska, Marion Moore Coleman

Handwritten note: Louise Hall Tharp (1898-

Copy of poem from Harper’s Weekly by Sherwood Bonner: “To Modjeska In The South”

Copy of poem from Memphis Avalanche February 14, 1879, p. 4, “Modjeska” by Sherwood Bonner

Folder 4: Colonel Andrew J. Keller

Copy of ALS to “My dear dear Auntie” (Miss Martha Bonner) from Mr. Chambers Kellar dated March 24, 1893 from Hot Springs, South Dakota. Re: Katharine, his son, Boston woman, Lilian

Copy of TLS to Mrs. Fred Belk of Holly Springs from George W. Polhemus dated June 9, 1957. Re: Sherwood Bonner, copy of letter to Bonner from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow–wants a transcript/copy of letter, excerpt from letter to Longfellow from Bonner on December 25, 1877(?)

Copy of TLS to Mrs. Fred M. Belk of Holly Springs from George W. Polhemus dated July 29, 1958. Re: returning Longfellow-Sherwood Bonner material, descendants of Helen Anderson/Anderson family and possession of Longfellow letters to Bonner in French, Polhemus’s connection to Mississippi

Copy of TLS to Mrs. Belk from David McDowell dated July 15, 1957. Re: Belk’s possession of letter from Longfellow to Sherwood Bonner, Polhemus’s interest in letter/intentions

Copy of TLS to Mrs. Fred M. Belk of Holly Springs from George W. Polhemus dated July 12, 1957. Re: research project for the Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn, Alabama devoted to search for letters that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote to Sherwood Bonner, Longfellow letter in Belk’s possession–request for copy of letter

TD “Longfellow’s Letter to Sherwood Bonner is Displayed at Cedarhurst.” Transcript of letter to “Aurora” from “H.W.L.”

Newspaper article “Mid-South Memoirs–The Elusive Mr. Kellar”

Copy of TLS to Professor Samuel Haber from Hubert McAlexander dated February 4, 1979. Re: Haber’s research on Andrew J. Kellar, Bonner’s connection to Kellar as editor of the Memphis Avalanche

Copy of biographical citation for Chambers Kellar from South Dakota: Stressing the Unique and Dramatic in South Dakota History by Doane Robinson, Volume III, p353-354.

Article “Andrew J. Kellar, Memphis Republican” by Grady Tollison, publiched in the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, 1962, pages 29-55.

Article by Paul R. Coppock regarding Andrew J. Kellar. Published April 2, 1978??

TLS to H.H. Alexander from Grady F. Tollison dated October 18, 1978. Re: Dr. Samuel Haber, Andrew Kellar paper done under the supervision of John M. Hemphill, C. Vann Woodward, Charles Dean.

TLS to Hubert from George Pesely dated March 7, 1979. Re: Kellar, book by Kenneth Kellar: Seth Bullock: Frontier Marshall, address, Bancroft’s two books by James Redpath

Article from The Commercial Appeal, January 15, 1978 “Mid-South Memoirs–A North Carolina Boy Who Made Good in Mississippi.”

Copy of Census index card from 1880 Census for Andrew J. Kellar

TLS to Hubert from George Pesely dated March 6, 1979. Re: Kellar-Haber matter, Chambers Kellar, copy of excerpt from The Compendium of American Genealogy regarding Chambers Kellar, p. 320.

TLS to Hubert H. McAlexander, Jr. from Kenneth C. Kellar dated April 5, 1979. Re: book on Chambers Kellar: Chambers Kellar, Distinguished Gentleman, Great Lawyer, Fiery Rebel, Colonel Andre Kellar, Captain Seth Bullock, Kellar-McDowell relationship

Card: from the Interlibrary Loan Service of the University of Georgia to Hubert McAlexander regarding reels of the Memphis Avalanche; handwritten notes on card regarding Dr. Roland A. Bill

TLS to Hubert H. McAlexander, Jr. from Kenneth C. Kellar dated April 18, 1979. Re: copy of 1875 letter from Colonel Andrew Kellar to Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell, General Colton Greene of Memphis

ALS to Mr. McAlexander from Roland A. Bill, D.D.S., dated April 19, 1979. Re: collector of military memorabilia, Colonel Kellar items, bought Kellar items from his family through dealer

Copy of excerpt from Who Was Who in American History–Arts and Letters, entry highlighted for Ellen (Warner) Olney (“Henry Hayes”) Kirk

Copy of 1880 Census from Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee for Andrew Kellar household

Folder 5: Mrs. Meriwether

Copy of article “The Woman Suffrage Movement in Memphis: Its Place in the State Sectional and National Movements” by Grace Elizabeth Prescott, published in the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Volume XVIII, 1964; handwritten notes attached

Article “The Gentle Sex. A Caustic Criticism of Wendell Phillips by Mrs. E.A. Meriwether” by Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, published in the Memphis Avalanche, October 27, 1881.

Copy of excerpt from The Meriwethers and Their Connections by Nelson Heath Meriwether, pages 138-145.

Folder 6: General Colton Greene

Handwritten note: Steve Palmer, University of Oklahoma, thesis on Colton Greene

Telephone messages from Steve Palmer to Dr. McA. Re: thesis

TD “Guide for the Use of the Memphis Room Collection”

Copy of article from the Commercial Appeal, September 10, 1948, “General Greene Was No Red–He Followed Bonny Blue Flag.”

TD Will Record No. 15 Probate Court, Shelby County (Memphis, Tenn.), Last Will and Testament of Colton Greene, Deceased, Filed October 5, 1900. Re: Lilian McDowell

Handwritten note: K.S.B M to Colten Greene 54, 201

Copy of bibliographical citation for Colton Greene in The Civil War Dictionary, by Mark Mayo Boatner III, p. 355.

Copy of excerpt from Memphis Down in Dixie by Shields McIlwaine, p. 236. Re: General Colton Greene

Copy of newspaper article (one paragraph) “Gen. Colton Green has taken…” No reference to date or source.

Copy of newspaper article, “Running down elusive bits of poetry…” No reference to date, title, or source. Re: General Colton Greene

Photocopy (3 pages) of newspaper articles regarding General Colton Greene’s death. Sources include: Eve. Sci. and Commercial Appeal. Dates between October 1-7, 1900.

Copy of excerpt from article “History of the Memphis Cotton Carnival” by A. Arthur Halle, published in The West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Volume VI, 1952, p. 39-41

Photocopy of newspaper articles regarding General Colton Green’s death and estate. Taken from The Commercial Appeal, October 2, 5, and 7, 1900.

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George Polhemus dated January 19, 1958. Re: items of interest: Photographs from Sister Frideswide, Mrs. Ward Thoron of Boston and a dispute concerning Bonner’s authorship of “The Radical Club,” General Colton Greene and an investigation of a possible link between a relative of Greene to Longfellow, and Bonner’s letter to Longfellow possibly being the starting point of Greene’s relationship with Lilian McDowell as Longfellow’s godchild.

Copy of a permission certificate for Mr. Colton Greene to visit the rooms and quarters of the Vatican.

Handwritten note: Avalanche 1876

Handwritten notes: Colton Greene (3 pages)

Handwritten note: Joe Montedonico

Handwritten note: Bondurant says Capen friend of Hawthorne and Irving

Handwritten note: Memphis Public, McDowell, Katherine Sherwood (Bonner)

Copy of TLS to Dr. Reba A. Orman, Head of Memphis Public Library and Information Center, from Hubert McAlexander dated August 22, 1978. Re: interest in materials library has on General Colton Greene, Anna Robinson Watson, and Andrew J. Kellar, address in Holly Springs, research

Handwritten note: Daily Memphis Avalanch 1875

Handwritten note: Stories abt (about?) Colton Greene

Article from The Commercial Appeal, no date, “Mid-South Memoirs–Where the Elite Meet”

Article “War on the River: The Mississippi Marine Brigade Battle at Lake Chicot” by Arthur G. Sharp, included with ALS to Hubert McAlexander from P[?] dated October 12, Re: Colonel Colton Greene

Folder 7: Obituaries & Biographical Sketches

Newspaper clipping “Sherwood Bonner” from newspaper, no date or source information.

Copy of article “Sherwood Bonner” from Harper’s Weekly, August 11, 1883

Copy of biographical citation for Katharine Sherwood Bonner McDowell from Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, p. 461-462.

Copy of book review for The Story of Margaret Kent by Henry Hayes published in the January 23, 1886, edition of The Critic, p. 43.

The Mississippi English Newsletter, Volume VI, January 1973, No. 3. Re: article on Sherwood Bonner

Copy of newspaper article “Sherwood Bonner” by MCK (Margaret Chambers Kellar) published in the Memphis Avalanche on August 12, 1883, p. 2.

Copy of excerpt from unnamed biographical dictionary: Kirk-Kissel

Copy of newspaper article “Sherwood Bonner” Underlines and notes in red. No date or name of source.

Handwritten note: Xerox and return Avalanche; attached copy of newspaper article “Sherwood Bonner” by Saratoga Letter

Copy of newspaper article “In Memoriam.” credited to Helen Craft Anderson in the Holly Springs Reporter, August 16, 1883.

Copy of newspaper article “A Southern Authoress” credited by handwritten note to be from the Helen Craft Anderson Scrapbook, authorship and source in dispute

Copy of newspaper articles concerning Sherwood Bonner’s death, no dates or sources.

Copy of newspaper articles concerning Sherwood Bonner’s death, first credited to Helen Craft Anderson in the Holly Springs Reporter on August 16, 1883, second of disputed origin, no date

Copy of newspaper articles concerning Sherwood Bonners death. First “In Memoriam” no date or source save for mention of a Memphis publication in handwritten note on the back of copy. Second “In Memoriam” by M.A.M. claimed to be from the Memphis Avalanche according to a handwritten note on the copy

Copy of newspaper article “Katherine Sherwood Bonner” by Francis Gill, no date, or source

Copy of newspaper article “Mrs. George Waddell Fooshe” w/ poem by Foosche “Toast to Happiness” by Antoinette Tucker Fooshe. No date, no source (2 copies)

Handwritten note: Preston, DAB, Appletons, etc.

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated August 19, 1957. Re: copies of photographs, information regarding Bonner photographs, editorial in Harper’s Weekly from August 11, 1883 three weeks after Bonner died, excerpts from Harper’s Weekly editorial

Copy of newspaper? article “Sherwood Bonner” by George M. Moreland from the November 29, 1931, edition of unknown newspaper source

Copy of newspaper article “Sherwood Bonner” from Harper’s Weekly that appeared in the Holly Spring Reporter. No date, nor author’s name.

Handwritten note: NY Times Obituary Index

Copy of biographical citation for Sherwood Bonner from The South in History and Literature: A Hand-Book of Southern Authors from The Settlement of Jamestown, 1607, to Living Writers by Mildred Lewis Rutherford, 1906, pages 547-550.

Copy of biographical citation from Appleton’s Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1884, p. 609.

Folder 8: Estate and Custody

Copy of court opinion: Edward McDowell v. Martha Bonner et Al. from Mississippi Reports, Volume 62, 1884-85, p 278-281.

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polthemus dated July 15, 1957. Re: photographs, disappointment concerning location of papers of Sophia Kirk, northern members of the McDowell family, Suwanee River Tales, belief that Longfellow letters never left south–written in French, Mrs. Orlando Davis Hammond, correspondence between Edward McDowell and Mrs. Cora Watson, Mr. McDowell’s early relationship with “Kate.”

Copy of newspaper article from Memphis Daily Appeal from August 7, 1883, “An Interesting Trial” regarding the custody case of Lilian McDowell after Bonner’s death between her sister, Miss Martha Bonner, and McDowell’s father, Edward McDowell

Handwritten note: 2 Aug Reporter

Handwritten notes: Custody Suit 1657 (3 pages)

TD “Estate Papers (1654) and Custody Suit (1657)–Chancery Clerk’s Office, Holly Springs, MS”

Handwritten note: Kate’s will as evidence of her wishes

Handwritten note: Custody suit

ADS –Witness testimony at Lilian McDowell’s custody suit

TD Last will and testament of Katharine S. McDowell

Folder 9: Margaret Kent and the Kirks

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from S.V. Cohran dated February 22, 1979. Re: pastel picture/portrait

Copy of biographical citation of Mrs. Ellen Warner (Olney) Kirk from S. Austin Allibone’s A critical dictionary of English literature and British and American authors, living and deceased, from the earliest accounts tothe latter half of the nineteenth century.

Copy of biographical citation of Mrs. Ellen Olney Kirk from unnamed source

Copy of article from The Book Buyer entitled “The Author of “Margaret Kent,” pages 146-147. M.S. 6, May 1889.

Copy of biographical citation of Katherine Sherwood (Bonner) McDowell from the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 11, p. 496.

Copy of biographical citation of Mrs. Katherine Sherwood (Bonner) MacDowell from A Dictionary of American Authors by Oscar Fay Adams, p. 241-242.

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated August 7, 1957. Re: The Story of Margaret Kent, goal of research project, Longfellow’s relationship with Alice Frere, brother Reverend Longfellow’s editing of Longfellow’s papers, Mrs. Belk’s Longfellow letter, Mrs. Cora Watson Carey

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated July 25, 1957. Re: Mrs. Belk and Bonner-McDowell material, Ellen Warner Olney Kirk, The Story of Margaret Kent, Sherwood Bonner, photographs of Katherine and Lilian McDowell

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated September 4, 1957. Re: photographs, negatives/photographs done by photography company Sarony’s donated to New York Public Library, photograph of Sherwood in riding habit, Miss Rebecca Morton–legatee of Sophia Kirk, Edward McDowell, Longfellow’s will, deaths of Bonner’s father and brother

Copy of TLS to Mr. McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated October 10, 1957. Re: Stephenson family’s possession of Sherwood Bonner papers and portrait, Sophia Kirk and The Story of Margaret Kent–rumor that Kirk stole some of Bonner’s manuscripts after Bonner’s death

Handwritten note: Margaret Kent

Copy of 1880 Census from Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania., includes entries for Kirk households

Copy of TLS to Professor McAlexander from George W. Polhemus dated April 19, 1979. Re: permission to use his material, portrait/illustrations for book, letters Longfellow wrote to Bonner–who has rights to them/usage. Enclosed with letter: TD Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, excerpts from Sherwood Bonner’s letter, list of birth/death dates, TD The Published Writings of Sherwood Bonner, TD Letters and Unpublished Writings of Sherwood Bonner in the Possession of Mrs. Ruth McDowell Stephenson, of Gulfport

Copy of ALS to Miss Howells from Sophia Kirk dated May 25, 1927.

Handwritten note: Mr(s) Ward Thoron

Copy of entries for The Story of Margaret Kent from unnamed index

Copy of biographical citation for Ellen Warner Olney Kirk from Who’s Who in Pennsylvania

Handwritten note: NY Times

TD “Extract from 1870 Census for Kirk and Gough households

Folder 10: (George) Polhemus letters to David McDowell

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated November 8, 1979. Re: Lilian baptised in H.S., crops, Marshall Co. has a black sheriff/blacks in public office, McAlexander’s book to be definitive book–“I do not intend going thru this again. It began with Polhemus & closes with you.” Enclosed part of letter to “Dear Dave” dated November 3. Re: book about my grandmother, “Mother” baptised at age 7, Kirk family,

TL to Professor Polhemus dated April 9, 1979. Re: biography of Sherwood Bonner, Polhemus’s early research/theories no given proper credit, permissions to use material

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated May 15, 1957. Re: letters written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Mrs. Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell, Sophia Kirk mentioned letters–in French, Sister Frideswide–Mrs. McDowell’s granddaughter, McDowell’s place in American literature, contacting members of McDowell family

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated June 22, 1957. Re: Miss Rebecca H. Morton–legatee of Sophia Kirk, Kirk papers at the Boston Athenaeum and the University of Pennsylvania–possibly at Bryn Mawr College, Mrs. Belk at former Bonner home “Cedarhurst” and copy of Longfellow letter to Bonner at that residence, ask for David McDowell’s influence w/ family and people in the area, Longfellow’s status as Lilian’s godfather, copying of materials,

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated June 27, 1957. Re: photostats of letters and photographs, Kirk letters in Boston Athenaeum, uncertainty concerning the burial place of Sherwood Bonner, Longfellow letters and Sophia Kirk, Miss Martha Bonner, and Lilian Kirk McDowell–location of materials, appearance of Longfellow material as part of Pilgrimage exhibit, Mrs. Belk

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated August 3, 1957. Re: drought conditions in New Jersey, Longfellow letter, Bonner’s work with Longfellow on Poems of Places, The Story of Margaret Kent, family of Ellen Warner Olney Kirk, response to Kirk’s novel w/ romantic plot, Longfellow’s finances and wife/children, George Washington Greene–Longfellow confidente/target for Longfellow researchers, research trips–Sister Frideswide, McDowell, and Stephenson

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated October 19, 1957. Re: New York Public Library/photographs and Library of Congress and Boston Public Library, location of Sherwood Bonner photographs, Bonner work published in Lippincott’s Magazine called “The Valcours” that Polhemus wants to get published as a novel, B.M. Drake’s Southern Writers quotes Longfellow letters to Bonner, McDowell’s cousin in Gulfport–concern for health and parish responsibilities

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated November 5, 1957. Re: Bonner photographs, examination of papers of Dr. George Petrie and Dr. Charles Hunter Ross, Boston Public Library, schools Bonner attended, Bonner’s work “The Valcours” in Lippencott’s Magazine, Sister Frideswide, Sophia Kirk and The Story of Margaret Kent,

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated November 13, 1957. Re: returning photograph of Sherwood Bonner, Edward McDowell–British education, Dr. George Petrie’s papers

Copy of TLS to David McDowell from George W. Polhemus dated November 27, 1957. Re: Bonner photograph, Edward McDowell–results of search for British education, Longfellow material in Petrie papers/Professor W.P. Trent/Dr. Charles Hunter Ross–relationship w/ Lilian

Handwritten note: Polhemus letters to David McDowell

Folder 11: Sherwood Bonner Sketch

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated January 13, 1986. Re: Uncle Ed, Aunt Kate’s role in family history, picture of Edward McDowell, inherited items, Day Caruso Died

ALS to Hubert McAlexander from David McDowell dated February 24, 1986. Re: McAlexander’s father’s illness, own illness, lawyer, George’s papers

Envelope addressed to Bank of Holly Springs; contained w/in envelope is newspaper clipping (3 pieces, some missing) concerning Sherwood Bonner from newspaper dated March 10, 1886, updated from Holly Springs entitled “Our Regular Correspondent Sends Us Her Usual.–title of newspaper unknown

Typed card Re: arrival of interlibrary loan (University of Georgia Libraries) of Times Democrat

Notecard: Putt, S. Gorley Henry James: A Readers Guide

Photocopy of article from March 10, 1886 newspaper contained in envelope (see above fourth entry in folder 11) 2 copies

Copy of TLS to Dave (McDowell) from Hubert (McAlexander) dated January 31, 1986. Re: Sherwood Bonner clipping, New Orleans Times-Democrat, possible author of clipping–Cora Harris Watson Carey, Helen Craft Anderson, and Annah Robinson Watson, George’s papers–suggests donating them to Department of Archives and History in Jackson, The Day Caruso Died, Miss Lily’s album, essay “Flush Times in Holly Springs” published in the Journal of Mississippi History

ALS to Dr. McAlexander from Susan dated March 10, 1986. Re: copies, Times-Democrat, microfilm

Handwritten note: 1885-1886 New Orleans Times-Democrat

Copy of TLS to Professor Linda Taylor from Hubert McAlexander dated April 8, 1980. Re: book on Sherwood Bonner in press at LSU, McAlexander’s interest in contributing a paper on “Women in the Study of American Literary Realism and Naturalism”

Copies from the front page of the New Orleans Times-Democrat from April 1-2, 1886

Photocopy of article from March 10, 1886 contained in envelope (see above fourth entry in folder 11) McAlexander and Susan trying to find the newspaper from which the article originated. Handwritten notes between the two parties determine article not from New Orleans Times-Democrat

TD Form for interlibrary loan request from the University of Georgia Libraries by Hubert McAlexander–request for the Memphis Scimitar–not filmed; excerpt from list of Newspapers in Microform: United States

Folder 12: Bonner Scholars after 1981

TLS to Professor Hubert McAlexander from Dr. Cynthia G. Tucker dated February 6, 1980. Re: Kate Freeman Clark, Brooks Art Gallery exhibition, trying to fill out Miss Kate’s kin and community–questions regarding references to Mrs. Freeman, her family, and their hometown in Bonner’s fiction, letters, diaries or other’s writings

TLS to Dr. Hubert McAlexander from Kathryn B. McKee dated April 10, 1995. Re: dissertation work on postbellum female humorists, Sherwood Bonner stories and correspondence; enclosed TD “Writing in a Different Direction: Women Authors and the Tradition of Southwest Humor,”

TLS to Dr. Hubert H. McAlexander from Anne R. Gowdy dated February 12, 1993. Re: doctoral student at Ole Miss, profile article on Bonner to submit to Legacy as a component of Ole Miss comprehensives, primary sources on Bonner, Bonner documents McAlexander collected for The Prodigal Daughter, Bonner’s newspaper columns to the Memphis Avalanche from Boston and Europe

TLS to Professor Hubert H. McAlexander, Jr., from Daniel E. Sutherland dated February 25, 1981. Re: Bonner book, Redpath

ALS to Dr. McAlexander from Dottie Abbott. Re: biography of Bonner, suggestion for selection for students; enclosed TD “Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth

 
Feedback

JavaScript disabled or chat unavailable.