The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982
General International Standard for Archival Description
Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Laura Cutter. 2003-06-12
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers
Creation of Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers
Time of Creation of Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers
Sturgis-Tappan Family
Biographical History for: Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers
Biographical Note Caroline Sturgis-Tappan at about age 40 William Sturgis was born 25 February 1782, the son of William Sturgis and Hannah Mills. He was a prominent Boston merchant and co-founder of Bryant and Sturgis, and made his fortune in the China Trade. He married Elizabeth Marston Davis and they had six children, among them two daughters, Ellen (1812-1848) and Caroline (1819-1888). Caroline Sturgis married William Aspinwall Tappan, son of Lewis Tappan, a noted abolitionist, and Susanna Aspinwall; they had two children, Ellen Sturgis Tappan and Mary Aspinwall Tappan. Caroline Sturgis Tappan and her sister, Ellen Sturgis Hooper, were minor Transcendentalist poets whose work was occasionally published in the Dial. They counted among their acquaintances William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, and Henry David Thoreau. The sisters, especially Caroline, were also friendly with Margaret Fuller and regularly attended her celebrated "conversations," begun in 1839. The Tappans lived in Boston and summered in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. In 1936, Mary Aspinwall Tappan and her niece, Rosamond Sturgis Dixey Brooks (Caroline Sturgis Tappan's granddaughter), gave the family's summer estate, Tanglewood, to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Please see Appendix for more information about the extended Sturgis-Tappan family.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Sturgis-Tappan Papers consist of 1.25 linear feet dating from 1812 to 1983, approximately two thirds of which is correspondence and the rest of which is writings and drawings. Types of material include correspondence, pencil drawings and watercolors, drafts of poems, and one published volume.
Authors, American--19th century
lcsh
Family--United States--19th century--History--Sources
Women poets, American--19th century
Transcendentalists (New England)
Channing, William Ellery, 1780-1842--Correspondence
lcnaf
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882--Correspondence
Fuller, Margaret, 1810-1850
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864--Correspondence
Hawthorne, Sophia Peabody, 1809-1871--Correspondence
Hooper, Ellen Sturgis, 1812-1848
Tappan, Mary Aspinwall, 1851-
Tappan, Caroline Sturgis, 1819-1888
James, William--Correspondence
Tappan family
Sturgis family
Tanglewood Music Center--History
New England--Intellectual life--19th century
series
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1836-1982)
This series consists of information about members of the Sturgis-Tappan Family (primarily photocopied excerpts from various reference books and anthologies); a photograph of Caroline Sturgis Tappan and a published catalog about her Grand Tour of Europe; and correspondence pertaining to the transfer of Tanglewood to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1812-1913)
This series is the largest in the collection and is organized into three subseries: letters to and from Caroline Sturgis Tappan, letters to and from her daughter, Mary Aspinwall Tappan, and third party correspondence. The correspondence is extensive among family members across three generations. Also included are letters to and from Lydia Maria Child, William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sophia Hawthorne, and William James. (The Emerson correspondence is significant, while that of the others here listed is limited to one or two letters.)
SERIES III. WRITINGS AND DRAWINGS (1849-59)
This series contains primarily pencil drawings and watercolor sketches by Caroline Sturgis Tappan, as well as drafts of poems attributed to Tappan and to her sister, Ellen Sturgis Hooper. There is also correspondence pertaining to ownership of plates for Rainbows for Children (1848), a book by Lydia Maria Child.
Family history
Photocopies of pages from various books, 1914, 1973, n.d.
The American Transcendentalists: Their Prose and Poetry (1957) and The Transcendentalists: An Anthology (1950) by Perry Miller: photocopies of excerpts, n.d.
Notes taken on the Tappan family by George McCandlish: photocopies, n.d.
Caroline Sturgis Tappan and the Grand Tour by George Dimock (2 copies), 1982
Account of Lewis Henry Tappan's first two years (brother of William Aspinwall Tappan), by his father, Lewis Tappan, circa 1823
[See Oversize Materials]
Caroline Sturgis Tappan: photograph, n.d.
Tanglewood: correspondence, 1836-56, n.d.
Caroline Sturgis Tappan
Family
Bigelow, William S., n.d.
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan, 1875-87
Dixey, Richard Cowell, 1875-85
Goodwin, Ezra, 1828
Hooper, Anne Sturgis, 1855-59, n.d.
Hooper, Edward W., 1861
Sturgis, Susan, 1849, n.d.
Sturgis, William, 1848-50
Tappan, Lewis (combined letter from Caroline Sturgis Tappan and Ellen Sturgis Tappan (Dixey) [father-in-law/grandfather, respectively], 1861
Tappan, Mary Aspinwall, 1887, n.d.
Unidentified relative, 1849
Friends and acquaintances
Channing, William Ellery, n.d
Child, Lydia Maria, 1847
[See also Oversize Materials]
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (includes some photocopies), 1838-72, n.d.
Hawthorne, Sophia, 1842
James, William, 1882
White, Ellen, n.d.
Unidentified fragments, n.d.
Mary Aspinwall Tappan
General, 1887, n.d.
Bigelow, William S. 1888, 1913, n.d.
Brooks, Gorham, 1913
Dixey, Arthur Sturgis, 1890-1905, n.d.
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan, 1879-1910
Dixey, Rosamond Sturgis, 1908-24
Tappan, William Aspinwall, 1886-1904, n.d.
James, William, 1901, n.d.
Miscellaneous, 1905-32
Other family members
Bigelow, William S. to family, n.d.
Davis, John to William W. Sturgis, 1816
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan to various recipients, 1851-95
Dixey, Richard W. to wife, Rebecca Dixey, 1859
Hooper, Anne Sturgis to various recipients, 1851, n.d.
Hooper, Ellen Sturgis to William Swain, 1844
Sturgis, Ellen M. to Ellen Goodwin, 1815-25
Sturgis, Susan to William Swain, 1846
Sturgis, William to various recipients, 1812-59
Sturgis, William W. to various recipients, 1822
Tappan, Susan A. to "Mrs. Colonel Aspinwall" (sister), 1821
Tappan, William Aspinwall to various recipients, 1855-1903, n.d.
Third party
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Forbes, Margaret, n.d.
Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, n.d.
Tappan, William Aspinwall (photocopies), 1845, n.d.
Payne, Eloisa, n.d.
Drawings: Tappan, Caroline Sturgis
Pencil sketches, 1846-57, n.d.
Pencil sketches and watercolor paintings: album, n.d.
[Located in Box 4]
Poetry
Tappan, Caroline Sturgis: handwritten booklet of poetry with pressed flowers, n.d.
Tappan, Caroline Sturgis and Ellen Sturgis Hooper (?): miscellaneous poems, 1836, n.d.
"G.W.": "Nebulae," n.d.
Unidentified author: handwritten book of poems, n.d.
Correspondence pertaining to Rainbows for Children by Lydia Maria Child, 1849-59
Published etchings by various artists of sites in Great Britain, n.d.
Album of pencil sketches and watercolor paintings by Caroline Sturgis Tappan, n.d.
OVERSIZE MATERIALS
Letter to Mary Aspinwall Tappan from Arthur Sturgis Dixey, 29 Nov 1894 (?)