Kate Upson Clark Papers, 1893-1935
General International Standard for Archival Description
Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded in NoteTab Pro. Encoded by Jennifer Smar. 2005-11-17
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Kate Upson Clark Papers
Creation of Kate Upson Clark Papers
Time of Creation of Kate Upson Clark Papers
Clark, Kate Upson, 1851-1935
Biographical History for: Kate Upson Clark Papers
Biographical Note Poem by Kate Upson Clark for her husband, Edward P. Clark, titled "New Year's Day, 1877" Catherine (Kate) Pickens Upson was born in Alabama in 1851, to Edwin Upson and Priscilla Maxwell. She was raised in Charlemont, Massachusetts and graduated from Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College), Norton, Mass., in 1869. In 1874, she married Edward P. Clark, and they had three sons, Charles, John and George. She contributed articles and columns to periodicals including Godey's Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Christian Herald, Harper's and various children's magazines. She was editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Republican, Good Cheer Magazine, and eventually the New York Evening Post. She published several books (mostly children's), short stories, and a novel. After her husband's death in 1903, Kate Clark lectured extensively throughout U.S. on popular, cultural, literary, and political subjects including suffrage. She resided in New York City and was active in the suffrage and temperance movements, and founded the Brooklyn's Women's Republican Club. She taught courses on lecturing at Columbia University and was a trustee of Wheaton College from 1907 until her death in 1935. [See also Clark Family Tree in reading room]
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Kate Upson Clark Papers include diaries, correspondence, published and unpublished writings (including notes, articles, lectures, and poems), biographical material and memorabilia. Correspondence from and to family, friends, and students includes intimate letters (1914-22) to her sister, Mary Upson Avery, covering personal, family, occupational, and financial matters, and including references to her activities as a Trustee of Wheaton College, persons of varying importance met through lecture engagements, and glimpses into the careers of her sons, Charles Upson and John Kirkland Clark. Her unpublished manuscript, "The Affair of William Strickland & Co.," is an account of charges of "Abolitionist connivance" brought by the booksellers' business in Mobile, Alabama in which her father Edwin Upson, a native of Connecticut, was an associate. Other writings include composition books (1862-67); diaries she kept as an adolescent and young woman (1862-68, 1888); and extensive notes on a European trip (1923-25).
Abolitionists--Indiana--Biography--Sources
lcsh
Family--United States--History--19th century--Sources
Women authors, American--20th century--Biography--Sources
Journalists--United States--Biography--Sources
Women journalists--United States--Biography--Sources
Women editors--United States--Biography--Sources
lcnaf
Wheaton College (Norton, Mass.)--History--Sources
series
Correspondence
Kate Upson Clark to family, 1914-15
Kate Upson Clark to Mary (sister) and Oscar Avery, 1916-22
Friends to Kate Upson Clark, 1919-26, n.d.
Edwin Markham to Kate Upson Clark, 1906
Friends to Edward P. Clark (husband), 1874-89
Friends and relatives to Mary P. Upson, 1899, n.d.
Students to Mary P. Upson, 1897-05, n.d.
Memorabilia
Memorial tribute from Wheaton College, 1935
Miscellaneous memorabilia
Writings
Miscellaneous notes
"The Affair of William Strickland & Co." (manuscript)
Articles for Godey's Magazine and Christian Herald, 1893, 1909
Poems
Notes
"My Reminiscences," n.d.
European travel journal, 1923-25
Diaries (8), 1862-68, 1888
History notebook, 1866
White Butterfly by Kate Upson Clark, 1900