Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Burd Schlessinger.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003

Biographical Note

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.

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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.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into three series:

• I. Biographical Material
• II. Correspondence
• III. Writings and Drawings
• Oversize Materials

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SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1836-1982) .25 linear ft.

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) .75 linear ft.

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) .25 linear ft.

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.

SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1836-1982)

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1812-1913)

SERIES III. WRITINGS AND DRAWINGS (1849-59)

OVERSIZE MATERIALS