Oliver Wendell Holmes collection

Collection

Identifier: MS-0025

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers span the years between 1852 and 1936, and include 17 letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes; 2 letters to him; recollections of him; recitation questions by him; 3 printed poems; 1 manuscript poem; news clippings; 4 photographs.

Dates

Creation: 1852-1936

Creator

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is housed off-site and requires 48-hours' notice for retrieval. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Collection is open for use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions. It is not necessary to seek our permission as the owner of the physical work to publish or otherwise use public domain materials that we have made available for use, unless Johns Hopkins University holds the copyright.

Biographical Note

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1809, the son of Sarah Wendell Holmes and Abiel Holmes. He graduated from Harvard in 1829 and received his M.D. from Harvard in 1836, after which he practiced medicine in Boston. From 1838-1840 Holmes was Professor of Anatomy at Dartmouth, and at the Harvard Medical School from 1847-1882. He wrote a number of medical pamphlets of importance, among which was "The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever" (1842).

Holmes literary career began in 1857 with "The Autocrat At The Breakfast Table," a series of talks published in the first numbers of the Atlantic Monthly. This was followed by the series "The Professor At The Breakfast Table" in 1860 and "The Poet At The Breakfast Table" in 1872. His novels "Elsie Venner" in 1861, "The Guardian Angel" in 1867, and "A Mortal Antipathy" were not commercially successful, but have been called the first American psychological novels. Homes is father to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935). Oliver Wendell Holmes died in 1894.

Extent

0.167 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1809. The collection spans the years between 1852 and 1936, and include 17 letters from Oliver Wendell Holmes; 2 letters to him; recollections of him; recitation questions by him; 3 printed poems; 1 manuscript poem; news clippings; 4 photographs.

Custodial History

The Oliver Wendell Holmes Collection was originally part of the Daniel Coit Gilman Collection (MS.0001). However, in 1932 a number of Holmes items were presented to Johns Hopkins University by Dr. Lawrason Brown, and subsequently these were combined with the Oliver Wendell Holmes material from the Gilman papers to form a new collection.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The correspondence series was apparently donated by Daniel Coit Gilman's daughter, Elisabeth Gilman.

Processing Information

This is no known processing information for this collection.

Rachel Gattermeyer revised the biographical note in this finding aid in August 2023 to bring them into compliance with Johns Hopkins guidelines for inclusive and conscientious description (2023). The previous version of the finding aid is available upon request.