Skip to main content

Tudor and Stuart Club records

 Record Group
Identifier: RG-15-100

Scope and Contents

The records represent a wide variety of Club activities, though the records are relatively few in number and generally span only a few years. Types of records include: announcements and invitations for Club functions; bibliographies of the Club's holdings, including the one for the Edward Revere Osler book collection that was the foundation of the Club's library; bills and invoices related to publications and the engagement of paid lecturers; and the records of English Literary History (ELH), the Club's learned journal. A significant portion of the records is in the form of correspondence. Letters in the group cover such topics as book acquisition, lecture series engagements, Club publications, and personal correspondence between Club members. The operations of the Club are represented by several financial reports, Annual Reports and Activities, Minutes of the Board of Governors and Annual Business Meetings, and by membership lists. Commemorative "Club Books" published in 1927, 1938, and 1948 are included in the record group. Some photographs of the original GIlman Hall room used by the organization are included. In addition to the Club's records, compiled histories (in scrapbook pages and text) of the Club, as well as some Osler family correspondence, notes, and mementos are included. The holding overall spans from 1829 to 1997.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1829-1997

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

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

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Special Collections department. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.

Biographical / Historical

The formation of the Tudor and Stuart Club, dedicated to "the encouragement of the study of English literature in the Tudor and Stuart periods, the building up of a library of works relating to these periods ... and the promotion of good fellowship and a love of literature," was initiated by Sir William Osler and his wife, Lady Grace Osler. Their intention to provide an endowment for these activities was expressed in a letter to Johns Hopkins University President Frank J. Goodnow, dated October 30, 1918. This letter officially founded the Club.

Sir William Osler was one of the renowned "Four Doctors" who formed the first staff at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and, later, the first faculty at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. Osler came to the new hospital as Physician-in-Chief in 1889 and became Professor of Medicine at the newly opened medical school in 1893. He left Baltimore in 1905 to become Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford. Osler delivered the Silliman lectures at Yale in 1913. While there, he visited and admired the Yale Elizabethan Club. An endowed literary club, the Yale organization may have sparked Osler's interest in providing such a group for Johns Hopkins. The Tudor and Stuart Club was, however, eventually founded as a university property rather than as a private corporation, as was the case with the Yale group. The Oslers' son, Edward Revere, had been born in Baltimore in 1895. Their only child, he died of battle wounds received in World War I fighting in France in 1917. Like his father, Edward had been an avid book collector. The Oslers' endowment for the Tudor and Stuart Club was therefore named the Edward Revere Osler Fund and was established "as a memorial to our son . . . and in grateful recognition of the happy years we spent in Baltimore."

The endowment provided not only interest bearing securities for the book purchasing and other operations of the Club, it also contributed Edward Revere Osler's personal book collection, about 800 volumes, as the nucleus of the Tudor and Stuart library. Osler's founding letter, in addition to announcing the endowment, suggested criteria for Club membership, proposed a group of original members, and concluded with a promise to contribute special book items to the library. Osler died in December 1919, having had time to make only one such contribution, "The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius," printed in London in 1559. After some delay, the Edward Revere Osler book collection arrived at Hopkins in late 1922. Librarian M. Llewellyn Raney, realizing that the Club had never been formally organized, wrote to President Goodnow in December 1922 urging a first convening of Club members. Raney suggested that the Club and its library be housed in Gilman Hall. He also noted that the Tudor and Stuart library must be made generally available to the university community, since Osler's original intention was that it be considered a part of the English departmental library.

The organization of the Tudor and Stuart Club was effected January 16, 1923 with a membership drawn from within and outside the University. A few women are counted among the original members as well as faculty from the School of Medicine. It was Osler's belief that an interest in the classics was essential for physicians. Rooms in Gilman Hall were designed and furnished for meetings and for the use of rare books. A portrait of Revere Osler was hung above the mantle. Author's readings, book-talks, and lectures were formally scheduled, but the club was also a place for the more informal gatherings of students, faculty, and others who shared a love of literature. The distinctive collection of rare books also provided a stimulus to research, and the journal, English Literary History (ELH), was begun in 1934 as a project of the Tudor and Stuart Club.

Johns Hopkins librarian and professor of English, John C. French (1875-1957), an original member of the Tudor and Stuart Club and its second president, 1924-1925, included a history of the club in his published volume: A History of The Johns Hopkins University Founded by Johns Hopkins. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1946. (LD 2628 .F87 1946)

Extent

1.42 Cubic Feet (2 letter size document boxes, 1 letter half-size document box, 1 legal size document box)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The formation of the Tudor and Stuart Club was initiated by Sir William Osler and his wife, Lady Grace Osler. Their intention to provide an endowment for these activities was expressed in a letter to Johns Hopkins University President Frank J. Goodnow, dated October 30, 1918. Their endowment provided not only interest bearing securities for the book purchasing and other operations of the Club, it also contributed to their son Edward Revere Osler's personal book collection, about 800 volumes, as the nucleus of the Tudor and Stuart library. Types of records include: announcements and invitations for Club functions; bibliographies of the Club's holdings, including the one for the Edward Revere Osler book collection that was the foundation of the Club's library; bills and invoices related to publications and the engagement of paid lecturers; and the records of English Literary History (ELH), the Club's learned journal. A portion of the records is in the form of correspondence. The records of the Tudor and Stuart Club span the years 1829 to 1997.

Accruals

Includes accruals: Accession 78.43, 79.24, 81.44, 1992-93.MS.024, 1992-93.MS.030, 2004.03.

Some archival items describing the history of the Club were removed from MS.0137: The Johns Hopkins University collection in April 1993.

Items that form folders noted as "vertical file" were found in books that were part of the Tudor and Stuart book collection. They were transferred from the Cage, January 1993, and formed Accession 92-93.24.

Separated Materials

A formal decision was made to remove the collection of rare books from Gilman Hall and to integrate them into the University's Special Collections where they could be maintained in a carefully controlled environment. This was done in several stages, but by 1983 the collection had been removed from Gilman to both the John Work Garrett Library at Evergreen and Special Collections, Milton S. Eisenhower Library. The books have been cataloged and can be accessed through the online catalog.

Processing Information

Processed by Andrew Gelber and Joan Grattan (April 1993) in the 1990s, with additional processing by Annie Tang in December 2015.

In the further processing of this collection, MS.0351 was consolidated into RG.15.100.

Title
Tudor and Stuart Club records
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Repository

Contact:
The Sheridan Libraries
Special Collections
3400 N Charles St
Baltimore MD 21218 USA