Emerson, Eugenie Homer, 1854-1940. Emerson and Nichols Papers. 1806-1953: A Finding Aid

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women

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Radcliffe College
March 1976

Descriptive Summary

Call No.: MC 212
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: EMERSON, EUGENIE HOMER, 1854-1940.
Title: Emerson-Nichols Papers, 1806-1953
Quantity: 8 boxes

Processing Information:

Processed: January 1975, March 1976

By: Nancy Wagner, Eva Moseley

These papers were found in the home (on Mt. Vernon Street, Boston) of Rose Standish Nichols upon her death. Her nephew, Sidney N. Shurcliff, gave them, with her books, to the Bryn Mawr Booksale; Mr. and Mrs. Lyman H. Butterfield then separated the papers from the books and gave the former to the Schlesinger Library (then the Women's Archives) in April 1964.

Scope and Content

The papers include only one note to, and some photographs of, Rose Standish Nichols; they are mainly the papers of RSN's sister, Marian Clarke Nichols, and of their aunt, Eugenie Homer Emerson. Many more papers of the Homer and Nichols families can be found in the Nichols-Shurtleff Family Collection, A-170.

Historical Note

Eugenie Homer was born in 1854, the fourth of the five children of a well-to-do Boston family. She traveled extensively in Europe during her early twenties, describing her travels in letters to her family; during 1878-1879 she visited various cities with her sister and brother-in-law, Augusta St. Gaudens and Augustus St. Gaudens, the latter a well-known sculptor. In about 1890 she began to write from the family home in Roxbury to the Reverend Oliver Pomeroy Emerson (1845-1938) in Hawaii, describing visits with family and friends, plays, concerts, her work with a girls' club, the artists she met through Augustus St. Gaudens, and discussing the annexation of Hawaii. After her marriage to Oliver in 1896 she wrote to her family, especially to her mother, from Hawaii. In the correspondence with her sister Augusta and her cousin Mary Elizabeth Homer Emerson, much attention is devoted to health and illness. Also included in the papers of EHE are letters to Eugenie from various family members; papers (1806-1867) of Sidney Homer; and correspondence and other papers of the Emerson family.

The papers of Marian Clarke Nichols (1873-1963), daughter of Elizabeth Fisher Homer and Arthur Howard Nichols, cover the period 1821-1953, and include her diaries while traveling in Europe in 1891 and again in 1893-1894; family correspondence and photographs; and papers and lantern slides on civil service reform. MCN was active in both the Women's Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association and on the Committee on Civil Service Reform of the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs; she served the latter as secretary, 1909-1918, and chairman, 1918-1923. She was also active in the National Civil Service Reform League and collected addresses made to the League by well-known speakers. The Nichols-Shurtleff Family Collection (A-170) contains papers of MCN which complement those in this collection.

Additional catalogue entries (a card for each of the following appears in the card catalogue):

Brooks, John Graham, 1846-1938

Emerson, Eugenie Homer, 1854-1940

Hazard, Caroline, 1856-1945

Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association

Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs

National Civil Service Reform League

Nichols, Marian Clarke, 1873-1963

Shaw, Pauline Agassiz, 1841-1917

Civil service reform

Diaries

Homer family

Nichols family

St. Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907

Santayana, George, 1863-1952

Travel

Family papers

CONTAINER LIST

Box 1: Folders 1-11

Box 2: Folders 12-19

Box 3: Folders 20-28

Box 4: Folders 29-31, Vols. 1-10

Box 5: Folders 33-36, Vols. 11-18

Box 6: Card file of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association (see also Box 5)

Box 7: Glass negatives and Lantern slides (pool vault)

Box 8: 98 glass lantern slides (pool vault)

INVENTORY

Series I. EUGENIE HOMER EMERSON, 1854-1940.
- A. Letters from EHE.
  - 1. To her family, 1869-1876
  - 2. To her family, October 1878-December 1879
  - 3. To her family, 1888-1895
  - 4. To her family, 1896
  - 5. To her family, n.d.
  - 6. To her mother (Mary Elizabeth Homer), 1897
  - 7. To her mother (Mary Elizabeth Homer), 1898-1899
  - 8. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1890-1893
  - 9. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1894
  - 10. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1895
  - 11. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1896-1898
  - 12. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1899
  - 13. To Oliver P. Emerson, 1900-1909
  - 14. To Augusta and Augustus St. Gaudens (some written by OPE), 1897-1902
  - 15. To Cousin Lizzie (Mary Elizabeth Homer Emerson), n.d.
- B. Letters to EHE.
  - 16. From Joseph Homer (brother), 1867-1899
  - 17. From Mother, 1869-1881
  - 18. From Mother, 1881-1895
  - 19. From Mother, 1896-1898
  - 20. From Cousin Lizzie, 1877-1909
  - 21. From members of the Emerson family congratulating Eugenie on her engagement, October 1895
  - 22. From friends and cousins, 1914-1930: Cousin Alice, Louise Burch, Martha Clark, Elizabeth Dorr, Martha Homer
- C. Miscellaneous.
  - 23. Business papers and correspondence of Sidney Homer, 1806-1867
  - 24. Emerson family: correspondence, marriage certificate, funeral sermon, etc., 1837-1865
  - 25. Correspondence between Gertrude Kimball and EHE, 1870-1873, 1896
  - 26. Letters of recommendation for Thomas Homer (EHE's brother), 1907-1908
  - 27. Correspondence between Sidney and Louise Homer and EHE, 1916-1938; also newsclippings and Winslow Homer obituaries.
  - 27a. Photographs of the Sidney Homer family (stored in file drawer)
  - 28. Letters (from John Graham Brooks, Caroline Hazard, et al.) congratulating OPE on the publication of Pioneer Days in Hawaii, and reviews of the book, 1928-1937

Series II. MARIAN CLARKE NICHOLS, 1873-1953
- A. Personal.
  - Vol. 1. Diary, May 22 - July 22, 1891
  - Vol. 2. Diary, July 24 - October 11, 1891
  - Vol. 3. Diary, October 12 - November 12, 1891
  - Vol. 4. Diary, November 13 - December 31, 1891
    [Diaries for 1892, and also 1883-1887, in Nichols-Shurtleff Papers, A-170]
  - Vol. 5. Notebook of lecture notes for philosophy course with George Santayana, February - May 1893
  - Vol. 6. Diary, November 2, 1893 - January 25, 1894
    includes 23 photos of Italy
  - Vol. 7. Diary, January 26 - March 30, 1894
    includes 9 photos of Italy
  - Vol. 8. Diary, March 31 - July 18, 1894
    includes 11 photos of Italy
  - Vol. 9. Diary, July 19 - September 1, 1894
    includes 3 photos of Italy
  - Vol. 10. Notebook of copied quotations and poems, one dated May 1905, most n.d.
  - 29. Correspondence. MCN to or from family and friends, 1889-1952.
    Also obituary (newsclipping) of MCN, 1953.
  - 30. Miscellaneous correspondence, including letters to Elizabeth Fisher Homer Nichols (one from Pauline Agassiz Shaw) and doctor's bill for Rose Standish Nichols
  - 31. Invitations to (1839, n.d.)
  - 31a. two photographs of Charles Gordon Atherton (1804-1853), U.S. Congressman and Senator. Sketch of the Life of Joseph Warren Homer, read at the Massachusetts Charitable Society, December 5, 1863, by Sidney Homer, President. Inscribed by Grandma Homer to MCN, December 1890.
  - 32. Photographs (stored in file drawer): MCN in childhood [and two in later years?] RSN and MCN with their Austrian friend, Baroness Erggelet, Salzburg, July 1894. Family pictures, August 1898. Miscellaneous travel and family photographs, n.d. and unidentified
- B. Civil service reform activities.
  - Women's Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association
    - Vol. 11. Women's Auxiliary [Annual] Report, 1902-1911
    - 33. Membership lists, 1910-1911, with notes re donations and dues
    - 34. Membership lists, 1912-1915 with notes re donations and dues
    - Vol. 12. Dues and donations records, 1922
    - Vol. 13. Dues and donations records, 1923-1924
    - Vol. 14. Secretary's account book, December 1909 - January 1913
    - Vol. 15. Library lending record, 1913-1916?
    - Vol. 16. Treasurer's records, 1927-1934, Beacon Hill Assocation [branch of Women's Auxiliary]
    - 35. Publications, notes, invitations, and tickets of Women's Auxiliary and branches, most n.d.
      See also Box 7.
  - Committee on Civil Service Reform, Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs
    - Vol. 17. Minutes, September 1910 - April 1920
    - Vol. 18. Minutes, October 1920 - January 1923
  - National Civil Service Reform League
    - 36. Addresses (printed) to the League, 1895-1914, including speeches by Charles William Eliot, Richard Henry Dana (both presidents of the League), and Charles Evans Hughes.
  - Box 7: Card file of the Women's Auxiliary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association.
    See also Box 5.
- Daguerreotypes:
  - D-1. "Aunt Grace Low."
    Name written in the hand of Arthur Howard Nichols.
  - D-2. Aunts Grace Low and Susan Smith.
  - D-3. Henry Augustus Nichols.
  - D-4. Wife of Leonard J. Nichols.
  - D-5. Holt cousin of Arthur Howard Nichols (MCN's father)?
  - D-6. Deacon Thwing of Salem St. Church.
  - D-7. Mary Pinkerton Crombie.
  - D-8. "Probably Bible Class of Charles Nichols at the Salem St. Church."
  - D-9. Unidentified woman.
  - D-10. Unidentified man, probably a Nichols.
  - D-11. Unidentified man and woman.
  - D-12. Unidentified young woman.
  - D-13. Unidentified woman
    (1/2 plate, 4" x 6" daguerreotype, in Box 7).
  - 37. Three fashion plates, 1821, 1825.
    (Stored in file drawer.)
    
    * D-1 to D-8 identified in AHN’s hand.
- Box 7:
  Lantern slides re civil service reform, including Thomas Nast cartoons, state and federal statistics and legislation, and pictures os workers. Also daguerreotype D-13(see list below).
  - Glass negatives:
    - D-14 to D-46 Thomas Nast cartoons on civil service reform
      (D-23 cracked)
    - D-47 to D-60 Texts on the spoils system and on the meaning and practical consequences of civil service reform before and during WWI
      (D-53 broken)
    - D61 to D-67 Portraits of U.S. Presidents and civil service reformers.
      Remarks by a president on civil service and office-seeking.
    - D-68 to D-98 Texts on the scope and purpose of civil service law and application of the law.
      (D-84 broken)
    - D-99 to D-114 Workers and civil servants at work
      (D-107 broken)
    - D-115 to D-117 Children doing physical exercises
    - D-118 to D-121 Unidentified portraits and views
      (D-119 broken)
  - Lantern slides:
    - D-122 to D-124 Thomas Nast cartoons
      (same as D-18, D-19, D-21) (all broken)
    - D-125 to D-127 Views of postal workers, firemen, and text on government efficiency
- Box 8: Contains 98 glass lantern slides
  - D-128 through D-161: Texts on civil service administration and reform
  - D-162 through D-176: Illustrations from books and Thomas Nast cartoons on civil service reform
  - D-177 through D-225: Photographs of civil servants at work, c. 1910 (firemen, postmen, sanitation men); includes a few scenes of Boston.Several are copies of illustrations from books
    . Note: a few of these slides are broken.

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