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Descriptive Summary

Call No.: A-72
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: CAROLINE WELLS [HEALEY] DALL, 1822-1912
Title: Papers, 1841-1909
Quantity: 1 & 1/2 file boxes, incl. 8 vol.
Abstract: Correspondence, articles, reminiscences, etc., of Caroline Wells (Healey) Dall, author and social reformer.

Acquisition Information:

TERMS OF USE:

BIOGRAPHY

Caroline Wells Healey Dall was a prodigious writer (see the Goodspeed list, and the large collection of materials at the Mass. Historical Society). This collection consists of 1 v. of copies of her husband's poems [Charles Henry Appleton Dall, 1816-1886] done at his request in 1853. In 1841 Caroline W. Healey attended Margaret Fuller's Conversations held at the Rev. Geo. Ripley's home, Bedford Place, Boston. In 1 v. she has recorded the conversations held from March 1 to May 5, 1841. Among the members were Wm. White, Fred. H. Hedge, James Freeman Clarke, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sophia & George Ripley, Wm. Story, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Caroline Sturgis, Elizabeth Hoar, Ida Russell, Sallie Gardiner, Frank & Sarah Shaw. There are quotes from CWH's journal for 1841 about these meetings, as well as many interesting tidbits about Margaret Fuller(1810-1850) culled from many sources and reminiscences thru 1895.

In the winter of 1864/1865, Mrs. Dall held many interesting conversations with Mrs. R.P. Clarke (Rebecca Parker Hull Clarke d.1865), the mother of James Freeman Clarke, in preparation for the biography of "A business woman." These are delightful reminiscences and even include reference to Margaret Fuller's trip West in 1843.

There is an interesting series of letters from John Patton of Toronto covering the years 1851-1869.

Four volumes of clippings record the obituaries of personal friends and others whom Mrs. Dall knew from her public contacts, 1874-1909.

For a more detailed biography, see the inventory for her papers, MC 351.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

30 volumes of published works: see Goodspeed's list in inventory folder. 2 broadsides as on list. 3 MSS volumes.

CONTAINER LIST

• Box 1: Folders 1-3, Vols. 1-5
• Box 2: Folders 4-5

INVENTORY

• v.1 1. Original hymns by Rev. Chs. Dall, copied by Caroline H. Dall, W. Newton, Mass., Sept.1858. To fulfill his request, March 1855.
  MS. 7 x 8' notebook (60p) containing 45 numbered poems and several others.

• v.2 2. Studies toward the life of "A business woman" being conversations with Mrs. R. P. Clarke, in the winter of 1864-1865. By Caroline H. Dall.
  MS 208, 9 p. Bd. in 1 v.Preface dated Nov. 16, 1865. First copy imperfect. Index.
  Clarke, Rebecca Parker [Hull] d. 1864. Being lively reminiscences of Mrs. Clarke, daughter of General William Hull, 1753-1825, mother of James Freeman Clarke, 1810-1888, covering her family life in Newton and Boston, Mass. as told to Caroline H. Dall. After her husband, Samuel Clarke's death in 1835, she took an active interest in her business affairs, buying and selling real estate in Boston, Chicago, and Milwaukee, using her own shrewdness and common sense to amass a large fortune. She traveled extensively in this country and abroad from 1839 on, and was acquainted with outstanding figures of the time.
  CLOSED USE MICROFILM: M-86.

• v.3 3. Patton, John d.1870
  48 letters to Mrs. Dall and her daughter Sarah from John Patton (Uncle Don) from Toronto and Montreal. 1851 -1869.
  MS. Bd. in 1 v.
  PATTON, John
  48 letters to Mrs. Dall (Caroline Wells Healey Dall) and her daughter Sarah Dall (Sadie) from John Patton (Uncle Don) from Toronto and Montreal. 1851-1869.
  MS bd. in 1 vol.
  [From 1849/1850 to 1854 the Dalls lived in Toronto, in 1854 they removed to West Newton, Mass. The following year Mr. Dall went to India, from where he returned about every five years until his death in 1886. Mrs. Dall remained in West Newton for many years, later moving to Boston. Sarah Dall married ....Munro. There was also a son William (Willie) who became a well known scientist.]
  1851 To Mrs. Dall
  1852 July 25. To Sarah. re sail down the Niagara River
  1852 Aug. 1 To [Mrs. Dall] Montreal
  1854 Aug. 15 To Mamma [Mrs. Dall] Church St. Toronto. Onillia.
  1854 Oct. 2 To Mamma [Mrs. Dall] Cataract House Niagara Falls. re train trip.
  1854 Nov. 21 To Sarah K.H.Dall, W. Newton. Toronto. re Cherry(a bird)
  1854 Dec. 15 To Willie. Toronto.
  1854 Dec. 17 To Mamma. Toronto. re Niebuhr's Life.
  1854 Dec. 24. To Sadie, W.Newton. Toronto
  1855 Feb. 10? ---- Re: Indians and missionaries in Upper Canada
  1855 Sept. 30 ---- Toronto. Re: business and pleasure on New York trip. By train to Niagara, boat to Toronto.
  1855 March 5 To Sarah Toronto. Re: Cherry.
  1855 March 13 To Mamma. Toronto. Re: Lucy Stone and her lectures in Toronto
  1855 March 15 ---- Re: Woman's Rights
  1855 April 3 ---
  1855 Tues. Eve. ---- Re: Art
  1855 Sept. 3 To Sadie. Toronto. Re: fishing trip in Northern Canada. 18???
  1855 Sept. 27 To C.H.D. Toronto.
  1855 Sept. 30 To C.H.D. Toronto. Re: literature.
  1855 Oct. 21. To C.H.D. Toronto. Re: Schoolcraft. Mr. Dall in India. as 1st foreign missionary of the Unitarian Church to Calcutta.
  1855 --- To CHD signed Norna!
  1855 Oct. 22 To Sadie. Toronto. Re: pigeons.
  1855 Nov. 4 To CHD. Toronto. Re: CHD moving to Boston; "Atmosphere telegraph", UNA, Paul Sullivan the artist.
  1855 Dec. 17. To Sadie Toronto. Re: Walk in the snow.
  1856. May 27-June 1. --- Re: fishing trip, Holland River, Snake Indians and bad storm.
  1858 July 31 ---- from Hamilton, [Ont.]
  1856 Nov. 27 To Mrs. Dall. from Susanna Moodie, Belleville. Family gossip.
  1857 Jan. 25 --- Toronto. Re: trip to determine terminus of railway on Lake Huron.
  1857 May 10 To CHD. Toronto. Re: weather, flowers, Grand Trunk Railway.
  1857 Sept. 27 To CHD. Toronto. Re: visit to Brockville.
  1857 Dec. 13 To CHD. Toronto.
  1858 April 19 To Sarah. Toronto.
  1858 May 4 To Sadie Toronto.
  1858 May 29 To CHD Toronto.
  1858 Aug. 8 To CHD Toronto.
  1858 Aug. 19 To CHD Toronto. Re: his father's illness, business depreciation
  1858 July 3 To [Sadie] Toronto.
  1858 Nov. 13 To Sadie Montreal.
  1860 March 29 To CHD. Fairview. [very contrite letter]
  1861 Sept. 14 To Sadie. Montreal
  undated ---
  Undated letter (copy) from Duchess of Schonberg to Madame de Sable. 3p.
  1865 Feb. 15 To Sadie Montreal
  1865 July 31 To Sadie Montreal
  1866 April 4 To CHD Montreal Re: clearing accounts, unwell.
  1866 May 6 To CHD Montreal
  1867 Dec. 29. To Sadie --- personal
  1869 Nov. 22 To CHD.

• 4. Dall, Caroline Wells [Healey] 1822-1912 Poem to her daughter, Sarah, on her 18th birthday.
  MS. 1p.

• 5. Dall, Caroline H. Obituary: Rachel Bodley 1888 Broadside. Remembrances of Whittier... 1907. Broadside

• 6. Miscellaneous papers (articles written by CHDall.)

• Vol. 7v. Conversations upon the Mythology of the Greeks and its Expression held at the home of the Rev. Geo. Ripley, Bedford Place, Boston, March 1841, by Sarah Margaret Fuller. Abstracts by Caroline Wells Healey. [The conversations lasted thru 10 meetings, March 1 - May 5, 1841] The latter part of the volume contains articles written about Margart Fuller in 1859, and 1895 -- also quotes re Margaret Fuller from C.W.D's journals, 1841, 1846, 1851, 1865, and 1877, apparently collected in 1895.
  (formerly v. 4) CLOSED USE MICROFILM: M-87

• Vol. 8-11 Obituaries of persons with whom I was very intimate or with whom I had close public relations. Vol. I-IV.
  • vol. 8 (v.I.) 1874-1885
  • vol. 9 (v.II) 1885-1892
  • vol. 10 (v.III) 1892-1900
  • vol. 11 (v.IV) 1901-1906

• 12. Unmounted obituaries. 1906-1910.

• 13. Pamphlet by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "Ought Women to Learn the Alphabet?" (Woman's Suffrage Tracts, No. 4), Boston, 1869, with note by C.H.D.