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The Allingham letters

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Collection of 257 letters, notecards, envelopes, and visiting cards compiled by Helen Allingham and arranged by Sarah Pirie. A detailed list of the letters, their custodial history, and brief biographies of the correspondents are also present.

Dates

  • Creation: 1839-1935, 2013, n.d.

Extent

0.50 linear metres (3 boxes)

Language of Materials

  • English

Preferred Citation

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries [followed by shelfmark and folio or page reference, e.g. MS. 9524/1].

Please see our help page for further guidance on citing archives and manuscripts.

Full range of shelfmarks:

MSS. 9524/1-3

Collection ID (for staff)

CMD ID 9524

Abstract

Collection of letters, notecards, envelopes and visiting cards of the circle of artists in the life of Helen Allingham, 1852-1935, n.d.

Biographical / Historical

Helen Allingham (1848-1926) was a British watercolour artist of the Victorian era.

William Allingham (1824-1889) was an Irish poet, diarist, and editor. Wilfrid Williams Ball (1853–1917) was a British Victorian and Edwardian painter of landscapes and marine subjects.

George Bell (1814-1890) was an English publisher. He founded the book publishing house George Bell & Sons.

Robert Anning Bell (1863-1933) was an English artist and designer.

George Price Boyce (1826-1897) was a British watercolour painter of landscapes and vernacular architecture in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He was a patron and friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet and playwright.

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet (1833-1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter.

George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834-1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and writer.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher.

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) was an English poet, educationalist, and devoted assistant to Florence Nightingale.

John Maler Collier (1850-1934) was a British painter and writer.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer, and social critic.

Patrick Vincent Duffy (1832-1909) was an Irish painter, primarily of landscapes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet.

Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of Fraser's Magazine.

Richard Garnett (1835-1906) was a scholar, librarian, biographer, and poet.

Rev George Gilfillan (1813-1878) was a Scottish author and poet.

Alfred Perceval Graves (1846-1931) was an Anglo-Irish poet, songwriter, and folklorist.

Catherine Greenaway (1846-1901) was an English Victorian artist and writer, best known for her children's book illustrations.

Henry Andrew Harper (1835-1900) was a London landscape and genre painter.

Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936) was a British writer and suffragette.

Anne Laura Herford (1831–1870) was a British artist in the early 19th century, and in 1860, was the first woman to be admitted to the Royal Academy schools.

Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914) was a Bavarian-born British painter, pioneering film-director, and composer.

Octavia Hill (1838-1912) was an English social reformer.

George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (1843-1911) was an English aristocrat, peer, politician, and painter.

Arthur Hughes (1832-1915) was an English painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist, and poet.

William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Sir Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913) was an English surgeon, ophthalmologist, dermatologist, venereologist, and pathologist.

Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J.H. Irving, was an English stage actor and stage manager in the Victorian era.

Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer, and artist.

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) was a priest of the Church of England, university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist, and poet.

Walter Savage Landor (1775- 1864) was an English writer, poet, and activist.

Herbert Menzies Marshall (1841-1913) was an English watercolour painter and illustrator, and earlier in life a cricket player. Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet (1829-1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Edith Martineau (1842-1909) was a British watercolour painter.

Gertrude Martineau (1837-1924) was a British watercolour painter, woodcarver, and teacher.

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) was an English writer and social theorist.

Robert Braithwaite Martineau (1826-1869) was an English Victorian painter. He studied under the Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt.

Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-1885) was an English poet, patron of literature, and politician who strongly supported social justice.

Helena Modrzejewska (1840-1909), known professionally as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish actress who excelled in Shakespearean and tragic roles.

Clara Federica Montalba (1840-1929) was a British artist, chiefly known for her watercolour paintings of Venice.

William Morris (1834-1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement.

John William North (1842-1924) was a British landscape painter and illustrator, a prominent member of the Idyllists.

Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (1823-1896) was an English poet and literary critic.

Sir Joseph Noel Paton (1821-1901) was a Scottish artist, illustrator, and sculptor.

Colin Bent Phillip (1855-1932) was a Scottish landscape painter.

Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet (1836-1919) was an English painter, designer, and draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy.

Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) was an English book illustrator.

Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie (1837-1919), eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray, was an English writer, whose several novels made her a central figure on the late Victorian literary scene.

Briton Rivière (1840-1920) was a British animal artist.

Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (1828-1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator, and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with six other artists.

William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) was an English writer and critic, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He became the movement's unofficial organiser and bibliographer. He edited the Brotherhood's literary magazine The Germ.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was an English writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman, and philanthropist of the Victorian era.

Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (1880-1958) was a British author, palaeobotanist, and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights.

Dorothy Tennant, Lady Stanley (1855-1926) was an English painter of the Victorian era neoclassicism.

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron (1809-1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign.

Dame Alice Ellen Terry (1847-1928) was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1847-1848 novel Vanity Fair.

Sir William Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) was an English sculptor, responsible for some of London's best-known statues, including the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the Palace of Westminster.

Walter Frederick Roope Tyndale (1855–1943) was a British watercolourist of landscapes, architecture, and street scenes, book illustrator, and travel writer.

Mary Augusta Ward (1851-1920) was a British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward.

Sir Thomas Spencer Wells, 1st Baronet (1818-1897) was a surgeon to Queen Victoria, medical professor and president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Richard Whateley West (1848-1905) was an Irish painter.

Thomas Woolner (1825-1892) was an English sculptor and poet, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was the only sculptor among the original members.

Arrangement

The original numbered sequence of the letters as arranged by Sarah Pirie, has been preserved.

Custodial History

The letters were given by Helen Allingham to Sarah Pirie, who was the artist's housekeeper. On her death, the letters passed on to Sarah's sister Isabella and then to Isabella's son John Chasser Moir of New College, Oxford, Nuffield Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford between 1937 and 1967.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated through the Friends of the Bodleian by Kenneth Chassar Moir and John Pirie Moir in memory of their father John Chassart Moir, 3 February 2014.

Bibliography

  • Ina Taylor, Helen Allingham's England (London, 2000)
  • William Allingham: a diary edited by Helen Allingham and Dollie Radford, with an introduction by John Julius Norwich (Harmondsworth, 1985)
Title
Catalogue of the Allingham letters
Status
Published
Author
Margaret Czepiel
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Edition statement
First edition

Repository Details

Part of the Bodleian Libraries Repository

Contact:
Weston Library
Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BG United Kingdom