| Description | Artificial collection of more than 6400 letters predominantly 19th-20th centuries, of political, literary, scientific, musical, religious, educational and other figures, together with letters from individuals associated with the University. In addition to letters, the collection includes deeds, photographs and engravings, bills, greetings cards and other record types.
The collection includes, for example, correspondence of a number of bishops of Lichfield, Worcester and Hereford and letters of a number of headmasters of public schools such as Charterhouse, Eton and Harrow. It also contains letters of more local significance and interest, and includes family and business correspondence.
The following list of individuals represented in this artificial sequence (both authors and recipients of letters) is by no means comprehensive. It is intended to give a flavour of the collection and to give an indication of larger groups of material, particularly where the letters form an archival entity.
Attwood, Thomas (1783-1856), political reformer;
Baillie, Joanna (1762-1851), dramatist and poet;
Bantock, Sir Granville Ransome (1868-1946), composer: c 100 letters from Gordon Bottomley, Edward Carpenter, Sir Charles Eliot, Sir Barry Jackson, Sir John Cadman, Donald A. Mackenzie, Francis Brett Young and others, 1907-38 and c 40 letters to R. J Buckley, 1902-18;
Barnes, Ernest William (1874-1953), Bishop of Birmingham;
Bright, John (1811-1889), statesman and orator;
Buckley, R. J., music critic of Birmingham;
Burow, Robert: c 50 letters to his family, mostly to his mother Isabella Burow, written from New York, Arizona and Minnesota where he was undergoing treatment for consumption, 1896-1902;
Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth Mary (1858-1951), educationist and social reformer;
Cadbury, George (1839-1922), industrialist and philanthropist;
Cobden, Richard (1804-1865), statesman and businessman;
Collings, Jesse (1831-1920), politician;
Collins, John Churton (1848-1908), critic and Professor of English, University of Birmingham, 1904-08;
Cope, Sir Arthur Stockdale (1857-1940), painter;
Dale, Robert William (1829-1895), Congregational minister, historian and author;
Dawson, George (1821-1876), minister of the Church of the Saviour, Birmingham and lecturer: including c 25 letters to Thomas Winkworth;
Dixon, George (1820-1898), politician and educational reformer;
Drinkwater, John (1882-1937), playwright, poet and actor;
Edgeworth, Richard Lovell (1744-1817), author;
Elgar, Sir Edward William (1857-1934), composer;
Faraday, Michael (1791-1867), natural philosopher;
Fox, William Johnson (1786-1864), preacher, politician and journalist;
Gore, Charles (1853-1932), Bishop of Oxford;
Goschen, George Joachim (1831-1907) 1st Viscount Goschen, statesman;
Grey, Edward (1862-1933), Viscount Grey of Falloden, statesman;
Gunn, Private Joseph L, of Imperial Volunteers, Norfolk Regiment: c 100 letters to his family in Norfolk while serving in the Boer War, 1900-01;
Harcourt, Lewis (1863-1922), 1st Viscount Harcourt;
Haweis, Hugh Reginald (1838-1901), author and preacher;
Holbrooke, Joseph (1878-1958), musician;
Housman, Laurence (1865-1959), playwright, writer and illustrator;
Hughes, Thomas Cann (1861-1948), antiquary: 75 items relating to Devonshire antiquities and the Devonshire Association, 1904-29;
Huskisson, William (1770-1830), statesman: 16 items relating to the transport of troops to the Cape, East Indies, India, 1796-1801;
Hutton, Catherine (1756-1846), author;
Jackson, Sir Barry Vincent (1879-1960), theatrical director: c 50 letters, mostly to Edith Barling, 1933-60;
James, J Angell (1785-1859), independent minister;
Kapp family: includes family correspondence and personal papers of Dr Gisbert Kapp (1852-1922), engineer and Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Birmingham;
Lloyd, Messrs of Ludlow, Shropshire, solicitors;
Mason, Sir Josiah (1795-1881), industrialist and philanthropist;
Moilliet family of Birmingham;
Parr, Samuel (1747-1825), pedagogue;
Priestley, Sir Raymond (1886-1974), geologist and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham;
Rickman, Thomas (1776-1841), architect;
Robertson, Sir Charles Grant (1869-1948), historian and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham: including c 40 letters to his mother and sister, Isobel Nevill, 1920-35;
Ross, Alan Strode Campbell (1907-1980), Professor of Linguistics, University of Birmingham;
Rufford, Francis (d 1854), MP, banker and businessman: c 70 letters and other papers as chairman of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway relating to the railway, 1845 and which include three letters from Isambard Kingdom Brunel;
Selwyn, George Augustus (1809-1878), bishop of Lichfield;
Shrewsbury, Earls of;
Shorthouse, Joseph Henry (1834-1903), novelist and literary critic;
Slade Baker family of Bewdley, 32 items, 1818-39;
Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret Smith) (1902-1971), author;
Smith, William (?1808-1876 ) of Fleet Street, London, bookseller;
Spencer, Earls of;
Spender, Sir Stephen Harold (1909-1995), poet and critic;
Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander (1858-1948), art historian;
Sturge, Joseph (1793-1859), philanthropist;
Temple, Frederick (1821-1902), archbishop of Canterbury and headmaster of Rugby School: c 40 letters from, 1866-1901;
Villiers, Charles Pelham (1802-1898), statesman;
Webster, Benjamin Nottingham (1797-1882), actor and dramatist;
Wordsworth, Christopher (1807-1885), bishop of Lincoln: c 20 letters from, 1841-84;
Winterbotham and Thomas of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, solicitors;
Young, Francis Brett (1884-1954), author. |
| Custodial History | This collection, which was begun in the 1950s, has been built up by the Special Collections Department over many years. However, some items were subsequently transferred from this collection to other more recently created artificial collections which were dedicated to a single individual. These include the 'Letters Additional' collections of Joseph Chamberlain, Austen Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Harriet Martineau, John Galsworthy, Sir Oliver Lodge. Items which were thus transferred were re-numbered and the Letters Additional (LAdd) reference numbers ceased to be used. |