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Inventory of the Clemens (Samuel) Family Papers, 1872-1908
HM 53346 - HM 53483
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Title: Clemens (Samuel) Family Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1872-1908
Collection number: HM 53346 - HM 53483
Creator:
SamuelClemens Family
Extent: 139 items (7 diaries, 132 letters and financial records)
Repository: The
Huntington Library
San Marino, California 91108
Language:
English.
This collection was acquired from the Phyllis Harrington estate on March 24, 1987
(accession number 1335).
Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader
Services Department. For more information please go to following
URL.
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials,
researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the Library Director. In
most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical property
rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary
rights In some instances, the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the
physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further
information.
[Identification of item], Clemens (Samuel) Family Papers, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
On Feburary 2, 1870, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) married Olivia Langdon
(1845-1904), the daughter of Jervis Langdon, a wealthy coal mine magnate. In the first
year of their marriage, Olivia gave birth to their son, Langdon Clemens. The baby was
premature, and died in 1872. Clemens and Olivia had three more children: Olivia Susan
(1872-1896), Clara (1874-1962), and Jane Lampton (1880-1909). The girls spent most of
their childhood years at the Clemens home in Hartford, Connecticut, although they often
traveled to Europe with their parents. Summers were spent at Quarry Farm, in Elmira, New
York, with Olivia Clemens' sister, Susan Langdon Crane (1836-1924), and her husband
Theodore Crane, who managed the Langdon coal company with Olivia's brother, Charles
Jervis Langdon (1849-1916). The Clemens family also had a close relationship with
Olivia's brother, his wife Ida Clark, and their children Jervis, Julia (1871-1948), and
Ida (1881-1964).
As children, the Clemens girls enjoyed music and play-acting, and Clara studied piano and
singing as an adult, and eventually appeared on the legitimate stage. In 1909, Clara
married Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878-1936) and continued conert work. In
1944, she married Jacques Samossoud, a Russian friend of Gabrilowitsch. Olivia Susan
(Susy) Clemens attended Bryn Mawr College for several years, but depression and
ill-health inhibited her progress, and she left without receiving a degree. Susy died of
spinal meningitis at the age of twenty-four, much to the dismay of her father, who had
considered her the prodigy of the family. Jane Lampton (Jean) Clemens also died young, at
the age of twenty-nine. She was diagnosed as epileptic in 1896, and traveled with her
family to European spas for treatment. For a number of years she was confined to a
sanatorium in Katonah, New York. On Christmas Eve of 1909, she drowned in the bathtub
during an epileptic seizure. (This biography was complied by Kay Peterson, April 1990)
- Clemens family
- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910
- Epilepsy. In Clemens, Jane Lampton, 1880-1909, Diaries (HM 53346 -53352) and her letters to Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910, (HM 53356 -53366).
- Mental Illness--Treatment--United States. In Clemens, Jane Lampton, 1880-1909, Diaries (HM 53346 -53352) and her letters to Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910, (HM 53356 -53366).
- Sanatoriums--United States. In Clemens, Jane Lampton, 1880-1909, Diaries (HM 53346 -53352) and her letters to Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910, (HM 53356 -53366).
- Clemens, Clara. Joint author with Susy Clemens, 1872-1896, letter to Susan Langdon Crane, c. 1880. HM 53372. Written in an unidentified hand.
- Clemens, Olivia Langdon, 1845-1904. Addressee for Charles Jervis Langdon, 1887, Dec. 29, Elmira, N.Y. HM 53424.
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Financial records
- Photographs
Appendix: Family relationships in the Clemens Family Papers
(Relationship to Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Olivia Langdon Clemens)
- Clemens, Clara (second daughter)
- Clemens, Jane (Jean) Lampton (third daughter)
- Clemens, Susy (first daughter)
- Crane, Susan (Langdon) (Samuel's sister-in-law; Olivia's sister)
- Crane, Theodore (Susan Crane's husband; brother-in-law to Samuel and Olivia)
- Langdon, Charles Jervis (Samuel's brother-in-law; Olivia's brother)
- Langdon, Ida Clark (Charles Langdon's wife; sister-in-law to Samuel and Olivia)
- Langdon, Olivia Lewis (Samuel's mother-in-law; Olivia's mother)
- Loomis, Julia Langdon (daughter of Charles and Ida; niece to Samuel and Olivia)