Charles E. Goodspeed Collection of Autograph Letters mssGoodspeed

Gina C Giang
The Huntington Library
April 2020
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Business Number: (626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org

Note

Finding aid last updated by Melissa Haley on May 13, 2024.


Contributing Institution: The Huntington Library
Title: Charles E. Goodspeed collection of autograph letters
Creator: Goodspeed, Charles E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950
source: Goodspeed, Charles E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950
Identifier/Call Number: mssGoodspeed
Physical Description: 1.6 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1660-1865
Date (bulk): 1710-1790
Abstract: Collection consists of autographs collected by Charles Eliot Goodspeed (1867-1950), a Boston bookseller, and dating from 1660 to 1865.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Conditions Governing Use

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item]. Charles E. Goodspeed collection of autograph letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Charles E. Goodspeed, 1922.

Biographical / Historical

Charles Eliot Goodspeed was a Boston bookseller, author of Yankee bookseller; being the reminiscences of Charles E. Goodspeed. Goodspeed was born in Cotuit, Massachusetts on May 2, 1867. He was a member of the Club of Odd Volumes, American Antiquarian Society, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Historical Society. Goodspeed once served as a Baptist deacon. He died on October 31, 1950.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of autographs, chiefly accounts, invoices, bills, and estate inventories relating to colonial and revolutionary Massachusetts, with individual items dealing with other New England states, New York, and Pennsylvania from 1660 to 1862. Included are cargo records of various merchant ships, bills of sale of enslaved persons, payments made by the Massachusetts colonial government to printers, scribes, tax collectors, and financial, legal, and other records relating to various companies of Massachusetts militia and the Continental Army, including enlistment records from 1776.
Also included are a 1671 letter from a recent English settler in Virginia to his "deare love" back home, a few complaints filed in Groton, Con. against individuals who violated Sabbath by "necessary traveling" and "playing and laughing", sermons and devotional poetry, including individual pieces by Samuel Philips and Cotton Mather, a letter from Mary S. Parker to George Nixon Briggs forwarding the representative from Massachusetts "three petitions for the abolishing of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia signed by 225 wives and daughters of your constituents" from 1837, and other items. Also included are a few watercolors and prints, including a small watercolor portrait of a lady, by Thomas Birch, and a print of the view of the Fort Pulaski, Georgia in 1862.

Processing Information

Processed by Olga Tsapina, November 2002. In 2020, Gina C Giang created a finding aid derived from a legacy summary report.

Arrangement

Arranged in loose chronological order.

General

Former call number: mssGoodspeed collection.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Antiquarian booksellers -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Archives
Autographs -- Collections -- Massachusetts -- Boston
Love-letters -- Virginia
Ships -- Massachusetts -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Slavery -- New England -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Sunday legislation -- Connecticut -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Women abolitionists -- Massachusetts -- Correspondence
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
Massachusetts -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Sources
Fort Pulaski (Ga.) -- Siege, 1862
Collections -- Massachusetts -- Boston
Devotional literature -- New England
Estate records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Financial records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Legal documents -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Military records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Military records -- United States -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Sales records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Sermons -- New England -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
State government records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Goodspeed, Charles E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950
Birch, Thomas, 1779-1851
Briggs, George N. (George Nixon), 1796-1861
Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728
Parker, Mary S.
Phillips, Samuel, 1625-1696

Box 1

1660-1802

Box 2

1745-1865