Descriptive Summary
Administration Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Joseph H. Barrett correspondence
Dates: 1843-1910
Collection Call Number: mssBarrettcorrespondence
Creator OR Collector:
Barrett, Joseph H. (Joseph Hartwell), 1824-1910
Extent:
504 items in 4 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The correspondence of editor and Abraham Lincoln biographer Joseph H. Barrett. The bulk of the collection consists of Barrett's
own personal and professional correspondence.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Administration Information
Access
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please go to following
web site .
Publication Rights
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], Joseph H. Barrett correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Acquisition Information
Purchased for the Huntington by the Library Collector's Council from Carmen D. Valentino, January 22, 2007.
Biographical Note
Joseph Hartwell Barrett, the political editor of the Cincinnati Gazette (1857-1861), Ohio representative to the 1860 Republican
Convention, Commissioner of Pensions in the Lincoln and Johnson administrations (1861-1868), the editor of the Cincinnati
Times and Chronicle (1868-1892), and Abraham Lincoln's biographer. In 1853, he married Harriet Whiting Lowell.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content
The correspondence of Joseph H. Barrett and his extended family. The bulk of the collection (354 letters) consists of Barrett's
own personal and professional correspondence, both incoming and outgoing. The letters cover Barrett's entire life and career,
especially his studies at Middlebury College (class of 1845); teaching at various private schools in Vermont and New Hampshire
(1845-1848); his association with the American Whig Review and various New England newspapers (1848-1851); service in the
Vermont House of Representatives (1851-1853); his courtship of Harriet Lowell and their marriage; intense religious soul-searching
that led him from Congregationalism, to Universalism and finally to the Episcopal Church; reporting on politics for the Cincinnati
Gazette (1857-1861), editorship of the Cincinnati Times and Chronicle (1868-1892), and his literary work, particularly his
1888, 1902, and 1904 biographies of Abraham Lincoln. Also included are letters to the editor received by Barrett as the editor
of the Cincinnati Chronicle and Times. Correspondents include Barrett's wife Harriet, Samuel Mills Conant (1820-1855), a fellow
Middlebury alumnus and publisher of the Vermont Union Whig; Park Benjamin (1809-1864), Jeremiah Eames Rankin (1828-1904),
William H. Herndon, Benjamin Labaree (1801-1883), Edward McPherson, (1830-1895), Alfred Bult Mullett (1834-1890), William
Frederick Poole (1821-1894), James Reed Spalding (1821-1872), and others.
Also included are letters by Barrett's extended family scattered from New England to California. This portion includes the
letters of George H. Hilton, Barrett's brother-in-law, for whom he had procured a clerical position at the Navy Dept. Hilton's
letter cover the period of the Civil War and describe the inner workings of the Navy Department and the young man's life in
war-time Washington D.C. The collection also includes miscelleanous correspondence of the Hilton and Lowell families and the
letters to Barrett from his friend M. Lowell Elliot of Santa Barbara, Calif. (1904-1910), detaling her life in Southern California.
The collection also contains ephemera, newspaper clippings and photographs of Joseph H. Barrett, his wife Harriet, and their
son Arthur.
Indexing Terms
Personal Names
Barrett, Harriet Lowell Whiting
Barrett, Joseph H. (Joseph Hartwell), 1824-1910 -- Archives
Benjamin, Park, 1809-1864
Conant, Samuel Mills, 1820-1855
Elliott, Lowell M.
Hemenway, Abby Maria, 1828-1890
Herndon, William Henry, 1818-1891
Hilton family
Hilton, George H., active 1861-1865
Jackson, Stuart W. (Stuart Wells), 1875-
Labaree, Benjamin, 1801-1883
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Friends and associates -- Archives
McPherson, Edward, 1830-1895
Mullett, A. B. (Alfred Bult), 1834-1890
Perry, Aaron F. (Aaron Fyfe), 1815-1893
Poole, William Frederick, 1821-1894
Rankin, Jeremiah Eames, 1828-1904
Spalding, James Reed, 1821-1872
Corporate Names
Middlebury College -- Alumni and alumnae -- Archives
United States. Navy Dept. -- Employees -- Correspondence
Subjects
Subjects
Biographers -- United States -- Archives
Educators -- New England -- Archives
Journalists -- New England -- Correspondence
Journalists -- Ohio -- Correspondence
Legislators -- Vermont -- Correspondence
Newspaper editors -- New England -- Correspondence
Newspaper editors -- Ohio -- Archives
Married people -- New England -- Correspondence
Married people -- Ohio -- Correspondence
Teachers -- Vermont -- Correspondence
Geographic Areas
California, Southern -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
United States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Vermont -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Washington (D.C.) -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
Genre
Family papers -- United States -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 19th century
Personal papers -- United States -- 19th century