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Susanna Beever Letters: Finding Aid
mssHM 62832-62915  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Biographical Note
  • Bibliography
  • Cataloging Decisions
  • Scope and Content
  • Indexing Terms
  • Indexing: Subjects
  • Indexing: Added Entries

  • Overview of the Collection

    Title: Susanna Beever Letters
    Dates (inclusive): 1876-1913
    Bulk dates: 1889-1893
    Collection Number: mssHM 62832-62915
    Creator: Beever, Susanna, -1893.
    Extent: 84 items in 2 boxes
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2129
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: This collection includes letters from Susanna Beever (-1893), a friend of English artist John Ruskin. The letters, which chiefly date from 1889 to 1893, are mainly about Susanna Beever's friends, good works, and garden but the letters also have several references to Ruskin.
    Language: English.

    Access

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

    Administrative Information

    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]. Susanna Beever Letters, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    Gift of Stephen Weissman on October 21, 1994 (acquisition number 1721).

    Biographical Note

    Susanna Beever (1805-1893) was born November 27, 1805 in the north of England. She lived almost her entire life in the Lake District town of Coniston, in a cottage called the Thwaite. The Beever family became known for being authorities on local botany and, as well, Susanna Beever was interested in poetry, drawing, and painting; in 1870 she published: A Book of Reference to Remarkable Passages in Shakespeare. She met John Ruskin in 1873 and they became close friends, writing each other almost every day about their shared interests in nature, art and a love for animals; and in 1887, Albert Fleming edited and published a selection of these letters. They remained close friends in spite of Ruskin's health problems until Susanna Beever's death, at the age of 88, in Oct. 1893. Close friends in death as they were in life, John Ruskin and Susanna Beever are buried near each other in Coniston, Cumbria, England.

    Bibliography

    The information for the Biographical Note was obtained from a newspaper clipping of the obituary for Susanna Beever from an unnamed newspaper, possibly from Kendal, Cumbria, ca. 1893. This clipping is cataloged with the Albert Fleming to William Tuckwell letter, (1893, Oct. 30). HM 62911.

    Cataloging Decisions

    1. The items in this collection were originally bound together in one volume but it was decided to disbind the volume and catalog each item separately. The original binding has been retained and is stored in Ephemera Box 2(47); at the time the items were disbound page numbers were penciled onto the upper right hand corner of each item.
    2. Susanna Beever was well known for the beautiful garden of her cottage, the Thwaite, and filled her letters with descriptions of flowers, plants, birds and animals that inhabited her world. The descriptions are so pervasive it was decided not to give each letter separate subject headings but rather catalog the entire collection under several appropriate subject headings. These subject headings are listed individually in this report under "Indexing: Subjects."
    3. At the time these letters were written, the Thwaite, Susanna Beever's cottage, stood in the county of Lancashire but in 1974, when the county boundaries were redrawn, the cottage became part of the county of Cumbria. It was decided to catalog the letters as being from Cumbria in order to conform with current, standard cataloging procedures.

    Scope and Content

    The papers consist of the following series:
    1. Manuscripts & Correspondence (Boxes 1-2). There are only two manuscripts, which are interfiled with the correspondence. The correspondence series is mainly letters from Susanna Beever, written in the last few years of her life, to William and Rosa Tuckwell. There are also several letters to and from Albert Fleming, fellow resident of the Lake District, and friend of John Ruskin. The letters are mainly about Susanna Beever's friends, good works, and garden but the letters also have several references to John Ruskin.
    2. Ephemera (Box 2) consisting of reproductions of two drawings, a poem, and the original binding from the disbound volume of Beever letters.

    Arrangement

    This collection is arranged in the following order:
    • 1. Manuscripts and Correspondence (Boxes 1-2) arranged alphabetically by author
    • 2. Ephemera (Box 2) arranged alphabetically by author and title

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Beever, Susanna, -1893.
    Cooke, Isaac, 1846-1922.
    De Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859.
    Fleming, Albert.
    Ruskin, John, 1819-1900.
    Tuckwell, William, 1829-1919.
    Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850.
    Bird watching -- Great Britain.
    Botany -- Great Britain.
    Nature study -- Great Britain.
    Women botanizers -- England -- Coniston -- Correspondence.
    Lake District (England) -- History -- 19th century -- Sources.

    Forms/Genres

    Drawings Great Britain 19th century.
    Ephemera Great Britain 19th century.
    Letters (correspondence) Great Britain 19th century.
    Manuscripts Great Britain 19th century.
    Poems Great Britain 19th century.

    Alternate Authors

    Tuckwell, Maurice.
    Tuckwell, Rosa.

    Indexing: Subjects

    • Beever, Susanna, d. 1893. In Albert Fleming, letters to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, (1891 - 1893), Cumbria (England). HM 62908 - 62914.
    • Beever, Susanna, d. 1893. In William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, [Reminiscences of Susanna Beever:] [memoir], ([ca. 1913?]). HM 62833.
    • Beever, Susanna, d. 1893. In William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, letter to Maurice Tuckwell, (1913, [Dec. 25]). HM 62915.
    • Bird Watching - England. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters (1890 - 1893), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62832 - 62915.
    • Botany - England. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters, (1890 - 1893),Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62832 - 62915.
    • Cooke, Isaac, 1846-1922. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, (1890, Oct.-Nov.), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62869 - 62870.
    • De Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859. In William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, [Reminiscences of Susanna Beever:] [memoir], ([ca. 1913?]). HM 62833.
    • Lake District (England). In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters (1890 - 1893), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62832 - 62915.
    • Nature Study - England. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters (1890 - 1893), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62832 - 62915.
    • Ruskin, John, 1819-1900. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, ([1890, Jan.-Feb.]), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62861 - 62862.
    • Ruskin, John, 1819-1900. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letter to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, (1891, Oct. 23), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62880.
    • Ruskin, John, 1819-1900. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letter to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919 and Rosa Tuckwell, (1890, Jan. 8), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62894.
    • Ruskin, John, 1819-1900. In William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, [Reminiscences of Susanna Beever:] [memoir], ([ca. 1913?]). HM 62833.
    • Tuckwell, William, 1829-1919. Tongues in Trees. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters toWilliam Tuckwell, 1829-1919, (1890, Oct.-Nov.), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62869 - 62870.
    • Tuckwell, William, 1829-1919. Tongues in Trees. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letter to William Tuckwell, 1829-1919 and Rosa Tuckwell, (1891, Jan. 30), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62896.
    • Women botanizers - England. In Susanna Beever, d. 1893, letters, (1890 - 1893), Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62832 - 62915.
    • Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. In William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, [Reminiscences of Susanna Beever:] [memoir], ([ca. 1913?]). HM 62833.

    Indexing: Added Entries

    • -----. Early Rising: [poem], [ca. 1891]. HM 62842. Note: A five page poem included with a letter from Susanna Beever to Rosa Tuckwell (1890, Sep. 29); not in Susanna's hand and could possibly be the beautiful lines copied out by Rosa for Susanna. The poem was not adjacent to this letter but rather bound with letters from 1891.
    • Tuckwell, Rosa. Joint addressee with William Tuckwell, 1829-1919, (1889 - 1893),Coniston (Cumbria, England). HM 62893 - 62907.