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
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.