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Caroline Maria Seymour Severance Papers
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Title: Caroline Maria Seymour Severance Papers
Dates: 1830-1980
Collection Number: Consult repository.
Creator:
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914
Extent:
20,473 items
10 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Manuscripts Department
The Huntington Library
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2203
Fax: (626) 449-5720
Email: lgarcia@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: There are 631 manuscripts, 525 of which are by Caroline Severance. These include speeches, poetry, essays, articles, notebooks,
commonplace books, miscellaneous notes, and a 347-page unpublished autobiography by Caroline Severance entitled "Own Story."
The majority of the 10,634 pieces of correspondence is made up of family letters; only 232 letters are written by Caroline
Severance. The rest of the correspondence is made up of letters written to Caroline Severance by over 1,700 different authors.
The collection contains 9,007 pieces of ephemera, which is made up of address books, appointment books, brochures, business
papers, greeting cards, legal documents, newspaper clippings, postcards, fliers, brochures, programs, notebooks, photographs,
and financial papers of the family. The manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera cover the following subjects: African American
women suffrage and clubs, Susan B. Anthony, Jessie Benton Frémont, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Julia Ward Howe, child labor reform,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Fröbel and the Kindergarten movement, Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Southwest Museum in Los
Angeles, Helen Modjeska, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, dress reform, suffrage, temperance, Unitarianism, women's rights,
women's clubs, and the history, politics and social life of 19th and 20th century Los Angeles, California.
Language of Material: The records are in English.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please go to following
web site .
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], Caroline Maria Seymour Severance Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The majority of this collection was a gift from the Historical Society of Southern California, September 18, 1974. In February
1975, Mike Emett gave an addenda to the collection that includes seven xerox pieces. Several pieces of ephemera were given
to the Library by the "L. A. 200 Committee," October 26, 1983.
Acquisition numbers: 102, 134, 1062.
Caroline Maria Seymour Severance, suffragist, reformer, and social activist, was born in Canandaigua, New York in January
1820. She graduated from the Female Seminary of Geneva, New York, in 1835, and in 1840, she married Theodoric Severance; they
had five children, Orson Seymour (born and died in 1841), James Seymour (1842-1936), Julia Long Burrage (born in 1844), Mark
Sibley (1846-1931), and Pierre Clarke (1849-1890). The Severances spent their first fifteen years together in Cleveland, Ohio,
but moved to Boston in 1855 when Theodoric accepted a position with the North Bank of Boston. At the outbreak of the Civil
War the Severances moved to Port Royal, South Carolina, where Theodoric was Collector of Customs. Caroline Severance, who
was actively involved in the abolitionist movement before and during the war, became involved in several reform movements
and was a member of the boards of the Sanitary Commission, the Freedom Bureau, and the New England Hospital for Women and
Children. She also became a supporter of the suffrage movement and in 1866 helped organize the Equal Rights Association with
Susan B. Anthony. In 1868, Caroline Severance founded the New England Women's Club, the first women's club in the United States;
although this fact would later be disputed, she is always referred to as the "Mother of Clubs." She also helped found the
American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869.
In 1875 the Severances moved to Los Angeles and established themselves at their home "El Nido" on West Adams Boulevard. While
in Los Angeles, Caroline Severance continued her reform work. She founded the Los Angeles Women's Club, the Orphan's Home
Society, the first Unitarian congregation in Los Angeles, and the Friday Morning Club; she also helped to develop the first
kindergarten in Los Angeles as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1904 she became the honorary president of
the Los Angeles Political Equality League. In 1911, when women won the right to vote in California, Caroline Severance was
reportedly the first woman to register to vote. She died in Los Angeles in November 1914 at the age of 94.
The collection is arranged in the following order, with each section being arranged alphabetically by author and title:
Manuscripts (Boxes 1-7):
The collection contains 631 manuscripts, 525 of which are by Caroline Severance. The manuscripts are comprised of speeches,
essays, articles, notebooks, commonplace books, poems, and miscellaneous notes (there is also one diary of Caroline Severance).
The manuscripts with titles are arranged alphabetically by author and title; however, the majority of Severance's speeches
and essays do not have titles so they are arranged by subject and then arranged alphabetically by first line. Severance's
manuscripts are mostly incomplete handwritten drafts. Also included in the manuscripts is a 347-page, unpublished autobiographical
monograph by Caroline Severance entitled "Own Story," which spans the majority of her life. The subjects covered in the manuscripts
are: African-American women suffrage and clubs, Jessie Benton Frémont, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Julia Ward Howe, kindergarten,
Lulu Pile Little, Los Angeles, Helena Modjeska, Lucretia Mott, the peace movement, politics and labor unions, reform movements,
religion, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, suffrage and women, temperance, women's clubs, and women's rights.
Correspondence (Boxes 8-58):
There are 10,634 pieces of correspondence, of which Caroline Severance writes only 232; most of her correspondence is made
up of incomplete drafts of letters. The majority of the correspondence in the collection is addressed to Caroline Severance
and includes letters written by more than 1,700 different authors. Notable authors include (piece counts in parenthesis):
Susan B. Anthony (3); Rachel Foster Avery (2); Susan Look Avery (35); Alice Stone Blackwell (5); Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell
(5); Elizabeth Blackwell (1); Henry Browne Blackwell (4); Jeanne C. Smith Carr (3); Carrie Chapman Catt (2); Amanda Mathews
Chase (3); Clara Bewick Colby (11); Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (5); Frederick Douglass (1); Will Allen Dromgoole (6); Georgia
Ransom Fay Ferguson (31); Jessie Benton Frémont (35); Lily Frémont (10); Friday Morning Club (6); Lucretia Rudolph Garfield
(14); Francis Jackson Garrison (16); William Lloyd Garrison (5); Charlotte Perkins Gilman (9); Kate M. Gordon (6); Margaret
Collier Graham (11); Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (16); Phoebe Apperson Hearst (5); William Randolph Hearst (1); Isabella Beecher
Hooker (1); Timothy Hopkins (7); Julia Ward Howe (3); Intercollegiate Socialist Society (2); Carrie Jacobs-Bond (6); Mary
Ashton Rice Livermore (1); Jack London (2); Charles Fletcher Lummis (35); Alice Moore McComas (6); Mila Tupper Maynard (5);
Elizabeth Smith Miller (3); Harriet Mann Miller (16); Maria Mitchell (2); Helena Modjeska (10); Dorothea Moore (6); Eva Perry
Moore (3); National American Woman Suffrage Association (2); Nelson O. Nelson (46); New England Women's Club (2); Alice Park
(20); Jenny Marsh Parker (9); Mary Elizabeth Phillips (32); Louis Prang (15); Mary Amelia Dana Hicks Prang (15); Ella Giles
Ruddy (26); Kate Sanborn (4); Ellen Clark Sargent (7); Caroline M. Seymour Severance (232); James Seymour Severance (3,063);
Mark Sibley Severance (557); Pierre Clark Severance (53); Theodoric Cordenio Severance (50); May Wright Sewall (6); Henry
W. Seymour (1); Anna Howard Shaw (10); Homer B. Sprague (3); Julia A. Sprague (36); Rebecca Buffum Spring (5); Sarah B. Stearns
(16); Lucy Stone (4); Henry Baldwin Ward (2); Lydia Avery Coonley Ward (17); Booker T. Washington (2); Kate Gannett Wells
(12); Charles William Wendte (10); Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin (20); Gaylord Wilshire (8); J. Stitt Wilson (13); Woman Suffrage
Convention (1); Kate Tannatt Woods (22); and Marie E. Zakrzewska (18).
Ephemera (Boxes 59-84), Oversize Items (Boxes 85-86), and Calling Cards (Boxes 87-107):
The majority of the 9,007 pieces of ephemera are directly related to Caroline Severance's various reform and club interests.
It is arranged by type and subject, and consists of address books, appointment books, brochures, business papers, genealogy
information for the Clarke, Severance, and Seymour families, greeting cards, invitations, legal documents, miscellaneous lists,
newspaper clippings, pamphlets, petitions, club notebooks, photographs, postcards, fliers, programs, reprints, material related
to the Harvard Club and the University Club of San Francisco, and financial papers of the Severance family and of the Sidney
M. Smith Estate, of which James Seymour Severance was executor. The subjects covered are: kindergarten, Los Angeles, the peace
movement, politics and labor unions, reform movements, religion, suffrage, temperance, Unitarianism, women's clubs, and women's
rights. The 2,700 calling cards are housed after the Oversize Items; they are in alphabetical order.
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882.
Frémont, Jessie Benton, 1824-1902.
Fröbel, Friedrich, 1782-1852.
Lummis, Charles Fletcher, 1859-1928.
Modjeska, Helena, 1840-1909.
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902.
Avery, Susan Look.
Harvard Club of San Francisco (Calif.)
Southwest Museum (Los Angeles, Calif.)
African American women--Societies and clubs.
African American women--Suffrage.
Child labor--Law and legislation--United States.
Clothing and dress--Social aspects--United States.
Cooperation and socialism--United States.
Feminists--United States--Archives.
Kindergarten--United States.
Suffragists--United States--Archives.
Temperance--United States.
Unitarianism--United States.
Women--Legal status, laws, etc.
Women--Societies and clubs.
Women--Suffrage--United States--History--19th century--Sources.
Women--Suffrage--United States--History--20th century--Sources.
Women socialists--United States.
Women's rights--United States.
California -- History -- 19th century.
California -- History -- 20th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Description and travel.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 19th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Politics and government.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Articles--United States
Business letters--United States
Commonplace books--United States
Diaries--United States
Journals (accounts)--United States
Legal documents--United States
Letter books--United States
Letters (correspondence)--United States
Notebooks--United States
Notes--United States
Pamphlets--United States
Personal papers--United States
Photographs--United States
Speeches--United States
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
Avery, Susan Look.
Blackwell, Alice Stone, 1857-1950.
Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895.
Ferguson, Georgia Ransom Fay.
Frémont, Jessie Benton, 1824-1902.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 1838-1909.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 1860-1935.
Graham, Margaret Collier, 1850-1910.
Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, b. 1845.
Hearst, Phoebe Apperson, 1842-1919.
Hooker, Isabella Beecher, 1822-1907.
Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910.
London, Jack, 1876-1916.
Lummis, Charles Fletcher, 1859-1928.
Mitchell, Maria, 1818-1889.
Modjeska, Helena, 1840-1909.
Park, Alice, 1861-1961.
Ruddy, Ella Giles, 1851-1917.
Sanborn, Kate, 1839-1917.
Sargent, Ellen Clark.
Sewall, May Wright, 1844-1920.
Shaw, Anna Howard, 1847-1919.
Stearns, Sarah B.
Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893.
Ward, Henry Baldwin, 1865-1945.
Ward, Lydia Avery Coonley, 1845-1924.
Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915.
Wendte, Charles William, 1844-1931.
Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith, 1856-1923.
Wilshire, Gaylord, 1861-1927.
Wilson, J. Stitt (Jackson Stitt), 1868-
Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth), 1829-1902.
Association for the Advancement of Women.
Friday Morning Club (Los Angeles, Calif.)
National American Woman Suffrage Association.