Inventory of the Frances Anne Kemble Papers, 1824-1892

Processed by The Huntington Library staff; supplementary encoding and revision supplied by Brooke Dykman Dockter.

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/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554

Inventory of the Frances Anne Kemble Papers, 1824-1892

The Huntington Library

San Marino, California

Contact Information

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/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554

Processed by:: The Huntington Library staff
Date Completed:: February 1977

Descriptive Summary

Title: Frances Anne Kemble Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1824-1892

Creator: Kemble, Frances Anne

Extent: 96 pieces

Repository: The Huntington Library

San Marino, California 91108

Language: English.

Administrative Information

Provenance

46 pieces acquired from Doris E. Harris in March, 1966; 50 pieces acquired from Mrs. Fraser Bonnell in November, 1976.

Access

Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information please go to following URL .

Publication Rights

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.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Frances Anne Kemble Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Biography

Born in London on November 27, 1809, Frances Anne Kemble was one of five children of Charles and Marie Thérèse (De Camp) Kemble. A niece of Sarah Siddons and the daughter and granddaughter of actors, Frances followed her forebears into the theatre, achieving dramatic succes under the betterknown name of Fanny Kemble. After acting for three years in Covent Garden and throughout the British Isles, she travelled to the United States in 1832, making her American acting debut on September 18. This American tour marked the first of many trips she would make between England and the U.S. during her lifetime. Both personally and professionally Fanny was well liked in the U.S. throughout the years, winning large numbers of friends and acquaintances, as well as great popular acclaim for her performances. First appearing in plays and later presenting evenings of dramatic readings, Fanny continued to be in great demand for as many performances as she would consent to give.

Fanny's first American tour came to a close when she married Pierce Mease Butler on June 7, 1834 in Philadelphia. Two daughters were born to Fanny -- Sarah (Butler) Wister, born in 1835, and Frances Anne (Butler) Leigh, born in 1838. The Butlers lived first at Butler Place, just outside Philadelphia, and later in the South, where Fanny observed firsthand the institution of slavery on her husband's plantation lands, her view influenced by abolitionist sympathies. Her anti-slavery feelings contributed to the break-up of her marriage and evoked much comment in 1862 upon the publication of her Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation. The years of her marriage were years of tensions and misunderstandings, of separations and reconciliations, for Fanny and her husband. By the time of their final separation, when Fanny was in England, she had begun appearing on the stage once more.

In 1849 the granting of a divorce decree ended Fanny's marriage to Pierce Butler, whereupon she resumed her maiden name, returning to her dramatic readings now as Mrs. Fanny Kemble. From this time until 1877, she continued to divide her time between England and the United States, making the voyage at frequent intervals, as well as travelling to Italy. During these years Fanny continued her seasons of reading engagements and also turned to writing, publishing a series of articles entitled Old Women's Gossip in the Atlantic Monthly and gathering material for her memoirs.

Late in 1877 Fanny left America for England for the last time and embarked on an active life of writing, social engagements and travel until her death on January 15, 1893.

Subject matter

Manuscripts
- Kemble, Frances Anne - poems:
  - Autumn - written after a ride by the Schuylkill
  - "Silence - instead of thy sweet song my Bird"
  - Lines Written by the Sea Side
  - Morning by the Sea
  - To Shakespeare
  - Written at Trenton
Documents
- Kemble, Frances Anne
  - Ticket of admission for Readings from Shakespeare for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, [1849]
Correspondence (significant persons and those represented by 3 or more pieces)

Correspondence List

COUTTS, Angela Georgina

Burdett-, Baroness

Burdett-Coutts

3 pieces, 1858-1872, to Mary Harness

COUTTS, Angela Georgina

Burdett-, Baroness

Burdett-Coutts

1 piece, 1867, Mar. 26, to William Harness

KEAN, Charles John

3 pieces, 1842-1857, to William Harness

KEAN, Ellen (Tree)

1 piece, 1866, June 5, to William Harness

KEAN, Mary (Chambers)

1 piece, 1840, Dec. 9, to Mary Harness

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

6 pieces, 1858->1893, to [Unidentified]

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1858, Dec. 25, to Bellows

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

2 pieces, 1869-1877, to Ellen M. Camac

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1884, Mar. 3, to Frances Power Cobbe

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1853, July 28, to Anna (Shaw) Curtis

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

3 pieces, 1857-1858, to George William Curtis

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

15 pieces, 1877-1889, to Blanche Donne

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

2 pieces, 1877, to Valentia Donne

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

2 pieces, 1858-1862, to William Bodham Donne

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1853, Dec. 25, to Mrs. Filsbee

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1844, Apr. 27, to James H. Hackett

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

5 pieces, 1841-1879, to Mary Harness

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

25 pieces, 1863-1892, to Polly Hogge

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1876, June 20, to William Dean Howells

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1865, to Miss Mitchell

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1869, to T. B. Pugh

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

4 pieces, 1862, to Dora Sedgwick

KEMBLE, Frances Anne

1 piece, 1849, Feb. 8, to George H. Whitney

KEMBLE, Harry

1 piece, 1859, Jan. 31, to Mary Harness

KEMBLE, John Mitchell

1 piece, 1840, to William Harness

POOLE, John

1 piece, 1856, Apr. 18, to William Harness

SARTORIS, Adelaide (Kemble)

3 pieces, 1873->1879, to Mary Harness

SARTORIS, Edward John

2 pieces, 1873->1879, to Mary Harness

YOUNG, Charles Mayne

1 piece, 1824, Dec. 23, to Charles Kemble

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