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John Ruskin Collection: Finding
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mssHM 6097-6129, etc.
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Title: John Ruskin Collection
Dates (inclusive): 1833-1888
Collection Number: mssHM 6097-6129, etc.
Additional Collection Numbers:
mssHM 6097-6129; mssHM 7586-7622; mssHM 12881; mssHM 18908; mssHM 21655-21664;
mssHM 24179; mssHM 25801-25861; mssHM 26320; mssHM 26353; mssHM 30341-30369; mssHM 30653-30658;
mssHM 30883-30885; mssHM 31088-31098; and mssHM 32002-32014.
Creator:
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900.
Extent:
Approximately 175 items in 2 boxes and 8 loose volumes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains
approximately 175 pieces of correspondence and manuscripts related to English author John Ruskin (1819-1900) and his career
as a writer, professor, and art critic.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on November 5, 2015.
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.
[Identification of item]. John Ruskin Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The collection was assembled from various sources, including:
- Sotheby's, June 1-2, 1959 (Countess of Abingdon), Lot 385 (HM 25801)
- W.S. Allen, 1925 (HM 7586-7589, 7591)
- Sotheby's, March 14, 1967, Lot 225 (HM 30344-30369)
- Sotheby's, December 12, 1967, Lot 514 (HM 30657-30657)
- Sotheby's, December 10, 1968, Lot 796 (HM 31088-31098)
- Hofmann & Freeman, Catalog 31: 126, June 1970 (HM 32003-32014)
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
John Ruskin (1819-1900), an English critic of art, architecture, and society, as well as an artist and a teacher, was born
February 8, 1819, in
London, England. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1843. After gaining wide recognition as an author, artist,
and social reformer,
he moved from London to Brantwood, Coniston Water, in 1872, where he remained until his death. In 1873, Ruskin met Susan Beever
(1805-1893),
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. Their voluminous correspondence was carried
on until Beever's death in 1893.
He was elected first Slade Professor of Art at Oxford in 1870 and held the post until 1878 and then again from 1883 to 1884.
From 1878 until his death, Ruskin was plagued with recurring brain attacks. He made many trips abroad, several in an attempt
to cure himself of these brain fevers.
However, by 1889 his literary career was at an end. He died January 20, 1900, and was buried at Coniston beside Beever.
This collection contains
approximately 175 pieces of correspondence and manuscripts related to English author John Ruskin (1819-1900)
that deal chiefly with his career as a writer, professor, and art critic. The earliest item in the collection is a volume
titled
Practical Geometry,
containing problems and exercises, with some additional sketches and notes by Ruskin, dated 1833 (HM 6103).
The correspondence series includes:
- 61 letters, dated 1858-1873, to Louisa Anne De La Poer Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford, a Pre-Raphaelite watercolorist.
- 11 letters to Sarah Corlass (circa 1850-1865)
- 12 letters to actor Norman Forbes in 1888
- 26 letters to novelist Margaret Raine Hunt, from 1867 to 1887
- 6 letters to John Henry Larkin
For a detailed list of Ruskin's artwork within the collection, see "A Checklist
of Pre-Raphaelite Works of Art in the Huntington Library and Art Collections,"
Huntington Library Quarterly Vol. 55, No. 1 (Winter, 1992), pp. 225-251.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Susanna Beever letters (mssHM 62832-62915)
- Francis Bennoch letters (mssBE 1-291). BE 206-213 consist of Ruskin's letters to Bennoch, [c. 1850]-1860.
- Browning, Robert. Letter to John Ruskin. 1865 February 24 (mssHM 4996)
- The Elements of Drawing (72948). Corrected galleyproofs chiefly in Ruskin's hand.
- Eliza Fall Papers (mssHM 42764-42816). Contains many contemporary references to John Ruskin.
- Frederick James Furnivall correspondence (mssFU 1-983). Includes 19 letters from Ruskin to Furnivall, 1855-1878 (FU 776-794).
- William Holman Hunt letters (mssHH 1-593). Includes 3 letters from William Holman Hunt to Ruskin, dated 1857-1889 (mssHH 206-208), 6 letters from Ruskin to Marion Edith Hunt, 1882-1886 (mss HH 525-530), 33 letters from Ruskin to William Holman Hunt, dated [1852]-1886 (mssHH 531-563), and a fragment of an essay by Ruskin, "Realistic Schools of Painting: D.G. Rossetti and W. Holman Hunt" (mssHH 3).
- Larkin, J. R. Letter to John Ruskin. [1865?] (mssHM 7087)
- William Morris papers (mssMOR 1-611)
- Mary Richardson travel diaries (mssHM 41910-41914).
- John Ruskin and Louise Blandy papers (mssHM 57251-57339)
- John Ruskin letters to Mary Buckland (mssHM 57241-57250)
- John Ruskin letters to George Richardson (mssHM 57225-57240)
- John Ruskin papers (mssJR 1-874)
- Ruskin, John. Hortus Inclusus (298058). Includes mss. revisions for the third edition and letters of Ruskin to Mary and Susan Beever.
- Ruskin, John. To Charles Kent. 1867, November (mssHM 18743) with Dickens, Charles. A Souvenir of Charles Dickens’ Last Visit to America (mssHM 18584-18746)
- Ruskin, John. To John Dillon. [1855, January] (HM 24179) bound in "Letters and notes on Turner's Liber Studiorim" (mssHM 24173-74, etc.)
The collection is arranged in the following 2 series:
- Manuscripts arranged by title
- Correspondence and manuscripts arranged by author
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 -- Archives.
University of Oxford.
Art critics -- Great Britain -- 19th century.
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Archives.
Drawings -- Great Britain -- 19th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain -- 19th century.
Manuscripts -- Great Britain -- 19th century.
Allen, George, 1832-1907, recipient.
Appleton, Charles Edward Cutts Birch, 1841-1879, recipient.
Corlass, Sarah, recipient.
Crawley, Frederick, recipient.
Forbes, Norman, 1858-1932, recipient.
Hunt, Alfred William, Mrs., 1831-1912, recipient.
Larkin, Henry, 1820-1899, recipient.
Louisa Anne, Marchioness of Waterford, 1818-1891, recipient.