Samuel Johnson Collection: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Diann Benti.

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

Overview of the Collection

Title: Samuel Johnson Collection

Dates (inclusive): 1753-1916

Collection Number: mssHM 20821-20833, HM 40960-40967

Creator: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784.

Extent: 22 items in 1 box

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 21 letters and drawings related to or by English writer Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) that were previously bound together in one volume.

Language: English.

Access

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

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item]. Samuel Johnson Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

Purchased from George D. Smith, April 1919.

Biographical Note

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English lexicographer, writer, and critic.

Scope and Content

This collection contains 21 letters and drawings related to or by English writer Samuel Johnson that were previously bound together in one volume. Items include six letters by Samuel Johnson to various recipients: publisher Thomas Longman (HM 20824); Samuel Richardson (HM 20821); John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (HM 20825); Nathan Wetherell (HM 20826); and two letters to John Taylor (HM 20822, HM 20827), as well as an 1841 letter from Taylor (HM 20823) and notes by Johnson scholar George Birkbeck Hill (HM 40967) about the June 23, 1784, letter from Johnson to Taylor. There are also single letters from Alexander Johnson (HM 20828); William Seward (HM 20829); James Boswell to his daughter (HM 20830); Hester Lynch Piozzi (HM 20831); Sir Joshua Reynolds (HM 20832); and William Cowper (HM 20833) to various individuals (not Samuel Johnson).

There are also seven drawings and one 1916 newspaper clipping. The drawings include an unfinished drawing of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, and others (HM 40960), copies of portraits of Johnson, and images of locations related to Johnson.

Items were originally bound in a folio black straight-grained morocco binding that was disbound in 1975.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in call number order in one box.

Indexing Terms

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

Subjects

Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797 -- Pictorial works.

Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Archives.

Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Pictorial works.

Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Portraits.

Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723-1792 -- Pictorial works.

Authors, English -- 18th century -- Archives.

Authors, English -- 18th century -- Pictorial works.

Forms/Genres

Drawings -- Great Britain -- 18th century.

Drawings -- Great Britain -- 19th century.

Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain -- 18th century.

Alternate Authors

Boswell, James, 1740-1795, correspondent.

Buckler, John, 1770-1851, artist.

Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 1713-1792, addressee.

Cowper, William, 1731-1800, correspondent.

Hill, George Birkbeck Norman, 1835-1903.

Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821, correspondent.

Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723-1792, correspondent.

Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, 1723-1792, artist.

Richardson, Samuel, 1689-1761, addressee.

Seward, William, 1747-1799, correspondent.

Smith, Charles John, artist.

Smith, George D. (George Dallas), 1870-1920, former owner.

Taylor, John, 1711-1788, correspondent.

Trotter, Thomas, 1756-1803, artist.

Box 1

HM 20821-20833, HM 40960-40967

Correspondence

HM 20821 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to Samuel Richardson. 1753 September 26.

Autograph letter signed, 3 pages. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1992), vol. 1: p. 74-75.

HM 20822 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to John Taylor. 1784 June 23.

[London, England]. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1994) vol. IV: 335-36.

HM 20823 Taylor, John. Letter to "Dear Brother." 1841 May 14.

[London, England]. Autograph letter signed. 9 pages. Note: This letter explains Johnson's 1784 June 23 letter (HM 20822).

HM 20824 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to Thomas Longman. [1746 June].

[London, England]. Autograph letter signed, 1 page. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1992), vol. 1: p. 40.

HM 20825 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to [John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute]. 1762 November 3.

[London, England]. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1992), vol. 1: 212

HM 20826 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to Nathan Wetherell. 1779 June 14.

Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1992), vol. II: p. 170-71.

HM 20827 Johnson, Samuel. Letter to John Taylor. 1784 January 24.

London, England. Autograph letter signed, 3 pages. Transcribed in Bruce Redford, ed. The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Princeton University Press, 1994), vol. IV: p. 276-75.

HM 20828 Johnson, Alexander. Letter to Mr. Nourse. 1780 April 19.

[London, England]. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages.

Note: this letter was previous cataloged as a letter of Samuel Johnson; corrected January 1975.

HM 20829 Seward, William. Letter to Richard Ball. [Before 1784].

Autograph letter signed, 1 page. Letter mentions Johnson.

HM 20830 Boswell, James. Letter to Veronica Boswell. 1791 August 19.

Petersfield, Hampshire. Autograph letter signed, 2 pages.

HM 20831 Piozzi, Hester Lynch. Letter to the Proprietors of the Monthly Mirror. 1798 June 17.

Brynbella [Denbighshire County, Wales]. Autograph letter signed, 4 pages. Transcribed in Edward Bloom et al, ed. The Piozzi Letters (University of Delaware Press, 1991), vol. 2: pp. 500-501.

HM 20832 Reynolds, Sir Joshua. Letter to Thomas Percy [Bishop of Dromore] and Anne Percy. [Before 1784].

Letter (3rd person), 1 page. In the handwriting of Sir Joshua Reynolds' sister, Frances Reynolds. Transcribed in Ingamells, ed. The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds (Yale University Press, 2000) page 236.

HM 20833 Cowper, William. Letter to [John Newton]. 1785 January 5.

Copy in the handwriting of Robert Southey, 2 pages. The letter, lacking first few sentences regarding the neglect by an unidentified man of his sister and closing paragraph, is transcribed in Thomas Wright, ed. The Correspondence of William Cowper (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1904), vol. II: pp. 289-90.

Drawings

HM 40960 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, Samuel Johnson, and others [unfinished pencil, ink and wash sketch, possibly for an engraving]. [After 1750?].

Drawing, 1 page; 18 x 21.5 cm. Verso has unfinished drawing of man's body dressed in robe, lacking head.

HM 40961 [Reynolds, Sir Joshua]. Portrait of Samuel Johnson [pencil sketch, possibly for an engraving]. [After 1779?].

Copy (drawing), 1 page; oval 10 x 7.5 cm. Reference to print: Catalogue of engraved British portraits preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (1910), vol. II, p. 649, #16.

HM 40962 Gosden, J. Epitaph on Samuel Johnson's tombstone in Westminster Abbey [pen and watercolor sketch]. [After 1784?].

Drawing, 1 page; 23 x 16 cm

HM 40963 Urn to Samuel Johnson at Gwaynynog [Denbigh, Wales] [watercolor]. [After 1784?].

Drawing, 1 page, 17.5 x 12 cm. Title supplied in pencil on verso of watercolor.

HM 40964 [Trotter, Thomas?]. Portrait of Samuel Johnson [pencil sketch, possibly rubbed from a plate]. Drawing, 1 page 15 x 10 cm. [After 1784?].

HM 40965 [Smith, Charles John]. Edial Hall, near Lichfield [pen and wash drawing for the engraving by Charles John Smith]. [Approximately 1835].

Drawing, 1 page; Image, 10.5 x 15; mount, 17.5 x 18.5 cm. Plate 9 in Graphic Illustrations of the Life and Times of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London: John Murray, 1837).

HM 40966 [Buckler, John]. Kettel Hall, Oxford [pen and ink wash drawing for the engraving by Charles John Smith]. [Approximately 1836].

Drawing, 1 page; image 6.5 x 10 cm, sheet 16 x 23 cm. Plate 18 in Graphic Illustrations of the Life and Times of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London: John Murray, 1837).

Notes and ephemera

HM 40967 Hill, George Birkbeck. Notes on Samuel Johnson's letter to John Taylor, June 23, 1784. 1889 January 16.

Oxford, England. Autograph manuscript signed, 2 pages.

"To Organize an American Samuel Johnson Club" [article from the Public Ledger (Philadelphia)]. 1916 February 20.