Collection Guide
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Goodspeed (Charles E.) Collection of Autograph
Letters
mssGoodspeed
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Charles E. Goodspeed collection of autograph letters
Creator:
Goodspeed, Charles
E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950
Identifier/Call Number: mssGoodspeed
Physical Description:
2.59 Linear Feet
(1 box, 1 expansion folder)
Date (inclusive): 1660-1865
Date (bulk): 1710-1790
Abstract: Collection consists of autographs
collected by Charles Eliot Goodspeed (1867-1950), a Boston bookseller, and dating from 1660
to 1865.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
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]. Charles E. Goodspeed collection of autograph letters, The
Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Charles E. Goodspeed, 1922.
Charles Eliot Goodspeed was a Boston bookseller, author of Yankee bookseller; being the
reminiscences of Charles E. Goodspeed. Goodspeed was born in Cotuit, Massachusetts on May 2,
1867. He was a member of the Club of Odd Volumes, American Antiquarian Society, Colonial
Society of Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Historical Society. Goodspeed once served as a
Baptist deacon. He died on October 31, 1950.
The collection consists of autographs, chiefly accounts, invoices, bills, and estate
inventories relating to colonial and revolutionary Massachusetts, with individual items
dealing with other New England states, New York, and Pennsylvania from 1660 to 1862.
Included are cargo records of various merchant ships, bills of sale of enslaved persons,
payments made by the Massachusetts colonial government to printers, scribes, tax collectors,
and financial, legal, and other records relating to various companies of Massachusetts
militia and the Continental Army, including enlistment records from 1776.
Also included are a 1671 letter from a recent English settler in Virginia to his "deare
love" back home, a few complaints filed in Groton, Con. against individuals who violated
Sabbath by "necessary traveling" and "playing and laughing", sermons and devotional poetry,
including individual pieces by Samuel Philips and Cotton Mather, a letter from Mary S.
Parker to George Nixon Briggs forwarding the representative from Massachusetts "three
petitions for the abolishing of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia
signed by 225 wives and daughters of your constituents" from 1837, and other items. Also
included are a few watercolors and prints, including a small watercolor portrait of a lady,
by Thomas Birch, and a print of the view of the Fort Pulaski, Georgia in 1862.
Processed by Olga Tsapina, November 2002. In 2020, Gina C Giang created a finding aid
derived from a legacy summary report.
Arranged in loose chronological order.
Former call number: mssGoodspeed collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Antiquarian booksellers -- Massachusetts -- Boston --
Archives
Autographs -- Collections -- Massachusetts -- Boston
Love-letters -- Virginia
Ships -- Massachusetts -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Slavery -- New England -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Sunday legislation -- Connecticut -- History -- 18th century --
Sources
Women abolitionists -- Massachusetts -- Correspondence
Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 --
Sources
Massachusetts -- History -- 1775-1865 -- Sources
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 --
Sources
United States -- History -- Revolution,
1775-1783 -- Sources
Fort Pulaski (Ga.) -- Siege,
1862
Collections -- Massachusetts -- Boston
Devotional literature -- New England
Estate records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Financial records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Legal documents -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Military records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Military records -- United States -- Revolution, 1775-1783
Sales records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Sermons -- New England -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
State government records -- Massachusetts -- 18th century
Goodspeed, Charles
E. (Charles Eliot), 1867-1950
Birch, Thomas,
1779-1851
Briggs, George N. (George Nixon),
1796-1861
Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728
Parker, Mary S.
Phillips, Samuel,
1625-1696