S. Austin Allibone papers, 1848-1887

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Summary

Creators:
Allibone, S. Austin (Samuel Austin), 1816-1889
Abstract:
The correspondence and manuscript notebooks belonging to American librarian, lexicographer, and compiler Samuel Austin Allibone.
Extent:
6 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. S. Austin Allibone papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains correspondence and five manuscript notebooks. The vast majority of the correspondence was not penned by Allibone, and a good portion of it was neither authored by him nor addressed to him. Three of the five manuscript notebooks are by Edward Everett, one was written by Baron Thomas Babington Macauley and one was composed by Allibone and his wife, Mary. Everett's manuscripts include a biography of Baron George Gordon Byron (AL 394) and of Sir Walter Scott (AL 395) as well as a copy of his speech "In Defense of the Webster Statue" (AL 398). Macauley's manuscript is a version of his unpublished History of England, and Allibone's manuscript contains, among other items, A visit to Washington Irving, as well as an autograph copy of his letter to Queen Victoria of Great Britain. Significant correspondents include George Bancroft, Henry Ward Beecher, Sir David Brewster, Elihu Burritt, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Edward Everett, Millard Fillmore, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas Hartwell Horne, Washington Irving, Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Thomas Babington Macauley, R. Shelton (Robert Shelton) Mackenzie, William Hickling Prescott, L. H. (Lydia Howard) Sigourney, Baron Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Ticknor and Robert C. (Robert Charles) Winthrop.

Biographical / historical:

Samuel Austin Allibone (1816-1889) was an American lexicographer, librarian and compiler. He produced a critical dictionary documenting the lives of approximately 46,000 writers, composed religious tracts, and compiled indexes of quotations. Allibone worked as a librarian at the Lenox Library in New York from its endowment until 1888.

Acquisition information:
Provenance unknown. In library as of 1932.
Processing information:

Processed by Huntington Library staff. In 2020, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid. In 2022, Melissa Haley enhanced description of the presidential material present in the collection as part of the American Presidential Papers Project.

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following order: I. Correspondence; II. Manuscript notebooks.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. S. Austin Allibone papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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