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Smith (Elizabeth Lee Allen and Henry Boynton) Family Correspondence
mssSmithe
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith and Henry Boynton Smith family correspondence
Identifier/Call Number: mssSmithe
Physical Description:
0.4 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1846-1923 (bulk 1846-1877)
Abstract: Correspondence related to religious poet and writer Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith (1817-1893); her husband, theologian and educator
Henry Boynton Smith (1815-1877); and their family.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more
information.
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]. Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith and Henry Boynton Smith family correspondence, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Carmen Valentino, February 2023.
Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith (1817-1893), was a religious poet and writer and a member of a prominent New England abolitionist
family. Her father was Reverend William Allen (1784-1868), an antislavery theologian and educator, and president of Dartmouth
and Bowdoin colleges. in 1843 Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith married Henry Boynton Smith (1815-1877), a theologian, preacher, and
educator known for promoting German theological and historical scholarship. The couple had four children: Arixene Southgate
Smith Woolsey (1843-1931); Maria Malleville Wheelock Smith McClellan (1845-1924); William Allen Smith (1848-1899); and the
theologian Henry Goodwin Smith (1860-1940).
Elizabeth Lee Allen Smith's correspondence includes incoming letters from her friends and family, including her father, Reverend
William Allen (1784-1868); her brother-in-law Erastus Hopkins (1810-1872), a Presbyterian minister who operated an Underground
Railroad station in Massachusetts; and Hannah Lyman (1816-1871), a social reformer and educator and the first principal of
Vassar College. Henry Boynton Smith's correspondence includes letters from European and American scholars Philip Schaff, Francis
A. March (1825-1911), Alexander Jacob Schem (1826-1881), Roswell Dwight Hitchcock (1817-1887), George Lewis Prentiss (1816-1903),
and others. Letters offer insight into the history of Northampton, Massachusetts, home of the Northampton Association of Education
and Industry, one of the largest transcendentalist utopian colonies in New England. William Allen's letters describe the effort
spearheaded by Samuel Williston (1795-1874), founder of the Williston Seminary, to arrange for education of a young man of
African descent. The letters of Hannah Lyman illuminate the early period of her career as a social reformer and educator.
A few photographs, contracts, and other family documents are also included with the collection.
Processed at the time of accessioning by Kelly Kress in June 2023.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Antislavery movements -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Antislavery movements -- Massachusetts
Education -- United States -- 19th century
Northampton (Mass.)
Social reformers -- United States
Women social reformers -- United States
Letters (correspondence)--19th century
Allen, William, 1784-1868
Hopkins, Erastus, 1810-1872
Lyman, Hannah, 1816-1871
Northampton Association of Education and Industry
Smith, Elizabeth Lee Allen, 1817-1898
Smith, Henry Boynton, 1815-1877
Williston, Samuel, 1795-1874