Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Blackwell and Atwood Families Archive
mssBlackwellarchive
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Blackwell and Atwood families archive
Creator:
Blackwell and Atwood families
Identifier/Call Number: mssBlackwellarchive
Physical Description:
6.2 Linear Feet
(9 boxes and 2 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1865-1993
Abstract: The Blackwell and Atwood families
archive consists of correspondence, notebooks, photographs, and printed ephemera saved by
the Atwood family.
Language of Material: The records 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]. Blackwell and Atwood families archive, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Mary Heiskell Price, July 2012.
Originally owned by Elizabeth Blackwell and Kitty Barry Blackwell, passed from Kitty to the
Atwood family in the early 20th century.
Purchased by Claire Heiskell from Robert Atwood at an undetermined date.
Lucy Stone was a prominent American orator, abolitionist, and suffragist, and a vocal
advocate and organizer promoting rights for women.
Henry Browne Blackwell was an American advocate for social and economic reform. He was one
of the founders of the Republican and the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Stone married Blackwell in West Brookfield, Massachusetts on May 1, 1855. They had two
daughters: Alice Blackwell Stone and Mary Elizabeth Hagar Atwood (adopted). Alice Stone
Blackwell was an American feminist, suffragist, journalist, and human rights advocate. Mary
Elizabeth Hagar Atwood married Ernest Winslow Atwood and the couple had four children: Alice
Gertrude King Atwood, Henrietta Louise Atwood, Helen Elizabeth Atwood, and Robert W.
Atwood.
Elizabeth Blackwell was a British-born physician, notable as the first woman to receive a
medical degree in the United States, as well as the first woman on the UK Medical Register.
Henry Browne Blackwell was her younger brother.
This collection primarily consists of correspondence to and from Alice Stone Blackwell,
Mary Elizabeth Hagar Atwood, and Anna Louise Hagar. There are approximately 128 letters from
Alice Stone Blackwell to Mary Elizabeth Hagar Atwood. There are also dozens of poems (sent
for children or to celebrate their arrival) and manuscripts by Alice Stone Blackwell. Also
included are approximately 182 letters from Mary Elizabeth Hagar Atwood's sister, Anna
Louise Hagar, where she writes primarily from the West Coast. There are two letters from
Lucy Stone to Anna Louise Hagar. In one letter, Stone hopes the Hagar sisters "...had
pleasure out of the books. My daughter [Alice Stone Blackwell] when she was your age used to
have great fun with the Huggermuggers. She knew it was all 'make believe' but she liked it
all the same" (May 16, 1890). There are 6 letters from Henry Browne Blackwell to Mary
Elizabeth Hagar Atwood. In one letter dated October 5, 1898, Blackwell writes Atwood a short
poem, which reads: "Beautiful Beth! We love her to death; She can swim; she can dive; And
she knows how to count five!" In another letter he ends with an exhortation "Don't run away,
and avoid Saloons" (July 10, 1905). An item of interest is Elizabeth Blackwell's medical
notebook, Box 7 (8). Topics such as air, diseases, food, and temperament are discussed. The
notebook appears to be incomplete. There are approximately 85 photographs, many are family
snapshots (individual and gatherings), but more are studio portraits (often cabinet cards).
Ephemeral items include buttons, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, periodicals and
programs. The bulk of the periodicals consist of the magazine: The Youth's Companion from
1885 through 1924. The two oversize folders consist of additional newspaper clippings.
Lastly, there are two oversize folders consisting of additional newspaper clippings.
Arranged alphabetically by genre.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Women social reformers
Women -- Suffrage
Women's rights
Boston (Mass.)
Clippings (information artifacts)
Letters (correspondence)
Periodicals
Printed ephemera
Photographs
Atwood (Family : Mass.), former
owner
Atwood, Mary Elizabeth
Hagar
Blackwell (Family : Boston,
Mass.)
Blackwell, Alice Stone,
1857-1950
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821-1910,
former owner
Blackwell, Henry Browne,
1825-1909
Blackwell, Kitty Barry, 1848-1936,
former owner
Hagar, Mary Louise
Heiskell, Claire, former
owner
Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893