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Caroline Maria Seymour Severance Papers
mssSeverance papers
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Title: Caroline Maria Seymour Severance
Papers
Dates: 1830-1980
Bulk dates: 1860-1914
Collection Number: mssSeverance papers
Creator:
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914
Extent:
20,473 items
107 boxes
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 the papers of American suffragist, reformer, and social activist
Caroline Severance (1820-1914) and includes manuscripts, correspondence, and ephemera covering the following subjects:
African American women suffrage and clubs, Susan B. Anthony, Jessie Benton Frémont,
Isabella Beecher Hooker, Julia Ward Howe, child labor reform, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Friedrich Fröbel and the Kindergarten movement, Charles Fletcher Lummis and the
Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, Helen Modjeska, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone,
dress reform, suffrage, temperance, Unitarianism, women's rights, women's clubs, and
the history, politics and social life of 19th and 20th century Los Angeles,
California.
Language of Material: The records 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]. Caroline Maria Seymour Severance Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
The majority of this collection was a gift from the Historical Society of
Southern California, September 18, 1974. In February 1975, Mike Emett gave an
addenda to the collection that includes seven xerox pieces. Several pieces of
ephemera were given to the Library by the "L. A. 200 Committee," October 26,
1983.
Acquisition numbers: 102, 134, 1062.
Caroline Maria Seymour Severance, suffragist, reformer, and social activist, was born
in Canandaigua, New York, in January 1820. She graduated from the Female Seminary of
Geneva, New York, in 1835, and in 1840, she married Theodoric Severance; they had
five children, Orson Seymour (born and died in 1841), James Seymour (1842-1936),
Julia Long Burrage (born in 1844), Mark Sibley (1846-1931), and Pierre Clarke
(1849-1890). The Severances spent their first fifteen years together in Cleveland,
Ohio, but moved to Boston in 1855 when Theodoric accepted a position with the North
Bank of Boston. At the outbreak of the Civil War the Severances moved to Port Royal,
South Carolina, where Theodoric was Collector of Customs. Caroline Severance, who
was actively involved in the abolitionist movement before and during the war, became
involved in several reform movements and was a member of the boards of the Sanitary
Commission, the Freedom Bureau, and the New England Hospital for Women and Children.
She also became a supporter of the suffrage movement and in 1866 helped organize the
Equal Rights Association with Susan B. Anthony. In 1868, Caroline Severance founded
the New England Women's Club, the first women's club in the United States; although
this fact would later be disputed, she is always referred to as the "Mother of
Clubs." She also helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy
Stone in 1869.
In 1875 the Severances moved to Los Angeles and established themselves at their home
"El Nido" on West Adams Boulevard. While in Los Angeles, Caroline Severance
continued her reform work. She founded the Los Angeles Women's Club, the Orphan's
Home Society, the first Unitarian congregation in Los Angeles, and the Friday
Morning Club; she also helped to develop the first kindergarten in Los Angeles as
well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1904 she became the honorary
president of the Los Angeles Political Equality League. In 1911, when women won the
right to vote in California, Caroline Severance was reportedly the first woman to
register to vote. She died in Los Angeles in November 1914 at the age of 94.
This collection contains the papers of American suffragist, reformer, and social activist
Caroline Severance (1820-1914) and includes
631 manuscripts; 10,634 pieces of correspondence; and 9,007 pieces of ephemera.
The collection consists of:
Manuscripts (Boxes 1-7):
The collection contains 631 manuscripts, 525 of which are by Caroline Severance. The
manuscripts are comprised of speeches, essays, articles, notebooks, commonplace
books, poems, and miscellaneous notes (there is also one diary of Caroline
Severance). The manuscripts with titles are arranged alphabetically by author and
title; however, the majority of Severance's speeches and essays do not have titles
so they are arranged by subject and then arranged alphabetically by first line.
Severance's manuscripts are mostly incomplete handwritten drafts. Also included in
the manuscripts is a 347-page, unpublished autobiographical monograph by Caroline
Severance entitled "Own Story," which spans the majority of her life. The subjects
covered in the manuscripts are: African-American women suffrage and clubs, Jessie
Benton Frémont, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Julia Ward Howe, kindergarten, Lulu Pile
Little, Los Angeles, Helena Modjeska, Lucretia Mott, the peace movement, politics
and labor unions, reform movements, religion, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone,
suffrage and women, temperance, women's clubs, and women's rights.
Correspondence (Boxes 8-58):
There are 10,634 pieces of correspondence, of which Caroline Severance writes only
232; most of her correspondence is made up of incomplete drafts of letters. The
majority of the correspondence in the collection is addressed to Caroline Severance
and includes letters written by more than 1,700 different authors.
Notable authors
include (piece counts in parenthesis): Susan B. Anthony (3); Rachel Foster Avery
(2); Susan Look Avery (35); Alice Stone Blackwell (5); Antoinette Louisa Brown
Blackwell (5); Elizabeth Blackwell (1); Henry Browne Blackwell (4); Jeanne C. Smith
Carr (3); Carrie Chapman Catt (2); Amanda Mathews Chase (3); Clara Bewick Colby
(11); Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (5); Frederick Douglass (1); Will Allen Dromgoole
(6); Georgia Ransom Fay Ferguson (31); Jessie Benton Frémont (35); Lily Frémont
(10); Friday Morning Club (6); Lucretia Rudolph Garfield (14); Francis Jackson
Garrison (16); William Lloyd Garrison (5); Charlotte Perkins Gilman (9); Kate M.
Gordon (6); Margaret Collier Graham (11); Elizabeth Boynton Harbert (16); Phoebe
Apperson Hearst (5); William Randolph Hearst (1); Isabella Beecher Hooker (1);
Timothy Hopkins (7); Julia Ward Howe (3); Intercollegiate Socialist Society (2);
Carrie Jacobs-Bond (6); Mary Ashton Rice Livermore (1); Jack London (2); Charles
Fletcher Lummis (35); Alice Moore McComas (6); Mila Tupper Maynard (5); Elizabeth
Smith Miller (3); Harriet Mann Miller (16); Maria Mitchell (2); Helena Modjeska
(10); Dorothea Moore (6); Eva Perry Moore (3); National American Woman Suffrage
Association (2); Nelson O. Nelson (46); New England Women's Club (2); Alice Park
(20); Jenny Marsh Parker (9); Mary Elizabeth Phillips (32); Louis Prang (15); Mary
Amelia Dana Hicks Prang (15); Ella Giles Ruddy (26); Kate Sanborn (4); Ellen Clark
Sargent (7); Caroline M. Seymour Severance (232); James Seymour Severance (3,063);
Mark Sibley Severance (557); Pierre Clark Severance (53); Theodoric Cordenio
Severance (50); May Wright Sewall (6); Henry W. Seymour (1); Anna Howard Shaw (10);
Homer B. Sprague (3); Julia A. Sprague (36); Rebecca Buffum Spring (5); Sarah B.
Stearns (16); Lucy Stone (4); Henry Baldwin Ward (2); Lydia Avery Coonley Ward (17);
Booker T. Washington (2); Kate Gannett Wells (12); Charles William Wendte (10); Kate
Douglas Smith Wiggin (20); Gaylord Wilshire (8); J. Stitt Wilson (13); Woman
Suffrage Convention (1); Kate Tannatt Woods (22); and Marie E. Zakrzewska (18).
Ephemera (Boxes 59-84), Oversize Items (Boxes 85-86), and Calling Cards (Boxes
87-107):
The majority of the 9,007 pieces of ephemera are directly related to Caroline
Severance's various reform and club interests. It is arranged by type and subject,
and consists of address books, appointment books, brochures, business papers,
genealogy information for the Clarke, Severance, and Seymour families, greeting
cards, invitations, legal documents, miscellaneous lists, newspaper clippings,
pamphlets, petitions, club notebooks, photographs, postcards, fliers, programs,
reprints, material related to the Harvard Club and the University Club of San
Francisco, and financial papers of the Severance family and of the Sidney M. Smith
Estate, of which James Seymour Severance was executor. The subjects covered are:
kindergarten, Los Angeles, the peace movement, politics and labor unions, reform
movements, religion, suffrage, temperance, Unitarianism, women's clubs, and women's
rights. The 2,700 calling cards are housed after the Oversize Items; they are in
alphabetical order.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in the following order, with each section being arranged
alphabetically by author and title:
- Manuscripts (Boxes 1-7)
- Correspondence (Boxes 8-58)
- Ephemera (Boxes 59-84)
- Oversize Items (Boxes 85-86)
- Calling Cards (Boxes 87-107)
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Anthony, Susan B.
(Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo,
1803-1882.
Frémont, Jessie Benton,
1824-1902.
Fröbel, Friedrich,
1782-1852.
Lummis, Charles
Fletcher, 1859-1928.
Modjeska, Helena,
1840-1909.
Severance, Caroline M.
Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914.
Stanton, Elizabeth
Cady, 1815-1902.
Avery, Susan
Look.
Harvard Club of San
Francisco (Calif.)
Southwest Museum (Los
Angeles, Calif.)
African American women--Societies and
clubs.
African American women--Suffrage.
Child labor--Law and legislation--United
States.
Clothing and dress--Social
aspects--United States.
Cooperation and socialism--United
States.
Feminists--United States--Archives.
Kindergarten--United States.
Suffragists--United States--Archives.
Temperance--United States.
Unitarianism--United States.
Women--Legal status, laws,
etc.
Women--Societies and clubs.
Women--Suffrage--United
States--History--19th century--Sources.
Women--Suffrage--United
States--History--20th century--Sources.
Women socialists--United
States.
Women's rights--United States.
California -- History --
19th century.
California -- History --
20th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Description and travel.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
History -- 19th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
History -- 20th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Politics and government.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Social life and customs -- 19th century.
Los Angeles (Calif.) --
Social life and customs -- 20th century.
Articles--United States
Business letters--United
States
Commonplace books--United
States
Diaries--United States
Journals (accounts)--United
States
Legal documents--United
States
Letter books--United States
Letters (correspondence)--United
States
Notebooks--United States
Notes--United States
Pamphlets--United States
Personal papers--United
States
Photographs--United States
Speeches--United States
Anthony, Susan B.
(Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
Avery, Susan
Look.
Blackwell, Alice
Stone, 1857-1950.
Douglass,
Frederick, 1818-1895.
Ferguson, Georgia
Ransom Fay.
Frémont, Jessie
Benton, 1824-1902.
Garrison, William
Lloyd, 1838-1909.
Gilman, Charlotte
Perkins, 1860-1935.
Graham, Margaret
Collier, 1850-1910.
Harbert, Elizabeth
Boynton, b. 1845.
Hearst, Phoebe
Apperson, 1842-1919.
Hooker, Isabella
Beecher, 1822-1907.
Howe, Julia Ward,
1819-1910.
London, Jack,
1876-1916.
Lummis, Charles
Fletcher, 1859-1928.
Mitchell, Maria,
1818-1889.
Modjeska, Helena,
1840-1909.
Park, Alice,
1861-1961.
Ruddy, Ella Giles,
1851-1917.
Sanborn, Kate,
1839-1917.
Sargent, Ellen
Clark.
Sewall, May Wright,
1844-1920.
Shaw, Anna Howard,
1847-1919.
Stearns, Sarah B.
Stone, Lucy,
1818-1893.
Ward, Henry
Baldwin, 1865-1945.
Ward, Lydia Avery
Coonley, 1845-1924.
Washington, Booker
T., 1856-1915.
Wendte, Charles
William, 1844-1931.
Wiggin, Kate
Douglas Smith, 1856-1923.
Wilshire, Gaylord,
1861-1927.
Wilson, J. Stitt
(Jackson Stitt), 1868-
Zakrzewska, Marie
E. (Marie Elizabeth), 1829-1902.
Association for the
Advancement of Women.
Friday Morning Club
(Los Angeles, Calif.)
National American
Woman Suffrage Association.