| One of the strengths of Longfellow
National Historic Site, the extensive archives, manuscripts and photograph collection provides a rare
opportunity to view eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century American history through the
eyes of multiple generations of the Longfellow, Appleton, Dana and Wadsworth families. Various family
members were actively involved in or were firsthand witnesses to the Revolutionary, Barbary and Civil
Wars; nineteenth century American art, theater and literary culture, and politics; world travel; and
social movements such as abolition, women’s education, historic preservation and socialism. In addition,
the collection illuminates the daily lives of the house’s occupants with great immediacy; outlines
the history and use of objects (now in the museum collections) acquired by the Longfellows; and documents
changes to the structures and grounds.
360 linear feet of papers, c. 1650 – 1972 (approx. 765,191 items); approximately
12,000 photographs
|
