Emily Howland papers, 1849-1974 (majority within 1850s-1920s)
Using These Materials
- Restrictions:
- The collection is open for research.
Summary
- Creator:
- Howland, Emily, 1827-1929
- Abstract:
- This collection consists of letters, documents, writings, bound volumes, printed materials, original art, photographs, ephemera, and other materials related to the life and study of Emily Howland of Sherwood, New York, between 1849 and 1974. Howland worked to advance abolition, African American education, and women's rights and suffrage, and her papers reflect these varied reform movements and her long-standing relationships with leaders in the causes. She was especially active in Freedmen's relief and education in Virginia during and following the Civil War. Her work centering in Northumberland County, Virginia, is documented in the collection, as well as her domestic life in Sherwood following her return there in the late 1860s.
- Extent:
- 3.5 linear feet
- Language:
- English
- Authors:
- Collection processed and finding aid created by Jayne Ptolemy, December 2023
Background
- Scope and Content:
-
This collection consists of letters, documents, writings, bound volumes, printed materials, original art, photographs, ephemera, and other materials related to the life and study of Emily Howland of Sherwood, New York, between 1849 and 1974. Howland worked to advance abolition, African American education, and women's rights and suffrage, and her papers reflect these varied reform movements and her long-standing relationships with leaders in the causes. She was especially active in Freedmen's relief and education in Virginia during and following the Civil War, and her work centering in Northumberland County, Virginia, is documented in the collection, as well as her domestic life in Sherwood following her return there in the late 1860s.
The Correspondence Series contains letters written to and from Emily Howland from 1849 until her death in 1929, touching on topics like antislavery, African American education, women's rights and suffrage, pacifism, among other social reforms and personal matters. Several items were written to other correspondents within Howland's social circles that were possibly shared with her or others researching her life at a later date. These letters reflect the Howland family's broader social reform networks, including several items written in the 1850s and 1860s to or from David Wright, an Auburn, New York, attorney active in the antislavery and temperance causes, as well as Eliza Wright Osborne, a suffragist, in the late 1890s.
Some of the correspondence from the 1840s and 1850s reflects the Howland family's involvement in antislavery efforts. Circular letters from the New York State Vigilance Committee (March 10, 1849) and the "Provisional Committee, for the Promotion of Education among the Colored People, in such of the Slave States as are, or may be accessible" (October 18, 1849) are present in the series. Hiram Wilson wrote a letter from St. Catharines, Canada, to Susan Marriott, a woman involved in gathering clothing for enslaved people fleeing across the border (October 30, 1851). He noted that Emily Howland alerted him to Marriott's "deep interest" in the work preparing the shipment, indicating Howland's interest in the effort. Similarly, W. O. Dawson wrote to Slocum Howland on November 16, 1853, discussing the travels of William Darsey, a man fleeing from slavery to Canada, and support offered by abolitionists. "He said you told him to have me write you as to his safe arrival at our house," Dawson wrote, confirming the Howland family was active in efforts to assist escape attempts. One writer asked Howland to check in on Catharine M. White, a former resident of the Colored Orphan Asylum, to determine if she was in financial straits, revealing how Howland operated within abolition and benevolence networks (October 26, 1858).
Correspondence in the collection documents Emily Howland's long career supporting education. Several letters between 1857 and 1859 relate to her first foray in teaching, as she taught in the school previously operated by Myrtilla Miner in Washington, D.C. Letters include one dated July 3, 1857, written by Miner noting her failing health and coordinating with Howland for the upcoming school year. A letter Howland wrote while on her initial trip to D.C. is also included, in which she described her voyage to Philadelphia, meeting with Samuel J. May who had promised to raise funds for the school, and picking up a young formerly enslaved girl named Virginia Ayer who was going to attend Miner's school (September 25, 1857). In another early letter home (November 7, 1857), Howland described the climate, flora, teaching 30 students, social visits, and viewing the "Greek Slave" in the art gallery. By February 26, 1858, she was also teaching an evening school and upwards of 40 students in the day school. In May 1858, Howland related a visit she took to the homes of some of her students and speaking with an older enslaved woman. A ca. May 1858 document in the Writings Series, "A visit to Aunt Nella," written by Margaret McAnulty, one of Howland's students, further describes this visit. The final letter written during Howland's tenure at the Miner school is dated March 27, 1859, and reports Myrtilla Miner's return, abrupt dismissal of the teachers, and Howland's hope that one of her students, Susie, might return to New York with her, "the idea of a chance for education overcomes her dread." She noted visiting the student's mother.
Emily Howland was active in contraband camps, Freedmen's relief programs, and African American school efforts during and after the Civil War, and her correspondence reflects these interests. A letter of recommendation written by F. W. Seward endorses Howland's desire to "go to the front to aid in taking care of the wounded," noting how she "has labored very diligently and effectively in the Contraband Camps in this vicinity for the past three years" (May 14, 1864). Letters like the one by Walter L. Clift, a lawyer in Savannah, Georgia, on July 23, 1867, speak directly to struggles experienced by Black Southerners during Reconstruction, commenting on efforts to collect "small claims against their employers who take advantage of their inability to keep accounts to defraud them of their wages" and their political sensibilities and registering to vote.
Howland was instrumental in purchasing land and raising funds for the construction of a school in Heathsville, Virginia, in 1867 and her correspondence reflects her ongoing investment in the project, through discussions of financial issues, building upkeep, and land transfers. On July 13, 1867, L. Edwin Dudley wrote from the Union Republican Congressional Executive Committee office in Washington, D.C., offering support for raising funds for the completion of the school and noting his endorsement of woman suffrage. A detailed letter from F. E. Dow documents the construction of the Howland Chapel School in Northumberland County, Virginia (August 25, 1867), noting African American residents' efforts in the construction and securing government funds. The correspondence also documents the transfer of land ownership from Howland to African American residents in Heathsville and Howland's reasoning to do so as "a great check on the wicked wills of the old slaveocracy, who let no whit of a chance to oppress escape them" (January 16, 1870). On April 17, 1876, Howland wrote while in Heathsville overseeing repairs to the school and managing land sales, including one to a man she "put the screws on" to press him to be more industrious and build a house on the land in order to secure the sale. Other letters indicate ongoing relationships with the Black community in the area, including two letters from Thamsen Taliaferro written when she was 22 years old indicating she was a teacher preparing to leave Heathsville to undertake other educational efforts in Manassas, possibly attending the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth with Howland's financial support (January 6 and 17, 1895). At least two letters were also written by Sidney Taliaferro Boyer (1854-1927), who was taught by Howland and was active in the Heathsville region (August 4, 1903), and Howland references her elsewhere in her correspondence. Several letters between Howland and Anna M. Stanton, who taught at Heathsville, are also present.
Howland frequently corresponded with others involved in contraband relief efforts and African American education, including Cornelia Hancock, who moved to South Carolina in 1866 to work alongside newly emancipated enslaved people and founded the Laing School for Negroes in Mount Pleasant. Letters between Howland and Hancock in the collection span from 1865 to at least 1884, beginning just as Hancock was preparing to begin her post-war labors. In one dated December 20, 1865, Hancock bristled at Philadelphian Quakers' failure to recognize Howland and other women's efforts in the South. Hancock's frustrations with the Society of Friends continued through the month as she tried to prepare a trip south, lamenting on December 31st that "Their extreme timidity seems to rest in a fear that their teachers will not have a feather bed to lie on and hotel fare for diet." She wrote requesting Howland's financial assistance to secure her transportation to South Carolina, "and I know too thee is not fastidious about where the work is done so it is getting done." Putnam directly linked Howland's support as essential to bringing her to the Laing School and reflected on their shared sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness at the close of the Civil War. She enclosed a manuscript map of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, region and worked with Howland to secure funds to purchase property on Cat Island to transfer to African American residents (January 14, 1869). She continued to write to Emily and Slocum Howland about land purchases and financial matters relating to her efforts in South Carolina, African American residents working in the area, and the strain the labor placed on her health.
Howland also stayed in regular contact with Caroline F. Putnam who founded the Holley School in Lottsburg, Virginia. She noted a festival endorsing "care and vigilance for the protection of the hitherto enslaved" (April 17, 1871) and reflected on their early ventures ([November 12, 1906?]). Howland wrote frankly to Putnam regarding their shared interests in education and other matters, including financial inducements to encourage African American voters to decline liquor licenses in Heathsville, Virginia (March 20, 1898), the Spanish-American War (February 8, 1899), and Putnam's ongoing work in Virginia (January 14, 1901).
Two letters written by Sallie Holley, a close colleague and partner of Putnam, are in the collection, written in October 1867 while she visited Howland in Sherwood, New York, after the passing of Howland's mother. They touch on the waning of abolitionist sentiment, teaching, Charles Sumner's wife, and Howland's comments about her "Virginia life" and the need for land ownership by the formerly enslaved. One letter from Howland includes a later annotation that it may have been addressed to Holley, but the attribution is unverified (March 11, 1866). A letter written on March 7, 1893, concerning Sally Holley's will acknowledges some of the tension that could arise in the work, as her will allowed Putnam's continued use of the school but not its ownership.
Howland maintained a long-lasting friendship with Harriet Tubman, and several letters in the collection relate to Tubman, including correspondence arranging for her to speak at the National Association of Colored Women's convention in Washington, D.C., in 1896 by figures like Victoria Matthews who was helping to organize the convention (July 8, 1896). These items were not addressed to Howland, instead principally directed to Eliza Wright Osborne, so their presence among her papers is suggestive of them being forwarded to Howland, possibly to aid in working to secure Tubman's presence. Other letters reference discussions of reprinting biographies of Tubman and working to record her oral histories, including by figures like Franklin Benjamin Sanford. While these letters tend to focus on the events and projects, descriptions of Tubman emerge, such as having a limited "ability to speak in public" (July 1, 1896), or that "She is difficult to understand, unless one is familiar with the negro talk; but she can tell her experiences very graphically, and she seems to have a very good memory" (July 4, 1896), or that she would "want her books for Washington" (July 5, 1896).
Others reference Tubman visiting with Howland and include anecdotes about her experiences, such as having surgery and tending to an impoverished widow (September 5, 1897), or her tendency not to eat until after noon on Fridays, "the hour when the Lord descended from the cross" (November 24, 1899; June 22, 1900), or wondering whether Tubman would include the Manassas Industrial School in her will (June 14 and 20, 1900). Howland recounted one encounter with an African American man who claimed to be fleeing from lynching threats in North Carolina and was directed to her by Tubman, which turned out to be a scam, underlining the depth of the two women's relationship and how Tubman's reputation was wielded for unintended purposes (October 21, 1905).
Howland wrote twice to Eliza Wright Osborne (January 11 and 28, 1897) referencing her displeasure with a meeting and financial decisions for the nascent Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes, as well as her scathing displeasure with the fundraising efforts of John J. Smallwood for the Temperance, Industrial and Collegiate Institute. She noted her enlistment of Booker T. Washington and William Lloyd Garrison in her opposition, hinting at the complicated politics and interpersonal conflicts present in such efforts. Garrison wrote to her on November 5, 1896, about his work to publish warnings in newspapers, to expose "him by voice & pen for two years" as a "phenomenal liar, forger & sneak" and to work with Booker T. Washington to spread awareness.
Into the twentieth century, Howland continued to financially support educational institutions, including those focused on Black education such as the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute for Colored Youth in Kowaliga, Alabama; Selma University in Selma, Alabama; the Piney Woods Country Life School for Training Colored Boys and Girls in Christianity, Character, and Service in Braxton, Mississippi; the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in Manassas, Virginia; and the Tuskegee Institute, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Oswald Garrison Villard wrote to Howland on June 18, 1907, with a detailed report of the Manassas Industrial School, its teachers and administrators, plans for construction, and the need for contributions. Other letters reference the building of Howland Hall (December 17, 1910) and the secession of leadership following Oswald Garrison Villard's resignation (November 1 and November 22, 1912). Laurence C. Jones, principal of Piney Woods Country Life School, wrote a letter of thanks for Howland's interest in the institution and described the hardships African American communities were experiencing in Braxton, Mississippi. Howland also was heavily involved in the Sherwood Select School of Sherwood, New York, and letters in the collection reveal her planning, financial support, and frustrations with the school.
Howland also provided financial support for individuals' educational pursuits, and letters of thanks for her generosity (see August 11, 1903) or correspondence describing specific cases (August 6, 1903) are present in the collection. Howland's letter of January 11, 1897, illustrates how she worked her interpersonal networks towards her causes. She wrote to her colleague Mrs. Osborne, about a former African American student from Auburn, New York, Mary Williams, whom she had secured a teaching position for at the Manassas Industrial School and was now in need of someone to fund her salary. Howland noted Williams visiting her and following up on his request for Osborne's support, which is also in the collection (December 7, 1896).
Howland was heavily involved in efforts to secure women's suffrage in New York State, and letters relating to the New York State Woman Suffrage Association are included as well as those detailing efforts to advance women's suffrage during the New York State Constitutional Convention. Correspondence touches on meetings and conventions, distribution of materials, planning events and campaigns, financial concerns, and political outcomes, among other topics. Letters to Howland from various politicians indicate she was writing to them concerning their positions relating to suffrage. In a letter dated November 8, 1917, to her niece Isabel, Howland wrote about celebrating the successful vote for women's suffrage in New York, including getting their photograph taken at the Headquarters, a copy of which is present in the Photographs Series of this collection.
Howland corresponded with those working to advance women's suffrage in other states and at the national level. Her letters include those relating to Wimodaughsis, the National Council of Women of the United States, the National-American Woman Suffrage Association, among others. A November 9, 1893, telegram from Fred E. Smith from Greely, Colorado, announces it to be "the 1st State in the Union to extend Equal Suffrage to Woman," and a letter from her cousin J. H. Allen of Canon City, Colorado, answered questions Howland posed about the impact of women's suffrage in the state (November 4, 1897). Howland also reacted to the 1911 referendum in California that extended suffrage to women (October 21, 1911).
In the course of her work to advance women's suffrage, Howland amassed correspondence with many involved in the effort. The collection includes five letters from Susan B. Anthony, remarking on the tension between women's suffrage and enfranchising formerly enslaved men (February 29, 1892); the New York State Constitutional Convention (December 27, 1893); distribution of The History of Woman Suffrage, including to African American institutes and libraries (November 4, 1895); travel arrangements (April 2, 1899); and directions for sending mail (May 15, 1899). A postcard sent to Howland in August 1903 was addressed to her, care of Susan B. Anthony, suggesting how the two visited and travelled together on occasion. Other correspondents include figures like Harriet B. Laidlaw, Eliza Wright Osborne, Alice Stone Blackwell, Mariana W. Chapman, Harriet May Mills, Anna Howard Shaw, among others.
Several items reflect international efforts, including a manuscript circular letter originally written by Marie Goegg of the Association Internationale Des Femmes, dated March 1870. A June 8, 1889, letter written from Alice Stone Blackwell of the Woman's Journal to Hannah Howland refers to the upcoming Woman's Rights Congress in Paris and their openness to receiving a report on the proceedings. Anna Howard Shaw wrote to Howland on December 4, 1907, about European meetings and getting "in touch with some of the old suffragists again," and wrote from Triberg, Germany, on July 19, 1908, commenting on her international trip, her speech in London, and plans for future events in England. An undated letter from the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage in London, England, notes their willingness to send Howland notice of their meetings. Other letters indicate Howland was tracking international news, like her letter dated March 28, 1898, where she noted, "progress since the time of Roman splendor & vileness is not so great as some shallow good folks may flatter themselves, with our lynchings & prisons & the condition of Cuba & Armenia the world is not in sight of the millennium & will not be soon." She elsewhere reflected on the "Philippine question" (May 25, 1902) and the suffering caused by the First World War (November 1, 1914).
Howland met and corresponded with Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, a noted reformer from India who advocated for the rights of women, widows, and orphans, who visited the United States from 1886 to 1888. Howland wrote of meeting Ramabai and Dr. Rachel Bodley of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania on August 23, 1886, calling it a "red letter day in my calendar." Howland described Ramabai and their conversation, noting a discussion about religion and missionaries, women in India, opposition to English rule, and some references to Anandibai Joshee. Howland also wrote about introducing Ramabai to Harriet Tubman, and Ramabai inquired after Tubman and sent her regards in subsequent correspondence (December 20, 1886; October 31, 1889). Letters between Ramabai and Howland continue through 1895 and touch on women's rights publications, speaking engagements, introductions to Howland's networks, fundraising, plans for visits, and the school Ramabai ran in India. Ramabai also wrote of the death of Rachel Bodley and confusion about financial affairs, including an order under Howland's name for twenty-four copies of her book The High Caste Hindu Woman (July 27, 1888). She requested at least twice for Howland to write to her about her work with African American causes. In her letter dated January 10, 1890, Howland obliged, describing her personal history, being raised in an abolitionist house and a "station on the Underground Railroad," feeling the constraints of the "bonds of custom" of Quaker tenets, and her entry into teaching at the Miner school. Several pages are missing from her autobiographical letter.
In addition to state and national affairs, Howland appears to have stayed apprised of local politics as well. A letter from the Superintendent of the Board of Education in Auburn, New York, wrote to her on December 19, 1883, in regards to whether women could vote at school meetings. Howland's political activities are also represented in her correspondence, such as her work with the Sherwood Equal Rights Association and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club.
The lines between Howland's work with Freedmen's relief, Black education, and woman's suffrage sometimes blurred, with her letters on behalf of race-based projects written on suffrage letterhead, or correspondence with those she likely met while working on Freedmen's affairs, such as with James Inglish Ferree, touching on women's rights (June 5, 1882). On April 5, 1903, Howland wrote to Caroline Putnam about a trip she was taking in company with Susan B. Anthony to the Tuskegee Normal School and Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute. A letter dated February 28, 1913, from the president of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association, Harriet Taylor Upton, asserts that "the Washington people have decided wisely in regard to the colored question," and in a letter dated May 2, 1913, Howland wrote of Anna Howard Shaw and how "she is blamed because there is no more organizing done in the South but since Southern women will exclude colored women she is not in it."
Howland remained in communication with Margaret Jones Burleigh, an abolitionist and reformer who taught Howland for a period in her youth. Burleigh connected Howland with Edward Strange, a British immigrant who had been incarcerated and whose reform Burleigh took a particular interest in. Letters in the collection reflect on their partnership in this issue, Strange's housing and eventual stay with Howland, his health, care, and diet as he lived with tuberculosis, his thoughts on religion and his personal changes, broader interest in his case, concerns for his spiritual state, and his eventual death in March 1872. Howland referred to Strange in childlike terms and admitted to a sense of motherly affection inspired by him (March 15, 1872), and compared her grief to "some bereft mothers to whom I have listened who never knew when to stop talking of the departed" (April 11, 1872). Additional items relating to Edward Strange can be found in the Documents Series (a document penned by Strange authorizing Howland to tend to his personal property), in the Writing Series (Howland's retrospective of her full encounter dated April 3, 1872), and in her Diary.
Later in her life, Emily Howland became more active in pacifist efforts. Alfred H. Love, president of the Universal Peace Union, wrote to Howland on July 8, 1909, to discuss the organization's business and publications and seek her continued support. Five undated postcards from the American Relief Administration reflect her involvement with the program during World War I, seemingly for food packages, and in a letter to Caroline F. Putnam on November 1, 1914, she lamented the consequences of World War I, including her belief in the "crime against animals" by using horses in battle.
Miscellaneous correspondence with family members and friends from the Sherwood, New York, region document Howland's everyday life. Some letters suggest her family's broader interests or awareness of what would intrigue her, such as her nephew Herbert Howland describing his visit to Jamaica, Mexico, and South America, commenting on race and armed conflicts (January 21, 1903). Howland corresponded with friends over decades, and in her later years she reflected on aging and historical memory. For example, she wrote on March 17, 1914, "I find that I must keep out of the Past, as it makes the Present so poor, and summons a yearning feeling to follow."
The Documents Series spans from 1840 to 1928, the earliest being a manuscript copy of the rules for the Nine Partners Boarding School. Other materials reflect Howland's work supporting African American education. Three items relate to Myrtilla Miner's school in Washington, D.C.: a "List of scholars during April 1858," a bill of lading for apples and butter sent to Howland while teaching there, and "Questions in history prepared & written by Mrs. Seward.... When teaching Miss Miner's school in 1858 & 9." A copy of the 1869 "Deed of Bargain & Sale" that transferred ownership of the property in Northumberland County, Virginia, from Emily Howland to Benjamin and Beverly Taliaferro, Robert Walker, and Maurice Moore is also present, with the condition that "a school shall be established and maintained thereon, wherein no person shall be excluded on account of race, color or sex."
One document signed by Edward Strange on December 11, 1871, empowers Howland to dispose of his property upon his death.
The following items (in the Documents Series) relate to women's suffrage:- A typescript of resolutions passed by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club opposing the refusal to allow women to vote for school commissioners in New York, ca. 1892
- "Signers of the Anti Suffrage Petition from Aurora," ca. 1890s
- A typed notice announcing that The Woman's Journal was "no longer the official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association," ca. 1912
- A tally of Auburn, New York, votes for and against the 1915 suffrage referendum
- An undated copy of legal articles concerning voting in public school meetings
- An undated, blank form for a constitution for a branch of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage
- An undated typed copy of the "Plan to be Submitted to the State Committee" regarding organizing for an upcoming vote on a suffrage amendment
- An undated delegation certificate for John T. Hughes
- A blank subscription form for the National Society for Women's Suffrage
- A New York State Woman Suffrage Party pledge in support of women's suffrage
- An undated "Twenty-Five Greatest Women Guessing Contest of New York State Suffrage Association" entry form filled out by Emily Howland
Other items pertain to the Political Equality Club, the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Emily Howland High School in Aurora, New York.
The Writings Series includes miscellaneous written works, such as essays, poems, drafts, speeches, and obituaries. Several of the poems are political in nature, including one reflecting on women's political positions. A poem written by W. Darwin Wooden in June 1856, consists of acrostics for Charles Sumner and Stephen A. Douglass, focusing on their political positions relative to slavery, and another undated poem by A. H. Reynolds of Auburn, New York, is entitled "Tribute to Susan B. Anthony." Others are more sentimental in nature, but at least one undated poem was copied on a fragment of a letter from Harriet May Mills, providing insight into the intermingling of Howland's literary and political worlds.
Other items in the series reflect Howland's longstanding interest in suffrage. Howland wrote a draft for a speech to the Political Equality Club of Cayuga County ca. 1897 about women voting in school meetings. Typed lyrics to the song "Help Us Win the Vote" by Deborah Knox Livingston are noted as being sung to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." A copy of Howland's October 26, 1915, letter to the editor of the Advertiser Journal refuting an anti-suffrage address is also present, as is an undated draft of an article for the Advertiser relating to suffrage. Undated draft notes in Howland's hand for a letter to George Allen Davis, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeal for his support to strike the word "male" from the New York constitution.
Materials documenting Howland's efforts with educational projects are also well represented in the series. Margaret McAnulty, an African American student at Myrtilla Miner's school, wrote an essay ca. May 1858, "A visit to Aunt Nella," describing a trip Emily Howard took with students to visit their families and an older enslaved woman. This corresponds to a May 23, 1858, letter written by Howland in the Correspondence Series. Two other sheets of draft notes reflect on the history of Myrtilla Miner's school near Washington, D.C., one written on the back of a partially printed circular sent in March 1868 by Jerusha M. Skinner to former patrons of the School for Colored Deaf, Dumb and Blind Children.
Two copies of a circular appealing for financial support of the Holley School appear in Howland's hand, ca. March 23, 1901, with notes about Mr. Chadwick plagiarizing her writing. An undated essay entitled "The Story in Brief" regarding the Holley School in Lottsburg, Virginia, was possibly written by Sarah Thomas Miller.
Another undated piece provides personal opinions about higher education for African Americans and that "we must discriminate and choose the proper education for the individual."
Typescript copies include a piece entitled "A Virginia School" from the February 1899 Friends' Intelligencer regarding the history of the Heathsville school. Typescripts detailing Cornelia Hancock's work during and after the Civil War are also present, along with an envelope annotated by Howland, "A letter from Cornelia Hancock and a M.S. account of her life in the army at various places and times beginning at Gettysburg." It is unclear whether the typescripts are the contents Howland refers to or were added to the envelope at a later date. The series also contains typed and manuscript notes for commencement addresses by Emily Howland and others for the Sherwood Select School in the 1920s.
Several items in the series relate to Howland's pacifist beliefs. Between 1919 and 1924, Howland copied three of her reports for the Women's Christian Temperance Union concerning peace. These sentiments are further echoed in a ca. 1919 draft responding to anti-suffrage sentiments and advocating pacifism which was written by Howland on miscellaneous scrap paper, including letters from the First Congregational Church in Little Rock and the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, a brochure of the closing exercises of Centreville Industrial Institute, and a circular for the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Another undated draft responds to a piece in Harper's Weekly about foreign policy and war, and is written on the verso of printed New York Woman Suffrage Association notices. Two other drafts relate to pacifism, one a resolution deploring "the present belligerent attitude of nations, & the spirit of conquest wh. everywhere prevails" and the other reflecting on how patriotism does not require "a jealous dislike of other nations & peoples." An undated draft of pacifist resolutions opposing "the present belligerent attitude of nations" is also present.
Howland wrote a 23-page retrospective, recounting her experiences with Edward Strange, a British man who had been formerly incarcerated and who spent six months ill with tuberculosis at her house, dated April 3, 1872. She described how they met, his stay with her, and the progression of his disease. She also noted the tumultuous emotions his stay caused, calling it a "whirlpool of feeling - a confusion as great as the mystery he was to me. Mystery then, mystery now and ever!"
Obituaries for Lisette M. Worden, Sarah Thomas Miller, C. de B. Mills, William Howland, and Elizabeth Jacobs are included.
The Bound Volumes Series consists of four items. The first is a handmade blank book wrapped in stenciled wallpaper, inscribed by Emily Howland, "My 1st day school book when a little girl." It includes copies of religious texts and answers to Biblical questions. One page appears to bear the name "Sidney Taliaferos," but additional research is needed to verify whether this was written by Sidney Taliaferro Boyer.
The second volume is a commonplace book kept by Emily Howland's brother, William Howland, ca. 1850s-1860s, in which he compiled quotations and proverbs and pasted in various newspaper clippings relating to recipes, remedies, legal subjects, poems, and miscellaneous topics like whining. Subjects relate to the law, politics and society, education, morality, and more. Some content is suggestive of abolitionist circles, such as quotations from the North Star and Gerrit Smith.
The third volume is Emily Howland's diary dating from January 1, 1871, to March 11, 1873, opening with Howland travelling away from home, likely in Heathsville, Virginia, and in discussion with Theodore Dow about partnering together with the school (January 11, 1871; January 31, 1871). Several entries include quotations written in dialect and Howland noted her reaction to "their strangely inspiring songs" (February 2, 1871), suggesting she was meeting with African American residents, and she recorded visiting the schoolhouse. By March 9, Howland had returned to Sherwood, and her diary entries reflect on the weather, family and social visits, local news, and her emotional state.
The diary skips from August 14, 1871, to March 27, 1872, beginning again with a brief reflection about her sadness over the death of Edward Strange ("Teddy") beginning to lift. The diary records her housekeeping tasks, attending religious services and Sunday School, reading, visits and correspondence, and remembrances of Strange and adjusting to his absence. Her entries reflect displeasure with the demands of domestic labor and a troubled emotional state. Howland expressed some dissatisfaction with the limited recognition she received for her efforts, "A good many times I've been omitted where it seemed to me I belonged, or I've had to see others reap where I had sown. How keenly H Greeley must felt this. One is not anxious to be conspicuous but one likes recognition of ones good intentions or one's services or places" (December 10, 1872).
Some content in the diary reflects Howland's ongoing interest in racial affairs, women's rights, and benevolence. At least two entries reference Native Americans (May 1, 1872; June 6, 1872), and others note making donations to Freedmen's groups (October 18, 1872; January 23, 1873), attending a festival for the Orphan Asylum (August 2, 1872), and reading material such as the Woman's Journal (January 27, 1873) and Eminent Women (July 22, 1872). Throughout the diary Howland made several mentions of Colonel Charles W. Folsom, Sidney (possibly Sidney Taliaferro Boyer), and Caroline Putnam.
The fourth volume is a minute book for the Quaker Picnic Association of Sherwood for 1894-1904. "Resolutions of Respect and Condolence, on the death of Hannah L. Howland" are laid into the volume. The volume documents meeting attendance, committees, discussions, and votes relating to the planning of the Sherwood picnics, in addition to accounts of the picnics themselves. William and Hannah Howland were especially active in the association, and several other members of the family also appear in the minutes.
The Printed Materials Series contains the following pamphlets, brochures, and programs:
- A Short Account of William Terry, A member of the Masonic Society… (Poughkeepsie, 1820)
- The Annual Catalogue of the Teachers and Pupils of the Poplar Ridge Seminary (Auburn, 1845)
- Three copies of Emily Howland, New York State Report for 1891, Presented at the Nineteenth Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women, by Emily Ward Howland, Vice President (Syracuse, 1892). All three have "Ward" crossed out of Howland's name, and one bears a stamp, "From the Papers of Miss Emily Howland Presented 1934."
- The Twenty-fifth Annual Convention of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association… January 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1893. (s.l., [1893])
- Report of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. 25th Annual Convention (Syracuse, [1893]). Includes names of Emily Howland and Lydia S. M[ains?] on the front cover with the note "Moravia raised $14.30 for Miss Shaw's Meeting June 8." A newspaper clipping about a Political Equality Club meeting and a manuscript list of officers and committees, with Emily Howland as the president, are pasted into the front of the volume.
- Addresses of His Excellency, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, and Booker T. Washington, Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee Alabama, Delivered at Carnegie Hall. (New York.) Home Missionary Meeting, March 3, '94, Under the Auspices of the Presbyterian Church, of America. (s.l., [1894])
- Report of the Annual Meeting of the Ramabai Association Held March 18, 1896 (Boston, 1896)
- The Fortnightly… Programme, 1897-'98 (s.l., [1897])
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton To her life-long friend and co-worker Susan B. Anthony on her eightieth birthday (s.l., 1900.
- Annual Reports, October 1st 1901. Supplement to the Junior Republic Citizen (Freeville, [1902])
- Mary Jane Howland Taber, "Friends Here and Hereaway Continued," in Old Darthmouth Historical Sketches. No. 12. Inscribed "Mr. Herbert Howland With best wishes for a pleasant Christmas & Happy New Year from the author." (s.l., 1905)
- Ida Husted Harper, History of the Movement for Woman Suffrage in the United States (New York, 1907)
- Two copies of The Forty-First Annual Convention of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., [1909])
- Sanitary Laws and Regulations In and For the Town of Scipio, Cayuga County, N.Y. ([Auburn, New York], 1909)
- The Forty-Third Annual Convention of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., [1911])
- Two copies of Lucy Jacobs, A Historical Sketch of Sherwood Select School, 1871-1911 (s.l., [1911]). One with a stamp on the front cover, "From the Papers of Miss Emily Howland Presented April 1934."
- The American Ramabai Association Report of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting, March 28, 1916 (Boston, 1916)
- The Westonian: A Monthly Magazine for Friends 21.1 (January 1916). With Emily Howland's name added in manuscript on the cover along with the note, "A Quaker Schoolmistress p. 9."
- A Brief History of Laing School, Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Covering Sixty Years of Service, 1866-1926. Together with a Picture of its Founder, Cornelia Hancock… (s.l., [1926])
- Joseph Tallcot, The Acorn. Designed to Promote Oral Instruction and Moral Influence in Common Schools Vol.1, No. 3 (Skaneateles, n.d.)
- A. F. Beard, Samples and Examples. By A. F. Beard, Corresponding Secretary of the American Missionary Association (s.l., n.d.), with a focus on the Kowalgia School in Alabama.
- The Charleston Exchange for Woman's Work Cookbook, (Charleston, n.d.)
- Charles F. Dole, G. S. Dickerman, and Roger F. Etz, Little Journeys to Piney Woods School (s.l., n.d.)
- Constitution of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (s.l., n.d.)
A number of broadsides, circulars, and fliers are also in the series relating to topics such as Freedmen's Relief, Reconstruction, women's suffrage, the Political Equality Club, temperance, African American educational institutions, pacifism, and more. These include two "Votes for Women" broadsides featuring maps of the United States color-coded to identify suffrage status, as well as instructions on how to fill out ballots regarding suffrage questions. Oversize materials include two printed broadsides advertising lectures by Harriet May Mills, President of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, and one printed broadside advertising a lecture by Mrs. Minnie J. Reynolds, who "lived and voted in Colorado for many years and is fairly conversant with the working of suffrage in the hands of woman. She is not one of the window smashing kind, but is noted for her intelligent and womanly methods."
The series also includes newspapers and periodicals. Full papers include editions of the Ulster County Gazette (a later reproduction of the January 4, 1800 edition), with content relating to the death of George Washington; the New-York Weekly Tribune (November 17, 1849); the National Anti-Slavery Standard (August 12, 1852); two volumes of the Evening Auburnian with articles concerning the death of James Garfield (September 20, 1881 and September 24, 1881); the Woman's Tribune (January 13, 1894); The National Bulletin (April 1892); The Peacemaker (October 1902 and April 1905); and Young People (September 23, 1933). Single sheets from an unnamed paper from 1876 reported on the "Soul Stirring Speech" of Col. R. G. Ingersoll to "the Boys in Blue" in Indianapolis about the Democratic Party, and a single sheet from the Advertiser-Journal of April 18, 1918 reports on the passage of prohibition in Auburn, New York, and women's influence in the vote.
Student periodicals include a copy of the Tuskegee Institute's The Student (February 1897); a copy of the The Industrial Student (November 1926) with an article about Emily Howland and her support of the Southern Industrial Institute in Camp Hill, Alabama; two volumes of The Intermountain Institute News (January 1928 and April 1932); and two volumes of The Pine Torch from 1940 relating to the Piney Woods School in Mississippi.
Various newspaper clippings dating between 1894 and 1965 primarily focus on local, state, and national suffragist activities, the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, profiles of Emily Howland and other women's rights activists, and reports on anti-suffrage news and opinions. Several relate to the Sherwood Select School, including a memorial for Hepisbeth C. Hussey (ca. 1908), the Tuskegee Institute, and other topics. A number of the clippings include notations of the newspaper name and date in Emily Howland's hand.
The collection contains several books including educational material, a sammelband (composite volume of multiple publications) of anti-slavery, farming, and temperance almanacs, the six-volume set of History of Woman Suffrage (inscribed by Susan B. Anthony to Isabel Howland), a Bible, and a copy of Harriet: The Moses of Her People (1901). Please see the list in the Additional Descriptive Data section for more information.
The Postcards Series consists of 76 blank postcards produced by companies and photographers like Fred Harvey, Detroit Publishing Company, Karl E. Moon & Co., among others, featuring imagery relating to Native Americans residing in the Southwestern United States, particularly New Mexico and Arizona. One postcard from the sequence can be found in the correspondence series with a postmark of August 6, 1932, suggesting the postcards were likely produced in the 1920s and 1930s. Images include artistic renderings, color printed photographs of portraits of individuals and families, scenes of everyday life and labor, artistic and cultural productions like woven blankets and pottery, buildings and pueblos, and dances and other gatherings. The bulk of the postcards represent individuals from the Hopi tribe, but other tribes and nations include the Dakota, Navajo, Apache, Pueblo, Hualapai, and Havasupai.
Two additional blank picture postcards are also included, one depicting the Sherwood Select School and the other for "Oklahoma Women Want Votes for Women. Let the People Rule Women are People," showing a woman standing at a desk.
The Photographs Series includes cartes-de-visite, tintypes, cabinet cards, a real photo postcard, a cyanotype, photographs, and reproductions, ranging in date from 1863 to the mid-twentieth century. They feature portraits of Emily Howland, women's rights activists, African American schoolrooms and students, and residences and Quaker meeting houses related to the Howland family, among others subjects. Portraits depict individuals such as Emily Howland, members of the Howland family, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ward Beecher, Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati, and Anna E. Dickinson, as well as unidentified women, girls, and men, including a man seated in a wheelchair, possibly Edward Strange, a formerly incarcerated man who died of tuberculosis in Howland's home in 1872. One portrait is of a dog named Bevis, with a note regarding his death date on July 7, 1895. Photos of Emily Howland include three of her in regalia, relating to her receiving her honorary doctorate in 1926 and her centennial birthday, and other photos depict her from young adulthood through older age. There is a reproduction of a photo of Emily with her father Slocum Howland, a photograph of her feeding chickens in August 1896, and an original snapshot of her seated with the "Brown children" in 1921. There is also one cabinet card possibly depicting an African American woman, labeled "Eidelman" on the verso, as well as one photo of an unidentified African American man standing before Howland Hall in Statesboro, Georgia.
Group photos are also present in this series. One group portrait is of the National American Woman Suffrage Association's 1891 delegates, with Susan B. Anthony, Anna Shaw, and Emily Howland present, among others. One photo shows thirteen women, a child, and a man inside a Cayuga County suffrage office, decorated with pro-suffrage posters, American flags, and Cayuga County Political Equality Club flags. Emily Howland captioned it: "Nov. 7, 1917 - 'The Morning After' - the victory of Nov. 6," commemorating the passage of woman suffrage in New York State. It may have previously been part of a scrapbook, as it is affixed to a sheet bearing a clipping from the November 11, 1917, Post-Standard newspaper from Syracuse, New York, for "Suffrage Party Leaders and Advocates." An oversized, unlabled and undated photograph shows a group of individuals, seated and standing, on the steps of a building bedecked with American and patriotic flags, with a decorated car parked out front.
Photographs in the collection reflect Howland's longstanding interest in African American education. Two photos depict the Holley School at Lottsburg, Virginia. One, a reproduction of an 1893 photograph of the interior of the Holley School, is accompanied by a note likely written by Isabel Howland describing a visit to the establishment with Emily Howland. It shows a Christmas tree, bookshelves, portraits, flags, and several African American students. The other is a class photo from 1907 with several rows of students and their teacher(s), with a pencil inscription on the back reading "Miss Putnam's school." A reproduction of a photo taken in 1897 depicts Howland posing in front of a machine, noted on the back as one she "presented . . . to the iron-workers" at the Tuskegee Institute, while another reproduction of a photo taken in 1908 shows a group of people, possibly African American students and residents, standing outside of the "Howland School & Buildings" in Avalon, Virginia. A reproduction of a photo of Emily Howland, two white women, and an African American man and woman is labeled "Principal of Kowaliga School, 1913." A reproduction of a photograph of Emily Howland shows her seated in a chair while wearing a floral crown and two African American girls seated on the floor on either side of her. A pencil note written by a relative identifies it as a photo taken during a visit to Manassas, describing a program in Howland's honor. One mid-twentieth-century photo of a group of African American men, women, and children gathered in a cemetery was identified by the dealer as "likely Heathsville, Virginia" but requires further research to confirm.
Other photos primarily document places. Some of these appear to have been taken or reproduced in relation to Florence W. Hazzard's research on Emily Howland and include materials depicting the interior and exterior of Howland family residences and the Sherwood Select School. Two card photographs, dated 1912 and 1914 respectively, relate to Quaker Meeting Houses. They bear inscriptions on the verso by Emily Howland describing how she attended meeting in one for forty years and how her parents were married in the other. Another card photograph is of the exterior of "Leonard Searing's former house," again with an inscription by Howland with information about individuals captured in the photo.
The Original Art Series consists of five items. An unattributed artist drew three pencil sketches on March 23, 1891, of the exterior of the Holley School at Lottsburg, Virginia, Sallie Holley's residence, and a "Virginia log cabin" with individuals, possibly of African American descent, outside the front door. An unattributed and undated watercolor painting of the "Old Hicksite Meeting House West of Scipioville" is also included, as well as a manuscript map of the western United States with pen and ink and pencil drawings on the verso of buffalo, John Brown, a murderer at the gallows, two bearded men wearing hats, and a box addressed to F. D. Kohler.
The Ephemera Series contains business cards, notices related to the Association for the Advancement of Women and the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, several invitations for Howland during her stay in London during the 1899 International Congress of Women, and a sheet of paper that was previously used to wrap a biscuit "From the Queen's table spread . . . to refresh the members of the Council who went to see her by invitation" during the Congress. A disbound portrait of Slocum Howland and a clipped portrait of Anna Howard Shaw are also present. The series includes a handheld fan encouraging New York voters to vote in favor of woman suffrage in 1917. It features a poem on one side (The rose is red / The violet's blue / We want to vote / As well as you!) and a statement to "Keep Cool and Raise A Breeze for Suffrage!" on the other. An undated bookplate for S. Clayton Sumner and a small remembrance of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are also present.
The Research Materials Series includes approximately one linear foot of items relating to the historical study of Emily Howland, principally by historians Florence Woolsey Hazzard, Charles V. Groat, and Phebe King from the 1940s to 1970s. The series contains correspondence to Hazzard and Groat relating to their research, drafts of historical writings and biographical sketches on Howland, research bundles on various topics from Howland's life, photocopies and typescripts of original sources, and miscellaneous notecards and citations.
- Biographical / Historical:
-
Emily Howland was a prominent supporter of social reform movements relating to abolition, education of African American and female students, women's suffrage, temperance, and pacifism. She was born at Sherwood, New York, on November 20, 1827, to Slocum Howland (1794-1881) and Hannah (Tallcot) Howland (1796-1867), and had two brothers, William (1823-1905) and Benjamin (1832-1882).
Slocum Howland ran a general store and was an active abolitionist, subscribing to publications such as the Liberator, Philanthropist, and the National Anti-Slavery Standard. The Howland family supported enslaved people fleeing through Sherwood, New York, to freedom. By the 1840s Emily Howland was active in antislavery efforts and accompanied family members to American Anti-Slavery Society meetings and abolition lectures.
She was raised as a member of the Society of Friends and attended several schools in New York and Pennsylvania, including one run by Susanna Marriott, an abolitionist from Aurora, New York, and a private school near Philadelphia run by Mary Grew, another abolitionist and women's rights advocate. While in attendance at Grew's school, Howland established a close friendship with one of her teachers, Margaret Burleigh, and was exposed to a wide network of reformers. Howland's formal education was sporadic, often having to return to Sherwood to attend to family duties. Between 1851 and 1857, Howland would annually spend three months at Mary Robinson's school in Philadelphia, during which time she also attended lectures at the Female Medical College, antislavery societies, and the Ethical Union, establishing life-long friendships with individuals like Mary Grew, Margaret Burleigh, Sallie Holley, Caroline F. Putnam, Gulie Jones, Cornelia Hancock, and others.
Margaret Burleigh introduced Howland to Myrtilla Miner, who was running a school for African American girls in Washington, D.C. Due to declining health, Miner was seeking additional teachers, and in the fall of 1857 Howland began working at the school. She served as a teacher and principal until 1859, when she returned to Sherwood.
With the advent of the Civil War, Howland turned her attention to work undergoing at contraband camps, arriving in January 1863 at Camp Barker that was under the military command of Captain James Ferree. She organized relief for physical needs, appealing for clothing, food, housing and work arrangements before turning her attention to education. As camps disbanded and moved, so too did Howland, working primarily around Arlington, Virginia, and Mason's Island, near Washington, D.C.
In 1865, Howland returned to Sherwood to attend to her mother as her health declined, in company with Susy Baker, a fifteen-year-old African American girl who had assisted Howland in her instruction efforts. In the spring of 1866 Howland and Baker returned to the D.C. region, and from 1866 to 1868 Howland took a position coordinating education efforts in the Freedmen's Village area, near Arlington. Howland was not employed by the Freedmen's Bureau, but she lived and worked within camps under their jurisdiction as well as in the surrounding communities. Following the Civil War, she purchased land to establish at least three schools for African American students, including the Howland Chapel School in Heathsville, Virginia, and one on Cat Island, South Carolina. During this time Howland also worked in close partnership with Colonel Charles W. Folsom, who supported the construction and objectives of the Heathsville school. It is speculated that Folsom and Howland may have had romantic interest in each other, but Howland remained unwed and their friendship waned in later years. Howland later transferred the Heathsville property to African American community members to steward. Her colleagues Sallie Holley and Caroline Putnam established and taught in schools in nearby Lottsburg, Virginia.
When her mother's illness turned critical in the summer of 1867, Howland returned to Sherwood, New York, where she mostly remained following her mother's death to tend to the demands of the household. Howland struggled with the constraints this placed on her, experiencing emotional distress and self-doubt. While not as directly involved as previously, Howland continued working on behalf of educational efforts despite her physical remove. She provided substantial financial support for various educational efforts, including funding for the Sherwood Select School, the Manassas Normal and Industrial School, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, among upwards of thirty other institutions dedicated to black education. She also funded the educational efforts of individual women and African American scholars. The University of the State of New York awarded Howland an honorary doctorate in 1926 in recognition of her contributions supporting education.
When her father Slocum Howland died in 1881, Howland received a sizeable inheritance and additional freedom to pursue reform activities, and her participation in women's rights and suffrage efforts deepened. She attended conventions and parades, made speeches, circulated petitions, planned meetings and events, and regularly hosted movement leaders. She avidly read the Woman's Journal and developed a deep friendship with Susan B. Anthony and other leading suffragists. While the suffrage movement experienced discord between the American and National Woman Suffrage Associations, Howland participated in both. She was also involved in the American Ramabai Association and its work to support Indian women, widows, orphans, and poor.
Emily Howland served in several leadership roles, including as president of the Cayuga County Political Equality Club, state vice president for the Association of the Advancement of Women, and a trustee of Wimodaughsis. In 1891 Howland became the first female bank director in the United States when she took the helm of the Aurora National Bank. By 1893 she helped found the Sherwood Equal Rights Association.
Howland participated in pacifist movements and was a vocal opponent of the Spanish-American War and World War I.
Emily Howland died on June 29, 1929, requesting the statement "I Strove to Realize Myself and to Serve" be inscribed on her headstone in the family cemetery in Sherwood, New York.
Emily Howland's brother William married Hannah Letchworth (1829-1902). Both were active in antislavery, temperance, pacifism, and suffrage causes, and together they had two children: Isabel (1859-1942) and Herbert. Isabel Howland earned a B.A. from Cornell University in 1881, had a close relationship with Emily Howland, and became heavily involved in women's suffrage.
Florence Woolsey Hazzard was born in 1903 in Hancock, New York, and received an A.B. from Goucher College in 1924 and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Cornell University in 1929. She married Albert S. Hazzard in 1927 and undertook research on American women's history.
Charles V. Groat was born in 1922 and earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University in 1963 before teaching at the collegiate level for many years in New York and supporting local museums. He researched and wrote about the local history of Oswego, New York. He married Dorothy Duke Groat in 1987 and died in 2015.
Phebe King was born in 1894. She attended Sherwood Select School and later served as its principal. She wrote about the school and Emily Howland, among other topics. She died in 1982.
- Acquisition Information:
- Bulk purchased in 2023, with proceeds of the sale funding social welfare projects in honor of Rita Marshall, and 2024. M-7818, M-8253.6 .
- Custodial History:
-
The collection was acquired from a relative of Rita Marshall, and the proceeds of the sale funded social welfare projects in her memory.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged in the following series:
- Correspondence
- Documents
- Writings
- Bound Volumes
- Printed Materials
- Postcards
- Photographs
- Original Art
- Ephemera
- Research Materials
- Rules or Conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)
Related
- Additional Descriptive Data:
-
Alternate Locations
The following volumes are located in the Clements Library's Book Division:- Bradford, Sarah H. Harriet: The Moses of Her People. New York: J. J. Little & Co., 1901. Inscribed May 16, 1901, in Sherwood, New York: "For the Simken sisters from their friend Emily Howland."
- The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Out of the Original Tongues, and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised. New York: American Bible Society, 1863. With inscription: "Presented to Miss Emily Holland by her friend William Pentland, Apr. 17th, 1864. Camp Todd Virginia." One slip of paper inserted into the volume lists several passages from St. John.
- Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper, eds. History of Woman Suffrage. Six volumes. New York and Rochester: 1881-1922. All six volumes bear stamps, checkout cards, and other markings from the Sherwood Library. Volume 1 includes a pencil inscription by Isabel Howland. Volume 4 has a printed advertisement for the publication of the volume laid into it as well as an inscription by Susan B. Anthony, February 15, 1903, to Isabel Howland that reads, "My dear - in recognition of the Life Membership - of your dear sainted mother - Hannah L. Howland - and yourself - I send you this huge Volume IV. - and I also know that you will see that this book - with its three companions - is placed in many Libraries - College, High & Normal School, and other public libraries - where every student may find the facts about women during the whole of the nineteenth century - facts that can be learned no where else!"
- Thénout, John Pierre. Thénot's Practical Perspective, For the Use of Students. Translated From the French. New American Edition. Salem: W. & S. B. Ives, n.d. Inscribed, "Emily Howland, Phila[delphi]a 1851."
- A sammelband consisting of seventeen almanacs in paper wrappers, primarily antislavery and farmers' almanacs, dating from 1838 to 1851 and one flier for the Mansion House Boarding-School at Poughkeepsie for Young Men and Boys. They are handsewn together and include the following titles: The American Anti-Slavery Almanac, for 1838 (Boston: D. K. Hitchcock, [1837]); The Farmer's Almanac for the Year of Our Lord and Saviour 1839. For The Middle States (New York; Robinson, Pratt & Co., [1838]); American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1840 (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, [1839]); The American Anti-Slavery Almanac for 1841 (New York: S. W. Benedict, 1841); The Health Almanac, For the Year of our Lord 1842… By a Vegetable Eater (New York: [1841]); Western Farmers' Almanac for 1843 (Auburn: H. Oliphant, [1842]); a partial 1844 temperance almanac lacking its cover; Western Farmers' Almanac for 1844 (Auburn: H. Oliphant, [1843]); The Farmers' Almanac… for the Year of Our Lord 1845 (Ithaca: Andrus, Woodruff & Gauntlett, [1844]); Dr. Wistar's Free Almanac for 1846 (Boston: Seth W. Fowle, [1845]); The Family Christian Almanac 1846 (New York: American Tract Society, [1845]); Derby's Western Almanac for 1847 (Geneva: G. H. Derby & Co., [1846]); The Cultivator Almanac for the year 1848 (Clyde: J. T. Van Buskirk, [1847]); Agricultural and Family Almanac… for the Year of Our Lord 1848 ([N.P.]: [1847]); Agricultural and Family Almanac… for the Year of Our Lord 1849 ([N.P.]: [1848]); Western Farmers' Almanac for 1850 (Geneva: Derby, Wood & Co, [1849]); Phinney's Calendar for the Year of Our Lord 1851 (Cazenovia: Mills, Crandall & Moser, [1850]). Manuscript additions appear on several volumes, including names from the Watson family (Phebe, Sarah, Rachel, Levi, Ruth, and Stephen) and Smith family (Samuel and Sarah), as well as occasional notes or comments relating to mathematical calculations, a recipe, farming and livestock, and school. The 1850 Western Farmers' Almanac has "pretty good almanack" written on the front cover. Some volumes include sewn repairs to pages.
Related Materials
Collections at the William L. Clements Library with content relating to Emily Howland include:- African American and African Diaspora Collection
- Elizabeth Rous Comstock Papers
- Caroline F. Putnam Papers
- Quaker Collection
In addition, the Book Division holds another volume formerly owned by Howland:- Goodrich, S. G. Recollections of a lifetime, or, Men and things I have seen : in a series of familiar letters to a friend, historical, biographical, anecdotical, and descriptive. New York: Miller, Orton, and Mulligan, 1857.
One photograph of Emily Howland is located in the Graphics Division:- H. Seymour Squyer, [Emily Howland and unidentified white woman]. Auburn, N.Y. : Squyer, [approximately 1900].
Material in other repositories include:- Howland Stone Store Museum, Aurora, New York
- Emily Howland Collection, Louis Jefferson Long Library, Wells College
- Emily Howland Papers, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Emily Howland Papers, Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
- Emily Howland Family Papers, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Howland Suffrage Poster Collection, Sherwood Stone Store Museum
- Howland Family Papers, Greene County Historical Society, Jessie Van Vechten Memorial Library
- Isabel Howland Papers, Neilson Library, Smith College
- Papers of Florence Woolsey Hazzard, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
- Florence Woolsey Hazzard Papers, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Florence Hazzard Papers, Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History, Smith College Special Collections
- Booker T. Washington Correspondence, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, New York Public Library
- Universal Peace Union Records, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Swarthmore College
A partial index for subjects represented in the Correspondence Series is listed below:
African American land ownership. - 1/16/1870
- 4/17/1876
- 1/6/1895
- 6/19/1906
African American students. - 9/25/1857
- 5/23/1858
- 11/7/1858
- 12/6/1858
- 3/27/1859
- 3/11/1866
- 3/13/1870
- 1/17/1895
- 8/18/1903
- 3/17/1914
African American suffrage. - 3/17/1867
- 7/23/1867
- 2/29/1892
- [11/12/1906?]
- 2/28/1913
- 5/2/1913
Anthony, Susan B. - 2/29/1892
- 12/27/1893
- 11/4/1895
- 2/8/1899
- 3/25/1899
- 4/2/1899
- 5/15/1899
- 4/5/1903
- 8/18/1903
- 8/22/1903 [postmark]
- 3/4/1912
Antislavery. - 3/10/1849
- 10/30/1851
- 11/16/1853
- 7/11/1859
- 3/11/1866
- 3/14/1867
- 4/17/1867
- 10/6/1867
- 10/13/1867
- 1/10/1890
- 10/25/1912
- 3/17/1914
- 9/3/1915
- [Undated]
Berea College. - 6/20/1906
- Undated
Blackwell, Alice Stone. - 6/8/1889
Blake, Lillie Devereux. - 11/14/1875
- 1/4/1876
Boyer, Sidney Taliaferro. - 2/12/1872
- 4/7/1876
- 4/17/1876
- 1/14/1901
- 8/4/1903
- 8/5/1903 (her husband Chester)
- 8/17/1903
- 5/2/1905
- 6/19/1906
- 6/29/1906 (Susie Boyer)
- 3/13/1907
Burleigh, Margaret Jones, and Edward Strange. - 6/23/1870
- 3/29/1871
- 4/10/1871
- 6/19/1871
- 9/4/1871
- 9/13/1871
- 9/20/1871
- 10/27/1871
- 10/28/1871
- 11/28/1871
- 12/7/1871
- 12/17/1871
- 12/26/1871
- 12/31/1871
- 1/2/1872
- 1/7/1872
- 1/15/1872
- 1/24/1872
- 2/5/1872
- 2/12/1872
- 2/19/1872
- 2/25/1872
- 2/28/1872
- [Before March 1872?]
- 3/1/1872
- 3/2/1872
- 3/3/1872
- 3/5/1872
- 3/7/1872
- 3/10/1872
- 3/14/1872
- 3/15/1872
- 3/24/1872
- 4/11/1872
Canada. - 10/30/1851
- 11/16/1853
Catt, Carrie Chapman. - 9/21/1918
Colonization. - 11/7/1858
Colored Orphan Asylum. - 10/26/1858
Contraband Camps. - 1/12/1863
- 5/14/1864
- 1/4/1866
- 3/11/1866
Disability. - 9/25/1857
Ferree, James Inglish. - 6/5/1882
Folsom, Charles W. - 5/25/1902
- 5/29/1904
- 12/20/1905
Freedmen. - 10/16/1862
- 7/23/1867
- 10/30/1865
- 1/4/1866
- 3/11/1866
Fugitive slaves. - 10/30/1851
- 11/16/1853
Hancock, Cornelia Hancock. - 6/26/1865
- 12/20/1865
- 12/31/1865
- 1/4/1866
- 1/14/1869
- 5/6/1869
- 1/3/1870
- 3/11/1870
- 3/13/1870
- 4/13/1870
- 12/5/1870
- 8/18/1875
- 9/14/1875
- 1/26/1876
- 5/29/1876
- 5/20/1878
- 4/2/1884
- 4/4/1884
- 4/20/1884 x 2
- 12/17/1907
- 5/5/1908
- 2/1/1909
- 5/1/1916
- 1/21/1919
- Undated
Heathsville and Howland Chapel School. - 7/13/1867
- 8/25/1867
- 8/26/1867
- 1/16/1870
- 4/17/1876
- 1/10/1890
- 1/6/1895
- 1/17/1895
- 7/15/1898
- 3/10/1899
- 8/4/1903
- 8/17/1903
- 8/25/1903
- 5/29/1904
- 6/19/1906
- 12/5/1907
Holley, Sallie and the Holley School. - 3/11/1866
- 10/6/1867
- 10/13/1867
- 3/7/1893
- 3/20/1898
- 6/30/1898
- 1/14/1901
- 8/5/1902
- [11/12/1906?]
- 7/7/1909
- 9/12/1911
India. - 3/23/1911
- Undated [Mrs M. C. Mason]
Kowaliga . - 8/1/1903
- 8/11/1903
- 2/23/1909
Laidlaw, Harriet B. - ca. November 1912
Logan, Adella H. - 8/6/1903
Manassas Industrial School. - 12/7/1896
- 1/11/1897
- 6/14/1900
- 6/22/1900
- 5/2/1905
- 10/21/1905
- 6/20/1906
- 8/27/1906
- 3/13/1907
- 6/18/1907
- 12/17/1910
- 11/1/1912
- 11/22/1912
- 6/15/1915
Matthews, Victoria. - 6/22/1896
- 7/1/1896
- 7/8/1896
May, Samuel J., Jr. - 10/16/1862
- 3/14/1867
- 4/17/1867
Mills, Harriet May. - 12/28/1896
- 6/24/1900
- 7/29/1903
- 8/31/1903
- 2/4/1904
- 4/23/1904
- 9/27/1911
- 11/7/1917
Miner, Myrtilla Miner and the Miner school. - 7/3/1857
- 9/25/1857
- 11/7/1857
- 2/19/1858
- 2/21/1858
- 2/24/1858
- 2/26/1858
- 5/23/1858
- 11/7/1858
- 12/6/1858
- 3/27/1859
- 1/12/1863
- 4/7/1876
- 1/10/1890
- 5/25/1902
- Undated
Piney Woods Country Life School. - 11/21/1912
Port Royal. - 10/16/1862
Prisons. - 1/28/1897
Putnam, Caroline F. - 1/14/1869
- 1/16/1870
- 4/17/1871
- 3/7/1893
- 5/9/1894
- 3/20/1898
- 2/2/1899
- 1/14/1901
- 5/25/1902
- 8/5/1902
- 4/5/1903
- 11/12/1906
- 3/14/1908
- 3/24/1908
- 2/1/1909
- 7/7/1909
- 3/23/1911
- 8/22/1911
- 9/12/1911
- 10/21/1911
- 3/4/1912
- [10/25/1912?]
- [3/17/1914?]
- 11/1/1914
- [9/3/1915?]
- [11/11/1916?]
Ramabai Sarasvati, Pandita. - 8/23/1886
- 11/5/86
- 11/22/1886
- 12/20/1886
- 7/9/1887
- 9/22/1887
- 10/3/1887
- 11/25/1887
- 7/27/1888
- 10/31/1889
- 1/10/1890
- 11/21/1890
- 3/25/1895
- 3/28/1898
Reconstruction. - 3/17/1867
- 7/23/1867
- 1/16/1870
Selma University. - 8/13/1903
Shaw, Anna Howard. - 8/18/1903
- 12/4/1907
- 12/24/1907
- 12/28/1907
- 5/13/1908
- 7/19/1908
- 12/22/1908
- 7/27/1911
- 5/2/1913
Smallwood, John. - 11/5/1896
- 1/11/1897
- 1/28/1897
Spiritualism. - 6/5/1882
- 8/18/1903
Taliaferro, Rebecca. - 15/5/1907
Taliaferro, Thamsen. - 1/6/1895
- 1/17/1895
Temperance. - 7/24/1854
- 10/6/1854
- 7/11/1859
- 4/17/1876
- 9/5/1894
- 3/20/1898
- 9/12/1911
Tubman, Harriet. - 8/23/1886
- 12/20/1886
- 10/31/1889
- 6/22/1896
- 7/1/1896
- 7/4/1896
- 7/5/1896
- 7/6/1896
- 7/8/1896
- 1/3/1897
- 1/11/1897
- 1/28/1897
- 9/5/1897
- 11/24/1899
- 6/14/1900
- 6/22/1900
- 10/21/1905
- 8/22/1911
- 9/12/1911
Tuskegee. - 4/5/1903
- 8/6/1903
War and Pacifism. - 2/8/1899
- 7/8/1909
- 11/1/1914
- 11/16/1916
- Undated
Bibliography
Breault, Judith Colucci. The World of Emily Howland: Odyssey of a Humanitarian. Millbrae, California: Les Femmes, 1976.
"Dr. Charles V. Groat." Dain-Cullinan Funeral Home, Inc. Accessed 19 December 2023. https://www.daincullinan.com/obituaries/print?o_id=5307242
Felter, Maryanne, and Daniel Schultz. "'Time Capsule at the Crossroads' : The Howland Suffrage Poster Collection." New York History 86. 3 (Summer 2005): 227-249.
Gaffney, Patricia H., ed. The Howland Papers at Cornell University: A Guide to the Microfilm Publication. Ithaca: Cornell University Libraries, 1975.
"Hannah Letchworth Howland." The Peacemaker 21.10 (October 1902): 217-218.
King, Phebe. "Biographical Sketch of Emily Howland, 1827-1929." Howland Stone Store Museum, 2020.
"Obituaries." The Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association 10.4, (October 1929): 346-348.
"William Howland." The Peacemaker 24.4 (April 1905): 74.
Subjects
Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.
- Subjects:
-
African American schools.
African Americans--Education.
African Americans--Land tenure.
African Americans--Virginia.
Antislavery movements--United States.
Freed persons--Southern States--History--19th century.
Historians--United States--20th century.
History--Research.
International Congress of Women (1899 : London, England)
Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)--Southern States.
Tuberculosis--Treatment.
Women abolitionists.
Women social reformers.
Women teachers--United States.
Women--Suffrage.
African American students.
Dwellings.
Indians of North America.
Indigenous peoples.
Quaker church buildings.
School buildings.
Suffragists. - Formats:
-
Almanacs.
Bills of lading.
Blankbooks.
Books.
Broadsides (notices)
Brochures.
Cabinet photographs.
Cartes-de-visite (card photographs)
Circulars (fliers)
Commonplace books.
Constitutions.
Deeds.
Diaries.
Drafts (documents)
Envelopes.
Essays.
Exercise books.
Fliers (printed matter)
Hand fans.
Invitations.
Letters (correspondence)
Lists (document genres)
Manuscript maps.
Minute books.
Newspapers.
Newspaper clippings.
Obituaries.
Pamphlets.
Pen and ink drawings.
Pencil drawings.
Photographic postcards.
Picture postcards.
Photographs.
Plans (reports)
Poems.
Portraits.
Postcards.
Programs (documents)
Reminiscences.
Resolutions (administrative records)
Sammelbände (composite volumes)
Tintypes (photographs)
Watercolors (paintings) - Names:
-
Kowaliga School (Tallapoosa County, Ala.)
Manassas Industrial School (Manassas, Va.)
National American Woman Suffrage Association.
New York State Woman Suffrage Association.
Piney Woods School.
Tuskegee Institute.
Strange, Edward, -1872.
Tubman, Harriet, 1822-1913.
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906.
Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887.
Brown, John, 1800-1859.
Dickinson, Anna E. (Anna Elizabeth), 1842-1932.
Hill, Leslie Pinckney, 1880-1960.
Howland, Benjamin.
Howland, Edith.
Howland, Emily, 1827-1929.
Howland, Herbert.
Howland, Slocum, 1794-1881.
Mott, Lucretia, 1793-1880.
Ramabai Sarasvati, 1858-1922.
Benson, William E., 1873-1915.
Boyer, Sidney Taliaferro, 1854-1927.
Chapman, Mariana W. (Mariana Wright), 1843-1907.
Hancock, Cornelia, 1840-1927.
Hazzard, Florence Woolsey, 1903-1992.
Holley, Sallie, 1818-1893.
Howland, Isabel, 1859-1942.
Howland, William, 1823-1905.
Logan, Adella Hunt, 1863-1915.
Matthews, Victoria Earle.
May, Samuel, Jr., 1810-1899.
Mills, Harriet May, 1857-1935.
Miner, Myrtilla, 1815-1864.
Osborne, Eliza B. Wright, 1830-1911.
Putnam, Caroline F., 1826-1917.
Shaw, Anna Howard, 1847-1919.
Taliaferro, Thamsen.
Sanborn, F. B. (Franklin Benjamin), 1831-1917.
Stanton, Anna M., 1832-1915.
Villard, Oswald Garrison, 1872-1949.
Wright, David, 1806-1877. - Places:
-
Heathsville (Va)--African Americans.
Sherwood (N.Y.)
Contents
Using These Materials
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
The collection is open for research.
- USE & PERMISSIONS:
-
Copyright status is unknown
- PREFERRED CITATION:
-
Emily Howland Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan