Series VI: Collecting, 1693-1956

Scope and content:

This series includes not only extensive correspondence related to Plimpton's collecting of rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts but also examples of the items he collected. The majority of the general correspondence retains the original folder names and general arrangement.

The remainder of the series contains several caches of material described only summarily by previous staff. One cache centers on penmanship and orthography, including handwriting samples, handwriting exercises, and an account book and general correspondence related to Alfred Manson, a Boston-based publisher of books on writing. Another cache of materials, dating from 1650-1869, centers on the American slave trade, including correspondence, documents, broadsides, pamphlets, and a slaveholder's account book.

The series also includes a cache of documents related to Plimpton's collection of Western medieval manuscripts. These documents include Samuel A. Ive's detailed notes on many of the manuscripts in Plimpton's collection as well as correspondence and proof sheets related to De Ricci and Wilson's Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (1935-1937).

Contents

Access and use