This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Letters, manuscripts, notes, memorabilia, photographs, and printed material. Cataloged letters from George Colman the Elder, English dramatist; Lord Jeffrey, Scottish judge and critic; Andrew Lang, Scottish author; Robert Montgomery, English poet; Richard Parsons Rosse,1st Earl of Rosse; George Thomson, friend of Robert Burns and music editor; Bernard De Voto, critic, and S.R. Crockett, Scottish author. Cataloged manuscripts by Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet, James Montgomery, and E.I. Powell. Cataloged diaries of June and Coleman O. Parsons of their trip around the world in 1936-37. There are also ca.700 pages of notes by Coleman O. Parsons on various Scottish authors(including Sir Walter Scott), Scottish folk-lore and history, and Scottish poetry. Most of the notes concern his research on Francis Colman, George Colman the Elder, and George Colman the Younger. In addition there is the mss. for his book "Studies in Eccentricity"; the mss. of an 18th century Scottish ghost story entitled "A Cool Dialogue between the Living and the Dead" and notes and essays on Mark Twain, as well as a poetry album kept by Elizabeth Saynor Marshall and photographs of Parsons in South Africa.
This collection is arranged into 6 series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Coleman O. Parsons papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Gift of Coleman O. Parsons, 1986 & 1989.
Gift of Goleman O. Parsons, 1979, 1984, 1986, and 1989.
Source of acquisition--Parsons, Coleman O. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--12/05/1986. Accession number--M-86-12-05.
Album of E.S. Marshall: Source of acquisition--Parsons, Colman O. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1984. Accession number--M-1984.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processed 06/20/1988. PL - 1/90. HR - 7/97. HR - 8/99.
Album of E.S. Marshall Processed HR 07/08/1997.
2010-02-18 Legacy finding aid created from Pro Cite.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Coleman O. Parsons (Columbia A.B., 1928). Professor of English, City University of New York; book collector.
Coleman Parsons was in Ripley, WV on 16 April 1905 and died in New York City on 27 June 1991. He was educated at the University of California Los Angeles 1923-25 University of Chicago 1925-27, Columbia University, A. B. 1928, and Yale University, Ph. D. 1931. An educator and author Coleman O. Parsons was an expert on the works of Sir Walter Scott. He taught at several colleges before joining the staff of the City University of New York in 1941 where he became a professor of English in 1963. Parsons was a professor emeritus at the university at the time of his death. His writings include Witchcraft and Demonology in Scott's Fiction.