Correspondence of Mary Howitt (1799-1888), ne Botham, writer, 1822-1888

The collection is a rich resource for evidence not only on the life of Mary Howitt and her immediate family but on a wide range of social, political, and literary subjects from the mid-nineteenth century. The writers are observant, articulate and frank. The bulk of the correspondence was between women, and inevitably touches closely on domestic issues, including the raising of children, as well as on the role of women themselves. Geographical location is sometimes particularly important, as in the series of letters from Mary's sister Emma Alderson, in Cincinnati, Ohio before the American civil war. The following series comprise the main elements in the collection:

• Correspondence from Mary Howitt to her sister Anna Harrison, 373 Letters, 1822-1882; her niece Mary Harrison, 13 letters, 1847-1883; and unidentified and other correspondents (Ht 1);
• Correspondence from Anna Harrison to her daughters Mary Harrison, 13 letters, 1853-1873, Margaret Yarnell, 7 letters, 1861, and Agnes MacDonnell, 6 letters, 1861; her sister Mary Howitt, 78 letters, 1825-1867; and other correspondents (Ht 4);
• Correspondence from Emma Alderson to her sisters Mary Howitt, 76 letters, 1823-1847, and Anna Harrison, 8 letters, 1824-1847; her mother Ann Botham, 40 letters, 1834-1847; and other correspondents. There are also parts of her American journal (Ht 7);
• Smaller series include correspondence from: William Howitt (Ht 2), Richard Howitt (Ht 3), Daniel Harrison (Ht 5), Hannah Harrison (Ht 6), Harrison Alderson (Ht 8), Charles Botham (Ht 9), Anna Mary Watts (Ht 10), Alfred Howitt (Ht 11), Anna Mary Harrison (Ht 12), Margaret Ann Yarnell (Ht 13), Ellis Yarnell (Ht 14), Agnes MacDonnell (Ht 15), Emily Harrison (Ht 16), Joe (Ht 17), William Alderson (Ht 18), Mildred Yarnell (Ht 19), Agnes Yarnell (Ht 20), miscellaneous items (Ht 21-27), and notes by biographer Amice Lee.

Mary Howitt was born in Coleford, Gloucestershire in 1799 to Samuel Botham, a land surveyor, and Ann (ne Woods) who were both Quakers. Soon after Mary's birth, the family moved to Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. She was educated at schools in Croydon and Sheffield. In 1821, she married William Howitt (1792-1879), a writer from Heanor, Derbyshire, who was earning at the time earning his living as a dispensing chemist. The following year, they moved to Nottingham. Their surviving children were: Anna Mary (known as 'Annie', 1824-1881), Charles Botham (1826-1828), Alfred William (1830-1908), Claude Middleton (1833-1844), Herbert Charlton (known as 'Charlton', 1838-1863), and Margaret Anastasia (known as 'Meggie', 1839-1930).

In the 1830s, William and Mary moved to Esher, Surrey to be closer to London's literary circle and publishers. In 1840, they moved to Heidelberg in Germany and complemented earnings from their creative writing with those from translation. Mary learnt Swedish and Danish and translated some Icelandic sagas. In 1843, they returned to England and took up residence in London: first in Clapton, then in St. John's Wood, and finally in Highgate. Mary continued her translations and was commissioned by Hans Christian Anderson to translate some of his works for children. Throughout her life, Mary was a devout Quaker, with strong beliefs and commitments. After a brief spell in Claremont, Surrey (1866-1869) the Howitts moved to Rome where Mary died in 1888.

Mary and William Howitt wrote both separately and in partnership. They contributed prose, tales and verse for journals such as the Edinburgh Journal and published topographical works about the places that they visited. In 1848 and 1849 Mary contributed to William's Howitt Journal as well as being the paper's joint editor.

Antedivian Sketches (1830) was Mary's first poetry collection, followed in 1836 by Chronicle of Wood Leighton, a prose work for adults set in Uttoxeter. She also wrote fiction, and her books for children, such as Illustrated Library for the Young, were very popular. In all, about seventy-four books were written wholly or predominantly by Mary.

The collection has been divided by document type into series by correspondent. Within these series, items have been arranged chronologically.

ACCESS: Pending full cataloguing, access is limited and is possible for particular series only to registered readers by advance notice and with assistance of the archivist.

This description is at present the only publicly available finding aid for the collection. A database file provides brief entries, giving or estimating dates, places of writing, and names of correspondents. This can be consulted with the assistance of the archivists. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make published use of any material from this collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the reader.

Members of the Botham and Howitt families maintained close contact with each other through correspondence. Much of this was preserved and was available to Mary Howitt's grand niece Amice Lee, who used the letters in her biographical work Laurels and Rosemary, The Life of William and Mary Howitt (Oxford University Press, 1955). Letters in the present collection bear notations indicating their original place in the archive used by Amice Lee.

The collection was purchased in two parts in December 1990 and August 1995 by The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections. The first part was bought with the assistance of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

• The University of Nottingham; Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections: Letters from William and Mary Howitt and their daughter, Margaret, to William and Eliza Oldham, 1869-1889. Reference: Bg 1-24
• A substantial collection of published works by William and Mary Howitt forms part of the reserved stock in the Department's East Midlands Collection. Individual titles can be identified through the University's library online catalogue, UNLOC.

• A number of other archive collections held elsewhere in the UK containing manuscripts relating to Mary Howitt are recorded on the National Register of Archives.