Scope and Content Note
The papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), 1837-1931, consist largely of bound volumes of correspondence and literary manuscripts. Much of the correspondence contained in the bound volumes consists of incoming letters alphabetically arranged with an incomplete index provided at the beginning of volume one. Approximately six hundred letters, largely written between 1869 to 1894, are contained in these volumes, and, although the letters are occasional, they provide insight into Holmes's interests. Correspondents include Louis Agassiz, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Robert Browning, Wilkie Collins, George William Curtis, Richard Henry Dana, Edmund Gosse, Julia Ward Howe, William Dean Howells, James Russell Lowell, John Boyle O'Reilly, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Clarence Stedman, and John Greenleaf Whittier. A folder of unbound correspondence includes letters written by Holmes, some expressing his views on the topics of the day such as capital punishment (6 Feb. 1868).
Six bound volumes contain manuscripts and published works, and one volume includes notes related to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Several short poems are among the Miscellany, including autographed manuscripts of "My Aunt" and "Corinna."