Scope and Content Note
The papers of Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) span the years 1845-1917 and consist of correspondence, speeches and writings, and miscellany. The collection documents Howe's activities on behalf of causes and organizations ranging from an international peace appeal to women to the dedication of a new building at the Framingham Normal School. Her letters and writings reflect the reactions of a reformer and her associates to the events and developments of the late nineteenth century.
The correspondence file, consisting of letters sent and received from 1861 to 1917, includes letters from Howe's family, a letter from the Unitarian minister William H. Channing, and a letter from Howe to the political scientist Francis Lieber. The largest amount of correspondence concerns Howe's role as director of the woman's department at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1884-1885. A letter to her daughter, Maud Howe Elliott, from A. J. Bloor of the United States Sanitary Commission concerns his association with Howe during the Civil War.
The speeches and writings include sermons, lectures, articles, two notebooks, two plays, and a volume of poetry. Although sermons based on Bible verses predominate, there are also a large number of lectures on philosophical themes and other topics including women's rights, education of African Americans in the South, European immigration, and prison reform. The notebooks contain Howe's thoughts on theological and ethical matters. The plays in the collection are "The Parlor Macbeth" and a typescript copy of "Hippolytus" written by Howe about 1859-1860 at the request of Edwin Booth, who later declined to produce it. "Poems in Memory of Harry," written in 1845-1846 by Howe to express her grief over her brother's death five years earlier, was given by her to Francis Lieber, who added some notes at the end of the volume.
Also included are notes, fragments, and printed matter. The notes are mostly undated and untitled and consist of minutes of meetings, fragments of speeches, and personal reflections. Among the printed matter are a copy of Howe's "Appeal to Womanhood throughout the World," in French, and an autographed copy of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," published on her seventieth birthday. In her later years, Howe frequently copied this poem for friends and acquaintances, and some of these copies are to be found in various repositories, including the Music Division of the Library of Congress.
An addition to the papers consists of an 1884 letter from Howe to "Mr. Duncan," likely United States representative William Addison Duncan, mentioning the recent death of her brother, Samuel Cutler Ward.