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Cushing, Anna Quincy Thaxter, 1825-1900. Papers, 1816-1918.

Title: Papers, 1816-1918.

This collection contains thirty-two octavo volumes which cover most of the years 1844 to 1875 and 1884 (the years in which Ben was away in the Army are notably missing). The diaries record Anna's daily activities and news of the extended Thaxter-Cushing family. Many members of this family lived in Dorchester and nearby Hingham. Though Anna had relatives living in Bolton, Deerfield, and Cambridge, they were near enough to be a vital part of Anna's life. Anna was an intelligent, articulate, and sympathetic observer of her world. She saw herself as a homemaker, mother, and wife. When her domestic duties were completed--although she noted the sewing was never finished--she liked to visit friends, read, sing, play the piano, and attend lectures and concerts. The diaries reveal a woman of charitable disposition anxious to be of service to her family and community, grateful for her blessings but sometimes wishing to escape from the confines of the cult of domesticity--"Oh dear I wish I had the faculty of turning off work a little more." Despite the work Anna seemed to be more than a little satisfied with Wednesday's spotless sugar bowls, castors and saltcellars, Friday's clean swept house and the jars of pear preserves on the shelf. This collection also contains two folders of correspondence to or from various members of the Thaxter-Cushing family, including early letters from Anna's mother, Susan Joy Thaxter, to her mother, Anna Thaxter; letters from Benjamin Cushing to Anna shortly before their marriage; letters of condolence regarding the deaths of Susan Joy Thaxter, Thomas Thaxter ( -1839), and Edward Thaxter; and a letter dated 4 August 1918 written in German. There is a folder of photographs including: two of Benjamin Cushing; one each of Mr. and Mrs. Darius Brewer, grandparents of Joseph Richmond Churchill; two of Joseph Richmond Churchill; and one each of Mary Thaxter Cushing and Mary Cushing Churchill. There are six folders of materials of Joseph R. Churchill while he attended Harvard University. The folders include lecture notes, compositions, and exams. Additionally, there is a folder which contains Churchill's certificate for passing the bar. The collection also contains a folder of newspaper clippings regarding the death of Dr. Benjamin Cushing and the long career of Joseph R. Churchill, as well as a folder containing a memoir of Mary Thaxter Cushing written by her granddaughter, Mary Cushing Churchill, in 1932. The final two folders are notes of, and genealogical materials gathered by, the processor.

ArchivalResource: 32 v. ; octavo.1 box (14 folders)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191259276 View