Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana Guide to the Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana MS 00291

Guide to the Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana MS 00291


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Special Collections Research Center

William & Mary Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
400 Landrum Dr
Williamsburg, Virginia
Business Number: 757-221-3090
spcoll@wm.edu
URL: https://libraries.wm.edu/libraries-spaces/special-collections

Mariaelena DiBenigno, Special Collection Research Center staff.

Repository
Special Collections Research Center
Identification
MS 00291
Title
Sheila and Terry Meyers Collection of Swinburneiana 1854-1932
Quantity
2.25 Linear Feet
Quantity
source
Meyers, Terry and Sheila
Creator
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837-1909
Language
English

Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Sheila Meyers is William & Mary class of 1978, and her husband, Terry L. Meyers, William & Mary Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus.


Biographical / Historical

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English writer of poetry, drama, novels and criticism. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, Swinburne interacted closely with his contemporaries in the Pre-Raphaelite circle, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His publications include Poems and Ballads (1866), Essays and Studies (1875); monographs on William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Victor Hugo, William Blake, Percy Shelley and Charles Baudelaire; and a posthumously published novel, Lesbia Brandon. Swinburne's work is known for its rebellion against Victorian mores, and he was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the late 1870s, he retired to The Pines, in Putney, London, at the intervention of his friend Theodore Watts-Dunton. Swinburne died at The Pines in 1909.

Scope and Contents

Collection provides insight into the life of Algernon Charles Swinburne and his contemporaries, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frederick Sandys, Theodore Watts-Dunton, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Lucy Madox Brown, William Michael Rossetti, and William Sharp. Materials include handwritten letter and autograph of Queen Victoria; Vanity Fair caricature of Swinburne by Carlo Pelligrini, pseudonym Ape; letters from siblings Christina, William Michael and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Thomas Woolner; Matilde and Karl Blinde; Frederic Harrison; Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and John Ruskin; and two original art works of Swinburne

Arrangement

Collection is arranged into four series: Correspondence, Manuscripts, Original Art, and Miscellaneous. The first three series are arranged in alphabetical order by creator's (letter writer, artist, author) last name, with chronological order used when there are multiple items in the same folder from the same creator.

Subjects and Indexing Terms


Significant Persons Associated With the Collection

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Container List

Series 1: Correspondence
English
Arrangement

Correspondence arranged in alphabetical order by letter writer's last name. Folders with multiple letters from the same writer are arranged chronologically.

Scope and Contents

Over 150 pieces of handwritten and typescript carbon copy correspondence from nineteenth and twentieth century artists, writers, educators, scholars, editors, and politicians. Correspondents include Algernon Charles Swinburne; Queen Victoria; siblings Christina, William Michael and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Thomas Woolner; Matilde and Karl Blinde; Frederic Harrison; William Morris;Elizabeth Sewell; John Everett Millair; Alfred and Emily Tennyson; and John Ruskin.

Correspondence reveals collegial and familial connections between members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their contemporary Victorian literary and artistic circles.

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Series 2: Manuscripts
Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 1837-1909English
Scope and Contents

Series consists of 13 manuscripts. Contains both original and facsimile manuscripts in bound scrapbook volumes encased in mylar; a few unbound manuscripts are foldered.

Algernon Charles Swinburne is the primary author, but there are single manuscripts by poets William Sharp, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Louise Chandler Moulton.

Arrangement

Manuscripts are arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name.

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Series 3: Original Art
English
Scope and Contents

Series contains two original pieces of artwork that depict Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Arrangement

Artwork is arranged in alphabetical order by author's last name.

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Series 4: Miscellaneous
English
Scope and Contents

Miscelleanous items include autographs from Theodore Watts-Dunton, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Queen Victoria; caricatures from Vanity Fair magazine; reproduced engravings; materials from Swinburne's centennial exhibition; and 1975 commemorative calendar.

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