Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16763, Mary Ann Pratt friendship album, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Eclectibles by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 5 May, 2022.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Ann Pratt was born in or around 1813 to Jedadiah Pratt (1786-1821) and Parna Barker, most likely in Albany County, N. Y. She lived in Livonia, N. Y. in the 1830's. She married Frederick Stanley (c. 1807 to before 1870) in or around 1835 and had several children together, Emily Caroline Stanely Parshall (1836-1908), Cornelia Amanda Stanley (1842-1926), and William W. Stanley (1845-1926). Mary Ann's exact date of death is unknown, but it appears that she died sometime before 1880, and is buried with her husband in Waverly, N. Y.

Content Description

This collection contains a friendship album belonging to Mary Ann Pratt (1813-c.1880), of Livonia, New York. The bulk of the entries are from 1830 to 1832 and appear to be from her local friends from the surrounding towns of Mt. Morris, and Dansville. The entries mostly consist of poems, with some original works, as well as short notes, whose general themes touch on memory, friendship, morality, heaven, and time. Some poems are attributed to a Charles Spraque. There are a few entries from 1834 to 1835 after her marriage to Frederick Stanley (c.1807-1870). Three pages of tucked-in pages contain different verses dealing with the death of an infant. It is unclear who wrote these poems as they are neither addressed to Pratt or signed and dated by a friend or family member.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Women's Scrapbook/ Commonplace Book Collections (University of Virginia)
• Friendship booklets
• Women -- United States
• poetry