Main content

Furness family papers

Notifications

Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
Ms. Coll. 481
Repository:
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Extent:
49 boxes
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
Furness family papers, 1765-1937, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
Date:
1765-1937 (inclusive)
Creator:
Furness family
Form:
Scrapbooks, Diaries, Clippings (information artifacts), and Correspondence
Abstract:
Family records, personal records, and materials related to the publication of the New Variorum editions of Shakespearean texts. The collection includes the work of Furness and his son, as writers, editors, and collectors, but it also includes personal materials related to their non-scholarly interests. Family members include: Horace Howard Furness (1833-1912), Horace Howard Furness (1865-1930), Helen Kate Furness, William Henry Furness, and Louise Brooks Winsor Furness.

Howard Furness (1833-1912) was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Harvard in 1854. He was admitted to the bar in 1859 but soon began to focus on studying and collecting Shakespearean texts. In 1871 he produced the first volume of the New Variorum Shakespeare, an edition of Romeo and Juliet. The series was designed to bring together all known information about the plays' textual variants, sources, and critical reception. Furness was a member of several scholarly societies, including the Shakespeare Society of Philadelphia, founded in 1851. He died in Wallingford, Pennsylvania in 1912. Furness's family shared his enthusiasm for Shakespeare. His wife, Helen Kate Furness, was responsible for compiling A Concordance to Shakespeare's Poems (1874), and his son Horace Howard Furness took up the project of editing subsequent Variorum editions after his father's death. Furness, Jr. graduated from Harvard in 1888, but before approaching the Variorum project, he studied music at the University of Pennsylvania and taught physics at Episcopal Academy from 1891 to 1901. Macbeth, the first revised edition in the Variorum series, was produced in 1903. He became a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania in 1929 and donated his family's collection of books, letters, and memorabilia to the University at his death.

The Furness family papers consists of family records, personal records, and materials related to the publication of the New Variorum editions. It represents the work of Furness and his son, as writers, editors and collectors, but it also includes personal materials related to their non-scholarly interests. The first series of the collection, the Family Records, relates to the private life of the Furness family; the second series--collected materials, theatrical and non-theatrical--represents the family members' interests as book and memorabilia collectors. The third series of the collection, the Variorum papers, consists of four sections: correspondence, manuscripts, Shakespeare editions, and notebooks. The correspondence deals primarily with the publication of the revised Variorum editions in the 1930s. Correspondents include Joseph Quincy Adams, Frederick William Ashley, Matthew Wilson Black, Tucker Brooke, Edward Cheyney, Edwin Conklin, Albert Feuillerat, John Calvin French, Samual Hemingway, Andrew Keogh, J. B. Lippincott & Co., William Lingelbach, Percy Lon, Josiah Penniman, Arthur Quinn, Philip Rosenbach, Felix Schelling, M. A. Shaaber, and Karl Young. The manuscripts include both original and revised Variorum editions. The Shakespeare editions are those compiled by other editors and have been subsequently marked up with notes for the Variorum. The notebooks contain act/line/scene notes, index entries, and source information for individual Variorum editions. The fourth series contains oversize items from the brothers' scrapbook from Harvard.

Gift of the Furness Family, 1930-1937

People
Subject

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Finding Aid Author
Elizabeth Williamson
Finding Aid Date
2003
Use Restrictions

Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Collection Inventory

Request to View Materials

Materials can be requested by first logging in to Aeon. Then, click on the ADD button next to any containers you wish to request. When complete, click the Request button.

Request item to view

Physical Description

9 boxes

Notes for exhibition on Horace Howard Furness.
Box 1 Folder 1
Clippings related to Horace Howard Furness.
Box 1 Folder 2
Materials related to Horace Howard Furness Jr.'s will.
Box 1 Folder 3
Materials related to Horace Howard Furness Jr.'s will.
Box 1 Folder 4
Clippings and records related to Furness Jr., 1929-1930.
Box 1 Folder 5
Magazine containing article on Lindenshade (family home), 1912.
Box 1 Folder 6
Materials related to Helen Kate Furness.
Box 1 Folder 7
Manuscript of retrospective on William Henry Furness, 1921.
Box 1 Folder 8
Bound photo album, 1897.
Box 2 Folder unknown container
Memoranda book and daily journal, 1872-1880.
Box 3 Folder unknown container
Description

Daily Memoranda Book, 1872-1874, includes list of letters written and birth dates Travel journal, 1880, describing family trip to Europe, includes pasted photographs, interleaved materials and clippings related to theatrical productions.

Journals, 1874-1879.
Box 4 Folder unknown container
Description

"Summer" record book from Lindenshade, 1874-1878, includes records of plantings, household accounts, and clippings. A personal journal begins in 1876. "Winter" daily journal, 1877-1879, includes interleaved materials.

Oversized personal documents.
Box 5 Folder unknown container
Contents

* Admission of Louise Brooks Winsor Furness to the Society of the Colonial Dames of America
* Certificates of Horace Howard Furness, Jr., and Louise Brooks Winsor Furness's contribution to the Pennsylvania Hospital
* Certificates of Horace Howard Furness, Jr., and Louise Brooks Winsor Furness's contribution to the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania
* Certificate Horace Howard Furness's Doctor of Laws degree
* Admission of Furness, Jr., and spouse to the Academy of Natural Sciences
* Admission of Louise Brooks Winsor Furness to the Philadelphia Zoological Society
* Admission of Horace Howard Furness, Jr. To the American Philosophical Society
* Confirmation Certificate for Horace Howard Furness, Jr.
* State Department travel papers for Horace Howard Furness and spouse

Scrapbook, 1884-1888.
Box 6 Folder unknown container
Description

kept by Horace Howard Furness, Jr., and William Henry Furness during their time at Harvard

Scrapbook (continued), 1884-1888.
Box 7 Folder unknown container
Medals, 1877-1916.
Box 8 Folder unknown container
Contents

* National Dog Show Award, 1877
* Town of Verdun, 1916, includes certificate
* Distinguished Achievement Award Medal for Horace Howard Furness from the Pennsylvania Society, 1909
* Distinguished Service Award Medal, given to Horace Howard Furness by the Founders of the New Theater, 1909

Etymological dictionary, 1861.
Box 9 Folder unknown container
Description

in several hands with materials interleaved

"Shakespeare Tercentenary, 1916", 1916.
Box 10 Folder 9
Description

bound volume containing four typed speeches

Handwritten speeches, articles and notes, apparently by Horace Howard Furness, Jr., except for one by A. Brigham, M.D., 1844-1921.
Box 10 Folder 10
Typed speeches and articles.
Box 10 Folder 11
Handwritten notes and chronologies related to Renaissance performance.
Box 10 Folder 12
Handwritten notes and chronologies related to Renaissance performance .
Box 10 Folder 13
Handwritten notes & chronologies re Renaissance performance.
Box 10 Folder 14
Handwritten bibliographic notes.
Box 10 Folder 15
Exam questions about Shakespearean plays.
Box 10 Folder 16
Correspondence directed to Horace Howard Furness, Jr. From the American Shakespeare Foundation, relating to the business of the Executive Committee, 1926-1928.
Box 11 Folder 17
Brochures and programs of the American Shakespeare Foundation and the Shakespeare Association of America, 1926-1932.
Box 11 Folder 18
Minutes and reports from the Executive Committee.
Box 11 Folder 19
Donation letters and receipts for the Shakespeare Memorial Fund, 1926.
Box 11 Folder 20
Donation letters and receipts for the Shakespeare Memorial Fund, 1927.
Box 11 Folder 21
Playbills, music programs, clippings and memorabilia related to the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration, 1916.
Box 11 Folder 22
Bibliographies, bulletins, and eulogies related to the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration, 1916.
Box 11 Folder 23
Exhibition guides related to the Shakespeare Tercentenary Celebration, 1915-1916.
Box 11 Folder 24
Typed script of "Prelude: Ariel and Puck" (2 copies).
Box 12 Folder 25
Typed translation of "Shakespeare and Elizabeth", a dramatic dialogue by Hermann Lingg, original text published Berlin, 1881.
Box 12 Folder 26
Photostats of pages from "Shakespeare's Dream: An Historic Pageant", performed at the Academy of Music, N.Y., August 2, 1858.
Box 12 Folder 27
Typed script of "Swan Song" by Jeno Miklos.
Box 12 Folder 28
Three untitled typed play scripts.
Box 12 Folder 29
Manuscripts of "Montezuma" and "Drama Talks" in H.H.F's hand.
Box 12 Folder 30
Two untitled play manuscripts in H.H.F.'s hand.
Box 12 Folder 31
Watercolor scene design sketches.
Box 12 Folder 32
Typed and handwritten lists of transactions, 1856-1906.
Box 12 Folder 33
Catalogue of the Villon Society.
Box 12 Folder 34
Article and clipping on libraries.
Box 12 Folder 35
Announcements of the transcript of The Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1875-1877.
Box 12 Folder 36
Cataloguing guides for the Furness Library.
Box 12 Folder 37
Scholarly articles on Renaissance drama, many from the collection of Edward Hamilton Bell.
Box 13 Folder 38
Play excerpts, original and photostat.
Box 13 Folder 39
Advertisements for shops and products.
Box 13 Folder 40
Three issues of the publication of The Good Companion Chess Club, containing articles on Shakespeare's crab tree and Shakespeare as a puzzle solver, 1916-1920.
Box 13 Folder 41
Poems, programs and speeches commemorating Shakespeare's birthday, 1873-1914.
Box 13 Folder 42
Clippings, programs, and bulletins relating to the Shakespeare Memorial and Library, 1888-1911.
Box 13 Folder 43
Proposal for a Shakespeare memorial in Elsinore, 1902.
Box 13 Folder 44
Assorted pieces of Shakespearean memorabilia, including clippings, programs and Christmas cards.
Box 13 Folder 45
Correspondence and biographical notes relating to two pairs of Shakespeare's Gloves, 1884-1916.
Box 13 Folder 46
Edwin Booth memorabilia, tickets and a framed signature, 1869-1890.
Box 13 Folder 47
The Junius Brutus Booth diary and clippings related to its discovery (plus photocopies of all materials), 1928.
Box 13 Folder 48
Fanny Kemble memorabilia, correspondence, engraved images, tickets and gifts.
Box 13 Folder 49
Unbound pages of a scrapbook with theatrical materials, one page heading reads: "O.Smith".
Box 13 Folder 50
Bound scrapbook containing correspondence and other materials related to James Henry Hackett.
Box 13 Folder 51
Signatures of actors and actresses, some taken from pages of a scrapbook (donated by R. M. Frye?), 1881-1907.
Box 13 Folder 52
Memorabilia related to Shakespearean actors.
Box 14 Folder unknown container
Contents

* Ticket to J.P. Kemble's farewell dinner
* Receipt of payment made to Covent Garden actress, 1813
* Paylist from Drury Lane Theatre, 1765
* Fanny Kemble's copy of Hamlet

Oversized memorabilia, including playbills, clippings, diagrams and maps related to Renaissance drama, 1843-1932.
Box 15 Folder unknown container
Miscellaneous non-dramatic manuscripts.
Box 16
Contents

* "Gasology: A Satire" by John Donkey
* "The Poetry of a Business Life"
* Photocopy of untitled manuscript and letter from J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps

Miscellaneous non-dramatic manuscripts and memorabilia .
Box 17
Contents

* "An Anonymous Letter"
* "A Literary Pet" (given to Horace Howard Furness, Jr., by George Stoddart)
* "Norwegian Hospitality" (given to Horace Howard Furness, Jr., by George Stoddart)
* Sermon on Luke 10:28
* Memorabilia including images of Walt Whitman, Washington Irving, assorted poems, and notes for a dictionary

Arrangement

arranged chronologically

Correspondence about the structure and funding of the New Variorum , April 1930-June 1934.
Box 18 Folder 53-62
Correspondence about the structure and funding of the New Variorum, August 1934-July 1937.
Box 19 Folder 63-69
Notes on variorum proposals.
Box 19 Folder 70
Variorum proposals and related materials.
Box 19 Folder 71
Materials other than correspondence (clippings, receipts).
Box 19 Folder 72
Coriolanus and 1928 plate proofs and 1682 quarto, Julius Caesar plate proofs .
Box 20 Folder unknown container
Hamlet, variorum manuscript, 1862.
Box 21 Folder unknown container
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Preface, manuscript, 1908.
Box 22 Folder 73
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Preface, typed, 1908.
Box 22 Folder 74
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Dramatis Personae, 1908.
Box 22 Folder 75
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Act 1, scenes 1-3, 1908.
Box 22 Folder 76-78
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Act 1, scene 4 - Act 3, scene 4, 1908.
Box 23 Folder 77
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Act 3, scene 5 - Act 4, scene 4, 1908.
Box 24 Folder 88-95
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Act 5, scenes 1-4, 1908.
Box 25 Folder 96-100
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Text", 1908.
Box 25 Folder 101
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Source of Plot", 1908.
Box 25 Folder 102
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "The True Tragedy of Richard III", includes typed script, 1908.
Box 26 Folder 103
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Character of Richard III", 1908.
Box 26 Folder 104
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Criticisms", 1908.
Box 26 Folder 105
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Stage History", 1908.
Box 26 Folder 106
Richard III, manuscript of new variorum edition, Appendix, "Richard in Poetry".
Box 26 Folder 107
Antony and Cleopatra with interleaved notes and tabs , 1821.
Box 27
As You Like It with interleaved notes and tabs .
Box 27
Coriolanus with interleaved notes and tabs , 1821.
Box 27
Cymbeline with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 27
Henry V with interleaved notes.
Box 29
Julius Caesar with interleaved notes and tabs.
Box 29
King John with interleaved notes and tabs.
Box 30
King Lear with handwritten marginalia, 1854.
Box 30
King Lear with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 31
Love's Labour's Lost with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 31
Macbeth with handwritten marginalia.
Box 32
Macbeth with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 32
Measure for Measure with interleaved notes, 1860.
Box 32
A Midsummer Night's Dream (facsimile) with interleaved notes and lineation, 1862.
Box 33
The Merchant of Venice with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 33
A Midsummer Night's Dream (facsimile) with interleaved notes and lineation, 1862.
Box 33
A Midsummer Night's Dream with interleaved notes and tabs.
Box 33
Much Ado About Nothing with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 34
Othello with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 34
Othello with interleaved notes, 1854.
Box 35
Othello (facsimile) with some handwritten marginalia, 1864.
Box 35
Othello with some handwritten marginalia, 1875.
Box 35
Othello with some handwritten marginalia, 1875.
Box 35
Richard III with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 35
Romeo and Juliet with handwritten marginalia.
Box 36
Sonnets with interleaved notes .
Box 36
The Tempest with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 37
Timon of Athens with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 37
Twelfth Night with interleaved notes and tabs.
Box 38
The Two Gentlemen of Verona with interleaved notes and tabs, 1821.
Box 38
The Winter's Tale with interleaved notes and tabs.
Box 38
Antony and Cleopatra, 1875?.
Box 39
As You Like It , (1875?).
Box 39
The Comedy of Errors with blank interleaved pages.
Box 39
Coriolanus (facsimile) with lineation.
Box 39
Cymbeline.
Box 39
1 Henry IV with blank interleaved pages.
Box 40
2 Henry IV with blank interleaved pages.
Box 40
Henry V (facsimile) with lineation and blank interleaved pages.
Box 41
Julius Caesar (facsimile) with lineation, blank interleaved pages and tabs.
Box 41
Julius Caesar (facsimile) with lineation.
Box 41
King John (facsimile) with lineation and tabs.
Box 41
Merchant of Venice, 1875.
Box 41
Merry Wives of Windsor with blank interleaved pages, 1821.
Box 41
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1875.
Box 41
The Tempest, 1875.
Box 42
Troilus and Cressida with blank interleaved pages.
Box 42
The Winter's Tale, 1875.
Box 42
King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra (facsimiles).
Box 42
The Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Merry Wives of Windsor (facsimile pages) .
Box 43
The poems, including the sonnets with blank interleaved pages, 1821.
Box 43
Hamlet, notebook for Variorum edition (based on Boswell's Malone), 1821.
Box 44
Hamlet, notebook for Variorum edition (based on the Cambridge 1).
Box 44
As You Like It, notebook for Variorum edition .
Box 45
Coriolanus, notebook for Variorum edition appendix .
Box 45
Henry V, notebook for Variorum edition .
Box 45
King John, three notebooks for Variorum edition with typed pages of the script pasted in .
Box 45
Macbeth, notebook labeled with marked pages of the script inserted, linear notes on facing page.
Box 46
Macbeth, notes and manuscript pages for the second Variorum edition.
Box 46
Macbeth, handwritten index of words with act/scene/line citations Richard III, Colley Cibber's version .
Box 46
Romeo and Juliet, handwritten index of words with act/scene/line citations.
Box 46

Print, Suggest