1778-2007; bulk: 1791-1956
Guide to the Collection
Restrictions on Access
The original autographs in this collection have been removed to Special Collections. Photocopies are available for use by researchers.
Abstract
This collection consists of autograph letters and other papers of eminent Unitarians and liberal religious thinkers from the United States and abroad, 1778-2007, collected by George E. Nitzsche of the Unitarian Society of Germantown.
Biographical Sketch
George E. Nitzsche was born in 1874 and grew up in Nazareth, Penn. He attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania from 1895 to 1898 and, after graduation, worked as bursar and registrar of the law school for six years. In 1904, he became manager of the University of Pennsylvania Bureau of Publicity, and in 1912, his title was changed from publicity agent to recorder. In his capacity as recorder, Nitzsche provided general information about the university to students and the public, promoted and managed university events, and collected archival material about the university and its alumni.
Nitzsche's publications include The Proceedings at the Dedication of the New Building of the Department of Law of the University of Pennsylvania (1901), Official Guide to the University of Pennsylvania (1904), University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials (1914), and Philadelphia: Guide to the City (1920). In November 1902, he founded the alumni publication Old Penn, later renamed The Pennsylvania Gazette.
Nitzsche was a member of the Unitarian Society of Germantown (Penn.) and the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, where he served on the board of trustees for 18 years. From 1923 to 1953, through a combination of gifts and purchases, he collected autographs of renowned Unitarians for the George E. Nitzsche Unitariana collection. He gave the collection to the Unitarian Society of Germantown in 1954.
Nitzsche was married to Elsa Koenig Nitzsche, and the couple had two daughters: Elsa and Helma. Nitzsche died on July 28, 1961.
Collection Description
This collection consists of over 200 documents, primarily letters, containing the autographs of eminent Unitarians and other liberal religious thinkers from the United States and abroad. Among the individuals represented are politicians, authors, scientists, reformers, clergymen, scholars, educators, businessmen, and judges. Included are autographs of John Adams, Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony, William Ellery Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Dorothea Dix, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Horace Mann, Harriet Martineau, Theodore Parker, Francis Parkman, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Daniel Webster, and many others.
Although the papers span four centuries, the bulk of the material dates from the 19th century. Among the earliest items are a letter from Vice President John Adams to Secretary of War Henry Knox, 1791, and an 1801 "sea letter," or ship's passport, signed by both Thomas Jefferson and Levi Lincoln. Other highlights include a rare introspective letter from Transcendentalist author Margaret Fuller to Mary Peabody, later Mrs. Horace Mann; a 34-page handwritten account by Harriet Martineau of her transatlantic voyage in 1836; a letter from educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody about her historical works; and a few lines by Ralph Waldo Emerson from his poem "Voluntaries," written to commemorate the 54th Massachusetts Regiment's attack on Fort Wagner, S.C.
The collection also contains articles, booklets, programs, posters, and other printed material related to famous Unitarians, Unitarianism, and other religious subjects. Included are books by Joseph Priestley and Charles William Wendte.
Arrangement
The papers in this collection are organized alphabetically by author. When the collection came to the Massachusetts Historical Society, some folders contained supplemental material, such as printed matter or correspondence, related to an individual whose autograph Nitzsche hoped to acquire but never did. These folders have been retained.
NOTE: This guide describes the collection of photocopies and supplemental material shelved at Ms. N-2165, not the original autographs located in Special Collections.
Acquisition Information
This collection was purchased from the Unitarian Society of Germantown, July 2008.
Restrictions on Access
The original autographs in this collection have been removed to Special Collections. Photocopies are available for use by researchers.
Detailed Description of the Collection
I. Background material, 1855-1955
This series contains material collected by Nitzsche while researching and compiling his autograph collection. The bulk of the material consists of biographical sketches, copied from Who's Who in America and other sources, of individuals represented in the collection and those whose autographs Nitzsche hoped to collect. Included are names and biographies of many individuals not listed in Series II. Other papers in this series include printed matter about famous Unitarians and the history of Unitarianism, printed portraits of individuals not represented in Series II, and valuations and catalogs documenting the value of autographs at the time Nitzsche was collecting.
II. Autographs, 1791-2007
Arranged alphabetically.
This series contains original autographs, primarily letters, as well as supplemental material by or about many of the individuals represented in the collection. This material includes printed matter, correspondence, notes, and other papers. Some of the folders in this series contain no autograph, only supplemental material related to an individual whose autograph Nitzsche hoped to obtain but never did. These folders are indicated below in italics. For example, the folder labeled "Ames, Charles Gordon" contains a booklet written by Ames, but no autograph.
Adams, Charles Francis
Adams, John
Adams, John Quincy
Alcott, Amos Bronson
Alcott, Louisa May
Alger, William Rounseville
Ames, Charles Gordon
Ames, Fisher
Ames, Oliver
Andrew, John Albion
Anthony, Henry Bowen
Anthony, Susan Brownell
Appleton, Nathan
Baillie, Joanna
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Bancroft, George
Barber, Henry Hervey
Barrows, Samuel June
Bartol, Cyrus Augustus
Bartol, George Murillo
Batchelor, George
Beard, John Relly
Bellows, Henry Whitney
Bergh, Henry
Bigelow, George Tyler
Blackwell, Alice Stone
Blankenburg, Lucretia
Blankenburg, Rudolph
Boutwell, George Sewall
Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll
Bowring, Sir John
Brackett, John Quincy Adams
Brooke, Stopford Augustus
Brooks, Charles Timothy
Brooks, Peter Chardon
Bryant, William Cullen
Button, Joseph Priestley
Carpenter, Joseph Estlin
Carpenter, Mary
Carpenter, William B.
Carruth, William Herbert
Cary, George Lovell
Center, Sarah E.
Chadwick, John White
Chamberlain, Neville
Chandler, Charles Lyon
Chandler, William Eaton
Channing, William Ellery
Channing, William Henry
Cheney, Ednah Dow
Cheyney, Edward Potts
Child, Francis James
Child, Lydia Maria
Christie, Francis A.
Chworowsky, Karl M.
Clark, Joseph S., Jr.
Clarke, James Freeman
Clifford, John Henry
Cobbe, Frances Power
Collyer, Robert
Cooper, Peter
Cranch, Christopher Pearse
Crooker, Joseph Henry
Crothers, Samuel McChord
Curtis, Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar
Curtis, George Ticknor
Cushman, Charlotte Saunders
Darrow, Clarence S.
Darwin, Charles Robert
D'Ascenzo, Myrtle and Nicola
Daskam, Max F.
David, Francis
Davis, Horace
Dewey, Orville
Dickens, Charles
Dix, Dorothea Lynde
Dole, James Drummond
Douthit, Jasper L.
Dwight, John Sullivan
Eliot, Charles William
Eliot, Frederick May
Eliot, Samuel A.
Eliot, Thomas Lamb
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Everett, Alexander H.
Everett, Edward
Felton, Cornelius Conway
Fields, James Thomas
Fillmore, Millard
Fiske, John
Fitch, John
Forbes, Roger Sawyer
Francis, Convers
Franklin, Benjamin
French, Daniel Chester
Frothingham, Nathan Langdon
Frothingham, Octavius Brooks
Fuller, Margaret
Furness, Horace Howard
Furness, Horace Howard, Jr.
Furness, William Henry
Gannett, William Channing
Garfield, James A.
Gilbert, William M.
Gilman, Nicholas Paine
Goodrich, Herbert F.
Goodwin, Ichabod
Gordon, Alexander
Gore, Christopher
Greeley, Horace
Greenhalge, Frederic Thomas
Greenwood, Grace
Griffin, Frederick Robertson
Hale, Edward Everett
Hamlin, Hannibal
Hanson, Miles
Hawthorne, Julian
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Herford, Brooke
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
Hildreth, Richard
Hill, Thomas
Hillard, George Stillman
Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood
Hoar, George Frisbie
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.
Horton, Edward Augustus
Hosmer, Frederick Lucian
Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue
Howe, Julia Ward
Howe, Samuel Gridley
Howells, William Dean
Huidekoper, Edgar
Hunt, James Henry Leigh
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Jackson, Helen Hunt
James, Joshua
Jefferson, Thomas
Jesus Christ
Jordan, David Starr
Judd, Sylvester
Kemble, Frances Anne ("Fanny")
King, Thomas Starr
Kirkland, John Thornton
Klingelsmith, Margaret Center
Lawrence, Abbott
Lawrence, Amos Adams
Lea, Arthur H.
Lea, Henry Charles
Lincoln, Abraham
Lincoln, Levi
Livermore, Abiel Abbot
Livermore, Mary Ashton
Long, John Davis
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Samuel
Lowell, Abbott Lawrence
Lowell, James Russell
Lowell, John
Lupton, Dilworth
Lyell, Sir Charles
McCrary, George Washington
McDaniel, Walton Brooks
Madison, James
Mann, Horace
Marshall, John
Martin, Helen R.
Martineau, Harriet
Martineau, James
Masaryk, Charlotte Garrigue
Masaryk, Thomas G.
Mason, J. Alden
Meserve, Harry C.
Mitchell, Maria
Motley, John Lothrop
Newell, William Wells
Newton, Joseph Fort
Nitzsche, Elsa Koenig
Nitzsche, George E.
Norton, Andrews
Paine, Thomas
Palfrey, John Gorham
Parker, Theodore
Parkman, Francis
Parsons, Theophilus
Peabody, Andrew Preston
Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody, Ephraim
Peabody, Francis Greenwood
Peabody, Josephine Preston (later Marks)
Peabody, Oliver William Bourn
Perkins, Thomas Handasyd
Pickering, Edward Charles
Pollock, Walter
Prescott, William Hickling
Priestley, Joseph (1733-1804)
Priestley, Joseph (1819-1883)
Priestley, S. E. Gerard
Quincy, Josiah
Reccord, Augustus P.
Reynolds, Grindall
Ripley, George
Rogers, Samuel
Rubel, Donald C.
Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin
Schelling, Felix Emmanuel
Sharpe, Henry D.
Shaw, Lemuel
Shippen, Rush R.
Sill, Edward Rowland
Simons, Minot
Slicer, Thomas R.
Snow, Sydney B.
Somerville, Mary
Sparks, Jared
Spencer, Anna Garlin
Sprague, Charles
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
Staples, Laurence C.
Stebbins, Horatio
Steinmetz, Charles Proteus
Stevenson, Adlai
St. John, Charles E.
Stoddard, Richard Henry
Story, Joseph
Story, William Wetmore
Strong, Charles Howard
Sullivan, Estelle T.
Sullivan, William L.
Sumner, Charles
Sunderland, Jabez Thomas
Taft, William Howard
Taylor, Bayard
Thayer, George Augustine
Thurman, Allen Granbery
Ticknor, George
Tileston, F. Mitchell
Trowbridge, John Townsend
Tuckerman, Henry Theodore
Upham, Charles Wentworth
Walker, James
Washington, George
Wasson, David Atwood
Wayne, James Moore
Webster, Daniel
Wedgwood, Josiah
Wendte, Charles William
Weston, S. Burns
Whipple, Edwin Percy
Wicksteed, Philip Henry
Wilbur, Earl Morse
Wilbur, Henry
Willard, Daniel
Wister, Frances
Wolcott, Roger
Wright, Frank Lloyd
Wyman, Jeffries
III. Printed material, 1778-1927
This bulk of this series consists of the printed works of Joseph Priestley, primarily his own personal copies. Many of the books were inscribed or annotated by Priestley. Also included in this series are Charles William Wendte's The Wider Fellowship (2 vol.) and the membership register of the Spring Garden Unitarian Society, Philadelphia, Penn.
This volume is inscribed by the anonymous author: "The Author to his Friend, the Rev'd Rich'd Harvey."
This volume was bound at a later date in Philadelphia.
This volume is Joseph Priestley's personal unbound copy.
This volume is Joseph Priestley's personal unbound copy.
This volume, Joseph Priestley's personal unbound copy, is annotated by Priestley: "Wants the Cancels. Otherwise corrected."
This volume, Joseph Priestley's personal unbound copy, is annotated by Priestley: "Not yet Corrected. Want 1 leaf of my Index."
This volume includes lists of members, marriages, christenings, deaths, and other information. Inserted are printed items related to the Spring Garden Unitarian Society and other papers.
This volume consists of unbound finished folio sheets.
This volume consists of unbound finished folio sheets.
Preferred Citation
George E. Nitzsche Unitariana collection, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Access Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.
Persons:
Organizations:
Subjects:
Materials Removed from the Collection
Photographs from this collection have been removed to the MHS Photo Archives. Included are portraits of Charles Gordon Ames, George Boros, George William Curtis, William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., William M. Gilbert, Samuel Longfellow, William Wells Newell, George E. Nitzsche, C. J. Street, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Philip Henry Wicksteed, as well as other photographs and engravings related to individuals in this collection.