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The Stowe Center Library & Museum was established by Katharine Seymour Day, the grandniece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. The Library has expanded from Miss Day's collection of books, manuscripts and artifacts to a wealth of material on 19th century Americana.
Library Contents
The Library, located in the Day House, has an underground stack area which contains more than 12,000 books, 4,000 pamphlets, and 180,000 manuscript items, all fully cataloged, as well as 12,000 images (photographs, prints, broadsides, posters, drawings).
The Stowe Center Library collections include:
- Personal correspondence, diaries, journals and literary manuscripts by Nook Farm residents.
- First editions of the works of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and The Uncle Tom's Cabin Collection which includes all American and foreign language editions, interpretation and criticism, pamphlets, broadsides, and images of her most famous anti-slavery novel from 1851 to the present.
- Extensive collection of long out-of-print works by Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Lyman Beecher, Catharine E. Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Thomas K. Beecher, and Calvin E. Stowe, among others.
- Specialized collections on: 19th century women's history, especially the suffrage movement; 19th century African American history, especially slavery; 19th century architecture and decorative arts, especially of the Greater Hartford area.
- Letters from such historical figures as William Lloyd Garrison, the Duchess of Sutherland, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony to Stowe & other Beecher family members.
- Extensive photograph collections associated with Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nook Farm residents, Katharine Day, members of the Beecher family, and 19th and 20th century Hartford architecture.
Use of the Stowe Center Library
Beginning Wednesday, October 1, 2008 the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center will temporarily limit access to the Stowe Center Library collections while undertaking an extensive climate control and preservation project in the Library storage space. It is anticipated that work will be completed by January 2010. Any changes to this schedule will be posted on HarrietBeecherStowe.org.
This project, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, will protect and enhance access to the Stowe Center's irreplaceable museum and library collections. The Library collection includes rare and hard-to-find material on 19th-century America including over 12,000 books, 4,000 pamphlets, 180,000 manuscript items and 12,000 images.
During the project, researchers are invited to schedule appointments for access to the digitized version of the E. Bruce Kirkham Collection of Harriet Beecher Stowe's letters; the Stowe Center's extensive card catalogue; and selected images. Other archival materials will be temporarily unavailable. The Museum collections will continue to be accessible by appointment.
To make an appointment or to discuss a specific research question, please contact the Stowe Center's Collections Manager at 860.522.9258 x 313 or email
Info@StoweCenter.org.
Museum Collections
Harriet Beecher Stowe's last residence is open to the public as a museum. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center has a total of three historic buildings on 2.5 acres and houses furniture, artwork, and other artifacts. Of the 6,000 objects, there are paintings and sketches, ceramics, metalware, household items, games and toys, clothing, textiles and accessories, furniture, sculpture and wallpaper remnants.
The Stowe Center collections illustrate important themes in nineteenth-century U.S. history: women's history including suffrage; abolition; African American history and racial history and racial attitudes in the U.S.; the activist Beecher family; decorative arts and architecture, including gardening and landscape architecture.
Stowe Center Library Collections are searchable on the following sites:
ReQuest database of the Connecticut Library Network
http://www.iconn.org/request/
University of Virginia, Uncle Tom's Cabin and American Culture
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc
Click here for Major Repositories of Stowe Manuscripts
To view artifacts from our Uncle Tom's Cabin Collection, or, please go to the following site:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/
For more information about the Museum Collection, call or email Elizabeth Giard at 860 522-9258 ext 313 or email bgiard@StoweCenter.org
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