Benjamin Penhollow Shillaber Collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
170 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Special Collections Public Services & Reference Staff
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred citation:

Benjamin Penhollow Shillaber Collection, Accession 7493-g, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Summary

Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Benjamin Penhollow Shillaber Collection, Accession 7493-g, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Background

Scope and content:

beginning, "A little jewel a brief season lay within the bosom of a home enshrined," and dedicated to his friend George R. Garrett, with a photograph of Shillaber attached.

[agrees to a booking for a public lecture on the nineteenth with the compensation left up to the sense of justice of his client and comments on lectures, "The motive ostensibly put forth of elevating the species, by many of the profession, should really read raising the specie -two things of very similiar sound, but of vastly dissimilar sense."]

[announces the birth of a ten pound granddaughter]

[apologizes for the delay and furnishes an autograph]

[explains that her note was mislaid during a severe attack of illness and complies with her request for an autograph]

[furnishes an autograph for a daughter of an old friend, approves of her occupation in collecting autographs, inquires about the health of her father, and commiserates about the difficulties of the sick bed which he has occupied for the last three months]

[promises to write something for an unnamed occasion [the Return of Sons ?], "Perhaps it may turn out a song, perhaps turn out a sermon, but I shall hope my old rheumatic lyre may produce something for the occasion," and suggests that F.E. Parker, President in 1853, might be a good choice as a speaker]

[responding to a letter of the 19th which requests Shillaber to furnish a poem for the occasion of the Return of Sons, he assures May "I shall be delighted to comply, D.V. [God willing] Being so far identified with the former occasion I should feel pained not to be allowed to participate in this."]

[sends a belated thanks for his letter of sympathy upon the death of Mrs. Shillaber, "I could not do it at the time without reopening the wound that I was striving to heal, though this has been hopeless. Early in May I closed my house, and Carrie and I went wandering -she one way and I another -to try the benefit of change. I vibrated between New Yorkand Old York, up the Piscataquaand down to the beaches, seeking rest but finding it only measurably." They returned in October and secured the services of the widow of the artist, George Curtis, as housekeeper. He also comments upon Haskell's poem, his own theological doubts, and news of Chelsea, as Mr. Haskell was a former neighbor]

[thanks him for his flattering letter, "Such a letter inspired the belief, accordant with my wish, that my life has not been lived in vain, and that though dollars may not have overflowed my coffers, dolors never have usurped their place." Shillaber assures his friend that he keeps pegging away with his pen, values his friends exceedingly, having never lost one except through death, describes the loss of his wife three years ago as the great sorrow of his life, and thanks him for sending some poems]

[refers to articles by Haskell on Kelly and [William J.] Snelling(1804-1848), who wrote humor and satire under several pseudonyms and briefly edited The Boston Heraldbefore his death, and mentions his suffering from a bout of jaundice, and his publication in prospect for the summer]

Acquisition information:
Purchase 1994 September 24
Processing information:

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Physical location:
Physical description:
13 items