Thomas Campbell papers

The Thomas Campbell Papers consist of correspondence, writings, commonplace books and other papers related to Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), a Scottish poet active during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The papers span the years 1821-1846, and are housed in three boxes. They are organized into five series: Correspondence, Writings, Commonplace Books, Writings of Others, and Other Papers.

Series I, Correspondence , consists of an undated copy of a Thomas Jefferson letter (April 29, 1825) to Thomas Campbell, in which Jefferson answers Campbell's request on behalf of a Mr. Rose for advice on relocating to Virginia. Additional Thomas Campbell correspondence can be found in Series III, Commonplace Books.

Series II, Writings spans folders 2-27 and consists of writings of Thomas Campbell, 1821-39, arranged chronologically by date of publication. Writings consist of published and unpublished materials, including biographies of English poets, lectures on poetry and drama, poems by Campbell, English history timelines and research notes, and unidentified writings.

Papers related to Campbell's Specimens of the British Poets (London: John Murray, 1819) include manuscript drafts of portions of the introductory "Essay on English Poetry" and drafts of biographical essays on many English poets, including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spencer, John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, William Cowper, Robert Burns, and others. The series also includes manuscript biographies of poets not included in Specimens of British Poets.

Lectures include manuscript drafts of "Lectures on Poetry" and "Lectures on Drama," as well as a printed version of "Lectures on Poetry" from The New Monthly Magazine (London: Henry Colburn, 1821), which is interleaved into a notebook. Poems consist of an annotated copy of The Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell (London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1839), which is interleaved into a notebook.

Additional writings include timelines of English history, 872-1189, research notes on several published works including Sharon Turner's The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest and George Ellis's Specimens of Early English Metrical Romance, and unidentified writings.

Series III, Commonplace Books , consists of two volumes, ca. 1846, in folders 28-29. A commonplace book with the title "Campbell. Poems." includes "Reminiscences of the Poet" (1837-44) transcribed from a diary kept by Roylance Child; Thomas Campbell correspondence (ca. 1795-1841), including some mansucript copies and consisting of letters to and/or from the following correspondents: Thomas Moore, H. Brougham, Archibald Campbell (b. 1781, Campbell's brother), Archibald Campbell (Campbell's nephew), Margaret Campbell (Campbell's mother), W. D. Stewart, James Laurie, and George Campbell (no apparent relation); "Campbell's School poems and Translations, 1787-1792;" and clippings (1836). The second commonplace book, "Original Poems by Thomas Campbell," includes Thomas Campbell poems (1788-1840), probably transcribed by William Beattie; unidentified letters to Campbell (1809, 1831); a letter from his nephew Archibald Campbell (1842); letters to Beattie from James Wingate answering requests for copies of Campbell's poems (1846); and clippings.

Series IV, Writings of Others , consists of manuscript copies of poems written by poets other than Thomas Campbell, and is arranged alphabetically by author in folders 30-47. Includes poems by Robert Burns; John Davies; Francis Davison; Thomas Deloney; Henry Dundes; Charles Wyndham, Earl of Egremont; Abraham Fraunce; George Gascoigne; Stephen Hawes; Henry Peacham; James Shirley; Edward Thurlow; Baron Thurlow; Samuel Wesley; Nicholas Whiting; John Wilbye; Charles Harbury Williams; and Anne Finch, Countess of Winchelsea, as well as a few poems by unidentified authors.

Series V, Other Papers , is arranged chronologically in folders 48-49. It includes a summons in the case of "Frederick Campbell Stewart, Esq. of Ascog, against Ferdinand S. Campbell and the other Heirs of Entail to the Estates of Ascog;" and unidentified papers.