Nathaniel T. Allen collection

The collection contains correspondence, writings, and other papers of educator and social reformer Nathaniel T. Allen, and biographical and research materials about him. Manuscripts in each series are accompanied by additional photocopied materials, some annotated by an unidentified researcher; for most, locations of originals are unidentified.

Correspondence with family, colleagues, and students, 1846-1902, includes letters from Allen to his family, 1851, about travel from Charleston, South Carolina, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with observations on slavery and other impressions of the South; letters to Allen from colleagues, 1865, about his acquittal on charges of assaulting and causing the death of a student; and condolence letters following the death of his daughter, Sarah Caroline Allen Cooney (1861-1897).

Notebooks include student notes from the State Normal School (Bridgewater, Mass.), 1845-1846, about arithmetic, algebra, geometry, physiology, geography, and grammar, and the Rensselaer Institute, 1847, about botany and chemistry; teaching notes relating to the Model School in West Newton, 1852-1853; notes, accounts, and a scrapbook from travel in Europe and research on education in Germany, 1869-1871; and catalogs of his library and mineral specimens, undated. Other writings include a draft biography of Irish social reformer and suffragist Frances Power Cobbe, undated; and notes, articles, and speeches, 1869-1902 and undated, relating to education, politics, religion, travel, and other subjects.

Biographical materials include memoirs by Allen, 1884 and undated; biographical sketches from published reference sources, 1890-1929; a typescript eulogy by Julian Clifford Jaynes, minister of the First Unitarian Society in West Newton; obituaries; and other articles about Allen and the West Newton English and Classical School, 1853-1993.

Other papers include real estate deeds and maps for properties owned by Allen and his family in West Newton and Medfield, Massachusetts, 1840s-1911; financial accounts with James Theodore Allen, Joseph Addison Allen, and others, 1843-1893; a photograph of a school picnic, 1892, and reproductions of photographs of Allen, 1840s and undated; printed material including advertisements for Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina, 1897-1898 and undated; and a small amount of notes and research material by an unidentified researcher, 2009 and undated.