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Edward Lear archive

 Collection
Call Number: MSS 59

Scope and Contents

The collection comprises correspondence, manuscript writings, lists of drawings, and printed material concerning the author and artist Edward Lear. The correspondence includes letters from Lear to Ann Lear, James Thomas Fields, Hallam Tennyson Baron Tennyson, and Edmund Woodthorpe. The manuscript writings include a copy (in Lear's hand) of Thomas Moore's poem, "St. Kiven [sic] and the Gentle Kathleen (i.e. "By that lake, whose gloomy shore") with Lear's original illustrations, and W.H. Auden's poem "Edward Lear." The lists, compiled by Lear and Franklin Lushington, provide inventories of drawings and paintings by Lear, from his numerous travels in the Mediterranean region.

Dates

  • ca. 1840-1985

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup, Yale BA 1934, PhD 1939

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into four series: I. Correspondence; II. Manuscript writings; III. Lists of drawings by Edward Lear; IV. Printed material

Related Materials

Related material: For records and images of nine oil paintings and over 350 drawings and prints by Edward Lear also included in Donald Gallup's gift to the Yale Center for British Art, see the YCBA's online catalog.

Extent

2 Linear Feet (2 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/ycba.mss.0059

Abstract

The collection comprises correspondence, manuscript writings, lists of drawings, and printed material concerning the author and artist Edward Lear.

Biographical / Historical

Edward Lear (1812-1888) is best known as the author of "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" and other nonsense verse. He was also an inveterate traveler and an indefatigable sketcher, documenting a lifetime of journeys throughout the Mediterranean and India.

Custodial History

Gallup's collecting of Edward Lear material is described in: Gallup, Donald C. "Collecting Edward Lear." The Yale University Library Gazette 61, no. 3/4 (1987): 125-42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40858913.

And in: Wilcox, Scott. Edward Lear and the art of travel. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2000.

Title
Guide to the Edward Lear Archive
Status
Completed
Author
compiled by Francis Lapka
Date
June, 2019
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Yale Center for British Art, Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository

Contact:
Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts
1080 Chapel Street
P. O. Box 208280
New Haven CT 06520-8280 US
203-432-2814

Location

1080 Chapel Street
New Haven , CT 06510

Opening Hours