Showcasing the Elizabeth Gaskell Collection

By Dr Imogen Durant, Curatorial Assistant in the Creative Arts Archives.

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library holds the largest collection of materials relating to Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) in the world. Previously spread across different collections, many of the gems in this archive were a little hidden from view in the English Manuscript and University Manuscript collections.  These materials have now been brought together to form the Elizabeth Gaskell Collection, with a new catalogue to guide users to the wealth of material available.

The new collection is arranged into 4 series:

• ECG/1 Manuscripts
• ECG/2 Correspondence
• ECG/3 Ephemera (including objects such as Gaskell’s ink stand and quill)
• ECG/4 Digitised material, in the possession of the Gaskell family.

We are hugely fortunate to hold several original manuscripts in Elizabeth Gaskell’s hand:  The Grey Woman (published 1865), Wives and Daughters (published 1865), The Life of Charlotte Bronte (published 1857), and The Crooked Branch (published 1859). We also hold a manuscript of Charles Dickens’s A Child’s Dream of a Star (published 1850). For the first time, these manuscripts sit alongside the Gaskell correspondence and objects in one catalogued collection. A significant proportion of the collection has been digitised, and is available for access via Manchester Digital Collections.

Autograph Collection

The correspondence series contains two subseries which offer wide-ranging potential to researchers. Previously labelled ‘Miscellaneous letters’, these unassuming boxes contain autograph letters from an impressive list of 19^th-century figures, including writers, politicians and scientists. They were collected by the Gaskells and donated to the library by the estate of Meta (Margaret Emily, Elizabeth’s daughter) Gaskell, in 1933.

Autograph collecting saw a boom during the 19^th century. The appeal of a letter written in an author’s original hand was unparalleled, in part, because it produced a sense of intimacy between the reader and the famous writer or thinker. This appeal is still felt by many today. Despite our seemingly unfettered access to contemporary authors and celebrities through modern media, the aura of the original manuscript is felt by many researchers in our reading rooms. 

The correspondence in this collection sheds light on the social networks that the Gaskells operated within. 113 of the letters are addressed to Elizabeth and William Gaskell, offering insights into the individuals with whom they were in direct communication.

Letters from William Wilberforce (1759-1833), leader of the British movement to abolish the slave trade, and American abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), demonstrate the Gaskells’ engagement with the campaigns to end of slavery. Beecher Stowe writes to introduce the Gaskells to Mary E. Webb, the ‘daughter of a “fugitive slave”’, actress and orator, which extends the Gaskell’s network of abolitionist acquaintances.

The letters from Beecher Stowe also situate Gaskell within an international network of female writers: some well-known figures, such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and other forgotten authors, including Caroline Clive, Frederika Bremer, and Dinah Maria Mulock, who provide fertile ground for future research.

The final section of the autograph collection includes letters written in French and German. Identifying the authors of these letters has been fruitful but challenging. German Chemist Justus Von Leibig (1803-1873) appears, along with painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789 –1869).

One of the most intriguing letters is written in French, from author George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil) (1804-1876) to novelist Geraldine Jewsbury (1812-1880). Sand was a prolific novelist who has become a French feminist icon; as well as adopting a male pseudonym, Sand wore masculine clothing and was a vociferous advocate of women’s rights.  Likewise, Sand’s correspondent, Jewsbury, was also known for defying gender norms.

The Elizabeth Gaskell Collection contains a wealth of material that will be of value to scholars of the 19^th century.  We hope that the new catalogue will make the collection easier to navigate and will generate further research on Gaskell and other lesser-known figures.

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