Gist family papers, 1806-1830. - View Resource (original) (raw)

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Gist family papers, 1806-1830.

Title

Gist family papers, 1806-1830.

Abstract

This collection consists of personal and family correspondence to Ann Elizabeth Gist Hart, Anna Maria Boswell Shelby Gratz, and Judith Cary Bell Gist Scott, spanning 1806-1830, with some undated correspondence. The bulk of the collection contains letters and poetry written by the artist Anna Maria von Phul to her friend Ann Elizabeth Gist Hart. Also included are letters addressed from family members written to Hart prior to her marriage to Nathaniel Gray Hart. Among these letters is one from Hart's sister Sarah Howard Gist Bledsoe discussing, in part, a visit to Dolley Madison's "drawing room" while Bledsoe was in Washington, D.C., circa 1814. Other series include letters to additional Gist family members from family and friends. Some items of interest within these series include an 1830 note of pedigree for a race horse that belonged to Anna Maria Boswell Shelby Gratz's first husband Orville Shelby, a letter from F. P. (Francis Preston) Blair to Judith Cary Bell Scott, and one unsigned letter, possibly from Benjamin Gratz, to a person named Ingersoll regarding Wabash land holdings. Other items of note include a letter written in 1822 by Harriette Williman Holley (Brand), daughter of Transylvania University president Horace Holley, to her friend Anna Maria Boswell (Shelby Gratz), discussing her education in Boston, Massachusetts.