Rossetti Family correspondence
Details
Type of record: Archive
Title: Rossetti Family correspondence
Classmark: BC MS 19c Rossetti
Creator(s): Rossetti Family()
Date(s): 1843-1909
Language: English
Size and medium: 713 letters, 2 scrapbook pages, 10 volumes of transcripts
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/7436
Collection group(s): English Literature
Description
A collection of manuscript letters and associated material written by various members of the Rossetti family.
The collection includes letters written by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (DGR), William Michael Rossetti (WMR), Christina Rossetti, Frances Rossetti, Maria Rossetti, Lucy Maddox Rossetti and Gabriel Rossetti.
The largest group of correspondence is from DGR, with significant tranches from WMR and a good set of letters from Christina Rossetti. Other family members are represented by one or two letters. Letters are addressed to a range of correspondents, with some individuals receiving letters from multiple members of the family. Key correspondents include Walter (Theodore) Watts-Dunton, William Davis and Francis Hueffer.
Letters are grouped into series by writer, and then arranged by correspondent.
Many of the letters were previously bound with c.1920s typed transcripts. The letters were removed from these volumes in the early 2000s, and the volumes and transcripts themselves have been retained as a separate series (BC MS 19c Rossetti/8).
Biography or history
For a full account and assessment of the lives and achievements of various members of the Rossetti Family see the 'Dictionary of National Biography' under their respective names.
Provenance
Much of the collection was acquired during Lord Brotherton’s initial collecting period in the mid-late 1920s.
Correspondence addressed to Watts-Dunton was presumably acquired alongside the Brotherton Collection’s Swinburne and Watts-Dunton manuscripts. The 1936 Brotherton Collection catalogue describes these as coming directly from Watts-Dunton’s former Residence, ‘The Pines’ at Putney.
Other parts of the collection were acquired, generally by purchase, at later dates. Where known, this is specified at series or item level.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.