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The Story Family Collection includes papers from five generations of this distinguished
American family. Two other related families are also represented by a small amount
of
material, the Waldo and Wetmore families. These three families were connected by the
marriage of Joseph Story to Sarah Waldo Wetmore. The collection is arranged by family
member's name in alphabetical order. Within each family member's collection, papers
are
arranged in four series: Works, Letters, Recipient, and Miscellaneous. Some incoming
letters
previously filed in the Miscellaneous category for a family member have been moved
into the
Recipient category as they represent letters written to that family
member. |
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Samuel Waldo (1721-1770) was a colonel in the American militia
and the maternal grandfather of Sarah Waldo Wetmore. His family is represented by
two brief
works: some verses and a fragment of a diary. |
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William Wetmore (1749-1830), an attorney in Massachusetts, was
the father of Sarah Waldo Wetmore. The single folder of Wetmore family materials includes
an
anecdote about an encounter between John Adams and the king. |
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Elisha Story (1743-1805) is the earliest member of the Story
family represented in the collection, a doctor and fervent revolutionary who participated
in
the Boston Tea Party and several battles of the American Revolutionary War. He is
represented by a copy of his last will and testament. |
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Joseph Story (1779-1845) was among Elisha's numerous children.
Joseph studied law and in 1812 at age 32 became the youngest person ever named to
the U.S.
Supreme Court, where he was an associate justice under Chief Justice John Marshall.
Joseph's
portion of the collection fills two boxes and consists of various handwritten legal
documents, personal papers including his poetry, and incoming and outgoing correspondence.
Among his correspondents are Henry Clay, James Monroe, William Pinkney, Josiah Quincy,
and
Daniel Webster. |
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Horace Cullen Story (1793-1823) was a brother of Joseph and
served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Corps of Engineers. His collection holds two of
his
letters. |
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Sarah Waldo Wetmore Story (1784-1855), who married Joseph in
1808, is represented by two folders of letters to her children and a few incoming
letters. |
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Of Joseph Story's several children, only two survived into adulthood: Mary Oliver Story Curtis, who married George Ticknor Curtis and is represented by
a single incoming letter, and William Wetmore Story (1819-1895).
William set out to study law like his father, but his talents as artist and writer
diverted
him into a career as sculptor, poet, novelist, and dramatist. Although largely forgotten
today, he was considered one of the foremost sculptors of his time. He married Emelyn Eldredge Story (1821-1894) and they lived primarily in Rome,
Italy. Eliza Ann White Story was the daughter of William White
and married an unidentified Story family member. She addressed William Wetmore Story
as
"cousin." Her letters primarily concern family history. |
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William Wetmore Story's papers constitute the bulk of the Story family collection;
they
fill over seven boxes, four of which contain manuscripts of his works. Much of his
correspondence involved his pursuit of anecdotes for his two-volume biography of his
father,
Life and Letters of Joseph Story (1851). Among his
correspondents are Lydia Maria Child, Charlotte Cushman, James Russell Lowell, Harriet
Martineau, J. P. Morgan, Charles Eliot Norton, William Tecumseh Sherman, Charles Sumner,
and
Bayard Taylor. |
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Emelyn Eldredge Story's part of the collection consists of handwritten reminiscences
of
Story family life, two scrapbooks mostly related to William's career, and one box
of
incoming correspondence, including letters from Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, George Ticknor
Curtis, Charlotte Cushman, Margaret Fuller, and Silas Weir Mitchell. |
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William and Emelyn had four children: Edith Marion Story
(1844-1907) who married the Marquis Simone Peruzzi; Joseph Story (b. 1853), who
died young; Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915), who was also a
sculptor; and Julian Russell Story (1857-1919), a painter who was married twice, both times
to opera singers, his first wife being Emma Eames Story
(1865-1952). Edith Marion Story's portion of the papers consists of a single folder
of outgoing and incoming letters, Julian Russell Story is represented by a single
letter and
a pencil sketch of his niece Gwendolyn as a baby, and Emma Eames Story's portion contains
four outgoing letters. |
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Thomas Waldo Story (called Waldo by his family) is represented largely by incoming
correspondence. Among his correspondents are Bernard Berenson, Richard D'Oyly Carte,
Francis
Marion Crawford, Antonio Mancini, and Walter Richard Sickert. Waldo and his wife,
Maud Broadwood Story (1856-1932) of the English piano manufacturing
family, also kept a book of letters from notable persons The contents are catalogued
in this
guide as part of Waldo's papers under two headings: Recipient (for letters that were
originally laid into the book and were at some point removed and interfiled with the
rest of
his correspondence) and Miscellaneous II (for letters still mounted in the book itself).
Among the correspondents in the book are Gabriele d'Annunzio, Richard Barthelemy,
Lewis
Carroll, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Cecil Rhodes, Auguste Rodin, Siegfried Wagner,
Edith
Wharton, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. |
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Maud's part of the papers consists mostly of incoming correspondence. Some of her
correspondents are Douglas Ainslie, Elinor Glyn, Axel Munthe, Charles Eliot Norton,
Clara
Novello, James Rennell Rodd, and John Singer Sargent. Maud also kept an autograph
book
between the years 1885-1931, which includes greetings and autographs by Robert Browning,
G.
K. Chesterton, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry James, G. B. Shaw, and Oscar Wilde, among
others. |
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The Story Family Collection appears to have come into the possession of Waldo and
Maud
after the death of William Wetmore Story. Many of the documents bear a stamped impression
of
Waldo's name, even when they were produced by older members of the family, and Maud's
handwriting is present throughout the collection in notations written on the backs
of
documents. |
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Waldo and Maud had two children: Gwendolyn Marion Waldo Story Stewart
(1884- ) and Vivien Waldo Story (b. 1890), who died young. Gwendolyn married Romeo
Antonio Gallenga Stuart, who was also known as Courtney Stewart. Gwendolyn is represented
by
five folders of both outgoing and incoming correspondence, the bulk consisting of
letters to
her father, Waldo. |
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A valuable guide to members of the Story family and their circle is Goldia Hester,
Calendar of the Letters of William Wetmore and Emelyn Eldredge Story,
1843-1890 (master's thesis), University of Texas at Austin, 1961. See especially
the index of names mentioned in the correspondence of William and Emelyn. |
