Details

Abstract / Summary

Hannah ("Anna") Davis Gale (1818-1851) and her brother Frederick William Gale (1816-1854) were born in Northborough, Massachusetts, the children of Captain Cyrus Gale (1795- ) and Eliza Davis Gale ( -1821). Eliza Gale was a sister of Massachusetts governor John Davis (1787-1854). Frederick, a member of the Harvard class of 1836, studied at Harvard Law School and practiced law in Worcester with his uncle, Isaac Davis (1799-1883), and in St. Louis, Missouri. After the deaths of his first wife and only child, he traveled in Europe for three years, from April 1847 to August 1850. His sister Anna, whose life was much more sedentary, spent the winter of 1837-1838 at the Greene Street School in Providence, Rhode Island, where she was a student of Margaret Fuller (1810-1850). She married George Barnes (1815-1900) on 10 November 1842.

This collection consists of letters written by or to Anna and Frederick, as well as a journal kept by Anna while a student at the Greene Street School. The letters are significant for their descriptions of Worcester social life, school days, and family affairs. One letter, dated 12 August 1834, concerns a nativist-inspired attack upon a convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The journal includes detailed impressions of Anna's teacher, Margaret Fuller.

A collection calendar and index by Loriman S. Brigham are included in the collection.

Field of Interest

Letters and Diaries

Content Type

Letter

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

2023

Publication Year

2011

Publisher

Alexander Street

Place Published / Released

Alexandria, VA

Subject

Letters and Diaries, History, Daily Life