George Griffin papers
Content Description
This collection consists of personal and literary letters to George Griffin, as well as his daughter, Caroline Lydia Griffin. Of note, is correspondence with Lydia Sigourney, a significant poet at that time, from Hartford, Connecticut. It includes her poem, "On the death of Zerlina Thorne," and a letter devoted to her efforts to meet Charles Dickens, a poem, "Welcome to Charles Dickens, Esq." which was read to him at a banquet in Hartford two days learlier; a signed holograph poem, "Friendship with the Dead, Occasioned by the Recollections of Rev'd E.D. Griffin.” Also included is "On the parting of the Rev'd E. D. Griffin with his Little Sister". Other highlights include 24 letters from theologian James Waddell Alexander to Caroline Griffin from 1845 to 1855.
Other correspondents include John C. Calhoun to Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin, Sanitary Commission founder Henry W. Bellows, sculptor Horatio Greenough, historian William Hickling Prescott, Episcopalian bishops Alonzo Potter and John Henry Hobart, and Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth.
Dates
- Creation: 1829 - 1855
Creator
- Griffin, Caroline Lydia, 1820-1861 (Person)
- Sigourney, L. H. (Lydia Howard), 1791-1865 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is minimally processed and open for research.
Biographical / Historical
George Griffin (January 14, 1778 – May 6, 1860) was an American lawyer and author.
He was son of George Griffin, and was born January 14, 1778, at East Haddam, Connecticut. He was a younger brother of Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin.
After graduating from Yale University in 1797, he began to study law with Noah B. Benedict of Woodbury, Connecticut. Six months later he went to the Litchfield Law School, and there completed his preparatory studies. In December, 1799, he was admitted to the bar, and in the summer of 1800 he located himself at Wilksbarre, Pennsylvania, and there pursued the business of his profession for six years. In the autumn of 1806 he removed to the city of New York, where he thenceforth resided, holding a high rank in the profession.
For ten years or more before his death he gradually withdrew from the practice of law, and devoted much time to theological studies and to general literature. As the fruit of these studies he published two works entitled, severally, The Sufferings of our Saviour, and the Evidences of Christianity.
He died in New York City, May 6, 1860, aged 82.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Griffin_(author)
Extent
0.04 Cubic Feet (1 legal sized folder. )
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was purchased from Swann Galleries by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on November 17, 2020.
- Title
- Guide to the George Griffin papers
- Author
- Rose Oliveira
- Date
- 20 January 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library Repository
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
P.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22904-4110 United States