The Lewis Walpole Library in
Farmington, Connecticut
Farmington is a town in Hartford County in the Farmington Valley area of central Connecticut in the United States. The population was 26,712 at the 2020 census. It sits 10 miles west of Hartford at the hub of major I-84 interchanges, 20 miles s ...
, possesses important collections of 18th-century British literary remains, including an unrivalled quantity of
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician.
He had Strawb ...
's papers and effects from his estate at
Strawberry Hill.
[Official Website of the Lewis Walpole Library]
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The collections include 18th-century British books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, and paintings, as well as important examples of the decorative arts. They were gathered by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (1895–1979, a graduate of Yale in 1918) and his wife Annie Burr Lewis (1902–1959) in a group of 18th-century buildings at Farmington. The Lewis Walpole Library was presented to Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
, of whose Library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
it forms a department. Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis also left two volumes of memoirs, much of them relevant to the library: ''Collectors Progress'' (1946) and ''One Man's Education'' (1967).[Yale University advertisement: ''London Review of Books, 8 March 2018, p. 45.]
Publications
*''The Age of Horace Walpole and Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis: an exhibit marking the fortieth jubilee of the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence and the fiftieth of the Lewis Walpole Library at Farmington tthe College Library and the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, October 29 through November 19, 1973.''
*''The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence'' (48 volumes)
References
Yale University Library
Farmington, Connecticut
Art museums and galleries in Connecticut
Walpole, Horace
Libraries in Hartford County, Connecticut
Special collections libraries in the United States
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