C. P. Cranch papers

This collection is comprised of manuscripts written by Christopher Pearse Cranch (C.P. Cranch), including a hand-written autobiography, correspondence between C.P. Cranch and his family and friends, a scrapbook (mostly of published copies of C.P. Cranch’s work), and written notes and illustrations created by C. P. Cranch.

The collection has been organized based on how his daughter, Leonora Cranch Scott, organized the documents while she was researching the materials for use in her biography of her father, The Life and Letters of Christopher Pearse Cranch. Many of the folders contain a typed inventory of the included documents. If an inventory was present, the documents were sorted following the order stated in the inventory. If no inventory was present, the items were then sorted alphabetically. Titles for folders or untitled poems were taken from the inventories wherever possible.

C.P.Cranch’s autobiography and the scrapbook have been housed in custom-made boxes to help protect them. They are included in the Biographical series.

The correspondence is organized by last name of the author of the correspondence, with the contents of the folder arranged chronologically. The correspondents included in the family letters folders are either unidentified or have few letters to or from them, and were thus grouped together. Cranch’s correspondents include his father, Judge William Cranch, his siblings (most particularly his brother, Edward Pope Cranch), and his friends (Johns S. Dwight, Theodore Parker, George William Curtis, and Margaret Fuller, among others).

C.P. Cranch’s letters to his family most often describe his daily activities, while his letters to his friends often delve into theological, literary, and personal matters. He maintained a strong friendship with his brother Edward primarily through letters, as they were not able to see each other often, and C.P. Cranch’s letters often lament this fact.

The Oversize Materials series contains those letters that were deemed too fragile to be handled directly. They were unfolded and placed in mylar sleeves to provide access to the content. The letters were then sorted in this series in the same order they would have had if they had been included in the Correspondence series.