Hudson family papers
Scope and Contents
The Hudson Family Papers relate primarily to physician, abolitionist, and social reformer Erasmus Darwin Hudson, Sr. His correspondence (1825-65) to and from family and friends includes commentary on anti-slavery and Civil War era events and personalities. Notable correspondents or individuals mentioned include abolitionist and women's rights advocate Abigail Kelley Foster, social reformers Parker Pillsbury and Wendell Phillips, and clergyman Theodore Parker. Other items of interest are E.D. Hudson Sr.'s address "Intemperance" (1828), a manuscript and typescript of his journal, "Anti-Slavery Campaign" (1842-43), and E.D. Hudson, Jr's 1864 address, "Conquest Through Self Conquest."
Dates of Materials
- 1825-1865
Creator
- Hudson family (Family)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright to the works created by Hudson Family members is unknown. Copyright to materials authored by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Erasmus Darwin Hudson, Sr. was born December 15,1806 in Torringford (now part of Torrington), Connecticut, to Daniel and Rhoda Fowler Hudson. He studied medicine with Dr. Remus M. Fowler in New Marlboro, Massachusetts, and continued his studies at Berkshire Medical College (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), a branch of Williams College, where he received his M.D. in 1827. That same year Hudson married Martha Turner, daughter of Deacon Isaac and Martha Humphrey Turner of Marlboro, MA. They had two sons, Erasmus Darwin , Jr. (1843-87) and Daniel Wyatt.
He had a private medical practice in Bloomfield, CT in 1828 to 1833 and worked as a physician and surgeon at the Connecticut State Emigrant Hospital. During that time, he became involved in temperance advocacy, philanthropic work and the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, later as the Society's lecturing agent (1838-39) and as the National Anti-Slavery Society's general agent (1839-50). . In 1850 Hudson became a general and orthopedic surgeon in Springfield, Massachusetts, then in New York City through 1880.
During the Civil War Hudson served on the Commission from the Surgeon General of the United States Army for the treatment of wounded soldiers in need of amputation and resection at a number of military hospitals. During this time he invented an orthopedic apparatus for which he received awards. Erasmus Darwin Hudson died of pneumonia on December 31, 1880 in Riverside, Greenwich, Connecticut.
[source: Inventory to Hudson Family Papers, compiled by Laurie B. Gaus, UMASS-Amherst Archives and Manuscripts October 1983]
Extent
0.438 linear feet (1 container)
Abstract
Papers relate primarily to physician, abolitionist, and social reformer Erasmus Darwin Hudson. Included are the manuscript and typescript of his journal, "Anti-Slavery Campaign" (1842-43); and his correspondence (1825-65) to and from family and friends includes commentary on anti-slavery and Civil War era events and personalities such as Abigail Kelley Foster, Parker Pillsbury, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore Parker.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Hudson Family Papers were given to the Sophia Smith Collection by an unknown donor circa 1963. Additional papers of the Hudson Family are housed at the Department of Special Collections and Archives, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Processing Information
Further processing done, and finding aid revised, by Annie-Sage Whitehurst, Fraenkel intern, 2009
- Abolitionists
- American Anti Slavery Society
- Anti-slavery movements -- United States
- Antislavery movements
- Family -- United States -- 19th century
- Foster, Abigail Kelley, 1810-1887
- Hudson family
- Hudson, C.E.
- Hudson, Erasmus Darwin, 1806-1880
- Northampton Association of Education and Industry
- Parker, Theodore, 1810-1860
- Phillips, Wendell, 1811-1884
- Pillsbury, Parker, 1809-1898
- Social reformers -- United States
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
- correspondence
- diaries
- Title
- Hudson family papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2009-07-30: Finding aid revised after further processing, July 2009
- 2017-07-26T17:48:16-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
