Guide to the George W. Potter and Alfred M. Williams Memorial Manuscript Collection, 1899-1981

(bulk 1949-1960)


Providence Public Library Special Collections
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel: 401-455-8021
Fax: 401-455-8065
email: special_collections@provlib.org

Published in 2014

Collection Overview

Title: George W. Potter and Alfred M. Williams Memorial Manuscript Collection
Date range: 1899-1981, (bulk 1949-1960)
Creator: Potter, George W.
Extent: 2 linear feet
Abstract: The Potter MSS span the years 1899-1981 with a greater concentration on 1949-1960. It begins with Alfred M. Williams’s small collection of writings donated posthumously in 1899 and ends in 1981 with correspondence and related material to and from Providence Public Library’s Special Collections curator Virginia M. Adams.
Language of materials: English
Repository: Providence Public Library Special Collections
Collection number: PotterMSS

Scope & content

The Potter MSS span the years 1899-1981 with a greater concentration on 1949-1960. It begins with Alfred M. Williams’s small collection of writings donated posthumously in 1899 and ends in 1981 with correspondence and related material to and from Providence Public Library’s Special Collections curator Virginia M. Adams. The bulk of the material is by George W. Potter and includes his rough draft of To the Golden Door: the History of the Irish in Ireland and America. Also included is Potter’s correspondence with librarians, Irish writers and readers, and a collection of newspaper clippings about Irish history and related news. His manuscripts and clippings show how close his relationship was with the Irish literary world and how instrumental he was in printing works by Irish writers in the Providence Journal.

Most of the other correspondence is from the Providence Public Library librarians Clarence E. Sherman, Stuart C. Sherman and Virginia M. Adams. These letters span the dates 1949-1981 with the bulk of them dating 1949-1960. These letters show day to day activities of the librarians dealing with developing and maintaining the collection, providing service to academic institutions, hosting events and exhibits showcasing their unique collection, and other developments. These activities illuminate how much of a priority maintaining the collection was to the library and how important it was for the librarians to educate the public about Irish culture and history.

The miscellaneous material provides random information such as a list of the Williams Memorial Advisory Committee
and their addresses, a list of Rhode Island Irish Societies
, the financial history of the collection, collection description with emphasis on the facsimiles of the Lindsfarne Gospels, the Book of Durrow and the Book of Kells, several photographs of Potter and other committee members, and miscellaneous unidentified correspondence. The original order of the collection is unknown.

Access Points

Subject Names Subject Topics Document Types

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into 6 series.

  • Series I. Alfred M. Williams Manuscripts Alfred M. Williams's small collection of manuscripts, deposited with the Providence Public Library in 1899 by Benjamin B. Edmands, provide the starting point of the collection. The structure of the writing shows that it is mostly poetic and proves that Williams spent much time writing his own poems. There is also a written and transcribed account of a British ship captured by pirates in 1828. This is the only collection of manuscripts written by Williams. The second folder includes a photocopy of the manuscripts in the first folder.
  • Series II: Correspondence

    View a PDF of the correspondent list included in this series. There are more than sixty names which are either illegible or only a first name is given.

    Subseries A. George W. Potter Correspondence (1949-1956)

    Subseries B: Clarence E. Sherman Correspondence, Librarian, Providence Public Library (1948-1956)

    Subseries C: Stuart C. Sherman Correspondence, Librarian, Providence Public Library (1948-1967)

    Subseries D: Correspondence and related material to and from Virginia M. Adams, Special Collections Curator (1969-1981)

    Subseries E: Miscellaneous Correspondence (1949-1981)

  • Series III: George W. Potter To the Golden Door Rough Draft and Research Notes Typed rough draft of Potter's posthumously published book, To the Golden Door: the Story of the Irish and Ireland in America. These manuscripts illustrate extensive research done by Potter on Irish immigration and cultural trends from the late 17th to the mid 19th century. Although he begins with a history of Ireland in ancient times through the Protestant Reformation and English rule, most of the research focuses on immigration trends, and the Irish experience in America up until the Civil War. The book is separated into three parts, Part I has 20 chapters, Part II with only 4, and Part III with 22. Each chapter also has no more than twenty numbered parts, some only having one. The draft is numbered and arranged much differently than the book and thus makes it difficult to navigate through. Part I is the same as the published version word for word and has no cross outs or corrections. It is followed by another clean and unedited Section II-V, which is assumed to be alternative research that is difficult to locate in the published version. The part of the draft labeled Part II follows these sections with a lot of cross outs and corrections in pen and pencil. This draft gives evidence of extensive and time consuming extra research that was not printed in the published version. The draft is arranged in 16 folders of approximately one inch thick. An additional folder contains random research notes presumably for his research for To the Golden Door.
  • Series IV: Information about the Williams Memorial Collection This single folder contains lists, descriptions, rules regarding borrowing, receipts and donation information pertaining to the collection. Some descriptions give full detail of items of significant historic value. A reproduction of the Book of Kells, representing the four gospels in Latin and one of the finest examples of early Christian Art in Ireland, is one of the treasures of the collection. A number of lectures and exhibits highlighting its historic value are mentioned in several documents. There is a small number of letters highlighting the collection's subject strengths including folklore, poetry, fiction and periodicals. Other lists in the folder include material from Potter's donated estate, books and pamphlets donated by National Library of Ireland, Irish street ballads, Irish writers, and the financial history of the collection. Receipts from Hodges Figgis and Co. show it to be one of the collection's primary vendors.
  • Series V: Newspaper Clippings These three folders contain unorganized newspaper clippings assumed to have been cut out by Potter. Many of the articles were written by Potter, Irish writers, or simply dealt with Irish and Irish American related news. Some articles were of a series entitled An Irish Pilgrimage, which was later published into a collection in book form. There is also a large group of articles written by Potter about the life of Alfred M. Williams.
  • Series VI: Miscellaneous Materials Some items in the miscellaneous manuscript folder: The Constitution of the Eire Society of Boston, list of members of the Alfred M. Williams Memorial Advisory Committee, list of Irish Societies, brief descriptions of Irish painters, a description of the 1916 Easter Rebellion Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and other biographical information about notable Irish citizens. Some of the items in the miscellaneous printed material folder include an Irish Digest pictorial calendar, the Providence Public Library's Reader's Guide to Books, announcements of Irish cultural events, the Irish Manuscripts Commission Catalog of Publications and a resolution of the Providence City Council paying tribute to the late George W. Potter. The few photographs and negatives in the last folder are of Potter, several notable politicians and librarians, a photographed portrait of Williams, and one of the Easter Proclamation of 1916.

Biographical note

Alfred Mason Williams

Williams was born in Taunton, Massachusetts on October 23, 1840. He was the son of Lloyd Hall and Prudence King Williams. He attended the Bristol Academy and entered Brown University in the class of 1860. During the Civil War, he abandoned his studies and was enlisted as a private in the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
and wrote letters from the front to various newspapers. After the war, he went to Ireland as a foreign correspondent to report on the Fenian trials for the Boston Post and the New York Herald. He collected Irish broadside ballads which led to his lifelong interest in folklore. He was also interested in Irish poetry and this led to his publication of an anthology of Irish poetry in 1881. In 1875, he was hired as a reporter for the Providence Journal where he wrote editorials. In 1884 he became editor-in-chief of the paper. He started a Sunday edition in 1885 and in it he published poems and articles by Irish writers. He also made the Journal one of the strongest advocates in America for Irish home rule.

After his wife died in 1886, he made a second trip to Ireland and met many young talented Irish writers including Katharine Tynan and William Butler Yeats. Williams published much of their work in the Journal and this gave many Americans weekly access to Irish literature. Williams’s ill health due to malaria he contracted during the Civil War led to his retirement from the Journal in 1891 and he died five years later while on a visit to
St. Kitts in the Eastern
Caribbean. Having no children, he donated his entire estate, appraised at $250,000, to the Providence Public Library
. Today it’s estimated worth is $4,300,000. Thus began a unique collection of Irish history literature and folklore that continued to expand through the 20th Century.

George W. Potter

Providence Journal’s chief editor and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, George W. Potter did extensive research on Irish history and culture and wrote books and articles about it. In 1950, a series of 17 articles written by him in the Journal about people, life and culture in contemporary
Ireland was published under the title An Irish Pilgrimage. His other work, To the Golden Door: The Story of Irish in Ireland and America was published in 1960, a year after his death. Potter also wrote a series of articles about Alfred M. Williams and helped the library establish a center for Irish studies called the “Alfred M. Williams Memorial” in 1949. He acquired many rare and valuable documents and books during his trips to Ireland including an original copy of the 1916 broadside proclamation declaring Ireland’s independence. In 1950 the library purchased around 400 pamphlets that had been in the library of Holland House, a Tudor mansion. They date from 1730 to 1885 and relate mainly to the Act of Union, Catholic emancipation, and British policy toward Ireland. It was at this time that the National Library of Ireland gave many duplicate broadside ballads and about a hundred books to the Williams Memorial. Potter was responsible for helping the library amass one of the finest collections outside of Ireland of Irish literature and history. After Potter died in 1959 the library renamed the collection the “George W. Potter and Alfred M. Williams Memorial on Irish Culture.” Over the years many have donated to the collection. The manuscript collection includes many printed materials, manuscripts to and from Potter as well as other librarians and book distributors, and documents.

Access & Use

Access to the collection: There are no restrictions on access. This collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Providence Public Library Special Collections department.
Use of the materials: Researchers are requested to cite the collection name and the Providence Public Library in all bibliographic references.
Preferred citation: George W. Potter and Alfred M. Williams Memorial Manuscript Collection , PotterMSS, Providence Public Library.
Contact information: Providence Public Library Special Collections
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
Tel: 401-455-8021
Fax: 401-455-8065
email: special_collections@provlib.org

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION  
Acquisition: Alfred M. Williams's small collection of manuscripts, deposited with the Providence Public Library in 1899 by Benjamin B. Edmands, provide the starting point of the collection.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID  
Author: Finding aid prepared by Eric Boutin, September-November 2009.
Encoding: Finding aid encoded by Stacie M. Parillo 2014 December 10.
Descriptive rules: Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS).

Additional Information

Inventory

Series I. Alfred M. Williams Manuscripts

Box 1, Folder 1 Poems and Miscellaneous Written Accounts
Box 1, Folder 2 Photocopies of Williams Manuscripts

Series II. Correspondence
View a PDF of the correspondent list included in this series. There are more than sixty names which are either illegible or only a first name is given.

George W. Potter Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 3 Letters to: 1949
Box 1, Folder 4 Letters to: 1950
Box 1, Folder 5 Letters to: 1951-1952
Box 1, Folder 6 Letters to: 1953-1956
Box 1, Folder 7 Post Cards, Note Cards, Western Union and Exhibit Cards
Box 1, Folder 8 Greeting Cards
Box 1, Folder 9 Letters from: 1949-1954

Clarence E. Sherman Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 10 Letters to: 1948-1956
Box 1, Folder 11 Letters from: 1948-1956

Stuart C. Sherman Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 12 Letters to: 1948-1965
Box 1, Folder 13 Letters from: 1948-1967

Virginia M. Adams Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 14 Letters to and from: 1969-1981

Miscellaneous Correspondence

Box 1, Folder 15 1949-1981

Series III. George W. Potter Manuscripts: To the Golden Door Rough Draft

Box 1, Folder 16 Part I: Where They Came From pp. 1-132
Contents Note: Ch. I: “Top of the Morning”

Ch. II: The Irish Face of the Church

Ch. III: Ireland’s Isolation is Broken

Ch. IV: The Irish Meet the Tudors

Ch. V: The Irish Reject the Reformation

Ch. VI: Ireland is Confiscated

Ch. VII: The Conquest is Completed

Ch. VIII: There’ll be Changes Made

Ch. IX: The Protestant Century
Box 1, Folder 17 Prefamine in Ireland pp. 133-256
Contents Note: Ch. I: Across the Irishman’s Heart

Ch. II: The Hierarchy of Opposition

Ch. III: A Rural Proletariat

Ch. IV: “Ill Fed, Ill Clad, and Ill Lodged

Ch. V: The Poor Supported the Poor

Ch. VI: The Midnight Legislators
Box 1, Folder 18 Prefamine in Ireland (cont.) pp. 257-341
Contents Note: Missing p. 306

Ch. VII: Ribbonmen and Unions

Ch. VIII: The Faction-Fighting Irishmen

Ch. IX: Landlord’s Law in the Courts

Ch. X: Old Hands in Politics

Ch. XI: “Catholic Verses Protestant”

Ch. XII: The Faith of Patrick
Box 1, Folder 19 Prefamine in Ireland (cont.) 342-427
Contents Note: Missing pp. 382-385

Ch. XIII: “Soggarth Aroon”

Ch. XIV: The Earth Worker Arises

Ch. XV: A Look at the Catholic Irish

Ch. XVI: “The Invisible World of Ireland”

Ch. XVII: Irish Humor and Eloquence

Ch. XVIII: Irish Village Life

Ch. XIX: Emergence form Penal Bondage
Box 1, Folder 20 Section II: pp. 168-281
Contents Note: Grouped in five paper clipped packets:

pp. 168-181

pp. 192-214

pp. 215-226

pp. 227-266
Box 1, Folder 21 Section III: pp.282-379
Contents Note: Four packets:

pp. 282-323

pp. 324-336

pp. 337-348

pp. 349-379
Box 1, Folder 22 Section IV: pp.380-426 and Section V: pp. 427-517
Box 1, Folder 23 Part II: “How they Got Across the Ocean” pp. 1-115
Contents Note: Ch. I: Ways and Means
Box 1, Folder 24 Part III: What Befell them in America, Ch. I-IV pp. 1-83
Box 1, Folder 25 Part III (cont.): Ch. V-VI pp.83-227
Box 1, Folder 26 Part III (cont.): Ch. VII pp. 1-89/1-40
Contents Note: Ends at 89 and starts at 1 again
Box 2, Folder 1 Part III (cont.): Ch. VIII and Ch. IX The Building of the Church pp. 4-152
Contents Note: Missing pp.1-3
Box 2, Folder 2 Part III (cont.): pp.153-316
Contents Note: Ch. X: The Anti-Abolitionist Irish

Ch. XI: The River Repeal Agitation

Ch. XII: Blood on the Moon

Box 2, Folder 3 Part III (cont.): pp.1-142
Contents Note: Ch. XIII: Intermezzo, 1840s

Ch. XIV: "The Hunger is Upon us"

Ch. XV: "And Still They Come"

Box 2, Folder 4 Part III (cont.): pp. 143-318
Contents Note: Ch. XVI: They Fight Catholic Mexico

Ch. XVII: The Widow McCormick's Cabbage Patch

Ch. XVIII: The Long and Dark Probation

Box 2, Folder 5 Part III (cont.): Ch. XIX-XXI pp. 1-182, XXII: 1-42, and XXIII: 1-16
Contents Note: Ch. XIX: On the Course of Empire

Ch. XX: The Birth of Feminism

Ch. XXI: "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Irishmen"

Ch. XXII: "Give Me Again My Harp of Yew…"

Ch. XXIII: "The Union Must be Preserved"

Box 2, Folder 6 Miscellaneous handwritten notes by George W. Potter

Series IV. Collection Description

Box 2, Folder 7 include lists of materials in collection, descriptions of particular items, receipts, and highlights of the collection.

Series V. Miscellaneous News Paper Clippings

Box 2, Folder 8 Miscellaneous News Paper Clippings
Contents Note: Bulk of clippings from the Providence Journal.

Box 2, Folder 9 Miscellaneous News Paper Clippings, continued
Contents Note: Bulk of clippings from the Providence Journal.

Box 2, Folder 10 Miscellaneous News Paper Clippings, continued
Contents Note: Bulk of clippings from the Providence Journal.

Series VI. Miscellaneous Materials

Box 2, Folder 11 Manuscripts
Box 2, Folder 12 Printed Material
Box 2, Folder 13 Photographs