Ulysses S. Milburn Collection of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist was born July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts and was educated at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. He married Sophia Amelia Peabody in 1842 and settled in Concord, Massachusetts. In 1846 Hawthorne became surveyor of the Salem customhouse and in 1850 he moved to Lenox where he wrote House of the Seven Gables in 1851. In 1852 he became the consulate in Liverpool, England for four years and lived in Italy for a couple of years before returning to the United States. He died on May 19, 1864 while on a trip to the mountains and the seashore with Franklin Pierce our 14th president. Ulysses S. Milburn was born and raised in Union, Ohio. He was educated at St. Lawrence University Theological School, Canton, New York. By the time he graduated in 1891 collecting books became his hobby. He married Alice J. Dinmore on October 9, 1911 in Oneonta, New York. He moved to Salem, Massachusetts in 1913 where he focused his collecting interest on Nathaniel Hawthorne. He spent the rest of his life collecting Hawthorne material relying on Nina Brown's Bibliography of Hawthorne (1903) and after that date he consulted annual bibliographies to keep his efforts current. St. Lawrence University was presented with his collection in 1949.

Most of the documents relate to Hawthorne's business and financial affairs. Also included are prints, photographs, and pamphlets relating to Hawthorne's literary career. Dr. Milburn has also included a scrapbook of letters, newspaper clippings, speeches and articles regarding the history of his collection. In addition, the original card catalogue made by Milburn describing the contents of the entire collection is included. The last series of the collection are magazines that contain articles written about Hawthorne and his works. Hawthorne's books and articles can be found in the libraries' online catalogue. A published bibliography of the collection is available.