Abigail Brown Shaw Cole diary

Access and use

Location of collection:
College of William and Mary
Special Collections Research Center
Earl Gregg Swem Library
College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive
PO 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
Contact for questions and access:
Phone: (757) 221-3090
Fax: (757) 221-5440
Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.

Terms of access:

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred citation:

Abigail Brown Shaw Cole diary, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
0.2 Linear Feet One diary, in one folder
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Abigail Brown Shaw Cole diary, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

Diary of an affluent woman living in Richmond, Virginia in the mid-19th century. Her writings include passages about her children, John and Charles, the books she was reading, and her interest in learning to play the piano and speaking French. Roughly half of the pages are filled with writings. Calculations and records for household expenses are written in the back of the diary. A newspaper clipping of "A Song of Affection" is placed between the pages. This diary provides the rare but sheltered perspective of a wealthy, educated white woman in the antebellum south in the years leading up to and after the American Civil War.

Biographical / historical:

Abigail "Abbie" Brown Shaw Cole was born in 1823 in Providence, Rhode Island to Oliver and Sarah Shaw (née Jenckes). Her father was a musician and composer known for his hymns. Abigail married Hanun Wilbur Cole (1816-1885), a merchant and scholar, in 1846 and had three children, John Hanun Cole (b. 1848), Caroline Minna Cole Chapin (b. 1850), Charles D'Urban Morris Cole (b. 1861). Charles would go on to graduate from Harvard in 1883 and receive a law degree from Columbia Law School. He later became an organizer of the Morristown Civic Association. John also received a law degree as well from Harvard University and established a private practice in New York in 1880. The Cole family lived in Providence, Rhode Island, Richmond, Virginia, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City, New York over the years. Abigail passed away in 1906 in Springfield, Massachusetts. She is buried at Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island.

Arrangement:

Collection consists of a single diary.

Physical description:
Cover and first page of diary detached, spine deteriorated
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard