Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- July–Dec. 1818 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 volume, measuring about 27 x 24 x 5 cm, containing a title-leaf, four blank leaves, and 78 letters and other papers pasted onto guards. There is a stiff fly-leaf at the front and another at the back. Half-bound in light-brown leather and marbled paper.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dawson Turner was born and spent much of his life at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. He was admitted as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1793, but returned to Yarmouth before graduating, in order to take his place in the family banking business.
For some years Turner's chief interest was botany, particularly mosses, and he published several works on the subject and corresponded with many of the notable botanists of his day. In later life he concentrated on antiquarian pursuits, amassing a valuable collection of historical documents and autographs, as well as a substantial library which was eventually dispersed in a series of sales. He was a Fellow of various learned bodies, including the Royal Society, the Linnaean Society, and the Society of Antiquaries.
In 1796 Turner married Mary Palgrave, by whom he had eight surviving children. Mary Turner and her daughters were talented amateur artists; they were tutored in drawing by John Sell Cotman and also mastered the arts of etching and lithography. Between them they produced a significant number of sketches and prints, especially portraits and architectural studies, examples of which were often used by their father to embellish his books.
Repository
Archival history
See the general note under O.13.1. The following letters were removed from the volume before it came to the Library. Their current locations, where known, are shown in brackets.
Letter from Elizabeth Turner (to Katherine Simpson), 1 July (TURN III, A21, No. 6).
Letter from Mary Turner, 1 July (TURN II KK4/20).
Letter from Mary Turner, 4 July (TURN II KK4/21).
Letter from Harriet and Mary Turner, 5 July (TURN II I1/5).
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 12 July.
Letter from Elizabeth and Mary Turner, 21–22 July (TURN II, S2/3).
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 24 July.
Letter from Mary Turner (to William and Jane Palgrave), 24 July (TURN II KK1/2).
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 27 July.
Letter from Edward Maltby, 28 July (TURN II R1/1).
Letter from Elizabeth Turner (to W. J. Hooker) and Dawson Turner (to Maria Hooker), 28–30 July (TURN III A21, No. 8).
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 30 July.
Copy of a letter from J. S. Cotman, 18 Aug.
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 28 Aug.
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 31 Aug.
Letter from Harriet and Mary Anne Turner, 18 Oct. (TURN II I1/6).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 20 Oct. (TURN III A10/32).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 5 Nov. (TURN III A10/33).
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 13 Nov. (TURN III A10/34).
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 5 Aug.
The letter from Edward Maltby was probably cut out by mistake when an adjacent letter was removed. The Index in O.13.15 lists a letter from Sir Joseph Banks of 29 November, but this is a reference to a letter of 1817 (O.13.14, No. 125), mistakenly omitted from the Index for that year.
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This description was created by A. C. Green in 2021.