Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1810 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
1 volume, measuring about 27 x 24 x 5.5. cm, containing a title-leaf, an index, four blank leaves, and 123 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 In later life he concentrated on antiquarian pursuits, amassing a valuable collection of historical documents and autographs, as well as a substantial library which was eventually dispersed in a series of sales.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 W. J. Hooker, 22 Feb. 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 16 Mar. 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 5 Apr. 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 4 May 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 16 May 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 26 May 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 29 May 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 2 June 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 28 July 1810.
Letter from L. W. Dillwyn, 21 Aug. 1810.
Letter from Dawson Turner to Maria Hooker, 29 Oct. 1810.
Letter from W. J. Hooker, 2 Nov. 1810.
Letter from J. S. Cotman, 24 Nov. 1810.
Letter from Hudson Gurney, 30 Nov. 1810 (TURN II K1/12).
The volume Index and the General Index (O.14.51) also refer to a letter of this year from Maria Turner, but the place from which it was removed has not been located. The volume Index also lists a letter from Ellen Hutchins of 28 July, but this may be a mistake, since the letter is not mentioned in the General Index, and though there are traces of an item having been removed where a letter of 28 July would be expected to be, this was almost certainly W. J. Hooker’s letter of that date.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
On the spine is stamped ‘CORRESPONDENCE | JAN.–DEC. | 1810’. Turner has marked some of the letters with the date of reply.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The documents are numbered in the order in which they stand.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
- German
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Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
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Notes area
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Dates of creation revision deletion
This description was created by A. C. Green in 2021.