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The six boxes which comprise Add.Ms.b.35-37 contain over 1100 typescript copies of letters written to Sir James George Frazer, arranged by surname of correspondent. Their existence is explained in the archival history above, with related information in the catalogue record for Add.Ms.c.56. The typescripts were made between 1947 and 1955, and are transcripts of letters written between 1888 and 1930, with the bulk dating from 1900-1920, earlier than the closely related Sir James George Frazer Papers also at Trinity College Library. Many of the correspondents here are also represented by letters in the Sir James George Frazer Papers.

The letters document the life and work of social anthropologist and classical scholar Sir James George Frazer. Research strengths include Frazer's writings in the 1900s and 1910s, social anthropology, folklore, classical scholarship, Trinity College academic and social life, and the impact of World War I. There is evidence here of Frazer's support of anthropologists who wished to embark on expeditions, discussions of anthropological theory and classical scholarship, and discussions of books Frazer published during this period: the second and third editions of 'The Golden Bough', as well as 'Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship', 'Adonis, Attis, Osiris', 'Psyche's Task', 'Totemism and Exogamy', 'The Letters of William Cowper', 'The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead', 'The Essays of Joseph Addison', and 'Folk-Lore in the Old Testament'.

Add.Ms.b.35 are the first two boxes in the alphabetic sequence of letters, covering the surnames A-G. There are 383 typescript copies of letters in these first two boxes, as well as three other items catalogued as stand-alone items: typescript copies of an offprint, an extract, and a cutting of an article (Items 351a, 372, and 380a). Of the eleven copies of letters written by J. G. Frazer, five are published in Robert Ackerman's 'Selected Letters of Sir J. G. Frazer', and none are represented by originals in the Add.Ms.c.56-61 series (see the Allied Materials note below). There is one letter written to Lilly Frazer, from Wickham Steed (Item 366).

Most of the letters are from correspondents represented by one or two letters only, but there are four groups of more than 15 letters from one correspondent: from John Sutherland Black (Items 83-95), Edward Clodd (Items 173-197, which include 6 letters written by JGF to Clodd), William Crooke (Items 241-267), and W. Warde Fowler (Items 314-330). There are also two third-party letters: from J. B. Postgate to A. B. Cook (Item 227), and from J. H. Driberg to John Roscoe (Item 284), each probably originally enclosures in letters sent to Frazer. None of these letters are represented by originals in the Add.Ms.c.56-61 series.

Add.Ms.b.36 is part of a group, Add.Ms.b.35-37, which contain over 1100 typescript copies of letters written to Sir James George Frazer, arranged by surname of correspondent. A full description of the group may be found in the scope and content note for Add.Ms.b.35.

ADD.Ms.b.36, the third and fourth boxes in the alphabetic sequence of letters, covers the surnames H-P, and contains 343 typescript copies of letters in these two boxes. Most of the letters are from correspondents represented by two or three letters only, but there are three large groups of letters from one correspondent: Rendel Harris (Items 4-24a), A. W. Howitt (Items 84-100), and James Hope Moulton (Items 243-283). A group of letters from E. S. Hartland also features a roughly equal number of letters from J. G. Frazer (Items 33-62), so that both sides of the correspondence are represented in a way not seen elsewhere in the collection, and on the farther side of inequality, the R. R. Marett letters are almost entirely written to him by J. G. Frazer, with just three of them written by Marett to Frazer (Items 189-211).

Of the 43 copies of letters in ADD.Ms.b.36 written by J. G. Frazer, 25 were published in Robert Ackerman's 'Selected Letters of Sir J. G. Frazer', and none are represented by originals in the ADD.Ms.c.56-61 series (see the Allied Materials note below). There are five letters written to Lilly Frazer (Items 28, 152, 182, 298, 305).

Add.Ms.b.37 is part of a group, Add.Ms.b.35-37, which contain over 1100 typescript copies of letters written to Sir James George Frazer, arranged by surname of correspondent. A full description of the group may be found in the scope and content note for Add.Ms.b.35.

Add.Ms.b.37, the fifth and sixth boxes in the alphabetic sequence of letters, covers the surnames R-Z, and contains 392 typescript copies of letters in these two boxes, two other items catalogued as stand-alone items, and a group of seven items (which aren't copies) found together at the bottom of the second box. The two other copy items are a copy caption by Northcote Thomas for a photograph (Item 274), and a copy of a clipping (Item 389a). The group of seven items (Items 393-399) is miscellaneous original material, and includes a letter from the Trinity College Bursar to the Librarian (Item 393) about a group of Frazer letters sent to him in 1958 (our items Add.Ms.c.56-61); other items, letters and proofs sent to Frazer are closely related to those original manuscripts housed as Add.Ms.c.56-61.

Most of the letters in Add.Ms.b.37 are from correspondents represented by two or three letters only, but there are three large groups of letters from one correspondent: G. G. Ramsay (Items 1-32), Northcote Thomas (Items 261-266, 269-278), and a large cache of letters written by J. G. Frazer to John Roscoe with three letters from Roscoe in the gaps: Items 33-106, 109-144, 146-171.

Of the 146 copies of letters in Add.Ms.b.37 written by J. G. Frazer, five were published in Robert Ackerman's 'Selected Letters of Sir J. G. Frazer', and none are represented by originals in the Add.Ms.c.56-61 series (see allied materials note below). There are ten copies of letters written to Lilly Frazer.

Research rotographs of eight MSS in six different libraries, gathered by Frazer while he was conducting a rescension of the text of Ovid's Fasti for his edition published by Macmillan in 1929, and as part of the Loeb Classical Library in 1931.

The MSS are:

Codex Reginensis sive Petavianus, Manuscript No. 1709, Vatican Library. Frazer notation A [ADD.Ms.b.40]

Codex Mallersdorfiensis sive Monacensis, Lat. 8122, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. Frazer notation D [ADD.Ms.b.41]

Pembroke Ms. No. 280, Pembroke College Library, Cambridge. Frazer notation F [ADD.Ms.b.42]

Codex Mazariniensis, Oxford Manuscript Auct. F. 4. 25, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Frazer notation m [ADD.Ms.b.43]

Codex Mazarinianus, No. 7992, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Frazer notation M [ADD.Ms.b.44]

Codex Ursinianus sive Vaticanus 3262, Vatican Library. Frazer notation U [ADD.Ms.b.45]

Bruxellensis 5369, Bibliothèque Royale, Bruxelles. Frazer notation X [ADD.Ms.b.46]. Accompanied by a note recording an article by Fritz Graebner, 'Alt- und neuweltliche Kalender' in 'Zeitschrift für Ethnologie', 1920.

Reg. Lat 1709A, Vatican Library. [ADD.Ms.b.47]