MSS 2/076-01: Correspondence and photographs, 1855 - 1932

This small collection of correspondence, 1855-1881, documents the personal life, particularly the youth, of William W. Keen. Also included are three photographs of Keen and his wife, Emma Corinna (Borden) Keen, 1921 and undated; biographical information concerning Keen's military career and estate, 1923-1932; and two lecture admission tickets from the Philadelphia School of Anatomy, circa 1866.

Major correspondents in Series 2.1 are Keen's father, William W. Keen (1797-1882), his elder brother, Charles B. Keen, and sisterin law, Harriet. The extensive series of letters from father to son, 1855-1862, concern many family matters, Keen's undergraduate education at Brown University, bank failures in Philadelphia in 1857, and impressions of the beginnings of the Civil War. The letters from Charles B. Keen, 1859-1865, and Harriet Keen, 1865, give vivid accounts of popular reaction in Philadelphia to the final events of the Civil War, including the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Robert E. Lee, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Also contained in this series are three letters, 1881, from Keen and his wife to their four daughters. These letters, written at sea and in England, describe the Keen's transatlantic voyage and impressions of London and Oxford.

The letters in Series 2.2 are from friends of William W. Keen who were associated with his student days at Brown University. There are detailed accounts of army life during the Civil War from Samuel T. Poinier, G. L. Porter, who was a physician during the war, and H. K. Porter. The series of letters from H. K. Porter, 1860-1864, also describe Porter's student life at Brown and the Newton Theological Institution and his attachment to "Tinnie" [Emma Corinna Borden] who later became the wife of William W. Keen. Also included are several letters from Lizzie C. Sears, the daughter of Barnas Sears, president of Brown University.