Vassar College has just become a preeminent source of books, manuscripts, and ephemera related to prominent 19th-century abolitionist and author Harriet Beecher Stowe, thanks to a gift from Mary C. Schlosser, Vassar Class of 1951. The Mary C. Schlosser–Harriet Beecher Stowe Collection centers around Stowe’s seminal work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the best-selling novel of the 19th century and second only to the Bible as the best-selling book.

Comprising more than 500 items, the collection features all 40 issues of the abolitionist weekly The National Era in which Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first serialized in 1851, as well as the 1852 first edition of the printed book and Stowe’s handwritten manuscripts. Advertisements, playbills from staged productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ceramic plates, and other memorabilia round out the collection.

“This is one of the greatest acquisitions for the Archives and Special Collections Library during my 25-year career here,” noted Vassar’s Head of Special Collections and College Historian Ronald Patkus. “We are extremely grateful for this wonderful gift, produced by an alum and member of the Beecher family. As the largest and most important collection of this kind in private hands, it will add considerably to Vassar’s holdings and provide an outstanding resource for teaching and research.”

Mary C. Schlosser, a descendant of one of Stowe’s 10 siblings (another sibling was a Vassar trustee), began collecting rare editions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the 1960s. She said she chose Vassar to receive the collection because of her enduring fondness for the College, where she had an “absolutely splendid” experience as an art history major, and because of Vassar’s unique approach to allowing undergraduates access to its Archives and Special Collections.

“The great thing about Vassar is, to this day, they don’t lock all their rare books up so that nobody can touch them,” Schlosser said. “There are limitations to the use of rare-book libraries in many bigger institutions. I just think that it’s too bad if you have to be a high-level graduate student in order to be able to handle the special books. One of the big draws was that the books I would give to Vassar would be available to the student body to handle and look at, and people wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, you can’t touch that—that’s a first edition.’”

Harriet Beecher Stowe intended Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a rallying cry against slavery in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required ordinary citizens to help capture people fleeing enslavement. The book became a cultural phenomenon the likes of which had never been seen before, with printing presses running 24 hours a day to meet the demand.

“Few would argue with the claim that the novel is one of the most significant in American history,” said Patkus. “In offering a portrait of slavery, it touched a nerve in public life, and millions of copies were sold both in the United States and in other countries around the world.”

Meanwhile, in the decades following the original publication, stage adaptations were performed throughout the country—some of which, particularly in the South, complicated the book’s legacy by changing the story and attributes of the book’s title character in order to thwart Stowe’s abolitionist message.

“To think about 19th century American culture, you have to be able to contend with Uncle Tom’s Cabin in all of its messiness,” said Vassar Assistant Professor of English Blevin Shelnutt, who teaches Stowe’s novel at Vassar as an example of the sentimental literary tradition shaped by 19th century women authors. Shelnutt added that she looks forward to using the Mary C. Schlosser–Harriet Beecher Stowe Collection as a teaching tool. “The texts that we’re reading aren’t just linguistic arrangements; they actually have these material lives that affect the way that they’re received and carry meaning,” she said. “I feel really lucky to have this kind of proximity to a collection of this magnitude and importance for 19th century American culture.”

About Vassar College

Founded in 1861 and based in Poughkeepsie, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus, just 85 miles north of New York City. Originally founded to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, Vassar became coeducational in 1969.