Harriet Plimpton collection, 1812-1978

Full finding aid (pdf)

Collection Scope and Content

This collection includes typescripts, correspondence, photographs, a 1905-1909 diary, and memorabilia. Also in collection are an 1812 math exercise book once belonging to her great-grandfather Elias Plimpton and a small sculpture of a mother duck and five ducklings made of metal with a slate base.

Biographical/Historical Note

Harriet Plimpton was born in New York to Dr. Warren Oscar and Harriet (Stevens) Plimpton in 1892. She was the great-granddaughter of Elias Plimpton, of Litchfield, Maine, who ran hoe and handle factories. Her father was a graduate of Bowdoin College and left to study medicine in New York. Harriet graduated from Vassar College and attended Oxford University. She taught high school English and languages in Philadelphia, in addition to writing, painting and sculpting. Her summers were spent in Litchfield in the house her father was born in, and the area informed her book of poetry, Out of the North. She died in 1978.