Joseph Parrish Thompson and Leonard Bacon papers, 1845-1928

Series I: Joseph Parrish Thompson and Leonard Bacon Correspondence, 1845-1879

This series is made up of correspondence between Joseph Parrish Thompson and Leonard Bacon between 1845 and 1879 (the year of Thompson's death). Most of the correspondence pertains to their work as Congregational ministers and as the editors of The Independent between 1848 and 1861. The majority of the letters are from Thompson to Bacon, but there are a significant number from Bacon to Thompson, as well as several addressed to Bacon from other associates including Seth B. Hunt, an owner of The Independent. Other letters worth noting are a twenty-two page letter from Bacon to Thompson in 1860 that is heavily critical of William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips and a letter from Bacon's daughter Rebecca to Thompson in 1863 notifying him of Bacon's son's death in the Civil War. One folder contains correspondence between Katherine W. Bacon Smith and her parents Leonard Bacon and Catherine Elizabeth Terry Bacon. These letters detail general family news and Katherine's pregnancy and the birth of her children with Eugene Smith, a New York City prison reformer.