Amy Morris Bradley papers, 1806-1921, bulk 1841-1921

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Summary

Creator:
Bradley, Amy Morris
Abstract:
Amy Morris Bradley was a nurse and agent of the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War as well as an educator in Maine, 1840s-1850s, and Wilmington, N.C., 1865-1890s. Collection comprises correspondence, diaries, record books, and photographs documenting Bradley's family life and teaching in Maine during the 1840s, her travels throughout the South and Costa Rica in the 1850s, her duties as a nurse at several U.S. Sanitary Commission convalescent camps during the Civil War, and her post-war work in Wilmington, N.C., where she founded free schools for white children in 1866 and 1872 under the auspices of the Soldiers' Memorial Society and worked as an administrator in the public school system until 1891. The collection includes two salted paper prints and several albumen photographs of Civil War relief camps, some by noted photographer Alexander Gardner.
Extent:
3 Linear Feet
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.10004

Background

Scope and content:

Collection comprises correspondence, diaries, record books, and photographs documenting Bradley's family life and teaching in Maine during the 1840s, her travels throughout the South and Costa Rica in the 1850s, her duties as a nurse at several U.S. Sanitary Commission convalescent camps during the Civil War, and her post-war work in Wilmington, N.C., where she founded free schools for white children in 1866 and 1872 under the auspices of the Soldiers' Memorial Society and worked as an administrator in the public school system until 1891. The collection includes two salted paper prints and several albumen photographs of Civil War relief camps, some by noted photographer Alexander Gardner.

Biographical / historical:

Amy Morris Bradley was born in East Vassalboro, Maine on September 12, 1823, the youngest of several children. In 1840, she began work as a school teacher, first in her hometown and later in Charlestown and East Cambridge, Massachusetts. After several years of suffering from respiratory illness, she elected to leave New England in late 1853 for San Jose, Costa Rica, where she served as a governess and teacher. She established the first English-langauge school in Central America and taught there for three year, returning to the states in 1857 when her elderly father fell ill. After his passing she relocated to the Boston area where she served as a translator.

The day after the first Battle of Bull Run, on July 22, 1861, Bradley wrote to George Brickett, the acting surgeon for the Third Maine Regiment, volunteering her services. She began employment as his field nurse in late August 1861, and by October was serving under him as matron of the regiment for the Fifth Maine. The following spring she joined the U.S. Sanitary Commission, serving on transport boats and later running a home for invalid soldiers in Washington, DC. From Decemer 17, 1862 to September 12, 1865, Bradley served as a special relief agent at the Convalescent Camp in Alexandria, Virginia. She served for the entire life of the camp, arriving before the barracks had been erected and remaining until the hospital was decommissioned.

Following the war, the Soldier's Memoiral Society and the American Unitarian Association recruited Bradley for missionary work in Wilmington, North Carolina. Once there, she determined the greatest need was for a school for poor white children, which she opened in January 1867 to three children. Within a week, more than sixty had enrolled. Bradley founded a number of schools over the next few years. Within five years, Bradley with support from Boston philantropist Mary Tileston Hemenway raise the funds necessary to construct a modern school building. Opened in 1872 and known as the Tileston School, this was the first free public school in Wilmington. Bradley continued to teach there 1891. She passed away on January 15, 1904 in her small cottage located on the school's grounds.

Acquisition information:
The Amy Morris Bradley Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase between 1970 and 1981.
Processing information:

Processed by: Kat Stefko, September 2012

Arrangement:

Organized into the following series: Correspondence and related materials, Bound volumes, Photographs.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Amy Morris Bradley Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.