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Catalogue
In the summer of 1997 Wolcott Balestier Dunham, Jr. of New York presented to the University of Sussex Library two reels of 35 mm microfilm containing about 150 letters written by and to members of his family between the 1880s and the 1930s. His family was that of Rudyard Kipling's wife, Caroline Balestier and the bulk of the letters (c.100) are from Caroline ("Carrie") to her mother, Anna Smith Balestier. They record the personal life of the Kiplings. The letters for the years 1914 to 1917, the period of the first world war, are particularly revealing, recording the military career and early death of John Kipling, Rudyard and Carrie's only son, killed in action in 1915. Included in the sequence of correspondence are typed copies of two letters from comrades, John F. Bird and Frank Witt, who had served with John, describing the events connected with his death. The letters are dated October 12th and October 14th 1915.
It may be of interest to note that the first reel of film opens with a letter from Henry James to Rudyard and Carrie Kipling dated May 10th 1908. Attached to it is a note saying that other Henry James letters were transferred by Beatrice and Josephine Dunham c.1965 to the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The second reel of film contains chiefly letters and some verses of Rudyard Kipling addressed to his mother-in-law, his sister-in -law Josephine Balestier, and her husband Theodore Dunham.
The donor's prefatory notes occupy 6 frames at the beginning of the first microfilm and give guidance as to provenance and history of the collection, with biographical and genealogical notes about the Balestier/Dunham family.
The Houghton Library, Harvard University also holds a copy of the
above microfilms.
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