The Anna Catherine Bahlmann Papers Relating to Edith Wharton are now available for research; a descriptive guide to the papers is online:  Anna Catherine Bahlmann Papers Relating to Edith Wharton, YCAL MSS 361.

The papers feature correspondence and personal effects relating to author Edith Wharton, including over 130 letters to Bahlmann from Wharton, dating from Bahlmann’s employment with the Wharton family in 1874, as Edith’s German language tutor, to 1915. The letters document a significant, long-standing relationship and shed light on Wharton’s personal and literary affairs; early correspondence in the collection dates from Wharton’s adolescence and reveals aspects of her development as a reader and writer.

In addition to the Wharton correspondence, there are single and small groups of letters between Bahlmann and family members, friends, and acquaintances, including William Morton Fullerton and Henry James. Bahlmann’s personal effects include legal and financial documents, notebooks, and writings, as well as material relating to Wharton. Other materials relating most directly to Wharton include clippings, documents on her work during World War I, photographs, and postcards. Photographs consist of studio portraits of people and images of Wharton’s residences. There are photographs of Wharton, Bahlmann family members, and friends, including Mary Cadwalader Jones. Wharton residences include “Reef Point” in Bar Harbour, Maine and the estate (“The Mount”) in Lenox, Massachusetts. (MF)

Related Collections: Edith Wharton Collection (YCAL MSS 42); Wharton Collection Image Guide; other related materials can be found by searching the Library’s Finding Aid Database and Orbis, the Library’s catalog for books and printed materials.  Images from the collections are available through the Beinecke’s Digital Library.

Image:[Cabinet photograph: Sita, A[nna] C[atherine] B[ahlmann], Isuna, Marietta], Havana (Cuba), ca. 1870; [Photograph of Edith Wharton ca. 1889-1890]