Charles Wesley Bradley Papers

COLLECTION OVERVIEW

Collection Number: GR ASCSA CWB 118
Name(s) of Creator(s): Charles Wesley Bradley (1857-1884)
Title: Charles Wesley Bradley Papers
Date [bulk]: 1880-1881
Date [inclusive]: 1870-1882
Language(s): English
Summary: The collection consists of a diary that Bradley kept during the Assos Excavations (1880-1881) and manuscripts of essays about Greece and Turkey, some of which were published in the newspapers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition: Gift of Curtis Runnels, 2020.
Information about Access: The collection is available for research.
Cite as: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Archives, Charles Wesley Bradley Papers (Αμερικανική Σχολή Κλασικών Σπουδών στην Αθήνα, Αρχείο Charles Wesley Bradley).

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Boston native Charles Wesley Bradley (1857-1884) graduated from Harvard in 1880, having studied classics and philosophy with Charles Eliot Norton, the founder of the Archaeological Institute of America and the driving force behind the first American excavations in classical lands at the site of Assos in northwestern Turkey. Bradley initially intended to read for the law, but chose instead to be one of the 50 applicants for a volunteer position on the Assos Expedition in Turkey, leaving Boston in March of 1881 to join the group in Turkey. During his staying at Assos, he met Heinrich Schliemann, the excavator of Troy. Bradley returned to Boston in September of 1882 to pursue a career in literature. Only two years after coming home, suffering still the effects of malaria contracted while at Assos, he died of a “fit of mental despondency” in September, 1884. He was 27 years old.

Source: C. Runnels, “All Americans Must Be Trojans at Heart”: A Volunteer at Assos in 1881 Meets Heinrich Schliemann," in From the Archivist's Notebook, August 1, 2015.

BOX 1

Folder 1: Small leather notebook (0.105 x 0.17 m) with first entry on March 31 [1881] and last on June 24 [1881]; a list of expenses of his trip from Boston to Smyrna at the end of the notebook (260 pages).

--Various Manuscripts

Folder 2: "A Mountainous Village in Turkey" and "Archaeological Discoveries in Phrygia: To the Editor of The Nation," written on the same leaves (5 leaves total).

Folder 3: One or two manuscripts, written on the same leaves (16 leaves total) about travel in Turkey; untitled, missing their beginning.

Folder 4: "A Tramp in the Troad," and "Exploration of the Archaeological Institute, Assos, Nov. 3, '81," written on the same leaves (14 leaves total).

Folder 5: Two or three versions of an essay about Mytilene, "A Greek Island," (34 loose leaves, 0.20 x 0. 255 m; and 22 bound leaves, 0.165 x 0.20 m)
--Printed wedding invitation for a wedding taking place in Mytilene in 1880 ("Ο Κύριος Μαρίνος Κουραματζής αγγέλων υμίν τους γάμους της θυγατρός αυτού Βικτωρίας μετά του Κυρίου Φωτίου Σιμωνίδου...").

Folder 6: "Athens" (1 leaf); and "A Royal Ball in Athens" although the essay describes the excavations at Assos (1 leaf)
--Part of "Schliemann at Home" (2 leaves); the essay was published in The New York Times, April 23, 1882.

Folder 7: "Archaeological Explorations in the Troad" (about 25 leaves); unclear if it is one or two manuscripts [fragile]

Folder 8: [Travels in Turkey] (18 leaves, watermark on upper left corner of leaves); and "Notes on Inscription copied at Avjilar, October 1881" (1 leaf).

Folder 9: Describing his voyage from Venice to Assos, via Greece (21 leaves); unclear if it is one or two manuscripts; "The Carnival in Rome" (9 leaves); another untitled text about Rome (4 leaves).

Folder 10: About Adirondacks (24 + 5 leaves)

Folder 11: Various notes including "Association of Contiguity and Mixed Association"; "The Philosophical Qusetion of Optics"; "Running the Rapids at Midnight"; The Universal Consciousness" and loose pages (fragments) from two diaries (4 leaves + 6 leaves); notes on the backcover of another diary (1 leaf)

Folder 12: Essays from his student days (1870-1875), including "Is Honesty the Best Policy?"; "Napoleon Bonaparte"; "Malibran and the Young Musician"; "The Heroine of Edinburgh"; "Compositions"; "Glass"; "A Ride in the Horse-Cars"; "Goldsmith"; "Knights of the Maltese Cross," etc.

Folder 13: Notes concerning the acquisition and provenance of the Bradley papers.

Research

Charles Wesley Bradley Papers