The Quaboag Seminary was founded in Warren, Mass., in 1842 by two of Amherst College's early graduates, and was incorporated eight years later. During its relatively brief period of operation, its best-known student may have bene the abolitionist and feminist Lucy Stone, who enrolled in 1841 to prepare for entrance examinations at Oberlin College. In 1856, the school was purchased by the town to serve as the local high school.
This small collection consists primarily of printed materials associated with the short-lived Quaboag Seminary of Warren, Mass. In addition to a school catalogue for 1847, the collection includes two issues -- apparently all that were printed -- of the student literary periodical, the Quaboag Quarterly Offering (1845); eight programs for school exhibitions (1842-1854); a flier announcing the spring term 1848; and two writing exercise books kept by Mary Ann Moore (later Richardson) while a student at the Seminary.
The Quaboag Seminary was founded in Warren, Mass., in 1842 by two of Amherst College's early graduates, and was incorporated eight years later by local residents Nathan Richardson, Joseph F. Hitchcock, and Royal Knight. During its relatively brief period of operation, perhaps its best-known student was the abolitionist and feminist Lucy Stone, who enrolled in 1841 to prepare for entrance examinations at Oberlin College. In 1856, the school was purchased by the town to serve as the local high school.
Mary Ann Moore (1831-1913) and Nathan Richardson, both students at Quaboag Seminary during the mid-1840s, married in 1856. After studying music in Boston and in Europe, Nathan established himself as a pianist and music teacher on the late antebellum Boston scene, as well as an importer, publisher, and dealer of sheet music. He was author of the influential Richardson's New Method for the Piano-Forte, which went through several editions beginning in 1859. In that year, while visiting Paris in hopes of recuperating from a bout of tuberculosis, Richardson died. He and Mary Ann are buried together in Pine Grove Cemetery in Warren.
Scope of collection
This small collection consists primarily of printed materials associated with the short-lived Quaboag Seminary of Warren, Mass. In addition to a school catalogue for 1847, the collection includes two issues -- apparently all that were printed -- of the student literary periodical, the Quaboag Quarterly Offering (1845); eight programs for school exhibitions (1842-1854); a flier announcing the spring term 1848; and two writing exercise books kept by Mary Ann Moore (later Richardson) while a student at the Seminary. Moore's copybooks include individual words or short phrases written out over and over while mastering her hand, and one of the volumes includes unattributed religious and sentimental poetry, possibly transcribed from other sources. Most of the printed items came from the press of Ebenezer Merriam (or Merriam and Cooke), founder of the noted central Massachusetts printing family.
Marginal notes written in a later hand on some items indicate that the collection was owned by a niece of Mary Ann Moore, probably Mary Richardson Moore, daughter of her brother Nathan (1836-1904). These notes identify relatives associated with the Seminary, including "aunt Mary Ann," Nathan Richardson 2 ("aunt Mary's husband"), John Moore ("my grandfather" and a member of the corporation), and Henry P. Underhill ("my grandfather Hathaway's 3rd wife's brother" and an instructor at the school).
Although the details of the provenance of the collection are uncertain, notes on family relationships written in the margins of some documents suggests that these materials passed from Mary Ann Moore Richardson to her niece Mary Richardson Moore, daughter of Mary Ann's brother Nathan Richardson Moore.
A note in the auction catalog where these were purchased (Wes Cowan's Historic Americana sale of Dec. 6-7, 2007), indicates they were "collected by Thaddeus Stanton, 'The Fighting Paymaster.'" The connection to Stanton, a U.S. Army Brigadier General originally from Indiana, is unclear.
Cite as: Mary Ann Moore Richardson Collection (MS 1072 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
