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This collection has use restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 8.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 2500 items) |
| Abstract | Jacob Florance Minis of J. F. Minis & Co., shipbrokers, steamship agents, and merchants, of Savannah, Georgia, was the son of Abraham Minis, merchant. His Minis ancestors had been in the Savannah area since before the American Revolution. Minis's first wife, to whom he was married in 1890, was Louisa Porter Gilmer, the daughter of Jeremy Francis Gilmer, a United States Army engineer, 1839-1861, and Confederate Chief of Engineers. Minis married his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Haskell (1873-1964), in 1926. Haskell was born in Columbia, S.C., to A. C. Haskell and Alice Alexander Haskell. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1898 and from 1898 to 1923 she taught school at the Haskell-Dean School in Boston, Mass., and the Cambridge-Haskell School in Cambridge, Mass. She was a close friend of Charlotte Teller, playwright, socialist, and suffragette, who wrote under the name of John Brangwyn; Jacob Giller, a Russian immigrant for whom she provided financial support; and Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet and artist, for whom she also provided financial support. Gibran died in 1931, and Haskell was one of his heirs. She was charged with the duty of shipping his possessions and paintings to his birthplace in Bsharri, Lebanon. The collection consists of three series. Series 1, Minis Family Materials, contains personal, business, and literary correspondence and other papers of Jacob Florance Minis, Abraham Minis, Louisa Porter Gilmer Minis, Mary Elizabeth Haskell, and other members of the Minis family. Included are two day-books, 1858-1884, a ledger, 1858-1873, a cash book, 1870-1877, and four account books, 1858-1884, of Abraham Minis, wholesale merchant of Savannah; three letterpress copy books, 1898-1903, of Jacob Florance Minis; 22 notebooks of housekeeping records, scrapbooks, and personal diaries of Louisa Minis; papers concerning property of the Hodgson, Telfair, and Habersham families, 1866-1875; and letters, 1768-1935, from members of the Minis family regarding family heirlooms, Minis family history, and the disposition of Jeremy Francis Gilmer's Civil War era maps. Series 2, Mary Haskell Materials, contains extensive correspondence with and about Kahlil Gibran, Charlotte Teller, Jacob Giller, and others; Haskell's personal diaries, with many entries describing her relationship with Gibran; Haskell's teaching materials, consisting primarily of a series of notebooks; and sketches and writings by Gibran. Series 3, Other Materials, contains photographs of Mary Haskell and friends; a map of Savannah, Ga.; a blueprint of Rockwood, the home of Jeremy Francis Gilmer and later Jacob Florance Minis; and an unidentified plat. |
| Creator | Minis (Family : Savannah, Ga.) |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical Information
Jacob Florance Minis of J. F. Minis & Co., shipbrokers, steamship agents, and merchants, of Savannah, Ga., was the son of Abraham Minis, merchant. His Minis ancestors had been in the Savannah area since before the American Revolution. Minis's first wife, to whom he was married in 1890, was Louisa Porter Gilmer, the daughter of Jeremy Francis Gilmer, a United States Army engineer, 1839-1861, and Confederate Chief of Engineers.
Jacob Florance Minis's second wife, Mary Elizabeth Haskell (1873-1964), was born in Columbia, S.C., to A. C. Haskell and Alice Alexander Haskell. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1898, taught school for three years, and traveled to Europe in 1901. In 1903, she accepted the position of headmistress of the Haskell-Dean School in Boston, Mass., which had formerly been under the direction of her sister Louisa. She directed the school until 1918 when she became headmistress of the Cambridge School, later the Cambridge-Haskell School, in Cambridge, Mass. In January 1923, she moved to Savannah, Ga., to live in the home of Jacob Florance Minis, the widower of her deceased cousin, Louisa Porter Gilmer. They married in 1926.
Mary Haskell met Lebanese poet and artist Kahlil Gibran in 1904 at an exhibit of his paintings in the studio of Clarence Day in Boston, and they became close friends. Throughout his travels to Europe between 1908 and 1911 and while he lived and worked in Boston and New York from 1911 until some point during the 1920s, Haskell provided financial support for Gibran. When Gibran died in 1931, Haskell was named, along with his sister, a principal heir of his will. She was charged with shipping his paintings and possessions to his birthplace in Bsharri, Lebanon. Haskell devoted much of her life to the promotion of Gibran's art and writings.
Along with Kahlil Gibran, Mary Haskell maintained a close relationship with Charlotte Teller, a playwright, socialist, and suffragette, who wrote under the name of John Brangwyn. Other close friends and beneficiaries of her generosity were Barbara Young, a poet and close friend of Gibran's, and Jacob Giller, a young Russian immigrant.
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Scope and Content
The collection consists of three series. Series 1, Minis Family Materials, contains personal, business, and literary correspondence and other papers of Jacob Florance Minis, Abraham Minis, Louisa Porter Gilmer Minis, Mary Elizabeth Haskell, and other members of the Minis family. Included are two day-books, 1858-1884, a ledger, 1858-1873, a cash book, 1870-1877, and four account books, 1858-1884, of Abraham Minis, wholesale merchant of Savannah, Ga.; three letterpress copy books, 1898-1903, of Jacob Florance Minis; 22 notebooks of housekeeping records, scrapbooks, and personal diaries of Louisa Minis; papers concerning property of the Hodgson, Telfair, and Habersham families, 1866-1875; and letters, 1768-1935, from members of the Minis family regarding family heirlooms, Minis family history, and the disposition of Jeremy Francis Gilmer's Civil War era maps. Series 2, Mary Haskell Materials, contains extensive correspondence with and about Kahlil Gibran, Charlotte Teller, Jacob Giller, and others; Haskell's personal diaries, with many entries describing her relationship with Gibran; Haskell's teaching materials, consisting primarily of a series of notebooks; and sketches and writings by Gibran. Series 3, Other Materials, contains photographs of Mary Haskell and friends; a map of Savannah, Ga.; a blueprint of Rockwood, the home of Jeremy Francis Gilmer and later Jacob Florance Minis; and an unidentified plat.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Minis Family Materials, 1739-1935 and undated.
Arrangement: by type of material.
Correspondence, deeds, clippings, ledgers, day-books, notebooks, pocket diaries, and other materials relating to Jacob Florance Minis; his father, Abraham Minis; his ancestors; his first wife, Lousia Porter Gilmer Minis; and his second wife, Mary Haskell Minis. See folder 1 for a detailed description of the contents of the series, written in 1961.
Folders 1-7 contain a chronological series of correspondence of Jacob Florance Minis, Louisa Porter Gilmer Minis, and other members of the Minis family, and related materials, 1768-1935, including shipping papers, receipts, federal loyalty papers, stock certificates, wills, indentures, marriage certificates, genealogical materials, and passports. Folders 9-48 contain a chronological series of deeds, and folders 49-61 contain unsorted clippings. See folders 50-51 for clippings taken from Confederate newspapers.
Folders 63-79 contain a number of volumes, including transcripts of court proceedings relating to Rockwood, the home of Jeremy Francis Gilmer, legal notebooks, letterpress copy books belonging to Jacob Florance Minis, and notebooks, pocket diaries and a scrapbook belonging to Louisa Porter Gilmer Minis and relating to her daily life and the running of her household.
Also included in the series are two day-books, 1858-1884, a cash book, 1870-1877, and a ledger, 1858-1873, belonging to Abraham Minis, wholesale merchant, and A. Minis & Son, of Savannah, Ga.
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Series 2. Mary Haskell Materials, 1760-1948 and undated.
Arrangement: by type.
Series 2 includes teaching materials consisting of notebooks of clippings and notes compiled by Mary Haskell and looseleaf papers containing class notes, reading lists, exam questions, and other related information, used by her while teaching at girls' schools in the Boston, Mass., area; correspondence relating to the life of Mary Haskell, including letters to, from, and about Kahlil Gibran, as well as letters from Charlotte Teller, Jacob Giller, Barbara Young, and Marianna Gibran; poems and writings by Mary Haskell and Barbara Young; and a number of diaries kept by Haskell throughout her life, with many entries describing her relationship with Gibran. Subseries 2.4, Kahlil Gibran Materials, contains sketches, writings, and letters to Mary Haskell from the artist. Three of Mary Haskell's diaries are included in this subseries, as they contain original sketches by Gibran. Note that this subseries is restricted for copyright purposes. See folder 80 for a detailed description of the contents of Series 2, written in 1961.
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Subseries 2.1. Teaching Materials.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Fifty-five notebooks of clippings and notes compiled by Mary Haskell, used by her while teaching at the Haskell-Dean School in Boston, Mass., and the Cambridge-Haskell School in Cambridge, Mass. Each notebook is dedicated to a particular subject or author. There are two alphabetical runs of the notebooks. Folders 144a-144b contain looseleaf papers relating to the teaching profession.
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Subseries 2.2. Correspondence and Related Materials, 1760-1948 and undated.
Arrangement: chronological.
Personal correspondence relating to the life of Mary Haskell. The bulk of the letters date between 1906 and 1948 and concern Kahlil Gibran and Haskell's relationship with him. As one of the heirs in his will, Haskell was able to recover the letters she had written to him, and they are included in this subseries. These letters tend to be philosophical in nature. Major correspondents in the series are Charlotte Teller, a close friend of Minis's, and Jacob Giller, a young Russian immigrant for whom Haskell provided financial support. After Gibran's death, Haskell corresponded for a while with Marianna Gibran, his sister; Barbara Young, a poet and close friend of Gibran's; and others regarding the disposition of his estate and the shipment of his paintings and possessions to his birthplace of Bsharri, Lebanon. Other correspondents include Floretta Elmore Greeley, a former student of Haskell's, and Neva Wright, a doctoral student who requested information about Gibran for her dissertation.
Other materials include a copy of Joseph Langdon's will, a copy of Louisa Porter Gilmer Minis's will, poems by Mary Haskell, poems by Barbara Young, clippings and ephemera, and other papers.
Please note that letters written by Kahlil Gibran to Mary Haskell are in Subseries 2.4, Kahlil Gibran Materials.
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Subseries 2.3. Diaries, 1894-1944 and undated.
Arrangement: by type, then chronological.
Forty-four diaries kept by Mary Haskell throughout her life, describing her daily life as a teacher, her travels in Europe and North America, her marriage to Jacob Florance Minis, and her relationships with her friends. Haskell's relationship with Kahlil Gibran figures prominently in these diaries.
Please note that three diaries containing sketches by Gibran and dating between 1912 and 1916 are in Subseries 2.4, Kahlil Gibran Materials.
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Subseries 2.4. Kahlil Gibran Materials, 1904-1931 and
undated.
Arrangement: by type, then chronological.
RESTRICTED: The materials in this subseries may be used by readers in the research room of the Southern Historical Collection for purposes of reference and research. Materials in this subseries may not be duplicated or published without explicit permission from the estate of Kahlil Gibran.
Subseries contains letters written by Kahlil Gibran to Mary Haskell between 1904 and the time of his death in 1931, writings by Gibran, three diaries belonging to Mary Haskell containing sketches by Gibran, and one typed copy of "The Broken Wings, or a Chapter from a Spiritual Biography."
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Series 3. Other Materials, 1880-1953 and undated.
Photographs of Mary Haskell, Charlotte Teller, other friends and family, and Rockwood, the home of Jeremy Francis Gilmer; six cartes-de-viste of unidentified men; a map of Savannah; a photograph of the 4th Annual National Drainage Congress in Savannah, Ga.; a blueprint of Rockwood; and an unidentified plat.
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Series 4. Additions.
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Subseries 4.1. Photograph (Addition of 2011)
Acquisitions Information: Accession 101399
| Oversize Image Folder OP-PF-2725/1 |
Copy print of photograph (11x14) of Minis Family, 1899 #02725, Subseries: "4.1. Photograph (Addition of 2011)" OP-PF-2725/1Includes list of names and ages of people in image. |
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Items Separated
Processed by: Manuscripts Department Staff,
Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, October 2006
This collection was reprocessed in October 2006 by Margaret Dickson.
Folder numbers 8, 62, 211-213, 228, 230-231, and 259 were not used.
Finding aid updated in December 2018 by Jodi Berkowitz because of addition.
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