Letters to Benjamin Leigh Smith from Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon

Also included is a sketchbook of sketches by Bodichon in pencil, pen and ink and watercolor which she made during a tour of Louisiana.

Collection consists of a diary, in the form of letters written to Bodichon's father, Benjamin Leigh Smith. These letters cover the period 6 Dec 1857 to 11 Jun 1858, and describe in detail the tour of America made by Barbara Bodichon and her husband Eugène Bodichon. Their itinerary included the Mississippi River, New Orleans, Mobile, Montgomery, Savannah, Wilmington, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, and parts of Canada. In her letters Bodichon discusses the condition and education of slaves and the rights of freed slaves; women's rights in America, and other aspects of life, conditions, and customs. Also described are visits to Lucretia Mott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In addition to Bodichon's letters to her father, the collection contains her letters from the same time period to Joseph Gratton, Dorothy Longden, and Isabella Leigh Smith Ludlow, and a letter from Eugène Bodichon to Benjamin Smith which he enclosed with his wife's letter to her father of 1858 May 27.