Wedgwood Correspondence

Date range: 1758-1804

Medium: Manuscript

The Wedgwood Correspondence is a collection compiled by the antiquary Joseph Mayer (1803–86), who was an admirer of the great 18th-century ceramicist, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95). Meyer supported the transcription of surviving letters sent and received by members of the Wedgwood family. These original letters are now dispersed and some are thought to be no longer in existence.

The collection comprises ten volumes of transcriptions of the private and business correspondence of the Wedgwood family, notably Josiah Wedgwood senior.

Among the correspondents are Wedgwood’s partner Thomas Bentley (1731–1780), James Watt (1736–1819) and James Watt jun. (1769–1848), Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), David Garrick (1717–79), Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), Sir Richard Arkwright (1732–1792), Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and Anna Seward (1742–1809).

Further information:

Catalogue available online via ELGAR(English MSS 1101-1110).

Location:

• The John Rylands Library, Deansgate  [Map]
• Find out how to use the reading rooms in the John Rylands Research Institute and Library