Collection of Harriet Beecher Stowe Materials

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was an influential author and novelist, born in Litchfield, Connecticut, in a household of ardent theologians and abolitionists which included her parents, Lyman and Roxana Beecher, and many of her thirteen siblings, notably her brother, Henry Ward Beecher. She received an advanced education for a woman of her time at the local seminary for girls run by her sister Catharine. In 1836, she married the abolitionist Calvin Ellis Stowe; the couple supported the Underground Railroad and sheltered fugitive slaves. In 1850, Stowe began writing installments of her best-known work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which had a profound influence on the abolition debate when it achieved best-seller status upon its release in book form in 1852. Stowe published over 20 books, including novels, travelogues, and collections of letters and shorter works. She died in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1896.