ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION    

Title
Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith Collection

Collection Number
SC 502

OCLC Number
1543373530

Creator 
Elizabeth Oakes Smith (August 12, 1806-November 15, 1893)

Provenance 
Donated by Robert and Paulette Greene in November 1988.

Extent, Scope, and Content Note 
Extent: 1 letter (8 unnumbered pages)
Date: October 10, 1884, written from Blue Point, Long Island, New York
Dimensions: 21 x 13 cm.
Context: Letter written by Elizabeth Oakes Smith to Sallie Holley, Blue Point, Long Island, New York on October 10, 1884.

Elizabeth Oakes Smith (nee Prince) was a celebrated poet, fiction writer, editor, lecturer and women's rights activist. She was born near North Yarmouth, Maine in 1806, and married Seba Smith, a magazine editor for The Eastern Argus at the age of 16.They had six sons - Benjamin, Rolvin, Appleton, Sidney, Alvin & Edward Oaksmith. Along with raising her children, Elizabeth would often take over editorial responsibilities during her husband’s travels. She wrote numerous anonymous submissions for a time, either under pseudonym "Ernest Helfenstein" or the signature "E."

Smith was very active in the women’s rights movement and other causes. She was nominated to be the President of the National Women’s Rights Convention, and she was the first woman to regularly lecture on the Lyceum Movement, which was a group whose mission consisted of educating American adults in the 19th century. In 1859, Elizabeth and her husband retired to their Patchogue home, The Willows, where she continued to write and started her autobiography. In 1870, after the death of her husband, she sold her Patchogue, New York home to live with her son Alvin in Blue Point. It was from this location that this letter was written. Elizabeth moved between Alvin and her other son Appleton, who lived in North Carolina, until her death in 1893. She is buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Patchogue next to her husband Seba and her youngest son Edward. Her autobiography, A Human Life, discussed in the letter was never published.

 Sallie Holley was born in 1818. She was a prominent abolitionist and antislavery lecturer.  Her novel, A Life for Liberty, was published in 1899 in New York. She was a frequent correspondent of Elizabeth Oakes Smith, who may have edited her work.

This letter was written by Elizabeth Oakes Smith from Blue Point, New York, where she had settled in 1870 following the death of her husband, Seba Smith. After selling her longtime residence, The Willows, in Patchogue, she moved in with her son Alvin. From this location, she continued her literary work and began writing her autobiography, A Human Life - a project mentioned in this letter, though it ultimately remained unpublished. In her later years, Smith divided her time between Alvin’s home in Blue Point and the home of another son, Appleton, in North Carolina. She remained active in intellectual and domestic life until her death in 1893 and is buried in Patchogue’s Lakeview Cemetery beside her husband and youngest son, Edward.

In this letter, Smith replies warmly to a dear friend’s previous correspondence, which had included a gift of roses. She expresses deep appreciation not only for the letter and floral gesture, but also for the life her friend leads - a life she describes as rare and enviable, lived in peaceful retreat and full personal autonomy. She commends her friend’s ability to work freely and meaningfully, without interference or societal constraint, describing her as “monarch of all [she] survey[s].”

Smith also references a public “study” or written tribute she had composed about her friend, noting its positive reception, including publication in a local newspaper and various quotations and references circulated back to her. She mentions that publishers - likely Towler & Wells - had requested a photograph of her friend, possibly for inclusion in a publication alongside Smith’s written sketch. She expresses concern about any discomfort this attention may have caused but hopes it may lead to broader recognition of her friend’s valuable contributions.

The letter includes affectionate recollections of a recent visit, with personal greetings extended to several mutual acquaintances, including the Tallen family and Mrs. Strong, whose hospitality and children are remembered with fondness. Smith regrets that she could not prolong her visit, as she was needed at home, a home life she describes as filled with both writing obligations and domestic responsibilities.

She provides updates on her daughters, who are active in the local cultural scene, frequently performing at village concerts and warmly received by the community. She also shares minor household news, such as the planting of pomegranate seeds and castor beans, and her intention to share some of the seeds with her daughter-in-law in North Carolina. She muses on the relationship between age and love, citing Montaigne and referencing the emotional lives of older women, including herself, with wit and self-awareness: “I’m over young to marry yet!”

She concludes the letter with sincere expressions of affection and admiration, calling her time spent at her friend’s home “a dream of Arcadia,” and affirming that she often speaks of both the place and her hostess with genuine fondness.

Arrangement and Processing Note
Transcription and research by Nicole Shaw, intern, 2015. 
Finding aid updated and scope note expanded by Kristen J. Nyitray in September 2025.

Language
English 

Restrictions on Access
The collection is open to researchers without restriction.

Rights and Permissions 
Stony Brook University Libraries' consent to access as the physical owner of the collection does not address copyright issues that may affect publication rights. It is the sole responsibility of the user of Special Collections and University Archives materials to investigate the copyright status of any given work and to seek and obtain permission where needed prior to publication.  

Citation 
Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Stony Brook University Libraries.

Subjects
Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893 -- Correspondence.
Holley, Sallie, 1818-1893 -- Correspondence.
Women authors -- 19th century.
Friendship.
Feminists -- United States -- 19th century. 

Transcription

Mrs E Oakes Smith.
Blue Point L. I. Oct 10 1884

Miss Sallie Holley,
I have been doing my utmost
to find a chance to reply to
your welcome and beautiful 
letter of the 20 ? ult. with its 
lovely specimen of the roses from
your Eden. I wanted to write you
a letter as is a letter, having no
news, I wanted to tell you, that
you do not, cannot realise how
happy you are in having such a
lovely retreat - the world shut-
out, and you priviledged to 
be so entirely yourself. No
one says why do you so? You 
are monarch of all you sur-
vey, and can achieve your benefi-
cent work without let or hindrance. 
royally your own work.
My study of you seems to have
been warmly welcomed by the
public, even our village paper
published it entire, and sever-
al paragraphs and references 
have been quoted and sent me,
I hope the Index sent you a good
supply of the number. I sent you
half of what came to me here.
I suppose Towler & Wells have
written to you for a Photograph.
They wrote me for one, and would
like they said to use my sketch ?.
Tell me if you have suffered
in consequence. I hope not
but than it will open the eyes
of people to appreciate your 
work. I should say, though they
have doubtless communicated
with you in the matter, that & W. wish to have a portrait
of you engraved for their maga.
One this you doubtless have
the Brooklyn Magazine, and will
relive that day of lovliness when
we went to old []. I wish
Mr Tallen will see that the Rev.
Mr Brook has a copy of it and
will you please present my
kind regards to the members of
the Tallen family. I should have
been so happy to pass a few
days with them, but I was need-
ed at home. Say all that is
kind to Mrs Strong about our last
visit, which we might so well
have enjoyed. I recall her
genuine face with interest
and shall not soon forget 
those pleasant well-mannered
children. I spoke to her about 
some Sunflower seeds, which
I shall try to send her,
Oh! those fine rides, how I wish
it had been possible for me
to join you! but no - I hardly
go off the premises, am obliged 
to keep steadily at my pen or
the thousand nothings essential
in a household. The two girls 
send love, and are delighted at 
the promise of the bookets, as
they were with the gifts from
you I brought them. They are
in great demand for singing and
? in the village
concerts - Last night a carriage 
was sent several miles to take
them to one at Waverley, where
they seem to have been greatly 
admired. Their ? is for
[] well - but I try not to
[distourt?] the future.
I have written Mr Bok, (who
by the way sent me this nice
paper,) what you say about 
the Brooklyn Magazine, and
he promised to send you several
copies with [binoculars?] [] the 
young man is working a great 
deal too hard; but finds time 
to write Aurora very pretty 
love letters -[not over not?]. 
which she receives with a sweet
girlish delight. I have just read
about a woman who lived to
be a hundred and twenty years
and then died young! It seems
to me in her case she ought
to throw out the century, call
herself 25 and go in for a lover.
Age has so little to do with the heart,
I find charming people, who 
count up years: Old [Monteigne?]
whom you know I greatly affect
says “love suits only the young”
and he talks about being old at
fifty - but Miss Gurney had a
smart tender, maidenly love
for him at 60. These things come
home to me because of a trifle
that occurred since my return -
but as the song says, “I’m over
young to marry yet!!
Do you know I am greatly 
pleased that your friends
in Virginia took a liking to me,
I was very much pleased with
their simple, unaffected man-
ners, and charming good sense,
and wish I could meet them again.
Who knows? I shall not forget
them. Oh! that fruit! and the roses!
ah! it was a dream of Arcadia.
at your house, and I love to
speak of it daily and of you.
I am urged to make my
Autobiography ready for the
public, and after reading what
I have written I am encouraged
to think it will not be presump-
tuous in me to write and paint
my story. but nobody would
be willing to write his inner-
most, and if there is any magne-
tude in a character, the steps
h toward it seem?.
I dropped a ? to Miss
Miller since my return but
have no reply. We have kept 
the pomgranite till yesterday
as it retained some prettiness - 
but we opened it & put the seeds
away for planting. Thank you
for the Castor beans - they are
much larger and finer colored 
than our seeds of the same spe-
cies and I have promised to give
a part of yours to my daughter -
in law to plant in N. C.
I have much more, that were
I with you in our twilight
bathes would be said, but now
only that I am affectiontely yours

Elizabeth Oakes Smith