{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Meudon, France" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "By vote of the Association on November 13, 1967 these manuscripts were placed on permanent deposit in the Houghton Library. The Association reserves the right to withdraw manuscripts from time to time for display or other special purposes." }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Houghton Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "10pp" }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

This manuscript has ambiguous origins, particularly regarding the author's publishing intentions. Officially, it is considered by scholars to have been intended as part of An Artists Holiday<\/i>, which was a text that documented May Alcott's travels around Europe. This is a credible argument, as May Alcott spent many years living in Paris and London as a revolutionary female artist and mentor. Her time spent studying the great artists in Paris, especially her time there as a student during which she successfully submitted two paintings to the Paris salon, is reflected in My Owl<\/i>. Despite this, there is still contention among scholars as to whether the text was authored by May or her sister, Louisa May Alcott. The complexity surrounding the intention for the manuscript is also mirrored in May's complex relationship with her sister. Arguably, despite May's best efforts to live independently abroad, their lives remained intertwined, and this greatly affected May's creative output. Although her paintings were her own, parts of An Artist's Holiday<\/i> were published under Louisa's name, possibly due to Louisa's status as a famous author. Clearly, My Owl<\/i> is a complex and cryptic manuscript that not only captures the ambitious excitement of female artists in Paris in the 1870s, but also the fragility of life as a female artist. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "1878" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "My Owl" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Paper" }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "MS Am 1817" }, { "label": "Acquisition", "value": "Deposited by The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association, Concord, Massachusetts; received: 1967 November 13." }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Alcott, May, 1840-1879; Women artists--United States--Biography; Alcott, May, 1840-1879--Travel--Europe; Artists' writings, American; Painting--Special Subjects--Animals, Birds; Alcott family" }, { "label": "Data Source(s)", "value": "The manuscript was \"deposited by The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association, Concord, Massachusetts; received: 1967 November 13. By vote of the Association on November 13, 1967 these manuscripts were placed on permanent deposit in the Houghton Library. The Association reserves the right to withdraw manuscripts from time to time for display or other special purposes.\" The manuscript was written on paper and is five pages long. The manuscript was donated with An Artists Holiday<\/i> by the Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association. Some scholars argue that it was intended to be a part of An Artists Holiday<\/i>, which documents May Alcott's travels in London and the midlands in 1873. However, this argument is not entirely plausible, as it cannot be said with certainty that My Owl<\/i> was ever intended for publication with An Artists Holiday<\/i>. Moreover, the events in My Owl<\/i>, for example her acceptance into the Paris Salon in 1877 and 1879, as well as her marriage to Ernest Nieriker, all take place after the chronology of An Artists Holiday<\/i>. Therefore, it is more convincing to state that My Owl<\/i> is a separate paper manuscript." }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "English" }, { "label": "Author(s)", "value": "Abigail May Alcott Nieriker" }, { "label": "Bibliography", "value": "

Blewett, Kelly, What Greta Gerwig Got Right: Rethinking Amy March in Light of May Alcott Nieriker<\/i>, (Los Angeles Review of Books, 31 March 2020) [accessed 13 May 2022]<\/div>
Daly-Galeano, Marlowe, \"Disciplinary Conversations: May Alcott Nieriker's 'An Artists Holiday'\", The Forgotten Alcott<\/i>, eds. Azelina Flint and Lauren Hehmeyer, Routledge, 2022, pp.127-142<\/div>
---. Interview. Conducted by Azelina Flint, 7 May. 2022. Retrieved from University of Lancaster Moodle \u2013 Panopto<\/div>
Flint, Azelina, \"Her lovely presence ever near me lives: A Brief Encounter from the Archives with May Alcott Nieriker\". Brief Encounters<\/i>, Vol 2 No 1, Jan 2018, pp.53-68<\/div>
---. Lecture, 24 April. 2002. Retrieved from University of Lancaster Moodle \u2013 Panopto<\/div>
Hehmeyer, Lauren, \"Armed with a Brush: May Alcott Nieriker as a Representative Woman in Paris\", The Forgotten Alcott<\/i>, eds. Azelina Flint and Lauren Hehmeyer, Routledge, 2022, pp.79-91<\/div>
---, \"Let the World Know You Are Alive: May Alcott Nieriker and Louisa May Alcott Confront Nineteenth-Century Ideas about Women's Genius\", American Studies Journal<\/i>, No 66, 2019<\/div>
Matteson, John. \"'The Pure Hope of Giving \u2026 Pleasure': May Alcott, John Ruskin and the Moral Aesthetic\", The Forgotten Alcott<\/i>, eds. Azelina Flint and Lauren Hehmeyer, Routledge, 2022, pp.191-207.<\/div>
Nieriker, May Alcott. Studying Art Abroad, and How to Do It Cheaply<\/i>. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879.<\/div>
Shealy, Daniel. \"Introduction.\" Little Women Abroad: The Alcott sisters' letters from Europe, 1870-1871. Louisa May Alcott and May Alcott<\/i>, University of Georgia Press. Athens & London, 2008, pp.xv-lxxiii.<\/div>
Ticknor, Caroline, May Alcott: A Memoir<\/i>, 1928. Reprint. Applewood Books, n.d.<\/div><\/div>
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