Joseph Peace Hazard papers (MSS-0090)

The collection contains correspondence, personal papers, photographs, and artifacts relating to Joseph Peace Hazard and his interests. The correspondence mostly contains letters Hazard sent his brother and sisters while traveling in Europe and South America. The correspondence also includes letters with mediums Mary Hull and Dinah Sherman, and Luther Colby (editor of the spiritual publication “Banner of Light”), which document Hazard’s interest in spiritualism. The collection also includes Hazard’s personal papers, such as his power of attorney, lists of securities and income tax statements, as well as his writings, which include Hazard family biographical sketches, recollections on séances and seeing the spirits of Theodore Parker and Robert Burns, a notebook chronicling Hazard’s encounters with the supernatural, and notes concerning the construction of “The Castle” in Narragansett and the “Memorial Tower” at Tower Hill. Photographs in the collection primarily consist of images of the grave of Jane Anne Terrill Gibson (relative of Mary Peace, Hazard’s mother) in Washfield, England. The collection also includes artifacts and objects, which consist of foliage taken from Lord Byron’s estate and grave, and cuneiform tablets Hazard purchased on his travels.