Mundella Papers
Scope and Contents
This collection comprises correspondence and some related papers of Anthony John Mundella, Liberal MP for Sheffield. The content of these letters and papers is primarily political and cover his time as a member of the Cabinet under William Ewart Gladstone, as well as his work as the Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education and then the President of the Board of Trade.
There are also letters written by Anthony John Mundella to Robert Leader, John Daniel Leader, Robert Eadon Leader and Henry Joseph Wilson, as well as further correspondence of the Leader family, which does not relate to Anthony John Mundella. These letters were acquired by Maria Theresa Mundella, who intended to write a biography on her father, Anthony John Mundealla.
The above material is complimented by letters sent to Maria Theresa Mundella, concerning the life and political career of her father, Anthony John Mundella, as well as the notebooks she compiled, which contain transcribed copies of the letters he wrote to Robert Leader, John Daniel Leader and Henry Joseph Wilson.
Please note that the collection does not include any of the business archives of Hine and Mundella.
Dates
- Creation: 1861 - 1932
Creator
- Mundella, Anthony John, 1825 - 1897 (Person)
- Leader, Robert, 1809 - 1885 (Person)
- Mundella, Maria Theresa, Died 1922 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Available by appointment
Biographical / Historical
Anthony John Mundella (1825-1897) was born in Leicester of an Italian father and an English mother. After education at a National School he entered the hosiery trade, ultimately becoming a partner in the firm of Hine and Mundella of Nottingham. He became active in the political life of Nottingham, and after giving a series of public lectures in Sheffield was invited to contest the seat in the General Election of 1868.
Mundella was Liberal MP for Sheffield from 1868 to 1885, and for the Brightside division of the Borough from November 1885 to his death in 1897. He served in successive governments under Gladstone: as Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education from April 1880 until June 1885; as President of the Board of Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet, from January until July 1886; and from August 1892 until his resignation in May 1894. His principal political interests were in the promotion of arbitration in labour disputes, and the provision of education, in particular technical education. He died on 21 July 1897.
Extent
23 Box(es)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Chronological
Previous reference number
7,8,9 and 22
Custodial History
On Mundella's death his papers passed to his unmarried daughter, Maria Theresa, who
intended to write a biography of her father based on the papers, supplemented by his own
letters to others, given or 'loaned' to her, principally by the Leader and Wilson families.
Together with her father's letters to the Leaders were a number of letters from other
correspondents (see sections 85-95 of the box list). Maria Theresa transcribed nearly all of her father's letters to Robert Leader and his sons (the Mundella-Leader correspondence) and several of
those which Mundella wrote to Henry Joseph Wilson but she had not begun the proposed
biography by the time of her own death in 1922. The papers, as supplemented by the gifts and
'loans' and Maria Theresa's transcripts, then passed to her niece, Lady Charnwood. Lord and
Lady Charnwood presented the papers to Sheffield University Library in the 1930s, retaining
certain unspecified items as being of family interest.
Bibliography
Subject
- Wilson, Henry Joseph, 1833 - 1914 (Person)
- Liberal Party (1859 - 1988) (Organisation)
- Description rules
- International Standard for Archival Description - General
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
+44 (0) 114 222 7299
lib-special@sheffield.ac.uk