Mundella Papers
Scope and Contents
Correspondence and other papers of Anthony John Mundella, Liberal MP for Sheffield, plus other related correspondence.
The content of the papers is mainly political, and consists largely of the correspondence of Mundella. The collection also includes correspondence of the family of Robert Leader, some of which does not relate to Mundella, acquired by Mundella's daughter Maria Theresa who intended to write a biography of her father, and transcriptions by Maria Theresa of correspondence between Mundella and Robert Leader, John Daniel Leader and another Sheffield Liberal MP, Henry Joseph Wilson (see also Wilson Papers).
Please note that the collection does not include any of the business archives of Hine and Mundella.
For further details of this collection please see the box list in the External Documents section below.
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
Copyright
University of Sheffield and various 3rd party copyright
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