About the Book & the Collection

Dear Nell is based on the Haven-Pugh Letter Collection

Dear Nell contains over 50 images, including photos of the Havens and Pughs, their houses, Ellen's children, Civil War documents and more.

The book spans a period from the mid-1800's to the present.

The original letters, documents and scanned images of same are now held at the Portsmouth Athenaeum. A brief synopsis follows.

The 6-volume Haven-Pugh Letter Collection is a compilation of the letter and document transcriptions.

There have been hundreds of additions to the original 6-volume Haven-Pugh Letter Collection.

In 2011, 45 new letters from Ellen to W.W. Pugh were transcribed from another collection. Over 85 legal and business letters involving David and Haven & Co., formerly thought unimportant, were transcribed, with more added in 2013. In 2012, over 120 letters from the Haven family were transcribed from another collection, and in 2013, over 370 pages of Ellen's account books were transcribed.

Over 2400 items comprising thousands of pages are cataloged in the Haven-Pugh Letter Collection. A catalog spreadsheet lists & describes each item, and indicates in which box and section the original is located. All transcribed documents are available here in html format for research, and the master spreadsheet catalog as well as a finding aid are here on the site.

As of Sept. 2018, the scanning of the collection was completed, comprising over 8,500 scans. A big thank you goes to Steve Hemeon, who did the work over a 5 year period.

In September 2018, the official deed of gift of the Haven Pugh Letter Collection was transacted, and the collection and the transcriptions now reside at the Portsmouth Athenaeum in Portsmouth, N.H.

Below is an Addendum, noting people and materials and other things related to the letter collection that surfaced after writing Dear Nell.