Papers of the Stoker Family

Identity Statement

Content & Structure

• Scope & Content: Stoker family of Dublin ↴

  These papers contain the personal, legal and professional papers of the Stoker family, whose most famous member was the author Bram, as well as papers of other families and individuals. Also included are photographs and genealogical material.
  The papers relating to Abraham Stoker focus mainly on his career in Dublin Castle, while those relating to his wife Charlotte reflect her activities in the area of social issues.
  The collection also charts the rise of their son William Thornley Stoker, from his medical training at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Queen’s College Galway, where he received his MD in 1866, to his subsequent appointment to various prestigious medical appointments in Dublin. Also reflected in the collection are his friendship with the banking heiress and philanthropist Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts, and his professional dealings with George Montague, 8th Duke of Manchester and John Plunkett, 17th Baron Dunsany, as well as his close collections with leaders of the Home Rule movement, including the MPs John Redmond and John Dillon.
  Among the papers that relate directly to Bram is documentation focussing on his financial transactions while resident in Dublin, his efforts to secure the serialisation of his early novel The Snakes Pass in The Globe magazine and his dealings with his London publishers William Heinemann and Collier & Co. The collection also traces the growth of the Dracula industry, from its accounts of several early stage adaptations of the novel, to the scholarship of Stoker critics and biographers in the second half of the twentieth century.
  Some material in the collection relates to William and Bram’s brother Thomas, who worked in the Indian Civil Service from 1872 to 1899, as well as to Bram’s son Irving Noel Thornley Stoker, who worked as a chartered accountant in London.
  There is a distinct series of letters to Henry Seymour Trower (d.1912) and his wife Juliet. Trower was a Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Navy League, and Juliet was a well-known London hostess whose social circle included a variety of literary and artistic figures.
  Also included in the collection are some papers of the Balcombe and Sweeting families, as well as photographs including images of members of the Stoker and other families.

• Appraisal Destruction ↴

  Permanent Retention

• Arrangement ↴

  Each section deals with an individual family or family member; there are two further sections: photographs and miscellanea

Conditions of Access & Use

Allied Materials

There are no Allied Materials

Descriptive Control Area