Olga Tsapina

Olga Tsapina
Norris Foundation Curator of American History
Department: Library, Curatorial Department (626-405-2203)
626-405-2209

Olga Tsapina, Ph.D., has been at The Huntington since 1998, before which she was the curator of the collection of Russian 18th-century printed and manuscript materials at the Division of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Moscow University Library. She holds her Ph.D. in history from the Moscow Lomonosov University, and her scholarly interests include comparative studies of religious Enlightenment, the history of autograph manuscript collecting in the United States, and correspondence networks in British America. Tsapina’s most recent exhibition at The Huntington was “The U.S. Constitution and the End of American Slavery.”

Verso

Posted on Jul. 2, 2024
Posted on Nov. 16, 2022
Posted on Aug. 30, 2022
Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, commander of the New York Zouaves. After the photograph by the Mathew Brady Studios, reproduced on page 351 in The Photographic History of the Civil War [Volume 1]:…
Posted on Feb. 17, 2022
Engraving by John Rogers (ca. 1808–1888), after the painting by Michael Angelo Wageman (ca. 1820–1898), ca. 1850. George Washington (1732–1799) presiding over the Constitutional Convention of 1787…
Posted on Jun. 23, 2021
Millard Fillmore (1800–1874), first page of a letter to Elisha Whittlesey (1783–1863), First Comptroller of the United States Treasury, March 3, 1863. L. Dennis and Susan R. Shapiro Collection. The…
Posted on Feb. 10, 2021
Letter from John Adams (1735–1826) to his son John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), April 8, 1777. John Adams served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. John Quincy Adams…
Posted on Jun. 17, 2020
Letter addressed by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1761–1849) to William Ellery (1727–1820), the collector of customs in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 14, 1809. The Huntington Library…
Posted on Mar. 27, 2019
Henry Meigs. Lithograph after the daguerreotype by M.M. Lawrence, 1854. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. In the spring of 1838, Henry Meigs (1782–1861)—a veteran of…
Posted on Oct. 30, 2018
Washington's farewell address to the people of the United States, Philadelphia: Devereux & Co., ca. 1858. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Few documents of the…
Posted on Mar. 21, 2018
Gilbert Stuart, George Washington, 1797, oil on canvas, 28 1/2 x 23 5/8 in. (72.4 x 60 cm.)frame: 35 1/4 x 30 5/16 x 3 in. (89.5 x 77 x 7.6 cm.). Gift of Mrs. Alexander Baring. The Huntington…
Posted on Feb. 20, 2017
Photographic portrait of Fredrick Douglass, 1876. Unidentified photographer. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. By the time of his death on Feb. 20, 1895, Frederick…
Posted on Nov. 3, 2016
Two pages from Susan B. Anthony account book, April 17, 1858–July 27, 1860. In the spring of 1859, Anthony was engaged in preparation for the 9th Woman’s Rights Convention in New York City. The…
Posted on Mar. 3, 2014
At the lower left of this opening to John Burrud's diary is a passage that reads, "Came across an Old Slave. He said he was well acquainted with Solomon Northup." A war is seldom thought of as a…
Posted on Feb. 21, 2014
A selection of items from the newly acquired Kirby collection. The letters shown in the lower left are detailed below. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. One of the…
Posted on Nov. 6, 2012
Today we bring you the second part of a post by Olga Tsapina, the Norris Foundation Curator of American Historical Manuscripts and curator of the current exhibition “A Just Cause: Voices of the…
Posted on Nov. 5, 2012
Today and tomorrow we bring you a two-part piece by Olga Tsapina, the Norris Foundation Curator of American Historical Manuscripts and curator of the current exhibition “A Just Cause: Voices of the…

Frontiers

Posted on Feb. 6, 2024

The Huntington’s Edward Davis Townsend collection contained something rather curious: a spool of thread with a note hidden inside that shed new light on the dramatic events that unfolded shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860.

Posted on Dec. 28, 2018

A collection of correspondence yields insight into the Seven Years' WarOn November 13, 1756, James Grahame hastily scribbled a letter at his London residence. The note, addressed to William Mercer in Perth, Scotland, confirmed that Grahame’s friend and William’s brother, Colonel James F. Mercer, was dead.