Lady Marie Juliette Baillot was born in Auvernier, Switzerland, in a village near Lake Neuchâtel, on December 6, 1896, and moved to England at the age of nineteen to work as a French teacher for Ottoline Morrell. At Garsington, Morrell’s home, she met numerous guests including Aldous Leonard Huxley (ALH) and Julian Huxley. Julian and Juliette began courting in 1916, and corresponded throughout 1917 and 1918 while Julian served in the Army Service Corps and Army Intelligence during World War I. The two were married in 1919. Their first son, Anthony, was born in 1920, and their second, Francis, in 1923. Juliette followed Julian in his tenures at King’s College and the Royal Institute in London during the 1920s and until 1931, when Julian resigned. During Julian’s term as Secretary of the Zoological Society of London from 1935 until 1942, Juliette loved living in their home at the London Zoo. She enjoyed walking among the animals and hearing them at night. In 1946 the couple moved to Paris while Julian Huxley served as Director-General of UNESCO.
Juliette Huxley traveled extensively with her husband throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. She later published
Correspondence (a total of 12,553 pieces) forms the majority of this collection. The correspondence ranges from 1897, with Julian and his grandmother Henrietta exchanging letters, to 1994, shortly before the death of Juliette Huxley. The correspondence not only includes letters from Huxley family members and many twentieth-century intellectual, social, and cultural leaders, but it also provides extensive information about Lady Juliette Huxley and her myriad activities. Also included in the collection is correspondence to and from Aldous Huxley, the majority being from Aldous to his brother Julian, although there are a few from Aldous to Juliette and to his father and other brother Trevenen. Of particular interest are some very early juvenile writings of JSH, written in 1895, 1897, and 1904.
Correspondents include members of the Huxley family, and scientists, artists, authors, and social figures such as Joy Adamson, David Attenborough, Sybille Bedford, Kenneth Clark, Jelly D’Aranyi, Cyrus Eaton, Dorothy Elmhirst, Violet Hammersley, Alister Hardy, Jacques Havel, Samuel S. Koteliansky, Corliss Lamont, Konrad Lorenz, Rene Maheu, Yehudi Menuhin, Naomi Mitchison, Henry Moore, Ottoline Morrell, Herman J. Muller, Bertrand and Ethel Russell, May Sarton, George Gaylord Simpson, Stephen Spender, Freya Stark, Igor Stravinsky, Niko Tinbergen, Stark Young, H. G. Wells and his son G. G. Wells, and Solly Zuckerman.
In addition to extensive correspondence, the collection includes Anthony and Francis Huxley school records, material related to Julian Huxley’s involvement in the 1948 Breslau World Congress of Intellectuals, and manuscripts and typescripts of works by Julian and Juliette Huxley. Other formats include address books, calendars, condolences, diary fragments, journals, memorials, notebooks, passports, photographs, printed ephemera, travel materials and travel sketches.
This material is open for research.
Permission to publish from the Juliette Huxley papers, MS 474, must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
This material is arranged in the following series:
MS. 50 Julian Sorell Huxley papers, 1899-1980
MS. 55 Letters to Kenneth Clark from Julian Huxley, 1935-1975
MS. 56 Solly Zuckerman Correspondence with Julian Huxley, 1931-1967
MS. 57 Julian Huxley Letter to G. W. N. Eggers, June 20, 1916
MS. 58 Julian Huxley Letter to Dr. Dyke, December 8, 1914
MS. 472 Julian Huxley Letter to Clinton George Evelyn Dawkins
Juliette Huxley papers, 1895-1994, MS 474, Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University.
This collection was acquired at auction from Maggs Brothers of London in 1997.
No future additions are expected for this material.
This series, made up of 5 subseries, contains 10,957 total pieces of correspondence. The numerals in parentheses represent the number of pieces of correspondence within that folder. Only those correspondents who exchanged 5 or more letters with JSH or MJH are listed separately. Date ranges are given for each folder. Otherwise they will be found in the alphabetical folders. Researchers are encouraged to look for correspondents by last name, first name, and/or first and last initial.
This subseries consists of 4,497 pieces of correspondence and is filed in alphabetical and then chronological order. The correspondence in these folders is often addressed to both Juliette and her husband, Julian, or to one or the other of them separately.
Undated correspondence has been treated somewhat differently. In cases where the decade is known, the letters will be filed at the end of that decade. Letters where the decade is not known are filed together at the end of each individual correspondent’s name or at the end of the alphabetical files (i. e., N-R). Letters with incomplete dates or where the addressee is not known can be found both at the end of the alphabetical files (in the case of incomplete dates) or at the end of this series (in the case of both).
There are a total of 2,982 pieces of correspondence in this subseries. The letters have been filed chronologically and separated into correspondence from MJH to JSH and correspondence from JSH to MJH.
This subseries is comprised of a total of 2,410 pieces of correspondence. It contains the lifetime correspondence of members of this large and talented family. The family correspondence is filed in alphabetical and then chronological order by the name of the family member. There are no letters from Julian Huxley’s grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley. However, there is a folder of correspondence from Juliette’s mother to her daughter, as well as letters to and from Julian Huxley’s grandmother Henrietta, his father Leonard, his mother Julia, his brother Trevenen, and his sister Margaret. In addition, there are letters from Julian’s half-brother Andrew, from Aldous Huxley’s wife Laura, and a few from Julian’s other family members. See Series I, Subseries D, Box 11 for Aldous Huxley correspondence.
Undated correspondence has been treated somewhat differently. Letters where the decade is not known are filed together at the end of each individual correspondent’s name. Letters with incomplete dates are filed separately at the end of each individual’s name.
This subseries consists of 583 pieces of correspondence. They are arranged chronologically and are primarily letters between Aldous Huxley and Julian Sorell Huxley, although there are a few between Aldous and his father Leonard and brother Trevenen. In addition, there is also correspondence between ALH and MJH and letters from ALH to others. See Series 1, Subseries C, Boxes 9 and 10 for other Huxley family correspondence.
This subseries contains 485 pieces of correspondence that are of a business nature. These letters are arranged chronologically and relate to Aldous Huxley’s reinternment in London, Bertrand Russell, book reviews, business offers, D. H. Lawrence, gifts to archives/libraries, JSH manuscripts, JSH publications, JSH travels, Julian Huxley research fellowship, laboratory equipment, MJH publications, religion, requests for correspondence, Stark Young, tributes to JSH after his death, UNESCO, wildlife, and zoology.
This subseries is arranged chronologically. Within MJH’s address books are numerous newsclippings, name cards, and handwritten and typewritten notes. It appears that MJH kept duplicate calendars for the years 1951-1987. One set may have been for home and one for her purse or automobile. The number in parentheses represents the total number of items within that folder or category.
Within this subseries are 1,495 pieces of correspondence. The subseries is arranged alphabetically. In addition to the correspondence, this subseries also includes tributes, condolences, and memorials related to the death of JSH; Francis and Anthony Huxley school records; well wishes on MJH’s ninetieth birthday; material related to the JSH memorial fund; papers connected with Aldous Huxley, such as obituaries, condolences, and memorials; and other family documents.
This subseries is arranged alphabetically and consists of some hand- and typewritten works of Juliette and Julian Huxley. It includes Juliette’s autobiographical ms.
Published printed materials collected by Juian and Juliette Huxley, some annotated by Julian Huxley.