Sarah Gilbert (1837-c1925) was born in West Newton Massachusetts. She was the second of three children born to Reverend Lyman Gilbert (1798-1885) and Marion Jackson Gilbert (1809-1868). Lyman Gilbert was the pastor at the Congregationalist Church in West Newton from 1828 to 1856.

Papers of the Jackson family including Sarahs maternal grandfather, William Jackson (1783-1855), can be found at the Newton History Museum.

Sarah was a writer and artist. Though she had no formal art training, she exhibited her work and sold several paintings at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1886. She traveled extensively throughout the United States, including Alaska and the Bahamas, and in Europe. Descriptions from these travels can be found in a bound volume of travel letters, her correspondence and the travel postcards in this collection.

The collection consists of loose papers, correspondence and a bound volume of travel "letters" dated from 1880 to 1892. Undated materials in the collection include travel postcards and photographs of Sarah and her family. Sarahs literary works in the collection include poems, prose and essays, including a transcribed copy of her "Thanksgiving at the Old Jackson Homestead, 1848" dated c1890.

Research materials in the collection include pages of handwritten summaries of Sarahs letters and diaries by Ann McNab and a brief biographical sketch written for the exhibition of Sarah Gilberts work at the Jackson Homestead dated 1972. The Jackson Homestead also has one hundred nineteen watercolor paintings by Sarah Gilbert.

No. of boxes: 1 MS box.
Finding Aids: Manuscript box/inventory.