In 1870, Missouri born Samuel Langhorne Clemens--Mark Twain--married Olivia Louise Langdon, a native of Elmira, New York. For well over the next two decades, the Clemenses and their children summered in Elmira, at the home of Olivia’s sister, Susan, and her husband, Theodore Crane. The picturesque view of the Chemung River from the Crane home (Quarry Farm) inspired Twain to recall and record on paper the compelling landscapes of his youth. In the most famous literary landmark in America, the Mark Twain Study, given to him by the Cranes, Mark Twain wrote classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Life on the Mississippi, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. In 1952, the Mark Twain Study was moved from its original site at Quarry Farm to the nearby campus of Elmira College, the first college in the nation to grant a degree to women equal to that which had previously been reserved for men.

 

Today, as part of the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies, Quarry Farm is a site for a variety of Center programs. The Center’s overall mission is to foster the understanding of Mark Twain’s place in American literature and his influence on American culture, through Quarry Farm Research Fellowships, courses, symposia, and workshops, as well as international conferences and publications.

The Mark Twain Study, Exhibit, and Statue on the Elmira College campus are open to visitors from May through Labor Day, Mon-Sat, 9 am to 5 pm and Sunday from 12 to 5 pm.  From Labor Day through mid-October hours are: Sat, 9 am to 5 pm; Sun, 12 to 5 pm.  Twain enthusiasts can also view a permanent Twain exhibit at the Chemung County History Museum, as well as see the Mark Twain Gravesite at Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

For more information regarding the rich literary legacy of Mark Twain in the Chemung County Valley visit the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies web site at www.elmira.edu (Under Quick Links choose Mark Twain Connection.)