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This collection of autograph letters and autographs was assembled by the firm of James
F.
Drake, Inc. in the 1930s for sale by that rare-book firm; it was acquired by the Humanities
Research Center upon the Ransom Center's acquisition of Drake's stock in the 1965.
The
collection is overwhelmingly in English, but there are a few items in Dutch, as well
as one
or two in Spanish, French, or German. |
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The collection--housed in 17 document boxes and nine bound volumes--represents
correspondence covering a span of over two hundred years and three continents. Perhaps
90%
of this material comprises complete autograph letters. The majority of these are housed
alphabetically by writer in boxes 4-15, boxes 1-3 containing the correspondence of
three
persons discussed below. The remainder of the letters and all the autographs are in
boxes 16
and 17 and the bound volumes. |
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Within the larger collection there are three substantial sub-groups which represent
the
correspondence of three very different individuals. The first of these is Dorothy
Furman's
correspondence, which covers the years 1890 to 1915, and which includes replies from
bibliophiles and authors to whom the New Jersey-based collector had written suggesting
an
exchange of personal bookplates. Most of the hundred-plus replies are politely brief
but
others are longer and give insight into their writers, many of whom are notables in
America's intellectual life of the period, such as John Shaw Billings, Alfred Kreymborg,
and
Curtis Hidden Page. |
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Letters received by Francis W. Halsey (1851-1919) between 1892 and 1902 reflect the
activity of that historian-editor in his capacity as literary editor of the New York Times and represent many significant public figures of the
age, including Julian Ralph, Thomas E. Watson, and Anne Hollingsworth Wharton. |
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The third major collected correspondence found in the Drake materials is that of Temple
Scott (1864-1939), British-born New York rare-book dealer. Correspondents in this
business
archive from the years 1929 and 1930 comprise several major figures of the period,
including
Jerome Kern and William H. Woodin. |
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The numerous letters from the correspondence of Lord James Blyth (1841-1925) are not
separately organized but are dispersed throughout the Drake collection. They span
the last
quarter-century of his life and give some indication of the great breadth of his public
and
social relationships. Britons (and non-Britons) notable in the political, cultural,
and
intellectual life of Edwardian Great Britain were among Baron Blyth's vast social
network
and are often found in informal moments in this archive. Represented in the segment
of the
collection are Margot Asquith, Paul Cambon, and Fürstin Anne
Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg. |
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Other substantial groupings in the Drake collection include a significant number of
letters
written by 19th-century American political and military figures, especially presidents,
cabinet officers, and Civil War generals. American and British literary figures, clerics,
and actors are also found in the collection. |
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While not numerous, there are also a number of interesting 18th-century letters and
documents in the Drake collection. Materials relating to the Van Bokkelen and Gomez
families
of New York, as well as to two of New York City's early mayors (Nicholas Bayard and
Abraham
De Peyster) are included. |
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The nine bound volumes include seven scrapbooks of autographs assembled by
turn-of-the-century collectors, together with two receipt books kept by early New
York
businessmen. Most of the scrapbooks have had letters removed for individual sale. |
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The receipt book of John C. Freeke records the settlement of accounts with clients
in New
York in the years 1795-1799, giving sums paid, nature of the debt, and the signatures
of the
creditors. Names found include Roosevelt, Suydam, Vanderbilt, and Wyckoff. The receipt
book
of Luke Gage (1835-1839) and of Adam Partridge (1858-1885) is similar to the Freeke
volume
but covers a later period. |
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The two scrapbooks assembled by Florence Evans Ebeling comprise, in the main, mounted
letters and autographs from the correspondence of her father William T. Evans (1843-1918),
a
noted New York art collector. Also found in these scrapbooks are letters addressed
to
William Budd Bodine (1841-1907), Episcopal cleric and author. |
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Mrs. Bertram Thornber's two scrapbooks of mounted letters appear to have been collected
shortly after 1900 and comprise autograph letters and autographs of eminent Britons.
A
number of the letters are no longer present in the volumes. |
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The autograph scrapbook of C. Lucile Godfrey of Stratford, Connecticut. (apparently
compiled about 1900) has, in the main, been stripped of its contents. A few letters
to Dr.
Charles C. Godfrey remain. |
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The eighth volume of autograph letters contains letters to the Very Rev. George W.
Kitchin
(1827-1912) from a variety of late 19th century Britons, particularly those with connections
to Oxford and the Church of England. This volume was apparently collected by a member
of the
Kitchin household about 1900. |
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The ninth (and final) bound volume contains the signatures of President Rutherford
B.
Hayes, the vice president, cabinet, and the members of the 45th Congress of 1877-1879. |
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In 2022, the unidentified items in box 17 were reviewed and 34 letters and 229 signatures
were identified, though a few items still remain unidentified. The newly identified
items
represent mainly literary, political, and military figures, also some performers and
artists, most dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of the military
signatures are for Civil War-era Union surgeons. There are four eighteenth-century
items
(1704-1713) and one item from early in Queen Victoria’s reign (1838). A number of
the
newly-identified items can now be matched with items by the same creator elsewhere
in this
collection. Creator names for the items in box 17 can be located by searching the
Index in
this finding aid for “17.” to find all items in the box. A printed list of the names
arranged in folder order is also filed in box 17. |
