The New York Public Library

Research Catalog

Poultney Bigelow papers,

Title
Poultney Bigelow papers, 1855-1954.
Author
Bigelow, Poultney, 1855-1954.
Supplementary Content
Finding Aid

Details

Additional Authors
Description
34 linear feet (64 boxes, 2 v.)
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Diaries.
  • Journals.
  • Maps.
  • Photographic prints.
  • Sketchbooks.
Access (note)
  • Restricted access;
Source (note)
  • Sidamon-Eristoff, Constantine; Mrs. Tracy Eristoff
Biography (note)
  • Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954) was a journalist, author and world traveler. He was the son of John Bigelow, the American Ambassador to France under Abraham Lincoln, and accompanied his father on diplomatic travels. After graduating from Yale University and Columbia Law School, Poultney Bigelow was active largely as a journalist and author based in New York and London. He had close ties with the German emperor, Wilhelm II, and espoused controversial views concerning politics and world affairs. In addition to his extensive travels, he published eleven books, including a two-volume autobiography. He died at the age of 98 at his home in Malden-on-Hudson, New York.
Language (note)
  • are in German.
Indexes/Finding Aids (note)
  • Finding aid available in repository and on internet.
Linking Entry (note)
  • Bigelow family papers and John Bigelow papers are described separately.
Processing Action (note)
  • Cataloged
Call Number
MssCol 302
Author
Bigelow, Poultney, 1855-1954.
Title
Poultney Bigelow papers, 1855-1954.
Restricted Access
Restricted access; Manuscripts and Archives Division; Permit must be requested at the division indicated.
Summary
Papers consist of family and general correspondence, Bigelow's writings, biographical materials, papers of his first and second wives, and related materials. Family correspondence, 1864-1954, and general correspondence, 1880-1954, contain chiefly incoming letters, many from prominent figures in journalism, the arts, and politics, in both the United States and Great Britain, as well as figures from countries of special interest to Bigelow, especially Germany and Japan. Correspondents include associates and figures such as Henry Mills Alden, James Bryce, Roger Casement, Samuel Clemens, Geraldine Farrar, Henry George, Percy and Ella Grainger, Edgar Lee Masters, Frederic Remington, George S. Viereck, and Israel Zangwill. Bigelow's writings cover a wide range of interests with travel observations, politics, and colonial studies being most prominent and consist of drafts, manuscripts and printed copies of his writings in addition to journals, notes, sketches, photographs, maps, printed matter, and clippings. Materials collected about Germany include correspondence with Emperor Wilhelm II, members of his family, and government officials, 1881-1945, and a journal of Bigelow's trip to Constantinople with the Emperor in 1899. Also contains an unpublished biography of his father, John Bigelow. Biographical materials, 1865-1950, include scrapbooks, diaries, sketchbooks, correspondence, photographs and prints, clippings, and memorabilia.
Papers, 1874?-1928, of Poultney Bigelow's first wife, Edith Jaffray Bigelow, consist of correspondence, diaries and draft for a novel. Papers of Lillian Pritchard Bigelow, his second wife, contain family and general correspondence, diaries, notebooks, clippings, and memorabilia. Outsize materials, 1898-1937, include photographs, maps and memorabilia.
Linking Entry
Bigelow family papers and John Bigelow papers are described separately.
Biography
Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954) was a journalist, author and world traveler. He was the son of John Bigelow, the American Ambassador to France under Abraham Lincoln, and accompanied his father on diplomatic travels. After graduating from Yale University and Columbia Law School, Poultney Bigelow was active largely as a journalist and author based in New York and London. He had close ties with the German emperor, Wilhelm II, and espoused controversial views concerning politics and world affairs. In addition to his extensive travels, he published eleven books, including a two-volume autobiography. He died at the age of 98 at his home in Malden-on-Hudson, New York.
Language
Some Emperor Wilhelm materials are in German.
Indexes
Finding aid available in repository and on internet.
Connect to:
Occupation
Journalists.
Added Author
Bigelow, Edith Jaffray.
Bigelow, Lillian Pritchard.
Bigelow, John, 1817-1911.
Alden, Henry Mills, 1836-1919.
Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount, 1838-1922.
Casement, Roger, 1864-1916.
Farrar, Geraldine, 1882-1967.
George, Henry, 1839-1897.
Grainger, Ella.
Grainger, Percy, 1882-1961.
Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950.
Remington, Frederic, 1861-1909.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919.
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.
Viereck, George Sylvester, 1884-1962.
William II, German Emperor, 1859-1941.
Zangwill, Israel, 1864-1926.
LCCN
ms 79001834
Research Call Number
MssCol 302
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