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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1598

Bayard Taylor papers

Overview

Family correspondence of American man of letters Bayard Taylor.

Dates

  • Creation: 1826-1912
  • Creation: Majority of material found in 1845-1878

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

3.5 linear feet (7 boxes)

Consists principally of family correspondence of Bayard Taylor and his second wife, Marie Hansen Taylor. Includes about 1100 letters by Bayard Taylor, mostly to his first wife Mary Agnew, his second wife Marie Hansen, his mother Rebecca, his brother Frank, and his daughter Lillian; about 900 letters, mostly in German, by Marie Hansen Taylor to Bayard Taylor, and to her mother and her father, the Danish astronomer Peter Andreas Hansen; about 200 letters, in German, to Marie Hansen Taylor from her parents. Also includes Taylor's private account book, 1851-1872; diaries, 1869 and 1876, of Marie Hansen Taylor; and memoranda, notes, clippings, and letters relating to Bayard Taylor. There are also 12 letters, 1877-1878, from the actor Lawrence Barrett concerning a plan for Taylor to translate Schiller's Don Carlos; and 96 letters, 1862-1874, from James Lorimer Graham who was a friend of Taylor's and United States consul-general for Italy.

Biographical / Historical

Taylor was an American man of letters best known for his many books of travel and his translation of Faust. He was secretary of the American legation at St. Petersburg (1862-1863) and minister to Germany (1878).

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by author.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

45M-477. Gift of Taylor's great-grandchildren: Natalie Kiliani Shastid, Bayard Taylor Kiliani, and Harlow Hardinge Kiliani, Loudonville, Albany County, New York; received: 1946.

Processing Information

Finding aid updated in 2013 by Emilie Hardman.

Title
Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878. Bayard Taylor papers, 1826-1912: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00451

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440