Scope and arrangement
Papers document the life of James Lenox with a focus on his book collecting and philanthropic activities.The papers consist of letters, invoices, notebooks, passports, drawings, photographs, and ephemera. The date span is 1818-1878. The bulk of the collection consists of general correspondence from the years1844-1878, and concerns book collecting. The records of his personal life highlight his involvement with charitable organizations as well as his family affairs.
The James Lenox papers are arranged in four series:
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1837-1878
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1847-1878
Sixteen folders, arranged alphabetically. The majority of the book dealer's and publisher's invoices are from Henry Stevens, F.W. Christern, and John Wiley.
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1841-1886
Subject files, arranged alphabetically, reflect Lenox's involvement with charitable organizations. Eleven of the folders deal with the Presbyterian church, hospital, or historical society. Four folders contain notebooks of the Presbyterian Church's acknowledgements of special donations from 1853 through 1860. Other organizations represented include the American Bible Society, Inebriate Asylum, the Redwood Library and the Princeton Theological Seminary. Three folders document the Stuart Collection, and contain miscellaneous lists, dealers' statements and memorandums related to books formerly owned by Robert Stuart, and acquired by Lenox. There is one folder which contains an incomplete draft and part of the galley proofs of "Recollections of James Lenox" by Henry Stevens.
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1818-1941
Personal items such as Lenox's passport, photographs, canceled checks, and letters and invoices for clothing. Two folders contain information about the ancestral home of the Lenox family in Scotland.