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Creator
Maloney, Margaret Sarah McKim
Call number
MssCol 1853
Physical description
2 linear feet (4 boxes, 2 volumes)
Preferred Citation

Maloney Collection of McKim-Garrison Family Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The collection consists of correspondence and other papers of prominent members of the interrelated McKim and Garrison families collected by Margaret McKim Maloney and others. Included are papers of architect Charles Follen McKim, abolitionists James Miller McKim, William Lloyd Garrison, James H. Garrison, and their descendants. Papers of James Miller McKim, 1828-1882, contain correspondence, accounts, family and personal miscellany, and clippings. Papers of his son Charles Follen McKim, 1857-1908, include correspondence, his diary of a walking tour in 1863, speeches, personal miscellany, and a sketch by Charles Dana Gibson, and printed matter. Also included is correspondence of Margaret McKim Maloney, Wendell Phillips Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Frank J. Garrison, Moncure Conway, Wendell Phillips, and Edward and Mathilda Kyllman.

Biographical/historical information

James Miller McKim (1842-1877) was a Presbyterian minister who became an abolitionist and organizer of freedmen's aid societies. McKim first worked as an agent for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, editing the Society's newspaper, the Pennsylvania Freemen, before organizing the American Freedman's Union Commission that sought to aid and promote the newly freed black population of South Carolina's Sea Islands. After journeying to these islands, he published a report, The Freedmen of South Carolina (1862). He was one of the founders of the Nation, a weekly magazine where his son-in-law Wendell Phillips Garrison would later be a literary editor. McKim married Sarah Allibone Speakman (1813-1891) in 1840 and had two children Charles Follen (1847-1909) and Lucy (1842-1877).

Charles Follen McKim was a prominent architect and senior partner of McKim, Mead & White, one of the leading architecture firms in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. McKim, one of the first Americans to be trained at the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was known for pioneering the Colonial Revival, establishing a national style of classicism and for the collaboration between architecture and the fine arts. Among the buildings designed by McKim were the Trinity Church in Boston, the former Pennsylvania Railroad Station, the J.P. Morgan Library and the Boston Public Library. McKim was also founder of the American School of Architecture, which later became the American Academy of Rome. McKim was married twice, to Annie Bigelow in 1874 and to Julia Amory Appleton in 1885. He had one daughter with Annie Bigelow, Margaret S. McKim, who married William Maloney. Lucy McKim was a pianist and violinist who collected slave songs. Jointly with her husband, Wendell Phillips Garrison, she compiled and published a collection entitled Slave Songs of the United States.

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) was an abolitionist, editor and religious reformer. He spent most of his professional career working for abolitionist periodicals, first co-editing the Quaker Genius of Universal Emancipation with Benjamin Lundy before founding the weekly paper The Liberator that he published from 1831 until 1866. Garrison was also one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, authored the society's Declaration of Sentiments, as well as the Friends of Universal Reform. In addition to his abolitionist activities, Garrison was a strong proponent of temperance, women's rights, anticlericalism and a rejection of the Constitution, beliefs that made many view him as a radical and controversial person. He married Helen Eliza Benson (1811-1876) in 1834 and the couple had four children who survived past infancy, William L. Garrison, Wendell Phillips Garrison, Helen Frances Garrison and George Thompson Garrison. His brother, James Holley Garrison (1801-1841) served in the United States Navy.

Scope and arrangement

The collection is composed of materials collected by William and Margaret Maloney with additional materials purchased by The New York Public Library with funds from the Maloney family. The collection consists of personal papers of Charles Follen McKim, James Miller McKim, James Holley Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, Moncure Conway and others. Papers of James Miller McKim, 1828-1882, contain correspondence, accounts, biographical material, address books, scrapbook, and clippings pertaining to his career as an editor and abolitionist. Noted correspondents include Samuel Joseph May, James and Lucretia Mott, Passmore Williamson, Henry B. Stanton and William Still. Papers of his son, Charles Follen McKim, 1857-1908, include correspondence, speeches, memorabilia, and printed matter. McKim's career as a prominent architect is documented with correspondence from such noted architects as Philip Brooks, Cass Gilbert, Sir Aston Webb, George Brown Post, Stanford White and William Mead, among others. Also included is a sketch of McKim by Charles Dana Gibson. Correspondence, 1903-1930, and other papers of McKim's daughter, Margaret McKim Maloney are also represented in the collection. Papers of William Lloyd Garrison, 1839-1879, include correspondence and writings from his career as an editor, an abolitionist and a religious reformer. Included are unpublished notes and published writings. Papers of his brother, James Holley Garrison, ca. 1814-1840, include a diary of Garrison's battle with alcoholism and his time in the United States Navy, an account of an attempted suicide and biographical material. Letters to Moncure Conway, 1856-1885, are also represented in this collection as well as the correspondence of Wendell Phillips Garrison and Edward and Otto Kyllmann.

The Maloney Collection of McKim-Garrison Family papers are arranged in eight series:

  • I. James Miller McKim Papers
  • II. Charles Follen McKim Papers
  • III. Margaret McKim Maloney Papers
  • IV. William Lloyd Garrison Papers
  • V. James Holley Garrison
  • VI. Wendell Phillips Garrison
  • VII. Moncure Conway
  • VIII. Garrison-Kyllmann Correspondence

    Edward Kyllmann was a cotton merchant of German descent who lived in Manchester, England. Both Kyllmann and his wife Mathilda were involved in abolition work and the women's suffrage movement. Mathilda sat as treasurer of the Manchester Society for Women's Suffrage. Letters to Kyllmann are from various members of the Garrison family and give news on family matters and political activities. The bulk of the letters, including three typescripts, are from William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. who wrote often and affectionately. His letters are primarily about family matters, but also discuss politics and the effects the Panic of 1893 on the American economy. Often mentioned are friends Joseph Simpson and the Steinthals, the family of Unitarian minister S. Alfred Steinthal. Also included is one letter to Helen Villard written by Edward and Mathilda Kyllmann. Their son, Otto Kyllmann, was the a senior partner of the publishing firm, Constable & Co. Letters to him are three in number, two from Frank Jackson Garrison and one from Oswald Garrison Villard concerning Villard's book Inside Germany, published by Constable & Co., and Villard's lunch with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Philip McKim Garrison, 1940 and Dr. William J. Maloney, 1948; additional gifts and purchases made with the Margaret Maloney Fund.

Processing information

Processed by Susan Malsbury.

Related Material

Maloney collection of Irish historical papers, 1857-1949.. New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Alternative form available

Papers of James Miller McKim available on microfilm.