Loading...
Creator
Bigelow, Poultney, 1855-1954
Call number
MssCol 302
Physical description
34 linear feet (64 boxes, 2 v.)
Language
Some Emperor Wilhelm materials are in German
Preferred Citation

Poultney Bigelow papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

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

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 Also contains an unpublished biography of his father, John Bigelow.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.

Biographical/historical information

Poultney Bigelow was born in New York in 1855, the son of John and Jane Poultney Bigelow. His father was at that time co-owner and coeditor of the New York Evening Post. At the beginning of the Civil War, the elder Bigelow was appointed United States consul in Paris; after the war, he was named minister to France.

Poultney Bigelow was educated in France, Germany, and the United States. In Berlin in the early1870's, he was invited to become a playmate of Prince William of Hohenzollern, later the Emperor William II of Germany. The friendship persisted and a correspondence ensued.

Poultney Bigelow entered Yale in 1873 and graduated in 1879, with a two year hiatus during which, for health reasons, he took passage abroad a sailing ship bound for the Orient. He was shipwrecked off the coast of Japan, just short of the vessel's destination.

After college Poultney Bigelow studied law and practiced briefly; from the early 1880's until his semi-retirement in 1906. However, he was active largely as a journalist and author based in New York and London. He traveled extensively and his writings cover a wide subject range, with travel observations, politics, and colonial studies being most prominent. From this period of Poultney Bigelow's life there are sizable collections of letters from such associates as Henry Mills Alden (the Harper's editor), James Bryce, Roger Casement, Henry George, Mark Twain, and Israel Zangwill (the English writer), along with smaller groups of letters from many others.

After 1906 Poultney Bigelow wrote little for the periodical press but nevertheless published five books, including a two volume autobiography. (In all, he published eleven books.) His correspondence from this later period includes sizable collections of letters from such figures as Geraldine Farrar, Percy Grainger and Ella (Mrs. Percy) Grainger, Edgar Lee Masters, Frederic Remington, and George S. Viereck (and smaller collections of letters from many others). Particularly well represented in the correspondence are figures from literature, the arts, and politics, in both the United States and Great Britain, as well as figures from countries of special interest to Poultney Bigelow, such as Germany and Japan.

Scope and arrangement

The Poultney Bigelow papers are arranged in six series:

  • I. Family Correspondence
    1864-1954

    Correspondence of Poultney Bigelow with parents, siblings, and othe rrelatives, mostly between 1864 and 1954. A few letters from others, from the years before 1880 are also included.

    Note: For Poultney Bigelow's letters to his family from Potsdam in the early 1870s, see Section III Box 34 (William II and Germany).

  • II. General Correspondence
    1880-1954

    Letters, mostly addressed to Poultney Bigelow but also including copies of some of his letters.

  • III. Writings

    Contains manuscripts of books and articles by Poultney Bigelow, clippings of his newspaper and magazine articles, unpublished manuscripts, reviews of his writings, and related matter.

    This series also contains other materials brought together under various geographical and subject heads, reflecting some of Poultney Bigelow's major areas of interest: Germany, Japan, Panama, Africa, colonialism, and others. In some instances letters and diaries are included under these headings, as indicated in the inventory.

  • IV. Biographical Materials

    Contains diaries, scrapbooks, clippings, and other materials of biographical interest.

  • V. Papers Of Lilian Pritchard Bigelow And Edith Jaffray Bigelow

    Contains letters and other materials relative to Poultney Bigelow's second and first wife, respectively.

  • VI. Oversize Materials

    Consists of oversize memorabilia.

Administrative information

Processing information

Compiled by Richard Allen and Melanie Yolles, 1984

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