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Creator
Duyckinck family
Call number
MssCol 873
Physical description
32.7 linear feet (82 boxes, 60 volumes, 2 oversized folders)
Preferred Citation

Duyckinck family papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
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Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878) and his brother George Long Duyckinck (1823-1863) were biographers, editors of The Literary World between 1848 and 1853, and editors and publishers of the Cyclopedia of American Literature. Collection consists of literary and general correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts of writings, memorabilia, and legal, financial, and business papers, 1830-1878, of E. A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck. Also, correspondence, daybooks, account and receipt books, and journals, 1793-1833, of their father, Evert Duyckinck; papers, 1838-1889, of Margaret Wolfe Panton Duyckinck, wife of E.A. Duyckinck; papers, 1856-1869, of Henry Duyckinck, Evert Duyckinck, Jr., and George Duyckinck (sons of E.A. Duyckinck); papers, 1810-1851, of Sophia Roorbach; and papers of the Wolfe and Panton families. Includes the manuscript of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Old Manse (1846) and Herman Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses" (1850).

Biographical/historical information

Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878), editor and biographer, son of Evert and Harriet June Duyckinck, and the elder brother of George Long Duyckinck (1823-1863). Evert Duyckinck Sr., (1764?-1833) was a publisher of standard literature in New York City. Duyckinck's higher education: Columbia College B.A. (1835); John Anthon LLD, admitted to the bar (1837). Duyckinck did not practice law; instead like his father, he opted for a literary career which began by submitting articles to the New York Review. He married Margaret Wolfe Panton in 1840. Their marriage produced three sons Evert, George and Henry all of whom died young. Duyckinck jointly edited with Cornelius Mathews the Arturus, a Journal of Books and Opinions between 1840-1842. He edited the Literary World for Osgood Co. (1853). Evert with his brother George bought the Literary World (1853). They jointly edited it between 1848-1853. Together, the Duyckinck brothers edited the Cyclopaedia of American Literature (2 vols . 1855); Evert later revised it after the death of his brother George (2 volumes and supplement, 1866). Duyckinck edited other works and he compiled Irvingiana, Anecdotes and Traits of Washington Irving.

George Long Duyckinck (1823-1863), editor and biographer, was the younger brother of Evert Augustus Duyckinck. George followed the career choice of his brother by entering the literary world and by not practicing law. Besides editing the Literary World, his other accomplishments include a biography of George Herbert (1858).

Scope and arrangement

Collection consists of literary and general correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts of writings, memorabilia, and legal, financial, and business papers, 1830-1878, of E.A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck. Also, correspondence, daybooks, account and receipt books, and journals, 1793-1833, of their father, Evert Duyckinck; papers, 1838-1889, of Margaret Wolfe Panton Duyckinck, wife of E.A. Duyckinck; papers, 1856-1869, of Henry Duyckinck, Evert Duyckinck, Jr., and George Duyckinck (sons of E.A. Duyckinck); papers, 1810-1851, of Sophia Roorbach; and papers of the Wolfe and Panton families. Includes manuscript of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Old Manse" (1846) and Herman Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)."

The Duyckinck family papers are arranged in thirteen series:

  • Literary correspondence of Evert A. and George L. Duyckinck

    The Literary Correspondence consists of incoming letters to Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck in their capacity as editors of Arcturus, the Literary World and the Cyclopaedia of American Literature. The correspondence is from authors, including many important American authors of the antebelllum period, women authors, artists, clergy, poets, historians, and other associates and colleagues of the Duyckincks. There are a few draft replies from the Duyckinck brothers. Additional letters have been mounted in two published sets of the Cyclopaedia of American Literature.

    A peculiarity of the Literary Correspondence is the occasional appearance of non-literary or historical figures antedating the Duyckincks. These "autographic items" provide evidence of the somewhat artificial nature of the series; that is, it contains letters received as well as collected by the Duyckincks during their literary career.

    The correspondents include: William Henry Appleton, George Bancroft, Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, Phineas Taylor Barnum, Theodoric Romeyn Beck, Park Benjamin, Richard Bentley, Nicholas Biddle, John Bigelow, Mary Louise Booth, Anna Charlotte Lynch Botta, Henry Marie Brackenridge, Charles Frederick Briggs, Charles Astor Bristed, William Cullen Bryant, George Henry Calvert, Joseph Green Cogswell. Vincent Colyer, Clarence Chatham Cook, Richard Henry Dana, Felix Octavius Carr Daley, John Ward Dean, Charles F. Dennett, Charles Dickens, Samuel Gardner Drake, William Alexander Duer, Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Addis Emmet, James Thomas Fields, Hamilton Fish, John Wakefield Francis, Samuel Ward Francis, Henry Fuseli, Parke Godwin, Edward Sherman Gould, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Ingersoll Jared, William Alfred Jones, Elizabeth Clementine Dodge, Stedman Kinney, Caroline Matilda Stansbury Kirkland, James Lenox, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Anna Charlotte Lynch, Cornelius Mathews, Allan Melville, ,Augusta Melville, Elizabeth Knapp (Shaw) Melville, Herman Melville, Rembrandt Peale, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Addison Richard, Frederick Saunders, Charles Scribner, Richard Stoddard, and Henry David Thoreau.

  • Papers of Evert A. Duyckinck
  • Papers of George L. Duyckinck
  • The Literary World
  • Papers of Evert Duyckinck, Sr
  • Papers of Evert Duyckinck (son of Evert A. Duyckinck)
  • Papers of George Duyckinck (son of Evert A. Duyckinck)
  • Papers of Henry Duyckinck (son of Evert A. Duyckinck)
  • Papers of Margaret Wolfe Duyckinck (wife of Evert A. Duyckinck)
  • Panton family papers
  • Papers of Sophia Roorbach
  • Miscellaneous papers
  • Cyclopaedia of American Literature... [Extra Illustrated]

    Cyclopaedia of American literature : embracing personal and critical notices of authors, and selections from their writings : from the earliest period to the present day : with portraits, autographs, and other illustrations / by Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck. (New York: Charles Scribner Co., 1866) Large paper limited edition of 100 copies. In five parts, extra-illustrated.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The Duyckinck Family Papers, 1793-1899, were given to the Lenox Library in 1890 (Note: the Lenox Library was consolidated into the New York Public Library: Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation) by Margaret Wolfe Duyckinck, widow of Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878). The papers were part of the Duyckinck Collection comprising, in addition to the family papers, some 15,000 books and 1,500 pamphlets relating to English and American literature collected by George Long Duyckinck (1823-1863), Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1816-1878) and their father Evert Duyckinck, printer, publisher, and book dealer in New York City. The books and pamphlets were sent to the General Research Division. About 10,000 items from the Duyckinck Collection have been listed in the Lenox Library's Short Title List, Nos. 8, 12 (1887,1890).

Source of acquisition

Donated to the Lenox Library by Margaret Wolfe Duyckinck, 1890

Processing information

Compiled by Manuscripts and Archives Division staff,

The Duyckinck Family Papers were arranged by the Lenox library staff into their present main series, although in common practice of the time period, no box listing or inventory was made.Volumes were integrated into the main series of the papers in 2011. They had originally been listed separately.

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