Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Archives related to: Blair, John Insley, 1802-1899

titleBlair Family Papers, 1843-1961 (bulk 1891-1910) ©2007 Princeton University Library
repositoryPrinceton University
descriptionThe Blair Family Papers consists primarily of travel diaries, scrapbooks, and photograph albums composed by John Insley Blair and his family. There is also a small selection of letters of Clinton Ledyard Blair regarding a fight over Woodrow Wilson's reforms at Princeton University and Blair's relationship with the University's Board of Trustees.

Location: Rare Books: Manuscripts Collection (MSS)
Call number: C0934
extent12.5 linear feet (5 archival boxes, 3 record center cartons, and 5 oversize boxes)
formatsDiaries Scrapbooks Photograph Album Correspondence Ephemera
accessCollection is open for research use, contact repository for restrictions and policies.
record linkhttp://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/9880vq99x
record sourcehttp://catalog.princeton.edu
finding aidOnline and in repository. Finding Aid Published in 2003, ©2007 Princeton University Library
acquisition informationThis collection was made a gift to the department by a relative of the Blair family.
updated03/16/2023 10:29:55
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titleArchives of Charles Scribner's Sons, 1786-2003 [Bulk, 1880s-1970s] ©2007 Princeton University Library
repositoryPrinceton University
descriptionThese archives consist of virtually all of the surviving records of Scribners (1846-1984), the New York City publisher, and reflect aspects of all of its publishing functions (soliciting and acquiring books, editing manuscripts, printing and manufacturing books, advertising and publicizing publications) and business concerns (book and magazine publisher, retail bookstore, subscription books department, educational books department, printing press and bindery, rare books department). Included are files of editorial correspondence with authors, manufacturing records about book production, advertising records, author contracts, a collection of dust jackets, book catalogs, ledgers, and photographs. While there are gaps in most of the series or record groups, there are records representative of all of the firm's former permutations: Baker & Scribner, Charles Scribner & Co., Scribner, Armstrong & Co., Scribner, Armstrong & Welford, Scribner & Co., Charles Scribner's Sons. The bulk of the material (1880s-1970s), however, dates from the period when the publisher bore its most familiar name, "Charles Scribner's Sons." There is also material related to early publishers' organizations and international copyright.

The family-owned nature of the company is reflected in the files of its successive heads: Charles Scribner, 1821-1871 (Princeton Class of 1840), Charles Scribner, 1854-1930 (Princeton Class of 1875), Arthur Hawley Scribner, 1859-1932 (Princeton Class of 1881), Charles Scribner, 1890-1952 (Princeton Class of 1913), Charles Scribner, 1921-1995 (Princeton Class of 1943), Charles Scribner, 1951- (Princeton Class of 1973). Company staff well-represented in the archives include Edward L. Burlingame (first editor of the firm's most successful magazine, Scribner's Magazine), Robert Bridges and Alfred Dashiell (Burlingame's successors), legendary editor Maxwell Perkins (editor of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe), other editors (W. C. Brownell, John Hall Wheelock, Wallace Meyer, Harry Brague, Burroughs Mitchell, Elinor Parker), business manager and later vice-president Whitney Darrow, and London office managers (Charles Welford, Lemuel Bangs, Charles Kingsley, John Carter).

Some of the best-known authors that were published by Scribners in the 19th century are T. S. Arthur, Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen, Noah Brooks, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Horace Bushnell, George Washington Cable, Richard Harding Davis, Mary Mapes Dodge (author and editor of the firm's children's magazine, St. Nicholas), Eugene Field, John Fox Jr., Harold Frederic, Alice French ("Octave Thanet"), A. B. Frost (author/illustrator), Charles Dana Gibson (author/illustrator), Arnold Guyot, J. T. Headley, J. G. Holland (author and editor of the firm's first commercial magazine, Scribner's Monthly), Henry James, Caroline M. Kirkland, Sidney Lanier, Brander Matthews, Donald Grant Mitchell ("Ik Marvel"), Thomas Nelson Page, Maxfield Parrish (illustrator), Howard Pyle (author/illustrator), George Santayana, Philip Schaff, Ernest Thompson Seton, F. Hopkinson Smith, Henry M. Stanley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Frank R. Stockton, Richard Henry Stoddard, Mary Virginia Terhune ("Marion Harland"), Henry van Dyke, N. P. Willis, and Edith Wharton.

Other authors that began publishing with Scribners in the 20th century include James Truslow Adams, Edward W. Bok, Paul Hyde Bonner, James Boyd, Thomas Boyd, Struthers Burt, Taylor Caldwell, Sir Winston Churchill, Robert Creeley, Marcia Davenport, August Derleth, Loren Eiseley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Douglas Southall Freeman, John Galsworthy (winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Literature), Caroline Gordon, Grey Owl (Archibald Stansfeld Belaney), Nancy Hale, Ernest Hemingway (winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature), P. D. James, Will James, James Jones, Ring Lardner, Allan Nevins, Reinhold Niebuhr, Alan Paton, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, C. P. Snow, Allen Tate, Arthur Train, Thomas Wolfe, Willard Huntington Wright ("S. S. Van Dine"), N. C. Wyeth (illustrator), and Stark Young.

In addition to company records, the archives contain Scribner family papers, primarily correspondence and photographs. Papers relating to John Insley Blair, the 19th-century American railroad capitalist and father-in-law of the firm's founder, as well as other Blair family members, are included.

Location: RBSC Off-Site Storage: Contact rbsc@princeton.edu
Call number: C0101
extentapprox. 800 linear ft.
formatsBusiness Papers Personal Papers Photographs
accessAll of the Hemingway correspondence is open, but researchers interested in copies should consult the Reference Archivist in the Dept. for further information.
record linkhttp://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/9c67wm86s
record sourcehttp://catalog.princeton.edu
finding aidA lengthy guide to the Record Groups is available, with box/folder lists, as well as an illustrated chronology of the company’s history. Finding Aid Published in 2000, ©2007 Princeton University Library
acquisition informationThese archival records have come to the Princeton University Library in various installments, as gifts from the Scribner family, beginning in 1967.
updated11/12/2014 11:29:55
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titleJohn Insley Blair papers, 1831-1898
repositorySouthern Methodist University
descriptionJohn Insley Blair was a businessman who invested heavily in railroads, eventually becoming president of sixteen railroad companies and a director of many more.

This collection consists of a large number of letters written to or by Blair and his business associates; and business-related documents, including tax records, bills of lading, invoices, receipts, checks, proposals for railroad legislation, legal documents, petitions, lists of shareholders, meeting minutes,

railroad passes, documents relating to the establishment of new railroad lines and companies, newspaper clippings, monthly earnings statements, payroll vouchers, railroad construction estimates, employee wage receipts, account statements, contracts, reports, distance tables, ledger books, and a memorandum book.

Location:
DeGolyer Library, Manuscript Collection, Non-circulating

Call Number:
Mss 0040


extent3 linear feet
formatsBusiness Papers Administrative Records Financial Records Legal Papers Correspondence
accessCollection is open for research use.
record linkhttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/smu/00071/smu-00071.html
record sourcehttp://libcat.smu.edu/
finding aidOnline and in repository.
acquisition informationGift, Charles and Lindley Eberstadt, 1963.
updated11/12/2014 11:30:12
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