History of Special Collections @ Colby

Vernon Lee Collection

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Violet Paget (1856-1935) was born to English parents in France in 1856 and published under the pseudonym Vernon Lee. She spent her life in England and Italy, was fluent in four languages, and became a central figure in the literary and social circles of her day. She wrote essays on aesthetics, archeology, history, and politics and authored over fifty books. She died in Florence in 1935.

The June 1960 issue of the Colby Library Quarterly is features articles on Vernon Lee including a biographical sketch written by her associate and executrix, Irene Cooper Willis.

VL 1914 facing left
1914 photograph of Vernon Lee at her Florence villa, Il Palmerino.

COLLECTION DETAILS

The Vernon Lee Collection contains over 1,000 letters, hundreds of manuscripts, articles and photographs, and a small number of personal documents and artifacts in addition to published works.

Descriptive information about the Vernon Lee Collection is available online.

HIGHLIGHTED DONORS FOR THIS COLLECTION

Irene Cooper Willis – primary donor

Colby Library Associates

Carl Jefferson Weber

Bern Porter Collection

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Joyceana
Porter created conceptual maps in addition to working in other art forms. He also experimented with photography, poetry, prose and publication techniques.

Bernard Harden Porter, Colby class of 1932, was a physicist, poet, artist, publisher, innovator and – throughout his life – a provocateur. Born in Houlton, Maine in 1911, he died in Belfast, Maine in 2004, ending a life filled with artistic and intellectual journeys and world travels. The June 1970 issue of the Colby Library Quarterly contains articles on Porter’s life and work up to that point.

Details about our Bern Porter Collection of Contemporary Letters are available online.

 PORTER AS DONOR

Porter offered copies of his various book publications to Curator Richard Cary in 1959. Cary opened a discussion with Porter about adding unpublished materials to his collection. Although Porter originally envisioned UCLA as the primary repository for his manuscripts and other materials, and he deposited a large quantity there, he chose Special Collections at Colby as the home for his later donations.

Additional works consulted:

Bern Porter Collection. Colby College Special Collections.

Bern Porter donor file. Colby College Special Collections.

 

 

James Augustine Healy Collection

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Honorary degree recipients 1955 Healy front left-resized
Colby’s 1955 honorary degree recipients. James Augustine Healy is seated, far left.

Born in Portland, Maine, James Augustine Healy was a great philanthropist and one of our major benefactors. He began his gifts to Colby in 1948. The college awarded him an honorary degree in 1955.

Student scholarship: Read a brief biography of James Augustine Healy written by Jui Shrestha, Class of 2007, Special Collections Assistant.

JAMES AUGUSTINE HEALY AS DONOR

Healy’s initial gifts to Special Collections were part of his Cuala Press collection and his first editions of novels by Irish-American James Brendan Connolly. Throughout the ’50s, he continued to add to his collection and also gave items for the Miller Library reference and circulating collections. In addition to his own gifts, Healy facilitated donations from other benefactors.

In 1954, Curator Carl Weber announced that Healy had decided to donate his entire personal library of modern Irish literature. The vast extent of this gift necessitated the building of a new reading room, which was funded by Healy and designed by Colby’s preferred architect, Jens Frederick Larson. The Healy Room was dedicated, in 1962, to Healy’s parents.

Healy became increasing dissatisfied with the curatorial decisions made by Curator Weber’s successor, Richard Cary, concerning his collection, especially the Connolly materials. President Strider noted to Cary in March 1965 that Healy had become embittered at having devoted so much of his life to a collection that he thinks is unappreciated and will not be used. In August 1965, Healy wrote angrily to Strider that Cary had buried the Connolly Collection within the contents of the Robinson Room.

In 1975, he repeated his wishes to revoke his 1955 honorary degree and to have the names of his parents removed from the Healy Room plaque. He made arrangements to relocate selected materials from his collection to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and urged Brenda Connolly, daughter of James Brendan Connolly, to consider removing the materials from her father she had donated. Healy died in July 1975 feeling deep bitterness and outrage toward Colby for its apparent lack of regard for his wishes.

Following Healy’s death, several significant changes resolved major points of contention. Richard Cary retired as Curator in 1975 and was replaced by Special Collections Librarian Fraser Cocks. In 1976, Cocks relocated the Connolly materials from the Robinson Room to the Healy Room. Also in 1976, the college granted funds to produce an analytical guide for the Healy Collection. It was published in 1978.

Works consulted:

Annual Report of the Curator of Rare Books. Colbiana Collection. Colby College Special Collections.

Annual Report of the Librarian. Colbiana Collection. Colby College Special Collections.

James Augustine Healy donor file. Colby College Special Collections.

Report of the Special Collections Librarian, 1975-1976. Colbiana Collection. Colby College Special Collections.

COLLECTION DETAILS

The personal library of James Augustine Healy documents in rich detail the Irish Literary Renaissance. The Healy Collection also contains many unpublished materials – letters, manuscripts, notebooks and artwork – which are described online.

Waldo Peirce Collection

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Waldo Peirce (1884-1970) was born in Bangor, Maine, and educated at Phillips Academy in Andover and Harvard University. He later studied at the Art Students League in New York City and at the Julian Academy in Paris.

Waldo Peirce sketching female students - 1944
Waldo Peirce sketching Colby coeds on the steps of the Women’s Union during a visit to Mayflower Hill in April 1944.

As an expatriate American, he drove ambulances for the French Army in World War I and led a bohemian life with notable companions such as Ernest Hemingway and John Reed. His later life was spent in Searsport, Maine, and Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he died at age 85.

His paintings and writings relate strongly to his travels and to the state of Maine.

Our Waldo Peirce Collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs related to Peirce’s life and work. Notable items are his personal scrapbooks from 1927 and 1928 in Pamplona, Spain, and Key West, Florida, documenting Peirce’s close friendship with Hemingway. The collection is described online.

WALDO PEIRCE AS DONOR

Colby College awarded Peirce an honorary degree in 1957. However, Peirce’s relationship with Special Collections began in 1966 when Peirce’s friend Gus D’Amico met Curator Richard Cary at a Colby event. Cary expressed interest in Peirce’s correspondence with Ernest Hemingway and contact between Peirce and Cary was established. Peirce donated letters of Hemingway and other correspondents beginning in April 1967, followed by other materials including his 1927-1928 scrapbooks.

Works consulted:

Cary, Richard. Letters to Waldo Peirce. 1966-1969. Colby College Special Collections.

Gallagher, William. “Waldo Peirce and Ernest Hemingway: Mirror Images.” Hemingway Review. Fall 2003.

Peirce, Waldo. Letters to Richard Cary. 1966-1969. Colby College Special Collections.

HIGHLIGHTED DONORS FOR THIS COLLECTION

In addition to primary donor Waldo Peirce:

Julius Seelye Bixler

Richard Cary

Bern Porter ’32

Edwin Arlington Robinson Collection

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Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) was born in Head Tide, Maine, but grew up in Gardiner.  Although his literary aspirations were discouraged by his family, he eventually attended Harvard but early on had little success in getting his work published. In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt read and publicly admired Robinson’s 1897 book The Children of the Night, getting the book reprinted by a major publishing company and finding Robinson a job in the New York Customs House.  Starting in 1910, Robinson started to receive recognition as a poet and he won the Pulitzer Prize three times, in 1922 for Collected Poems, in 1924 for The Man Who Died Twice, and in 1927 for Tristram.  He died in 1935 just hours after finishing his last book, King Jasper.

The Gardiner Library Associates maintain a web site dedicated to Robinson’s life and work.

COLLECTION DETAILS

The Edwin Arlington Robinson Collection – one of our largest — contains nine linear feet of unpublished material, including over 1,200 unpublished letters by Robinson, as well as over 100 linear feet of published works; first and subsequent editions of Robinson’s works; related criticism; and many books from his personal library.  The collection also contains: photographs; writings and printed items created by family members, peers, other individuals, and organizations; Robinson’s personal items and academic regalia; and, artwork.

The personal library of Edwin Arlington Robinson is described here. We have a finding aid and other descriptive information about the Robinson Collection online.

HIGHLIGHTED DONORS FOR THIS COLLECTION

H Bacon Collamore – primary donor

Ruth Robinson Nivison/Robinson Birthplace, Inc – primary donor

Margaret Perry – primary donor

Colby Library Associates

Susan Nichols Pulsifer

Laura E Richards

Clara (Mrs Carl Jefferson) Weber

 

Lilla Cabot Perry Collection

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Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933) was born in Boston and was a member of the prominent Cabot family. In 1874, she married Thomas Sergeant Perry, who taught briefly at Harvard and contributed literary criticism to prominent periodicals such as the Atlantic Monthly and North American Review. Through her husband, she became friends with writers such as Henry James and William Dean Howells. Primarily known as an artist, Perry was mentored by Claude Monet and helped introduce his impressionist techniques to the United States. The Perrys traveled throughout Europe and Japan. Increasingly, the family – Thomas, Lilla and daughters Margaret, Edith and Alice – relied financially on the income from Lilla’s paintings.

Read a biographical sketch on the National Museum of Women in the Arts web site.

COLLECTION DETAILS

William Dean Howells - LCP portrait - 1912
A rare portrait of William Dean Howells painted by Lilla Cabot Perry in 1912. Gift of her daughter, Margaret Perry.

As a poet, Lilla was a close friend and correspondent of Edwin Arlington Robinson. In 1916, she painted what is probably the best-known portrait of him, which is on permanent display in our Robinson Room. Our collection also includes her 1912 portrait of Howells.

In addition to the aforementioned portraits, our Lilla Cabot Perry Collection contains many letters as well as manuscripts, diaries, articles and memorabilia.

HIGHLIGHTED DONORS FOR THIS COLLECTION

Margaret Perry – primary donor

Ruth Robinson Nivison

Susan Nichols Pulsifer

Clara (Mrs Carl Jefferson) Weber

 

Thomas Sergeant Perry Collection

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Thomas Sergeant Perry (1845-1928) was born in Newport, Rhode Island into an illustrious family that included Commodore Oliver Perry (grandfather) and Commodore Matthew Perry (great-uncle). Benjamin Franklin was his great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side. He graduated from Harvard in 1866, studied abroad and tutored in French and German at Harvard before becoming editor of the North American Review. He was instructor in English at Harvard for five years.

In 1874, Perry married Lilla Cabot of Boston, who became a noted painter. The Perrys lived abroad for several years before he accepted an invitation in 1897 to teach at Keiogijiku University as Professor of English Literature. Returning home in 1901, the Perrys lived at their Boston home on Marlborough Street and at their summer residence, Flagstones, in Hancock, New Hampshire.

Perry was a respected, astute reader and a prolific translator and literary critic. He was lifelong friends with notable writers such as Henry James and William Dean Howells and poets Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer and Edwin Arlington Robinson. Perry died of complications from pneumonia at his Boston home in 1928.

Our collection contains letters, manuscripts and Perry’s personal library.

Works consulted:

Cocks, J Fraser. Report on Special Collections.. 1985. Colbiana Collection. Colby College Special Collections.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. Selections from the Letters of Thomas Sergeant Perry. New York: Macmillan. 1929. Print.

HIGHLIGHTED DONORS FOR THIS COLLECTION

Margaret Perry – primary donor

Julius Seelye Bixler

Ruth Robinson Nivison

Susan Nichols Pulsifer

Clara (Mrs Carl Jefferson) Weber