History of Special Collections @ Colby

  • INTRO
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  • CHRONOLOGY & CONTEXT
    • What Happened (early on)
      • The First Library & Edward Hall
      • The “Rare Book” Section (early 1930s)
    • Our Chronology (1935-1975)
    • Some Context
  • THE PEOPLE
    • Curators
      • Carl Jefferson Weber (Curator 1940-1958)
      • Richard Cary (Curator 1958-1975)
    • Librarians
      • N Orwin Rush (Librarian 1936-1945)
      • Gilmore Warner (Librarian 1945-1947)
      • James Humphry III (Librarian 1947-1957)
      • John R McKenna (Librarian 1957-1964)
      • Kenneth P Blake, Jr (Librarian 1964-1973)
      • Eileen M Curran (Acting Librarian, 1973-1976)
    • Other Colby People
      • Ernest C Marriner ’13
      • Frederick A Pottle ’17
      • Carroll A Wilson ’40 LLD
      • Franklin Winslow Johnson (President 1929-1942)
      • Julius Seelye Bixler (President 1942-1960)
      • Robert Edward Lee Strider II (President 1960-1979)
    • The Colby Library Associates
    • Highlighted Donors
  • HIGHLIGHTED COLLECTIONS
    • Rare Book Collections
      • Early Books
      • Thomas Hardy
      • Book Arts
      • The Rubáiyát
    • Personal Libraries
      • Library of Edwin Arlington Robinson
      • Library of Thomas Sergeant Perry
      • Library of Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer
      • Library of James Augustine Healy
      • Library of Ben Ames Williams
    • Manuscript Collections
    • “A Recent Accession”: The Colby Library Quarterly

H Bacon Collamore (Donor)

H Bacon Collamore - Dec 1948 Bd Mtg
Photo taken at Colby’s December 1948 Board meeting in New York City. Trustee Collamore is far right. He was a generous servant of the college and, in particular, Miller Library.

Harry Bacon Collamore (1891-1975) was a steel company executive based in Hartford, Connecticut. He was an examiner for the National Fire Insurance Company, 1912-1916, later advancing to Chairman of the Board before retiring in 1956. Collamore was Chairman of the Board and CEO for the Pittsburgh Steel Company from 1956 until his final retirement. He spent his last years in West Hartford. He served as a Trustee for the Watkinson Library, Trinity College, and for Colby College (1946-1958). He died in West Hartford on 28 September 1975.

Collamore was a noted book collector with particular interests in American and British poetry and literature. He was an important benefactor for numerous academic and cultural institutions including Yale University, Trinity College, the Free Library of Philadephia and, of course, Colby College.

A close friend and admirer of Edwin Arlington Robinson, he published a book on the poet’s work soon after the poet’s death in 1935.

H BACON COLLAMORE AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Carl Weber met Collamore at Wesleyan University in 1937 and discovered that Collamore was a founding member of the Edwin Arlington Robinson Birthplace, Inc. Weber’s vision for the forthcoming Treasure Room in Miller Library impressed Collamore, who was instrumental in arranging the Ruth Robinson Nivison deposit of Robinson materials at Colby several years later. Collamore donated his own Robinson materials, notably several hundred letters written by the poet to Edith Brower and other correspondents. He also donated materials related to other major writers represented in the Treasure Room.

Collamore served on the Advisory Board of the Colby Library Quarterly from its inception in 1943 and contributed articles on Robinson to several issues.

Works consulted:

Colby Library Quarterly. Waterville, ME: Colby College Library. Print and web.

“Harry Bacon Collamore.” New York Times obituary. 30 September 1975. Web. 31 March 2015.

“Harry Bacon Collamore Collection.” Watkinson Library, Trinity College finding aid. Web. 31 March 2015.

Marriner, Ernest Cummings. The History of Colby College. Waterville, ME: Colby College Press, 1963. Print and web.

ASSOCIATED COLLECTIONS

Edwin Arlington Robinson – primary collection

Thomas Hardy

James Family

Sarah Orne Jewett

The Rubaiyat

Explore Common Threads – and Student Scholarship – in our Manuscript Collections