Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of manuscripts, letters, and documents of numerous and varied authors and artists that span nearly five centuries of English and American literature. There is a variety of related material, such as such as artwork, illustrated albums, letterbooks, and photographs.
Authors most extensively represented include the so-called "Taylor authors"-Max Beerbohm (with numerous caricatures and drawings, correspondence and manuscripts), Alexander Pope, Richard Brinsley Sheridan; George Gordon Byron, and Anthony Trollope.
Other writers significantly represented in the collection, with regard to manuscripts and/or letters, are: the Brontë family (Anne, Charlotte, and Patrick), Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Benjamin Robert Haydon, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, the Trollope family (Frances Milton, Henry Merivale, T. Adolphus, and Frances Eleanor), Oscar Wilde, and Virginia Woolf. The major artists include William Blake, Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), George Cruikshank, Edward Lear, John Everett Millais, William Makepeace Thackeray, and J. M. W. Turner.
Note: A listing of Taylor Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts (Series 4) is included as a reference for researchers, but full textual and codicological descriptions of them will eventually be published in a "Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library."
Dates
- Creation: 1280s-1958
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1800s-1930s
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Extent
51 boxes
229 items
13 Volumes
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Robert H. Taylor Collection consists of over 4,000 3,300 manuscripts illustrating in their wide range the scope of English literature from the fourteenth century to the 1940s. This finding aid focuses on the modern manuscripts, both bound and unbound, in the collection, which is designated "RTC01" within the Manuscripts Division of the Special Collections Department of the Princeton University Library. However, a brief listing of the collection's Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts is included.
Arrangement
The Taylor modern manuscripts collection (RTC01) is housed in 23 archival boxes and 7 shelves (for bound and oversized items). The majority of artwork, particularly the oversized items, is stored in 17 clamshell boxes. This remains an open collection, and additions continue to be made from time to time. The collection has been arranged in the following series:
Physical Location
hsvm
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Robert H. Taylor, Princeton Class of 1930, placed his library collection on deposit in the Princeton University Library in 1972, and bequeathed it to the Library upon his death in 1985. The Library has accepted gifts and made acquisitions of related material since that time.
"Mysteria Revelata" of John Collins was purchased with funds from the Richard M. Ludwig Endowment established by Michael Spence, Class of 1966.
Florence Emily Hardy (1881-1937) letters to Constance Innes Pocock were purchased in 2014 (AM 2014-88).
Max Beerbohm letters to Florence Kahn were purchased in 2000 (RT 2000-01).
William Shenstone epitaph by Richard Graves was purchased in 2015 (AM 2016-8).
Appraisal
No materials were separated during 2003 processing.
Bibliography
See also: Robert H. Taylor, "Contemporary Collectors III: The Robert H. Taylor Library" in the Book Collector Vol. 3, no. 4 (Winter, 1954); "Association Copies from the Collection of Robert H. Taylor" in the Gazette of the Grolier Club [New series], (June, 1969), no. 10; and A.D. Wainwright, "Robert H. Taylor" in the Gazette of the Grolier Club [New series], (1986), no. 38.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Sylvia Yu and Teresa Basler in 2002-2003. Finding aid written by Sylvia Yu and Teresa Basler in 2002-2003.
Finding aid updated periodically with new accessions by Kelly Bolding, Faith Charlton, and Chloe Pfendler, 2013-2017.
Genre / Form
Topical
- American literature
- American literature.
- English fiction.
- English literature -- Women authors -- Sources.
- English literature.
- European literature
- Literature
- Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts
- Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Correspondence.
- Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Manuscripts.
- Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
- Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Manuscripts.
- Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence.
- Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Manuscripts.
- Women's studies
- Title
- Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature, 1280s-1958 (bulk 1800s-1930s): Finding Aid
- Date
- 2002
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Content Adheres To That Prescribed By Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 2012-05-02T14:55:47.483-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-04-22T09:39:41.937-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-05-03T08:31:28.641-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-05-10T14:06:15.569-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-05-15T13:48:41.228-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-06-24T13:23:53.868-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-07-12T15:22:19.261-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-07-29T14:11:17.231-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2013-10-14T09:35:15.473-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2014-05-06T16:43:47.77-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2014-05-13T16:45:08.206-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2014-07-01T11:45:35.98-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2014-07-14T12:25:29.427-04:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.
- 2016-01-20T12:34:00.815-05:00: Run through PULFA 2.0 normalization routines.