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Portrait of George Gordon Byron, circa 1813
Portrait of George Gordon Byron, circa 1813

The Gift of Byron: Gifted Material in Special Collections

Thursday, April 26, 2018

One hundred and ninety-six years ago, Lord Byron wrote a letter to Sir Walter Scott discussing the death of his daughter, Allegra, and detailing an account of an imbroglio between members of his entourage and a dragoon, a member of the Italian mounted infantry. Dated May 4th, 1822 from Pisa, the letter provides an interesting look into Byron’s personal life, and what he chose to share with his close friends. He devotes only three sentences to the death of his young daughter, Allegra, writing, “… but I have just lost my natural daughter Allegra, by a fever. The only consolation – save time – is the reflection that she is either at rest or happy for her few years (only five) prevented her from having incurred any sin, except what we inherit from Adam. ‘Whom the Gods love die young.’” Allegra was Byron’s illegitimate daughter, the result of a brief liaison with Clare Clairmont, and lived with Byron for less than three years before he placed her in a convent at Bagnacavallo. Byron spends considerably more time describing an altercation with a Sergeant Major Dragoon that happened in March of the same year; after a round of insults and an attempted arrest of Byron’s party, the gentleman was stabbed by someone in Byron’s party. Byron notes that he is not under suspicion for the act. The full six page letter can be read here.

                                           Byron, George Gordon, Baron, 1788-1824. ALS. 1822, May 4, Pisa to Sir Walter Scott.

This letter was gifted to the Library in the 1940s by longtime member Christian A. Zabriskie, Esq. Mr. Zabriskie also gifted the Library several original Sir Walter Scott manuscripts. The Library owns an original manuscript of The Doom of Devorgoil, a manuscript of Castle Dangerous (including a striking amount of content that never made it into the first published edition and which is written in the hand of Scott and William Laidlaw, Scott’s amanuensis), and manuscript correspondence between Scott and Robert Johnston, Scott’s lifelong friend. Mr. Zabriskie also contributed many other gifts of books and manuscript letters to the Library during his time as a member.     Opening page of The Doom of Devorgoil, in Sir Walter Scott's hand, with edits.

The Society Library has benefited greatly from the generosity of its membership since the first calls for materials and gifts came out after the Revolutionary War, when the fledgling Library offered shares in exchange for books instead of the five pound fee, in an effort to reconstruct the collection after the ravages of war. This offer existed from 1789 until 1794, and 55 new subscribers opted to participate in this exchange. While only a few receipts of exchange exist in our institutional archive, from those we see that mostly novels were given in exchange for shares. While the Trustees who initiated this call for exchange initially determined the proffered books should relate to “traditional professions” such as law, religion, and medicine, many new subscribers in fact engaged in nontraditional professions. Merchants, manufacturers, clerks, and even one cart man joined the Society Library during this period, and the books they offered to the Library reflected their own interests. The Trustees saw their plans for the Library shift, and allowed the community of the Library to influence the collection and shape the institution.

In a 1791 ad in The Daily Advertiser, the Library published its first call for members and the public to donate pamphlets, books, and other ephemera as a means to provide an accessible repository for citizens to access these materials. The Library never abandoned its desire to preserve ephemera or to provide access to these materials; A forward-thinking passage from the Library’s 1860 Annual Report regarding pamphlets and ephemera notes that, “…However ephemeral in their character most of them may be singly, when collected and preserved they often become of great value, and the Trustees therefore recommend their library to their fellow citizens as a safe and convenient depository for such publications. They may be of little value at present, but soon become very scarce, and are often most desirable for scientific, historical, or sanitary purposes.” The Trustees understood that research value can be gained over time; that while a book or letter may be deemed unimportant in the present, its future potential is unlimited. Many of the donations are found in our Broadside Collection and in our Pamphlets Collection, where content ranges from political tracts to plays, and beyond.

Our Manuscripts Collection is another notable collection where the generosity of several 19th century members shines through. The Manuscripts Collection is comprised mostly of gifts of correspondence from the Goodhue, Bowne, and Harison families. The Collection numbers over 2000 items, and includes letters from notables like Alexander Hamilton, Edgar Allan Poe, George Washington, Washington Irving, Aaron Burr, and Thomas Jefferson. The Collection also includes gifts to the Library over more recent decades, and also includes family scrapbooks, travel documents, diplomas, and more. It is a rich source of material that past members and shareholders felt should join the collections of the New York Society Library.

Gifts, like the material from Mr. Zabriskie and the donation of pamphlets and other ephemeral material, have provided the Library with a fantastic collection of scarce titles and singular, one-of-a-kind items. This Byron letter is only one example of the exceptional material found in Special Collections. And the materials found in Special Collections are only one manifestation of how the Library’s history is tied into its relationship with its community. Since its beginning, the Library has relied on its members to invest in its future.

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