A Finding Aid to the Harriet Frances Bailey Collection. Record Unit 456

Transcription

1 A Finding Aid to the Harriet Frances Bailey Collection Record Unit 456 Finding aid prepared by Insley Julier September-October Edgartown, Massachusetts 2013 Martha's Vineyard Museum Descriptive Summary Repository: Martha's Vineyard Museum Gale Huntington Research Library 59 School Street P.O. Box 1310 Edgartown, MA Call Number: RU 456 Creator: Bailey, Arthur P., collector Title: Harriet Frances Bailey collection Dates: , 1964, undated Physical Description: 1 box + 1 oversize folder (0.529 cubic feet) Language(s): The materials are in English. Abstract: The collection consists of photographs, poetry, short stories, a diary, correspondence and school work created by Harriet Frances Bailey of Chilmark, Massachusetts, and New York, New York. The material was collected by her brother, Arthur P. Bailey. 1

2 Administrative Information Access Restrictions There are no restrictions, with the following exceptions: Student records in Box 1, folder 7 and Box 1, folder 8 are RESTRICTED until 2018 per Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) legislation. Use and Reproduction Restrictions Requests to reproduce material from this collection should be directed to museum staff. Reproduction fees may apply. Preferred Citation Martha's Vineyard Museum, RU 456, Harriet Frances Bailey Collection. Acquisition Information Gift of Arthur Bailey, brother of the creator, Harriet Frances Bailey. According to a May 1967 issue of the Dukes County Intelligencer, Arthur Bailey presented the society with the Harriet Frances Bailey Collection, consisting of photographs, letters, a diary, a few short stories, school papers and a dozen unpublished poems. A July 1960 letter to a museum staff member indicates that Arthur Bailey was still in the process of sorting through the material at that time. It therefore seems likely that the collection was received between 1960 and 1967, however, the exact date of accession and accession number are unknown. Related Materials There is a published volume of Bailey's poems in the library collections. See: Bailey, Harriet Frances. Poems. New Bedford, Mass.: Reynolds Printing, Index Terms Subjects - Names Bailey, Harriet Frances, Subjects - Topics Poetry Subjects - Places Chilmark (Mass.) New York (N.Y.) Form/Genre Terms Black-and-white photographs 2

3 Card photographs Clippings Correspondence Diaries Manuscripts Poems Research notes Short stories Contributors Allen, Joseph Chase, Bailey, Harriet Frances, Biography/Historical Note Harriet Frances Bailey was born in Chilmark, Massachusetts in 1918 to Charles Ezra Bailey and Ida Emma Mayhew Bailey. The family lived in New York City, where Charles Bailey was a tenor singer and taught voice lessons. The Baileys returned to Chilmark in the summer to a family home on North Road called, Ravenhurst. Harriet Frances Bailey, or Frances, as she was called by her family, had two siblings; Arthur P. Bailey and Virginia Bailey. A gifted student and child poet, Frances Bailey began writing verse at the age of six. She attended the St. Agnes School and the Lakeside School in Spring Valley, New York, where she served as a writer and editor of the school paper. Bailey completed high school in a little over two years, graduating at the age of 15. She was valedictorian. She went on to Barnard College in New York City, finishing her studies there at age 19. Harriet Frances Bailey married Warren L. Dahl of New York in Bailey died in December 1938 at St. Nicholas Hospital in New York at the age of 20. Scope and Content of Collection The collection consists of published and hand-written poetry and short stories, a diary, correspondence, school notes and research papers created by Harriet Frances Bailey, , and collected by her brother, Arthur P. Bailey. In addition, materials include black-and-white photographs of Harriet Frances Bailey and her friends, family and classmates, as well as newspaper clippings about her academic achievements, obituaries and tributes published after her death. A volume of Harriet Frances Bailey's poetry, entitled Poems, was posthumously published in 1942 under the auspices of the Dukes County Historical Society, predecessor to the Martha's Vineyard Museum. The collection contains an annotated, typescript manuscript of the work and drafts of a forward written by Joseph Chase Allen. It is unclear whether the Poems manuscript 3

4 formed part of Arthur P. Bailey's gift. The photographic images gifted by him were separated from the textual materials at the time of accession or sometime thereafter. These photographs have been reunited with the textual collections however it is not possible to ascertain from institutional records if all of the images were received directly from Arthur Bailey. Arrangement The collection is arranged chronologically, with photographic materials filed at the end. Collection Contents Box Folder Description Date(s) 1 1 Poems circa , undated OS 14 Vineyard Gazette 1928 August 10 GEN Clippings Regarding Academic , undated Achievements 1 3 Correspondence , undated 1 4 Prize Winning Poem, "New York" 1932 January 1 5 Diary School Notes circa Roman Wall Paintings and Mosaics in the circa Metropolitan Note: File is RESTRICTED per FERPA legislation until Gambetta, Man and Statesman circa Note: File is RESTRICTED per FERPA legislation until The Tiger Note: School newspaper published by Spring Valley High School. OS 14 The Tiger 1934 April 17 GEN Valedictory Speech Short Stories and Poetry Published in 1937 Barnard Quarterly 1 12 Short Stories before 1938 December 1 13 Obituaries 1938 December Tribute Published in Barnard Quarterly

5 Box Folder Description Date(s) Poems (Manuscript) Forward to Poems, by Joseph Chase Allen circa Poem, "Your Portraits" undated 1 19 Family Photographs from Childhood circa 1919-circa 1930, Photographs with Family, Friends and circa Classmates 1 21 Portrait Photographs of Harriet Frances Bailey circa