ECCLES, MARY HYDE. Papers, 1903-2002
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Mary Hyde Eccles Collection, 1903-2002



RLIN ID No.
NYGG04-A16

Main Entry
Eccles, Mary Hyde.

Title
Mary Hyde Eccles collection, 1903-2002 (bulk 1959-2002).

Physical Description
7 boxes
Ca. 810 photographs : black & white and color ; 18 x 24 cm. or smaller
9 slides : color ; 5 x 5 cm.
10 negatives

Scope and Contents
Travel diaries, photographs, brochures, catalogs, itineraries and ephemera relating to Grolier Club bibliophilic journeys in Italy (1962), Scandinavia and the Netherlands (1967), and Germany and Austria (1969), and the Club’s “Gala Book Week” in May 1964. Other material related to the Grolier Club includes a photograph album of a reception given for Mary Hyde at the Club in honor of her published edition of the correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas; photographs of the sale of the A. Edward Newton collection; and 16 miscellaneous club publications. Also includes an album of photographs documenting the farewell party given to participants in the Grolier Club’s trip to Spain in 1997. Additional material, not related to the Grolier Club, includes a set of minutes of the Hroswitha Club; items documenting Mary Hyde’s participation in the Fifth International Bibliophile Congress at Venice (1967); photographs of two receptions at Harvard on the occasion of exhibitions of Hyde's Samuel Johnson collection; an album of thank-you letters from members of the Roxburghe Club to whom she sent copies of her club publication, James Boswell’s Book of Company, in 1997; and an album of photographs documenting a dinner in her honor given by the Pierpont Morgan Library in Sept. 2002. Also includes material relating to her participation in trips sponsored by the Congres Internationale des Bibliophiles and to three personal trips.

Biographical Note
Anglophile collector and scholar. Mary Morley Crapo was born 8 July 1912 in Detroit, Michigan. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in 1934 and earned a Ph.D. in English literature from Columbia University in 1947. In 1939, she married Donald Frizell Hyde, a lawyer and serious collector of Samuel Johnson. With the acquisition of the esteemed Adam family collection in 1948, the Hydes' Four Oaks Farm in Somerville, New Jersey evolved into a major center for the study of Johnson and his circle. Some years later, the Hydes established the Four Oaks Foundation to support the continuance of eighteenth-century scholarship. After Donald's death in 1966, Mary Hyde maintained her association with the Grolier Club, and in 1976 she was among the first women to be elected to membership. She was also a member of the Hroswitha Club and became the first woman elected to membership in the Roxburghe Club, the premier club for British bibliophiles.

In 1984 Mary Hyde married David, Viscount Eccles and with his encouragement launched the five-volume Hyde Edition of the letters of Samuel Johnson, published by the Princeton University Press (1992-1994). While Mary Eccles’s major publications centered on Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, in 1980 she published an edition of the correspondence of George Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas. For her ninetieth birthday in 2002, the Grolier Club published Mary Hyde Eccles: A Miscellany of Her Essays and Addresses. She bequeathed the Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson to the Houghton Library at Harvard University and, with Viscount Eccles, established the Eccles Center for American Studies at the British Library. She died 26 August 2003.

General Note
The finding aid and inventory for the collection of Grolier Club Bibliophile Trips contains additional material. Material in supplementary inventory (Grolier Club and Other Bibliophile Trips) is partially processed and listed.

Finding Aid
Unpublished inventory available in repository.

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Material in primary inventory (boxes 1-4): Estate of Mary Hyde Eccles, 2004.
Material in supplementary inventory (boxes 5-7): Gift of Gabriel Austin, New York City, 2008.
Holograph diaries of Grolier Club trip to England (1959) and the “Trial Run” in 1966 for the Club’s Iter Septentrionale (1967): Gift of William Zachs, 2008.

Publications Note
Grolier Club trip to Italy in 1962 published in: Grolier Club Iter Italicum, edited by Gabriel Austin (New York: Grolier Club, 1963).
Grolier Club trip to Scandinavia and the Netherlands in 1967 published in: “Iter Septentrionale: A Bibliographical and Picturesque Voyage,” Gazette of the Grolier Club, n. s. (Oct. 1957), p. 21-35.

Names
Austin, Gabriel.
Austin, Gabriel, donor.
Eccles, Mary Hyde, correspondent.
Eccles, Mary Hyde. Diaries.
Eccles, Mary Hyde. Photographs.
Eccles, Mary Hyde. Travel.
Hyde, Donald Frizell. Travel.
Zachs, William, donor.
Grolier Club.
Grolier Club. Publications.
Hroswitha Club. Minutes.

Subjects
Book collectors. New Jersey. 20th century.
Diaries. New Jersey. 20th century.
Book collecting. New Jersey. 20th century.
Literary journeys. 20th century.
Women book collectors. 20th century.
Women book collectors. Societies. Minutes.
Europe. Description and travel. Diaries.

Genre Note
Albums. 20th century.
Brochures. Europe. 20th century.
Catalogs. 20th century.
Diaries. 20th century.
Ephemera. 20th century.
Itineraries. Europe. 20th century.
Pamphlets. 20th century.
Photograph Albums. 20th century.
Photographs. 20th century.

Occupation (as reflected in collection)
Book collectors. 20th century.

Location
Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.


Collection Inventory

Box 1: Iter Italicum [Grolier Club Tour of Italy]: May 5-26 1962

Diaries
Grolier Club/Italy. [Diary volume issued by the club with itinerary and blank leaves; bound in red morocco]
Mary Hyde. Diary of the Grolier Club Excursion to Italy: 5-26 May 1962. [Typescript copy. Ca. 125 unnumbered leaves. 28 cm. Tour organized and led by Donald Hyde]
The Grolier Club Iter Italicum, edited by Gabriel Austin. [Manuscript and typescript with many autograph annotations. Ca. 120 leaves. 29 cm. Bound in brown cloth with gilt lettering identical to case used for published volume of 1963. This account contains contributions by a number of the participants]

Invitations, Menus and Tourist Brochures from Cities Visited
Envelope 1: 21 items
Envelope 2: 14 items
Envelope 3: 5 items
Envelope 4: 4 items
2 oversize items
Miscellaneous papers. [4 items in one envelope]
Milan. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 1609-1959, Inaugurazione degli Ambienti… 1959.

Library Catalogs
Uniform series of catalogs of items exhibited for trip members at various libraries visited at Cesena, Florence, Naples, Rome. Citta de Vaticano, Venice and Verona. [Housed in folding box bound in red cloth, 11 items, 13 x 19 cm.; 2 identical sets]

Photographs
Various subjects. [Ca. 65 black and white and color photographs. 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7”) or smaller;
some annotated on verso]
Milan airport. Group arrival. [17 black and white photographs. 18 x 24 cm. (9-1/2 x 12”)]
Studio Fotografica Lucio Gorregno, Verona. [4 mounted black and white photographs. Image area 14 x 18 cm. (5-1/2 x 7-1/2”). In stiff paper cases]
Miscellaneous subjects. [3 black and white photographs. 21 x 25 cm. (8 x 10”)]
Venice. [4 color prints of unspecified building and interior. 13 x 13 cm. (5 x 5”)]
Francisco Radali. [4 black and white photographs of marriage ceremony and reception. 13 x 17cm (7 x 9-1/2” or smaller). Also: ALS to Mary Hyde. 2p. Radali helped make local arrangements for the trip.
Color photographs. [52 photographs. 14 x 19 cm or smaller. (5-1/2 x 7”) 2 envelopes]
Unidentified Italian garden. [24 black and white photographs. 7-1/2 x 10 cm. (3 x 4”)]
Rome and Milan. [Miscellaneous color photographs. 14 photographs. 9 x 13 cm. (3-1/2 x 5”)]
Slides. [9 color slides. 5 x 5 cm. (2-1/2 x 2-1/2”)]
Negatives. [Strip and sheet. Ca. 10 negatives]

Index Cards
Mary Hyde’s autograph notes about the trip. [52 cards. 8 x 17 cm. (3 x 5”). Some visiting cards included]

Newspaper Clipping
Articles about the group from newspapers of cities visited.

Grolier Club Gala Book Week May 17-23 1964
During this week the Grolier Club entertained institutional librarians or curators and private collectors who had been hosts during Grolier Club bibliographical trips in past years. The Club inaugurated such trips in 1949.

Columbia University.
Correspondence with University Librarian Richard Logsdon and miscellaneous pamphlets and informational pieces about the Columbia collections. Includes issues of Columbia Library Columns (Nov. 1963 and Feb. 1964) and a catalog of exhibition of material from the Webster Library of Plastic Surgery. [13 items]

Other Library Pamphlets and Catalogs
Includes material from the Frick Collection, the New York Public Library and the Princeton University Library. [12 items]
Articles about the Gala Book Week:
Frances J. Brewer, “A Book Person in New York,” Among Friends [Detroit
Public Library], no. 36 (Fall 1964), 4-9. [2 copies. Inserted in one copy is TLS
from FJB to Donald Hyde. 24 Nov. 1964, 1 p.]
[W. W. Robinson]. “Grolier Gala,” Hoja Volante [Zamorano Club of Los Angeles], no. 56 (May 1964), 1-3.
Alexander P. Clark, “Belles Lettres,” Princeton University Library Chronicle (Summer 1 1964), 42-45. Offprint. [2 copies]

Grolier Club Material
Guest list. [3 copies]
Hosts list.[2 copies]
Gala Book Week Schedule of Events. 21p. 16cm. Invitation to reception inserted. Grolier Club Benefit Auction: Tuesday 12 May 1964 at 8:30 p.m. Conducted by Parke-Bernet Galleries. [Catalog annotated with range of prices expected for each item (in red ink) and price realized (in pencil)]
Catalog of Auction of the Collection of Alfred Hopkins. Thursday May 19 at 8 p.m.
Miscellaneous items. [3 items]

Photographs
Reception at Terrace Club. [14 color prints. 9 x 13 cm. (3-1/2 x 5”)]
Donald and Mary Hyde (at reception). [4 mounted color prints. Image area 16 x 20 cm. (5 x 8”)]


Box 2: Iter Septentrionale (Grolier Club trip to Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands) May 13-June 3, 1967

Denmark
Notes for a diary on Denmark: 28 May-3 June. [Autograph manuscript, pencil on ruled
yellow sheets, 12 sheets]
Booklet prepared for trip members about Copenhagen with emphasis on museums and libraries and including a guide to books and manuscripts on exhibit at the Royal Library.
Gronholt Pedersens Bookhouse. Exhibition ... in honor of the Grolier Club. Program and
Reception.

Sweden
Royal Library. Grolier bindings in Sweden [exhibition].
Royal Library. Swedish books during eleven centuries: preliminary catalog.
Nationalmuseum. Old Master drawings [exhibition].

Belgium
Brussels. Royal Library. Guide prepared for the Grolier Club tour.
Plantin-Moretus Museum. Notes.
Ghent. State University Library. Some interesting manuscripts, incunables….
Gaasbeek Castle. Concert program. 24 May 1967.
Musee de Mariemont. Exposition…. 25 May 1967.
Bruges. Stadsbibliotheek. Grolier Club tour [exhibition].
Bruges. Bibliotheek Grootseminart.

Holland
Booklet printed for the trip giving information about cities to be visited, with emphasis on libraries and museums.
Amsterdam. University Library. Bibliotheca Rosenthalian.
Amsterdam. University Library. Bookbindings by Albert Magnus [exhibition].
The Hague. Museum Meermann-Westsreenianum. 1967.
DeGraaf [antiquarian bookseller]. The first auction catalogue: Philips van Marnix van St.
Aldegarde. Leiden: 1599. Reprint with article about the catalog. 1964.

Photographs
Grolier Club Planning Group. Trip to sites to be visited. 1966. [19 color photographs; 9 x 13 cm. (3-1/2 x 5”); given to MH by Frank Crane]
Trip events. [Ca. 75 photographs. 9 x 13 cm. (3-1/2 x 5”) or smaller; black and white and color, most have annotations on the verso by Mary Hyde; accompanying note: “Present from the Wheatlands”]
Reception at unidentified location. [8 black and white photographs, 17-1/2 x 17-1/2 cm. (7 x 7”)]

Itinerary
Ashton, Mitchell and Howlett [travel agents]. TLS to Mary Hyde. [Details arrangements made for her in London and onward trip to Austria and Germany. Attached are five pages of instructions about the Grolier Club trip from Gabriel Austin, Club Librarian and organizer.]
Grolier Club. [A. Edward Newton sale album]. [17 black and white photographs. 22 x 28
cm. (8-1/2 x 11”) 1940s.] Newton was a member of the Grolier Club from 1890 until his death in 1940. Attendees in photographs include John Fleming, A. S. W. Rosenbach, James Drake and Christopher Morley. Also: 2 photographs of Mary Hyde taken at Grolier Club benefit 12 May 12 1964 by Taylor Dull.
Grolier Club reception for Mary Hyde, 27 Oct. 1982. Reception given by Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel Austin on occasion of publication of her edition of Bernard Shaw and Alfred Douglas: A Correspondence (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1982). [2 loose-leaf photograph albums; red composition covers. 29 cm ea. Ca. 40 color photographs. 10 x 13 cm. (4 x 5”). Invitation, responses, etc. inserted into album.]


Box 3: Grolier Club Events

[Grolier Club trip to Germany and Austria, 1970]. “Trial Run, June 8-21 1969.” [1 black loose-leaf notebook. 25 cm. Autograph manuscript and typescript.] Diary of trip taken by Mary Hyde and Club Librarian Gabriel Austin and his wife in order to lay groundwork for Club trip to Germany and Austria in 1970. Itinerary included Hamburg, Berlin, Mainz, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Also: 3 color photographs. [9 x 13 cm. (3-1/2 x 5”). Spine labeled in applied plastic letters: Grolier Trial Run/June 1969.]
Iter Hibernicum. Grolier Club trip to Spain, May 28-June 8, 1997. [Photographs of Bon Voyage party given to participants by David and Mary Eccles at Four Oaks Farm, Somerville, New Jersey.] [1 loose-leaf album. Ca. 47 color photographs. 11 x 15 cm. (4-1/2 x 6-1/4”). Photographer: Carl Young, Flemington, New Jersey.]

Grolier Club Publications. [16 items in red buckram covered box. Spine lettered in gilt: Grolier Club Trip to England April 19-May 2 1959 but contents as described below. Label indicating actual contents as found pasted to spine. Also: note with illegible signature addressed to Mary Hyde enclosing these items.]

Exhibition Catalogs
1972 Four hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Donne.
1972 Twenty-five important works of American Literature.
1975 Tally ho! 400 years of fox hunting.
1975 George Orwell.
1988 Soldier-poets of the Great War.

Miscellaneous Publications
1903 Monument to Richard of Bury, Bishop of Durham (A. D. 1333-1345).
1906 List of exhibition catalogs, 1886-1905.
1923 Announcement of contemplated printers’ series.
1925 The Library of the Grolier Club.
1931 List of paintings and prints now displayed on the walls of the Grolier Club, compiled by Edward G. Kenney.
1941 News-Sheet of the Grolier Club. Number 1, 10 Dec. 1946. Designed by Bruce Rogers.
1944 The Grolier Club and its iconographic collection: an address by Henry Watson Kent, 18 Nov. 1943. [2 copies.]
1944 The Grolier Club and its exhibitions held from time to time: an address by
Ruth Shepard Grannies, 21 Oct. 1943. [2 copies]
1955 House Committee. Report. 12 Feb. 1955.
1959 “Irrevirent [sic] Report in Reverse of the Grolier Club Excursion.” [Trip to England]
[4 p. with annotations by Mary Hyde]
1967 The Grolier Club, 1884-1967, by John Winterich. [In slip case]

Hroswitha Club. Minutes, 1944-1994 [2 loose-leaf notebooks bound in blue cloth; bookplate of the Club pasted down to front cover of each notebook. 24 cm each. Duplicate typescript. The Hroswitha Club, founded in 1944, is a club of women book collectors named for the tenth-century German poet, dramatist and manuscript collector. Mary Hyde Eccles was a member.]


Box 4: Non Grolier Club Events

Friends of the Harvard College Library. Opening reception for exhibition of books and manuscripts of Samuel Johnson in the collection of Donald and Mary Hyde. 14 Jan. 1966? [1 red loose-leaf photograph album. 30 cm. Ca. 120 black and white and color photographs in protective sleeves. 9 x 9 cm. (3-1/2 x 3-1/2). Date of developing on photographs: Jan. 1966]

Harvard University. Houghton Library. Opening reception for the Donald and Mary Hyde Room. [1 loose-leaf photograph album. 31 cm. Ca. 95 color photographs in protective sleeves. 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 6-1/2”). Also: Autograph notes by Mary Hyde on two ruled yellow sheets about attendees]

International Bibliophile Congress V. (Venice), 1-8 Oct. 1967.
[Frederick R. Goff]. “In Memorial Donald F. Hyde.” [Undated autograph MS. 4 p. Read
at the Congress. Also: ALS from “Fred” to Mary Hyde. 2 p.]
Travel arrangements. Correspondence. July-Sept. 1967. [1 folder]
Tourist booklets for Venice and surrounding area. [7 items]
Program for the Congress, invitations and related items. [6 items]
La Biennale di Venezia. 26th Festival internazionale del teatro di prosa…1967.
Program of events.
Libraries and museums visited: catalogs, etc. [13 items]
Miscellaneous items. [1 folder, 10 items]
Photographs. [20 color and black and white photographs. 18 x 24 cm. or smaller (7 x 10”)].

“Book of Company Thank-Yous.” Mary Hyde Eccles issued her edition of James Boswell’s Book of Company at Auchinleck, 1782-1795 for the Roxburghe Club. The book is dated 1995 but appears to have been sent to the members in 1997. [32 ALS and TLS inserted into protective enclosures and filed in loose-leaf album 36 cm. Cover lettered in gilt: B of C/ Thank yous.]

Pierpont Morgan Library. Event honoring Mary Eccles on her ninetieth birthday, Wed. 18 Sept. 2002. [1 loose-leaf album bound in black leather. 24 cm. 59 color photographs and invitation in protective enclosures. Mary Hyde Eccles was a Trustee and Founding Fellow of the Pierpont Morgan Library.]


Supplementary Inventory (2008 Gift):
Grolier Club and Other Bibliophile Trips (Boxes 5-7)

Box 5: Grolier Club Bibliophile Trips
England (April 1959). Collection includes two loose-leaf notebooks of MHE holograph
diaries with photographs. 26 cm. [Mary and Donald Hyde also visited Greece.]
California (Oct. 1961)
Italy (May 1962) Collection includes three copies of typescript copies (in binders) of diary with miscellaneous insertions later published as Iter Italicum.
Middle West (April-May 1963)
Chicago (May 1965)


Box 6
Low Countries and Denmark and Sweden (May-June 1967). Collection includes MHE diary of “Trial Run” she and a few other Grolier Club members made in 1966. [Loose-leaf binder. 25 cm.]
Germany and Switzerland (May 1970)
Kansas City and Minneapolis (May 1972)
Texas (May 1972)

Personal trips:
Voyage of the [Yacht] Maranda (7-30 July 1961) to Mediterranean
“New Tour of the Hebrides” (1968)
Tunisia, et seq. (Christmas 1968)


Box 7
Congres International des Bibliophiles Trips

IV (Sept. 1965) England
VI (Oct. 1969) Vienna
VII (Oct. 1971) USA
X (Oct. 1977) Greece
XI (Sept. 1979) Brussels
XII (Sept.-Oct. 1981) Germany
XIII (1983) Scotland and England

International Association of Bibliophiles (IAB): Rome Colloquium (Sept.-Oct. 1992)


(Updated 8/4/2011)

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