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Walter L. Pforzheimer collection of Frank Richard Stockton

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 560

Scope and Contents

The Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of Frank Richard Stockton contains correspondence, writings, photographs, artifacts, and other personal papers of Stockton and his family; drawings by illustrators of Stockton's works; writings about Stockton and adaptations of his works by others; and correspondence, notes, and related materials created by Pforzheimer in the course of his research and collecting. Correspondence includes autograph letters, signed, to and from Stockton, many with literary correspondents. Writings by Stockton include autograph manuscript and typescript drafts and fair copies, tear sheets from magazines, publisher contracts, advertisements, and scrapbooks of reviews. Also present are autograph manuscript diaries, accounts, notes, and juvenile writings by Stockton. Pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings, many with publisher's markings, include works by A. B. Frost, Charles Dana Gibson, Frederick Richardson, Frederic Dorr Steele, and other artists. Materials relating to the Stockton family include correspondence, scrapbooks, and photographs. Materials relating to Pforzheimer's research and collecting include vendor correspondence and receipts, notes, and card catalogs.

Research strengths include Frank Richard Stockton’s life and writings; reception of his works; publishers, editors, and illustrators associated with Stockton; the Stockton family; nineteenth-century American magazines and children’s literature; and book and manuscript collecting and the formation of Pforzheimer’s collection.

Dates

  • circa 1829-circa 1993
  • Majority of material found within 1880 - 1940

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

39-42 (Art): Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator.

Conditions Governing Use

The Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of Frank Richard Stockton is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Walter L. Pforzheimer (Yale 1935, Yale 1938L), 1997 and 2000.

Arrangement

Organized into three groupings: November 2000 Acquisition, November 2000 Acquisition Addition, and January 1997 Acquisition Addition.

Associated Materials

Walter L. Pforzheimer Papers (GEN MSS 817)

Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of Historical Manuscripts (GEN MSS 838)

Extent

12.71 Linear Feet ((26 boxes) + 19 broadside, 3 art)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.stockton

Overview

The Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of Frank Richard Stockton contains correspondence, writings, photographs, artifacts, and other personal papers of Stockton and his family; drawings by illustrators of Stockton's works; writings about Stockton and adaptations of his works by others; and correspondence, notes, and related materials created by Pforzheimer in the course of his research and collecting. Correspondence includes autograph letters, signed, to and from Stockton, many with literary correspondents. Writings by Stockton include autograph manuscript and typescript drafts and fair copies, tear sheets from magazines, publisher contracts, advertisements, and scrapbooks of reviews. Also present are autograph manuscript diaries, accounts, notes, and juvenile writings by Stockton. Pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings, many with publisher's markings, include works by A. B. Frost, Charles Dana Gibson, Frederick Richardson, Frederic Dorr Steele, and other artists. Materials relating to the Stockton family include correspondence, scrapbooks, and photographs. Materials relating to Pforzheimer's research and collecting include vendor correspondence and receipts, notes, and card catalogs.

Frank Richard Stockton (1834-1902)

Frank Richard Stockton, American author and humorist. Stockton worked as a wood engraver before beginning his literary career. During 1860-1902, he published novels, short stories, short story collections, and articles, and became a popular author of stories for children. His works include stories Ting-a-ling Tales (1882), The Floating Prince, and Other Fairy Tales (1881), and The Lady, or the Tiger? (1882), and novels Rudder Grange (1879), Rudder Grangers Abroad (1891), Pomona's Travels (1894), The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine (1886), and The Dusantes (1888). Stockton served as an editor of Hearth and Home, 1868-1874, and Saint Nicholas Magazine, 1874-878. He married Marian Edwards Tuttle in 1860.

Sources:

Griffin, Martin Ignatius Joseph. Frank R. Stockton: A Critical Biography (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939).

Golemba, Henry L. Frank R. Stockton (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981).

Walter L. Pforzheimer (1914-2003)

Walter L. Pforzheimer, lawyer, intelligence officer, and book collector. Pforzheimer was born in Port Chester, New York, in 1914, and graduated from Yale College (1935) and Yale Law School (1938). Pforzheimer began his intelligence career in the United States Army, 1942-1945, in the Office of Strategic Services and as an Army Air Force intelligence officer. He was one of the founders of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1946, and as a CIA legislative counsel and liaison to Congress assisted in drafting the 1947 National Security Act. In 1956, he founded the CIA's Historical Intelligence Collection, which he curated until his retirement in 1974. In retirement, he continued to work for the CIA and taught at the Defense Intelligence College. Pforzheimer died in Washington, D.C., in 2003.

Pforzheimer came from a family of book collectors: his father, also named Walter Pforzheimer (1883-1955), collected French armorial bindings and assembled a virtually complete collection of Molière; his uncle Carl H. Pforzheimer (1879-1957) collected Percy Bysshe Shelley and his circle. Pforzheimer inherited and augmented his father's collections, and assembled his own collection of American novelist Frank Richard Stockton. In addition to curating the CIA's Historical Intelligence Collection, Pforzheimer built a personal collection of books and manuscripts documenting the history of military intelligence. Elected to the Yale Library Associates board of trustees in 1936, Pforzheimer was a life-long trustee and donor to the Yale Libraries. He donated his book and manuscript collections of Molière, French armorial bindings, Frank Richard Stockton, and military intelligence to the Beinecke Library in 2001.

Sources:

Peake, Hayden B. "Walter Pforzheimer -- Lawyer, Intelligence Officer, Bibliophile." In: In the Name of Intelligence: Essays in Honor of Walter Pforzheimer (Washington: NIBC Press, c1994).

"Walter L. Pforzheimer, CIA's First Curator, Dies at 88." Washington Post (2003 February 12).

Processing Information

This collection consists of materials formerly classed as Uncat Mss 475 and Uncat Mss 989. These materials were originally part of the Walter L. Pforzheimer Papers accessioned as Uncat Mss 991 in 2000. Papers relating to Stockton, as well as French historical documents collected by Pforzheimer, were removed from the Papers in 2003. Additional Stockton materials were removed during preliminary processing of the Papers in 2007-2008. Separation of Pforzheimer's Papers from his collection of Stockton was not comprehensive: some Pforzheimer personal papers are present in the Stockton Collection, and some Stockton materials remain in the Papers.

In 2008, the collection received a preliminary level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization. Most folder titles were based on those provided by Pforzheimer, while some were supplied by Library staff. Folder titles were not verified against contents. In 2012 February, the collection was reclassed under one call number, boxes and other containers were renumbered in a single sequence, and some fragile materials were identified. Organization by acquisition and folder titles assigned during preliminary processing were maintained, with some errors in folder titles corrected. Folder titles were not verified against contents.

The January 1997 Acquisition Addition was added to the finding aid in 2013.

This finding aid may be updated to account for further revisions in arrangement and description.
Title
Guide to the Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of Frank Richard Stockton
Author
by Beinecke staff
Date
2008
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.