Skip to main content

Paul Leicester Ford papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 488

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of correspondence, writings, and personal papers of the American historian and author Paul Leicester Ford. The correspondence is largely professional and documents Ford's work as an editor, historian, bibliographer, novelist and playwright. Ford's correspondents include John Kendrick Bangs, Samuel L. Clemens, Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Rudyard Kipling, and S. Weir Mitchell; earlier letters written to others by James Fennimore Cooper and Jared Sparks are also present. Writings include notes and research materials, most concerning colonial and Federal-period America; drafts; printed versions of published articles; scripts and music for dramatic productions; and publicity for specific works as well as about Ford generally. The novel Janice Meredith and its dramatic adaptation starring Mary Mannering are partiuclarly well represented in the collection; also present is an unfinished historical novel about Elizabeth Chudleigh, Countess of Bristol, along with contemporary printed documentation concerning her trial for bigamy. The collection also contains examples of Ford's work as an editor/printer on his home press, including his genealogy of Noah Webster; a heavily extra-illustrated copy of Websteriana containing autograph manuscript fragments of Webster's dictionary; a genealogy of Gordon L. Ford; and a pamphlet entitled "1814. New London. Pettypaug Point." Some papers documenting the historical research of Worthington C. Ford are present, as well as ephemera from Gordon L. Ford's participation in events commemorating the centenary of Washington's inauguration. The collection also includes photographs and paintings of Ford, including two miniatures; a miniature of "Janice Meredith;" photographs of his parents and siblings; and portrait paintings of Ford's ancestors Noah Webster (by Samuel F. B. Morse) and Rebecca Greenleaf Webster (by Jared Bradley Flagg).

Dates

  • 1736-1902
  • Majority of material found within 1885-1902

Creator

Language of Materials

In English.

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Paul Leicester Ford Papers 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 Lesta Ford Clay and Albert G. Clay, 1954-1977.

Arrangement

Organized into five series: Series I. Correspondence. Series II. Writings. Series III. Other Papers. Series IV. Printed Material. Series V. 1976-1977 Addition.

Associated Materials

Paul Leicester Ford Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Extent

10.35 Linear Feet ((30 boxes) + 3 art)

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.fordpl

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection consists of correspondence, writings, and personal papers of the American historian and author Paul Leicester Ford. The correspondence is largely professional and documents Ford's work as an editor, historian, bibliographer, novelist and playwright. Ford's correspondents include John Kendrick Bangs, Samuel L. Clemens, Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Rudyard Kipling, and S. Weir Mitchell; earlier letters written to others by James Fennimore Cooper and Jared Sparks are also present. Writings include notes and research materials, most concerning colonial and Federal-period America; drafts; printed versions of published articles; scripts and music for dramatic productions; and publicity for specific works as well as about Ford generally. The novel Janice Meredith and its dramatic adaptation starring Mary Mannering are partiuclarly well represented in the collection; also present is an unfinished historical novel about Elizabeth Chudleigh, Countess of Bristol, along with contemporary printed documentation concerning her trial for bigamy. The collection also contains examples of Ford's work as an editor/printer on his home press, including his genealogy of Noah Webster; a heavily extra-illustrated copy of Websteriana containing autograph manuscript fragments of Webster's dictionary; a genealogy of Gordon L. Ford; and a pamphlet entitled "1814. New London. Pettypaug Point." Some papers documenting the historical research of Worthington C. Ford are present, as well as ephemera from Gordon L. Ford's participation in events commemorating the centenary of Washington's inauguration. The collection also includes photographs and paintings of Ford, including two miniatures; a miniature of "Janice Meredith"; photographs of his parents and siblings; and portrait paintings of Ford's ancestors Noah Webster (by Samuel F. B. Morse) and Rebecca Greenleaf Webster (by Jared Bradley Flagg).

Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902)

American historian and novelist Paul Leicester Ford was born in Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of lawyer, businessman, and bibliophile Gordon Lester Ford and Emily Ellsworth Fowler Ford, a poet and granddaughter of lexicographer Noah Webster. Due to chronic ill health resulting from a spinal injury in infancy, he received no formal education. He read widely in his father's extensive private library, and made use of his own printing press: at age eleven he edited and printed a genealogy of his ancestor Noah Webster, and at seventeen published a bibliography of Webster. Ford subsequently wrote and edited a large number of books and pamphlets chiefly relating to American history and bibliography, including an edition of Jefferson's writings and biographies of Washington and Franklin. In this work he frequently collaborated with his older brother, the historian Worthington C. Ford; together they published on their home press as the Historical Printing Club. Ford also wrote short fiction, plays, and novels, the most successful of which were The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894) and Janice Meredith (1899). He co-edited The Library Journal from 1890 to 1893.

Ford married Grace Kidder in 1900; they had one daughter, Lesta, who was born June 3, 1902. Paul Leicester Ford was killed by his brother Malcolm on May 8, 1902, in a dispute over family inheritance.

Separated Materials

Books and some other printed items received with the collection were removed for separate cataloging at the time of acquisition and can be accessed by searching the library's online catalog.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This collection received some preliminary processing at the time of acquisition. Further organization, rehousing, and description were carried out in 2012. Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below were transcribed from the folders in 2012. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles were supplied by staff during basic processing. This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Former call numbers: ZA Ford, Uncat ZA Ford, ZA F755 +1, Uncat Za file.

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Paul Leicester Ford Papers
Author
by Ellen Doon and Clayton McGahee
Date
2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/
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.

Suggest a Correction