Edward Frederick Smyth Pigott (1824-1895), was a member of the Pigott family, long settled in north Somerset. He was a fellow student, with Wilkie Collins, at Lincoln's Inn, then a journalist with The Daily News and The Leader; in 1874, Pigott was...
James Robinson Planché, a dramatist, antiquary, and officer of arms, was born in Piccadilly, London, on February 27, 1796; the son of Huguenot refugees. He wrote or adapted over 170 plays over the course of his 60 year career; these included...
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), British soldier and statesman. Wellington was born in Ireland on May 1, 1769, and after an unpromising childhood and scholastic career entered the army. After service in the Netherlands and...
In 1767, upon the retirement of Andrew Miller, Thomas Cadell, 1742-1802, succeeded to the bookselling and publishing business. Cadell became one of the foremost publishers of his time before his retirement in 1793. At this time, he made over the...
The Long family, originally from Wiltshire, England, was for many years associated with Jamaica and was part of the governing planter elite of the island. A notable member of the family, Edward Long (1734-1813), was a colonial administrator, judge...
Lydia Catherine Van Hattem Davall Brydges, Duchess of Chandos (1693-1750), was the daughter of John Vanhattem, an Anglo-Dutch merchant. Her first marriage was to Thomas Davall (1682-1714), a London merchant and M.P. for Harwich, who was also her...
Walter Romeyn Benjamin, 1854-1943, was a New York dealer in rare books and manuscripts. He was the editor of The Collector, a monthly magazine for autograph and historical collectors.
Henry Cabot Lodge, American statesman, Republican political leader, author and historian; he was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 12, 1850, a member of the influential New England Lodge and Cabot families. Lodge attended Harvard College,...
James Winston (1773-1843) was born James Bown in Covent Garden; in 1795, his maternal grandfather died leaving him a substantial inheritance and as a requirement for inheritance he changed his name to Winston by Royal License. By 1799, Winston...
Morris B. Parker grew up in St. Louis, Missouri and spent his summers in Penn Yan, New York. His father purchased the South Homestake located in White Oaks, New Mexico in 1879 and the family moved there in the summer of 1882. He went back to New...
Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), was a British explorer, linguist, writer, dipolmat and translator. He explored Africa, the Middle East, South America and Iceland, and translated, among many other titles, The Arabian Nights. Burton married...
Burke Eugene Casari, a resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, worked as an administrator for environmental programs at the State Health Department. He became interested in Richard Burton in 1962, while teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Casari has...
Henry Herron Beauchamp was born in London in 1825. In 1838, he went to work for the merchant and shipping firm of Messrs. Samuel Baker, Philpotts & Co., after ten years in London was sent to Mauritius; and after a further two years, he decided to...
Anna Clegg Stryke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 14, 1884. Stryke graduated from Cornell University, where she was a member of the Sigma Xi organization for scientific research. She was elected to the faculty after her...
Olive May Graves Percival was born July 1, 1869, near Sheffield, Illinois; moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother and sisters, 1887; worked as an insurance clerk in Los Angeles; an avid collector, Percival amassed ten thousand books as...
John Kenyon (1784-1856), was a British poet and philanthropist. Other important addressees in the collection are: Robert Johnston Barton (d. 1879), was a British Captain in the Coldstream Guards, killed in action in Zululand in 1879; James Booth...
John Alexander Wills was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania on October 21, 1819. In 1848 he married Charlotte Le Moyne; the couple had two children, William Le Moyne Wills and Madeline Francis Wills. Will was an aggressive opponent of slavery, joining...
Walter S. Adams was one of the original staff members of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory when it was formed in 1904. He became assistant to George Ellery hale in 1917 and Director of the observatory in 1923, a position he held until his...