Summary Information
Abstract
The Plimpton Family Papers is primarily comprised of correspondence, personal and
professional documents, writings and photographs generated by or for George Arthur
Plimpton and Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, their son, Francis T.P. Plimpton, and his
wife Pauline Ames Plimpton. Also included are documents and photographs produced by or
for other Plimpton, Pearsons and Ames family members, from seventeenth century ancestors
to late-twentieth century descendants.
At a Glance
| Call No.: | MS#1005 |
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| Bib ID: | 4079575 View CLIO record |
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| Creator(s): | Plimpton, Francis T. P. (Francis Taylor Pearsons),
1900-1983. |
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| Title: | Plimpton Family
Papers,
1607-1995
[Bulk Dates: 1892-1980].
|
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| Physical description: | 29 linear ft ( 33 document boxes, 9 oversized boxes 7 CMI
bozes 3 other boxes).
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| Language(s): | Material is in English.
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| Access: |
The following boxes are located off-site: 1-45 and 52. You will need to request this
material from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at least twenty-four (24) hours in
advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
Box 29, folder 1, is restricted until 2021.
More information » |
|---|
Arrangement
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in five series:
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Description
Scope and Content
The Plimpton Family Papers contain correspondence, personal and professional documents,
writings and photographs produced or gathered by George Arthur Plimpton, his first wife
Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, their son Francis T.P. Plimpton, and his wife Pauline
Ames Plimpton. While much of the correspondence is personal, significant portions of
Francis T.P. Plimpton's and especially George Arthur Plimpton's letters relate to
business and vocational matters. The personal documents and objects in this collection
include baby books, baby shoes and scrapbooks, homework, bookplates, and guest lists for
parties. Most of the photographic images, which consist of prints, slides, glass slides,
negatives, daguerreotypes and one autochrome diascope, depict the four primary creators
of the collection, but others depict their ancestors and descendants.
Series I: Correspondence, 1848-1994,
undated
This series consists of correspondence written to and by the creators for whom the
subseries are named. The subseries are arranged in genealogical order; within each
subseries, the correspondence is arranged alphabetically.
Subseries I.1: Pearsons, Frances Taylor and Family, 1848-1900
The letters here were written and/or received by the members of the Pearsons
family: W.B.C. (William) Pearsons, his wife, Sarah Taylor Pearsons, and their
daughter, Frances, the first wife of George Arthur Plimpton.
Included is a love letter written by William to Sarah during their courtship,
as well as several letters he sent to her while serving with the Union Army
during the Civil War. Also present are letters written by both Pearsons to
Frances and her husband, George Arthur Plimpton.
Among Frances's correspondence are letters written to her cousin, and fellow
Wellesley College student, Louise Pearsons, during and after her years at
Wellesley. Also contained here is correspondence between Louise and other
family members, including her parents, around the time of her marriage, in
1892, to George Arthur Plimpton.
Subseries I.2: Plimpton, George Arthur,1892-1941
This subseries contains personal, professional and vocational correspondence of
George Arthur Plimpton.
The bulk of the personal correspondence is with Francis T. P. Plimpton,
George's son. The professional correspondence comprises letters to and from
partners, employees, and aspiring employees of the educational publishing firm,
Ginn and Company. Plimpton's interests in collecting portraits and rare books,
as well as his engagement in educational institutions, scholarly organizations,
foreign relations and philanthropy are represented in this correspondence.
Subseries I.3: Plimpton, Francis T.P. and Pauline Ames Plimpton,
1906-1994,
undated
The bulk of this subseries includes the correspondence between Francis T.P.
Plimpton and Pauline Ames Plimpton. When separated, due to professional or
family obligations or the occasional solo trip, they corresponded frequently.
Other correspondents include their children, parents and the extended Ames,
Pearsons and Plimpton families.
Also included here is the correspondence they received regarding "Letters in
Training" a privately published compilation of the letters George Plimpton
wrote to his parents while he was stationed in Italy (1945-1946). Francis and
Pauline distributed "Letters in Training" to their friends and family at
Christmas 1946.
Francis's correspondence, somewhat more extensive here than Pauline's, includes
correspondence with family, friends and teachers dating from his youth.
Pauline's correspondence contains letters regarding her writings about Villa
Balbianello, a property on Lake Como, Italy, purchased by her uncle, Butler
Ames.
Series II: Writings, 1913-1992,
undated
This small series includes the writings of two generations: An address delivered by Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton to the Wellesley Club; addresses by George Plimpton; pieces written by Francis T. P. Plimpton dating from a journal he kept in 1913 while on a trip to Europe to drafts dating to 1972; and notes and drafts of several of Pauline Ames Plimpton's works. The material is arranged alphabetically by creator.
Series III: Financial and Real Estate, 1894-1949
This series contains correspondence regarding donations and loans made by George Arthur Plimpton, as well as financial and insurance transactions with which he was involved (including the estates of Ginn and Company partner, Osmyn P. Conant, and his wife Louise Royce Conant). Documents related to various properties owned by the Plimpton family can also be found here.
The material is arranged alphabetically.
Series IV: Personal Documents, Ephemera and Realia, 1692-1995,
undated
This sprawling series contains genealogies, documents and artifacts of many generations of the Plimpton, Pearsons and Ames families. The earliest document, dated 1697, is a prose narrative by Mary Plimpton, detailing her religious conversion. Nearly as ancient is a 1699
New Testament
owned by D.K. Pearsons. Less esoteric items--baby shoes, a baby book, daily agendas and personal documents--provide hints of the quotidian Plimpton family life. Caches of school work, herbarium specimens, drawings, youthful compositions, report cards and diplomas reveal the educational accomplishments of several generations. Awards, clippings, and scrapbooks document professional achievements. The material is arranged alphabetically.
Series V: Photographs and Images, circa 1870s-1990s,
undated
Included in this series are individual photographs, negatives and albums of the creators of this collection, their ancestors, their descendants, their properties, and their friends and associates. Material is arranged alphabetically.
Subseries V.1: Albums, circa late 1800s-1983
The albums, some of which were disbound due to preservation concerns, range from a collection of photographs of the Pearsons or Plimpton family dating from the late 1800s to a travel album dated 1982-1983. Included here are albums featuring Francis Plimpton from his childhood through his professional life as an attorney, and at the United Nations. The earliest travel albums are collections of photographs of a trip to Constantinople (1914) and to China (1920). Later photo albums contain pictures of Pauline, Francis, their family and friends on their travels around the world.
Subseries V.2: Photographs and Negatives, circa 1870s-1980s
Found here are photographs of the extended Plimpton, Pearsons and Ames families. Especially numerous are the photographs of Francis T.P. Plimpton, which include baby photos, high school and college pictures, photos of Plimpton with his fellow Amherst College trustees, and many pictures of him at work: practicing law, working at the United Nations, and socializing at diplomatic events. Pictures of Pauline Ames Plimpton include portraits and candid photographs with Francis and with their children and extended family.
Subseries V.3: Special Format Photographs and Images,
undated
These images appear in several formats, including glass slides, daguerreotypes, and one autochrome diascope image of an unidentified sitter, and one silhouette of an unidentified man.
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Using the Collection
Partially Offsite
Access Restrictions
The following boxes are located off-site: 1-45 and 52. You will need to request this
material from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at least twenty-four (24) hours in
advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
More information and link to off-site request form
Box 29, folder 1, is restricted until 2021.
Restrictions on Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University
Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to
publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission
rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Plimpton Family Papers; Box and
Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Related Material-- At Columbia
Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs Records, 1914-1996
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Reminiscences of Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton : oral history, 1967.
In: Adlai E. Stevenson project. Oral History Research Office, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Reminiscences of Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton : oral history, 1981.
In: Debevoise Plimpton Lyons & Gates project. Oral History Research Office, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
George A. Plimpton Collection of Portraits, MS#1007
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
George Plimpton Papers, MS #1006
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Francis T. P. Plimpton papers, 1901-1985, MS#1514
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Francis T. P. Plimpton papers 1936-1981.
Barnard College Archives.
Related Material-- Other Repositories
Ames Family Papers, 1812-2008
Smith College
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About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries. Rare Book and
Manuscript Library; machine readable finding aid created by Columbia University
Libraries Digital Library Program Division
Processing Information
Papers Entered in AMC 11/26/90
Letters re. U.N. Processed 03/10/92 HR
Papers Processed 2008 Jennifer A. Buckley, GSAS 2010
Finding Aid Written 2008 Jennifer A. Buckley, GSAS 2010
Machine readable finding aid generated from MARC-AMC source via XSLT conversion
October 21, 2009
Finding aid written in English.
2010-03-30
xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz
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Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
All links open new windows.
Additional Creators
Genre/Form
Subjects
| Heading | CUL Archives:
Portal | CUL Collections:
CLIO | Nat'l / Int'l Archives:
ArchiveGRID |
|---|
| Ames, Blanche. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Amherst College. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Association of the Bar of the City of New York. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Barnard College. Board of Trustees. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Christian education. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Diplomats. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Ginn and Company. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Herbaria. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Lawyers. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| New England--Education. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| New York (N.Y.)--Politics and government. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Phillips Exeter Academy. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, Frances Taylor Pearsons, 1961-1900. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, Francis T. P. (Francis Taylor Pearsons),
1900-1983. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, George A. (George Arthur), 1855-1936. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, George. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, Pauline Ames, 1901- | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Plimpton, Sarah 1936- | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Trusts and trustees. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| United Nations. | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
| Villa Balbianello (Lenno, Italy). | Portal | CLIO | ArchiveGRID |
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History / Biographical Note
Biographical Note
The Plimpton family members represented in this collection
descend from some of the earliest English settlers of North America. From the
seventeenth century on the Plimptons, Pearsonses, Taylors and Ameses were prominent
families, heavily involved with higher education and with public service: John Plympton
(sic, circa 1620-1677) arrived in Massachusetts in 1642, settling in the town of
Medfield, where he served as constable and then as colonial Sergeant; he also
contributed to the founding of Harvard College. Edward Taylor (1642-1729), ancestor of
Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, was a Harvard graduate (class of 1671), Puritan
minister to the people of the frontier town of Westfield, Massachusetts, and a prolific
poet. Oakes Ames (1804-1873), ancestor of Pauline Ames Plimpton, was a U.S. Congressman;
his brother, Oliver Ames, played a large part in building the Transcontinental Railroad.
Another Ames ancestor, Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893) was a Civil War general, later a
United States Congressman and then Massachusetts governor. Pauline's mother, Blanche
Ames Ames (sic, 1879-1969), graduated from Smith College and worked as an artist, as an
activist for women's rights, including access to birth control, and then as the
President of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston; Pauline's
father, Oakes Ames (1874-1950), was a Harvard professor of botany. The presence of
several genealogical documents in the collection reveal the extent to which the primary
creators of this collection valued the heritage they received from this uncommonly
well-educated and public-minded family.
George Arhtur Plimpton: "Well-educated" and "public-minded"
are only two of the qualities that may be accurately ascribed to George Arthur Plimpton
(1855-1936). After a brief stint at Harvard Law School, he worked as the senior partner
of the New York-based firm Ginn and Company, which published educational textbooks, but
he also served on the board of trustees of Phillips Exeter Academy (he graduated in the
class in 1872), Amherst College (class of 1876), Barnard College (as its first
treasurer) and the American College for Girls/Constantinople College for Women in Turkey
(now Robert College, Istanbul). Further, as his correspondence reveals, George Plimpton
devoted a great deal of time and energy to global Christian educational institutions and
relief missions; he was particularly invested in Andrew Carnegie's various peace
organizations, serving as trustee and treasurer of the Church Peace Union. Plimpton's
commitment to education as a public and indeed a global good is apparent in the letters
he exchanged with several young people, some non-U.S.-citizens, whom he supported
financially so that they could earn college degrees. (For example, see his
correspondence with S.Y. Livingston Hu.)
Plimpton was connected to Columbia University through two main
channels, each of which represents one of his major passions: books and international
affairs. An ardent bibliophile and an unparalleled collector of rare educational books,
documents, and objects (specifically of hornbooks), as well as of medieval illuminated
manuscripts, historical correspondence, and portraits of English authors, he founded the
Friends of the Columbia Libraries with Professor David Eugene Smith of Teachers College.
(Smith wrote the book
Rara Arithmetica
(1908) largely
based on his study of Plimpton's collection, and Plimpton himself authored
The Education of Shakespeare
(1933) and The
Education of Chaucer
(1935), drawing heavily on the medieval
and early modern educational items he had gathered.) Plimpton was also heavily involved
in the establishment of Columbia's political science department. An early supporter and
later treasurer of the American Academy of Political Science, he founded the journal
Political Science Quarterly
in 1886. Though Plimpton
was never a professor in any university department, he was an active member not only of
various academic political science organizations, but of the American Philological
Society, the Modern Language Association, the Grolier Club, and various antiquarian
societies.
Plimpton was also devoted to Lewis Farm, the estate and
working farm he owned in Walpole, Massachusetts; these papers include several
photographs of the residential and farm buildings, and of Plimpton and his family
enjoying the property.
But his letters and photographs suggest that Plimpton's
greatest interest was reserved for his family. He writes with admiration of his first
wife, Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton, and appears smiling affectionately with her in
several photographs. After her death in 1900, Plimpton focused intensively on their son,
Francis T.P., to whom he wrote inventive and age-appropriate letters, often in the form
of collages illustrated by cut-outs from magazines and newspapers. Plimpton married
Fanny Hastings in 1917, with whom he had two children, Calvin H. and Emily Plimpton.
Calvin, a medical doctor, served as the president of Amherst College from 1960-1971.
George Arthur Plimpton donated his rare book, historical
correspondence and author portrait collections, containing about 20,000 items, to
Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1935. He died in 1936.
Frances Taylor Pearsons Plimpton: Frances Taylor Pearsons
Plimpton (1862-1900) was herself very well educated; daughter of a judge and Mount
Holyoke College benefactor, W.B.C. Pearsons, she graduated from Wellesley College in
1884 and later served as the President of its Alumnae Association. She was also a fine
writer; her letters to her cousin and fellow Wellesley student Louise Pearsons, reveal
both her warmth and her wit.
Like her husband, Frances was a collector of rare books,
focusing on Italian books and manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Her
husband donated her book collection to Wellesley after her death in 1900, which
immediately followed the birth of their son, Francis T.P.
Francis T.P. Plimpton: Like his many of his ancestors, Francis
T.P. Plimpton (1900-1983) attained prominence as a public servant. A graduate of
Phillips Exeter Academy, Amherst College, and Harvard Law, Plimpton started practicing
law at the New York firm of Root, Clark, and in 1933 became a senior partner at
Debevoise, Stevenson & Plimpton. He would continue to practice as a lawyer for
several decades, earning a reputation for thoroughness and unshakeable integrity. That
reputation led to his position as president of the Association of the Bar of the City of
New York (1970-1972) and to the chairmanship of the New York City Board of Ethics
(1966-1980).
Plimpton served as deputy United States ambassador to the
United Nations, working with his friend, the ambassador Adlai Stevenson, from 1961-1965,
and sat on State Department advisory committees during the 1960s and 1970s. He was
active in higher education as well as in law and in government: like his father, Francis
devoted much energy to advising educational institutions, including those from which he
graduated.
Throughout his career, Plimpton was unafraid to take
progressive public stances on controversial issues: in 1963, as deputy ambassador to the
UN, he made a visit to Pope Paul VI, urging the pontiff to change the Catholic Church's
position on birth control. At the age of 72, he took a major role in organizing the
lawyers' march on Washington to protest the U.S. military's bombing of Cambodia during
the Vietnam War.
Francis Plimpton was not only a successful lawyer and
diplomat; his writings in this collection show the verbal wit (and the social grace) for
which he was celebrated. From his student days, Francis wrote poetry and prose, but law
firm celebrations gave him the opportunity to perform his gently satirical light verse,
examples of which are included in his papers in this collection. A very funny essay
delivered as an address at the Amherst College chapel in 1957, "In Praise of Polygamy,"
was published in several magazines and later as a pamphlet. The essay counseled the
young men of Amherst to delay marriage for as long as possible in the interests of
individualism and experience; he did not follow his own advice, it seems, for Francis
was married to Pauline Ames Plimpton for over fifty years. The correspondence between
them testifies to a strong, affectionate and devoted partnership. They had four
children: Oakes Ames Plimpton; George Ames Plimpton, the journalist and founder of
The Paris Review;
Francis T.P. Plimpton, Jr.; and
Sarah Plimpton, copies of whose artist's books are also housed in the Rare Book and
Manuscript Library.
Pauline Ames Plimpton: The daughter of two prominent figures,
the daughter-in-law of one renowned man and the wife of another, Pauline Ames Plimpton
(1901-1995) came into her own as an author and editor in her late seventies. A fine
writer, she published several books about her family and its history, including
Oakes Ames: Jottings of a Harvard Botanist
(1979);
The Plimpton Papers: Law and Diplomacy
(1985); and
A Collector's Recollections: George Arthur Plimpton
(1992). A
graduate of Smith College (class of 1922), Pauline was throughout her adult life active
in arts and government policy organizations including Planned Parenthood, the Public
Education Association, the Institute for World Affairs, and the Metropolitan Museum of
Art; she also worked with several libraries, including that of her alma mater, Smith
College.
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