The Family of Eliot Tuckerman, Esq. (1872-1959)

    Eliot Tuckerman was born in New York City on March 12, 1872, the son of Gustavus Tuckerman, Jr. (1824-1897) and Emily Goddard Lamb (1829-1894), eldest daughter of Thomas Lamb (1796-1887) and Hannah Dawes Eliot (1809-1879). Gustavus Tuckerman, Jr. was a Boston, Massachusetts, merchant who was involved in the China India trade during the mid-19th century. Tuckerman was born on May 15, 1824 at his grandfather's house in Edgbaston, England, the second son of Gustavus Sr. and Jane Francis Tuckerman. As a boy, he was tutored by A. Bronson Alcott, and Mr. George Ripley, and attended the Boston Latin School. Upon completing his early education, Tuckerman was expected to attend Harvard College, following his brother John Francis Tuckerman (Class of 1837). Instead, he joined the Boston merchant shipping firm of Curtis & Greenough. In 1847, he was sent to Palermo, Sicily, to represent the firm in purchasing and shipping cargoes of goods to America, including fruit, wine, linseed, licorice, cream of tartar, and other provisions. Two years later he made a second journey to Sicily to represent the firm. Upon his return to Boston in 1849 he was made partner in Curtis & Greenough. He continued as a partner in Curtis & Greenough, and also established business relations for Tuckerman, Townsend & Co. in Sicily. Tuckerman, Townsend & Co. was a partnership with Thomas Davis Townsend, also an employee of Curtis & Greenough. Located at 48 Central Wharf in Boston, Tuckerman, Townsend & Co. was heavily involved in the import trade with the Mediterranean, China, and India, especially the ports of Palermo in Sicily, Singapore and Penang in Malaysia, and Calcutta, India. Tuckerman acted as the local roving agent for the firm from 1853 to 1859. He purchased goods and coordinated shipments back to Boston. In 1859 Tuckerman, Townsend & Co. took heavy financial losses, and Tuckerman decided to dissolve the firm rather than continue with business on credit. He moved his family from Boston to New York City and took a job as the treasurer of the Hazard Powder Company, a gunpowder company that thrived during the Civil War. Tuckerman died on 11 February 1897 at his West 54th Street home in New York City.

    Gustavus, Jr. & his wife had at least four other children besides Eliot: Jane Frances Tuckerman (1852-1947); Hannah Elliot Tuckerman (1855-1860); Emily Lamb Tuckerman (1858-1943); and Margaret Eliot Tuckerman (1860-1948).

   Eliot Tuckerman’s aunt was Jane Francis Tuckerman (1818-1856). She was good friends with Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) and the two women were known correspondents. Fuller was an American journalist, editor, critic and women’s rights advocate and associated with the American transcendentalist movement. She wrote many letters to Fuller and was one of Fuller’s private pupils, and later her assistant on the Dial, the chief publication for the Transcendentalists. Jane married John Gallison King (1819-1888), a Boston lawyer from a Salem family, however, the marriage did not work out. King was part of the circle of friends with Emerson, Elizabeth Hoar, Cary Sturgis, etc. Jane was said to be good friends with Elizabeth Hoar (1811-1878), a classmate of Henry David Thoreau. Hoar was to wed Charles Emerson, brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson, but Charles died before they married. Emerson treated her as a sister. There are a couple of letters in this collection written to, and by, this Jane Francis Tuckerman, as they are dated too early for Eliot Tuckerman’s sister of the same name.

     Eliot Tuckerman received his A.B. (cum laude) from Harvard College in 1894 and his LL. B (cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1897. He was accepted into the bar in 1898 and by 1899, Tuckerman was working with the firm of Evarts, Choate & Beaman in New York City. In 1895, Joseph H. Choate Jr. and Eliot Tuckerman founded the Stockbridge Golf Club, making it one of the first 100 golf clubs in the U.S. In 1918 Tuckerman was elected as a New York Republican Assemblyman for the Tenth District. There are a couple of pieces of ephemera in this collection for the Republican Assembly Tenth District.

      Tuckerman married Mary Ludlow Powell Fowler (1879-1955) in New York City in April 1915. She was the daughter of lawyer, author, and Surrogate of New York, Robert L. Fowler (1849-1936) of New York City and his wife Julia Groesbeck (1854-1919). Mary had various interests. She was the president of the International Garden Club and a former vice president of the Humane Society of New York. She was the first person to win the annual award of New York City’s Park Association for the restoration of the Bartow Mansion in the Bronx and her aid in securing its conversion to a public museum. Mrs. Tuckerman was also active with the Bide-A-Wee home for animals in New York and a World War II president of Bundles for Britain. She also took an active interest in the Colony Club of New York and the Daughters of Holland Dames, and the National Society of the Colonial Dames. She was related to the Groesbecks of Cincinnati. Her mother’s father was U.S. Senator of Ohio, William Slocum Groesbeck (1815-1897) and her aunt was Olivia Augusta Groesbeck Hooker, wife of Union Civil War Major General Joseph Hooker.

     Eliot Tuckerman and his wife had one daughter, Emily Lamb Tuckerman (1917-2000). Emily married Henry Freeman Allen and had at least three children.

     By 1947, Tuckerman had succeeded Clifford A. Hand's New York law firm and Hand's firm had become Jones, Bleeker & Tuckerman. He retired about three years before his death. He had for many years lived at 1209 Park Avenue in New York City, before moving to Boston in 1952.

     Tuckerman was an expert on Constitutional Law and in 1927 he sought to have the 18^th Amendment (dry law) declared illegal. There is an essay on Constitutional Law of his in this collection. Tuckerman was also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and of the University, Century, Harvard, Down Town, and New York Yacht Clubs, fleet captain of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, and a governor of the Squadron A Club. He was a trustee of the Morristown School, a member of the Pilgrims, the Society of the Cincinnati, and other societies.

    Eliot Tuckerman died on 29 October 1959 at the age of 87, in Boston, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Eliot Tuckerman was the cousin of poet T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). His mother and T.S. Eliot’s grandfather were first cousins. There are two letters and one card in this collection which were written to his sister Jane Frances Tuckerman (1852-1947). T.S. Eliot calls her his “cousin” as he does their sister Emily. The two letters are typed and signed by Eliot. One of the letters he signs it “Tom St. Eliot” the other “T.S. Eliot.” The card is written to both Jane and her sister Emily and is addressed to the Misses Tuckerman. It is a printed card, with his “T.S. Eliot” signature.

       Some of the Correspondents in the collection are:

Emily Tuckerman (1858-1943). Eliot Tuckerman’s sister, born 22 May 1858 in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was three years old she was brought to New York by her parents. Emily went to Mrs. Griffith's School in New York and was a member of Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr's little dancing class. She often visited her most intimate friend Jane Minot Sedgewick in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (in winter as well as summer). She was fond of housekeeping and the greatest help in our home, took diplomas in "invalid cooking" and "first aid to the Injured." She travelled in England and Alaska with her friend Ann Mugar Leight. She was the Vice President of Mrs. Parson's Children's School Farm for 21 years. After the death of her parents she traveled extensively with her sister Jane. She met with a motor accident on the Isle of Wight, and was sent to Egypt by advice of Sir Victor Moreley of London. After the marriage of their brother Eliot, Jane F. and Emily L. made their home together.

Jane Frances Tuckerman (1852-1947).  Eliot and Emily Tuckerman’s sister, Jane Francis Tuckerman, was one of the founders of the Friendly Aid Society and the New York County chapter of the Red Cross. She lived at 1201 Park Avenue. A close friend of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, parents of President Theodore Roosevelt, she gave her services for many years as secretary of the Orthopedic Hospital, of which Mr. Roosevelt was then president. She was a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames and had been secretary for twenty-five years of the Causeries du Lundi.

Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (1888-1965) "one of the twentieth century's major poets" was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary and social critic. His grandfather, William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887), was first cousin to Emily Goddard Lamb Tuckerman, the mother of Eliot Tuckerman and his sisters Emily and Jane.

Robert Bowman Dodson (1849-1938) Robert B. Dodson was one of the trustees of the James A. Garland Estate, along with Eliot Tuckerman and Maj. Robert Emmet. Dodson was a banker and broker. He married Mary Wells. Dodson was born in Geneva, Illinois, in 1849, the son of Christian B. Dodson and his wife Harriet Warren. Dodson became associated with John J. Cisco & Co, then National City Bank, and later a partner in Fahnestock & Company.  Harris Charles Fahnestock (1835-1914) was an American investment banker. He was a successful investment banker and was financial advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. He co-founded First Nation Bank of New York, a predecessor to Citigroup. In 1881, Harris' son William formed his own investment bank at Two Wall Street, Fahnestock & Co., which expanded through the decades and eventually led to the creation of Oppenheimer & Co. in 1950. Dodson was also a trustee of the Bankers’ Safe Deposit Co. of 4 Wall Street, NYC. Dodson died at his country home at West Islip, Long Island, on 21 August 1938, at the age of 89.

Major Robert Emmet, DSO, (1871-1955) was born in Charlottesville, Virginia on 23 October 1871. He was the son of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet (1826-1919) a distinguished physician and medical writer, and the great grandson of the Honorable Thomas Addis Emmet, who served as Attorney General of New York State and was an Irish patriot and rebel, who came to the United States in 1804 after the failed 1798 United Irishmen Rebellion. The Honorable Emmet’s brother, Robert Emmet, was hanged in 1803 for his part in the rebellion.

Major Emmet was educated at Harvard University and graduated in 1892. Be began the study of medicine and graduated the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, in 1896. In May 1898 he became a Sergeant of Squadron A, N.G.S.N.Y. and was mustered into active service of the United States as a trooper of New York Volunteers and was ordered to Puerto Rico. He received the D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order -WWI, Great Britain) and was a Major of the Warwickshire Yeomanry, British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918.

Emmet was married on 25 November 1896 to Louise Garland, daughter of James A. Garland and Anna Louise Tuller, of New York. After the death of his wife’s father, Emmet became one of the trustees of the James A. Garland Estate, along with Robert B. Dodson and Eliot Tuckerman.

Louise Garland Emmet’s father, James A. Garland (1840-1902), was a prominent New Yorker, the Vice-President of the First National Bank of New York and a junior partner in the organizing and building of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He came into the orbit of Jay Cooke when Cooke’s son was one of his students and was known as an “excellent broker.”  Garland was a client of Duveen Brothers and a serious collector of tapestries, oriental jades and especially Chinese porcelain. The James A. Garland collection of Chinese porcelain, was one of the largest and comprehensive in the United States and one of the finest in the world. It comprised over a thousand Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white and colored porcelains amongst other items. The collection was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum until his death in 1902, when it was sold to the Duveen brothers for $500,000, who then sold it to J.P. Morgan, within hours of, who allowed most of the collection to remain at the Metropolitan Museum.

Emmet and his wife had at least three children: Thomas Addis Emmet (1900-1934), who married Evelyn Violet Elizabeth, suo jure Baroness Emmet of Amberley (1899-1980), a British Conservative Party politician; Capt. James Albert Garland Emmet; and Aileen “Muffie” Emmet.

William Gardner Choate (1830-1920) was a United States federal judge. Choate was nominated by President Rutherford B. Hayes to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York serving on the court for only three years, resigning on June 1, 1881. He resumed his private practice in New York City from 1881 to 1920. He founded the Choate School (later Choate Rosemary Hall) in 1896, and from 1902 to 1903 he served as president of the New York City Bar Association.

Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917), brother of William Gardner Choate., was an American lawyer and diplomat. He was associated with many of the most famous litigations in American legal history, including the Kansas prohibition cases, the Chinese exclusion cases, the Isaac H. Maynard election returns case, the Income Tax Suit, and the Samuel J. Tilden, Jane Stanford, and Alexander Turney Stewart will cases. In the public sphere, he was influential in the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (1861-1933), an American poet, writer and lecturer. She was the younger sister of former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, and an aunt of future First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. She married Douglas Robinson Jr. (1855–1918). Robinson's maternal grandfather, James Monroe (1799–1870), a member of the House of Representatives, was a nephew of U.S. President James Monroe (1758–1831).

 

      Sample Quotes:

“May 7, 1925

 

D.S. Garland, Esq., President

New York Law Review Corporation

280 Broadway, New York

 

Dear Sir,

 

The Constitution, as originally made, was simply intended to guarantee to the individual citizen a government which would protect his life, his liberty, and his right to pursue happiness.

 

That original Constitution, which contained few controversial matters, was not intended to be flexible, and its amendment was not meant to be easy.

Since the intrusion into the Constitution of the various Amendments, which have been ever increasingly controversial in nature, there are every increasing numbers of people who are discontented in one way or another, with the Constitution, as amended.

 

This discontent leads to increasing demands for further amendments.

 

The Supreme Court which, as Mr. Dooley says, ‘follows the Election returns,’ now says that it is only necessary to have the votes of two-thirds of a quorum in each house to propose Amendments to the organic law. That is not what the Constitution itself says, but it is ‘an interpretation’ in the direction of flexibility, which the amendments to the Constitution have made more popular.

 

In my opinion the acquiescence by the Court in the Congressional interpretation of the Amendment clause of the Constitution is more dangerous for the country than the passage of a law by Congress over the decision of the Court would be.

 

Another Congress can reverse the policy of its predecessor, but the Constitution once changed stays.

Where it will end, we cannot tell, but each controversial amendment hastens the end.

Yours very truly, [Eliot Tuckerman]

 

ET/M.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“T.S. Eliot

B -11 Eliot House

Cambridge

11 April 1933

 

My dear Cousin Jane,

 

I shall certainly hope to see you and Cousin Emily in New York; but unfortunately, I am not going to be there all that week – it is two separate visits. I shall be there from the 20^th to the 22^nd; and again, on the 27^th; and I hope to spend several days in New York in May without any speaking engagements. But I shall try to come on the first occasion; and will telephone.

 

With many thanks,

Cordially your cousin,

Tom St. Eliot”

 

“Henry D. Tudor

Counsellor at Law

35 Congress Street

Boston, Mass.

January 23, 1934

 

Dear Mr. Dodson,

 

We have been searching for the portrait of James A. Garland by Ooliss. Hope Garland Ingersoll, his granddaughter is supposed to have this portrait, but we have not been able to locate it.

 

I wonder if you have any recollection in the handling of the estate of James A. Garland, Sr., what became of this portrait. It was supposed to go to Bert Garland, and hung in his house at Hamilton, Mass. I do not know that the estate ever had anything to do with it, but on the chance that it did, I am writing to know if you have any recollection about it.

 

Sincerely yours,

Henry D. Tudor”

 

“Baden-Baden May 8^th ‘34

Dear Eliot,

I apologize for not acknowledging receipt of your cable of April 3^rd as I was reasonably sure Mrs. Emmet would not do so but I some how forgot it till I got your letter…

I wrote him [Dodson] some time back, asking what you & he thought about distributing the final dissolution payment of the 1^st Security Co. in the next quarterly distribution as I do not see how we can do otherwise in view of our paying income tax on it as income. Apparently, the liquidating dividend received last year of the Passaic water Co. is in the same a similar category & should be distributed as income…

I hope everything goes well with you & Dodson. I wish they would treat the gangsters with the same merciful ruthlessness they use in similar miscreants here & I Italy. They tell me, on all sides, there is no need of locking your front door now in Germany & many of the people in the north do not do so. Visitors tell me they never lock their hotel doors now in Germany & never lose anything. The streets too are perfectly safe at any hour of the night. I wonder which is freedom – here or the terror in the New York, where a mutual friend of ours trembles every time her front doorbell rings after 9 P.M.

I wish Roosevelt would make the States attack crime ruthlessly. I believe a marked subsidence of crime would bring a return of confidence & a business revival. It sounds fanciful, but I believe it is NOT. Yours, R. Emmet”

“Sept 27, ‘34

Dear Eliot

I have just arrived here [Paris] for a week on our way to London…

I am greatly disappointed not to have seen you when over here but delighted to hear you enjoyed it all so well. I think few people realize the romance of Scotland. Motoring there is far more fascinating I think than anywhere on the continent…

We are just from Montreux in Lk. Geneva via Basle. My wife ran into Germany to see the Dr. for the day but was too shy to spend any longer there than necessary. Charming people though these southern Germans are. The air there was charged with anxiety, I thought, and with espionage & spying, with severest reprisals for disloyalty I have been told. Every one was so guarded in speech & so anxious lest they be overhead & misrepresented, at least the few I got to know…

Best luck, yours R. Emmet”

 

“Sheppard, Jones & Seipp

Attorneys & Counsellors,

New York

 

April 26^th, 1935

 

Re – Emmet - General

(Trust for Mrs. Emmet – Garland Estate;

Possible sale of First National Bank Stock)

 

My dear ‘Rob’ and ‘Tuck’:

 

After our telephone conversations of this morning, there came in the following brief note from ‘Bob’ Emmet, dated the 17^th:

 

‘Dear Jack: My wife insists I maligned her by writing you she had threated to sue the trustees if they sold any of the Bank Stock, so I thought you better know, though she is as determined as every to hold on to the stock if she can influence matters.’

 

It seems to me that this demonstrates conclusively what I have told you both, namely, that ‘Bob’ had no animus against either of you in writing what I quoted in my letter to you of April 24^th.

 

Faithfully yours, John S. Sheppard

 

JSS:D

 

Robert B. Dobson, Esq.

960 Park Avenue, New York City

 

Eliot Tuckerman, Esq.

49 Wall Street, New York City”

 

 

 

“Robert Dodson

Robert Emmet

Eliot Tuckerman

Trustees for Louise G. Emmet

Under the will of James A. Garland

2 Wall Street

New York

 

September 19, 1935

 

First National Bank

2 Wall Street

New York

 

Gentlemen:

Will you kindly purchase, without haste, for our account, as Trustees as above stated, the following mentioned bonds and stocks:

$30,000       New York City 4% bonds due 1980.

$20,000       Commonwealth Edison 3 ¾% bonds due 1965.

$5,000        San Diego Consolidated Gas & Electric First 4% bonds due 1965.

$9,000        American Gas & Electric 5% bonds due 2028.

$8,000        North American Co. 5% bonds due 1961.

And

50 shares American Tobacco Co. B Stock

Please charge the same to our account with advice to us at the above address.

Yours truly,

Robert B. Dodson, Trustee

Eliot Tuckerman, Trustee”

“Oct 3^rd, ‘35

Baden-Baden

 

Dear Eliot,

Many thanks for yours of Sept 24^th giving the prices at which the new purchases were made through the First National Bank…

We expect to be here or in Freiburg, Germany, till Oct 18^th then, after a short stay in Paris, off to England for a couple of months, Nov & Dec, with the family. Great fluttering in the dive cots for several more are going to school this term, having only the youngest at home in Tanney’s family & two in each of the other two.

The thought that they may be training, & fattening up to kill & be killed in a quite unnecessary war seems an incredibly revolting thought when one realizes that all wars are begun for Loot, Gain, or Revenge. I am barbarian enough to have really enjoyed my war experience, but am thoroughly ashamed of the remains of Fallen Nature still uneradicated in me that permitted me to enjoy what I know was opposed to Christian principles. I have always enjoyed a gamble of a game of wits & chance & believe that must be the foundation of the situation. I certainly had no hard feeling or hatred for the enemy at any time any more than during a game of polo or steeplechase….

Yours R. Emmet”

 

“January 11, 1937

Dear Dodson,

 

I attended the annual meeting of the stockholders of the bank this morning, and, at the request of Mr. Fraser and Mr. Welldon, called the meeting to order and nominated them to act as chairman and secretary of the meeting.

 

Mr. Fraser took up the enclosed statement, item by item, and explained the differences as compared with the previous year’s report. The number of stockholders has increased from 4708 to 5102. The government has ruled that the bank may make announcement of the dividend to be paid four times each year instead of twice (as has been done for the past year). This will be done.

 

The decrease of deposits was mainly due to the government requiring increased reserves in the banks. Many banks carry balances with the First National, which reduced their deposits. Also, some of the corporate balances were smaller than formerly. Of the Government Bonds owned by the Bank 40% are due in 5 years or less and 51% are callable in 10 years. The profits are less this year as many of the bonds held by the bank were refunded in 1936 which resulted in profits in 1936 not recurring in 1937. Also, the income was reduced by the fact that the refunding bonds carried coupons at a lower rate of interest.

 

There were 282 shares present in person at the meeting and 72205 shares (among them ours) represented by proxies.

 

There were gains in miscellaneous income from the fact that commissions were received in some of the Estates held in the trust department, and the rents of the building, now 74% rented, increased.

 

That’s about all I learned from Mr. Fraser.

 

After the meeting I stopped to speak with Searles, the first assistant cahier. I mentioned to him that I had noticed that Mrs. Loew’s Estate held no bank stock. He suggested that perhaps she had put that in trust for her children during her life. Maybe so.

 

I have put the various receipts int eh file, and have nothing further in the way of business to report.

 

I hope Mrs. Dodson and you are well and happy. I stopped in to see Jack Morgan for a minute and he said it was a good time to be philosophical and I try to be, but for me, it is not easy.

 

With best wishes,

Yours Sincerely,

[Eliot Tuckerman]

 

Robert B. Dodson, Esq.

ET: JB”

 

“The Vestry,

St. Stephen’s Church

Gloucester Road, S.W.7

12 January 1939

 

Dear Cousin Jenny,

Thank you very much for your kind and welcome letter. I am sorry that I unintentionally deceived you concerning my whereabouts; it was simply that I could not find your address and enclosed the card and envelope to Henry to forward to you. Nevertheless, I shall hope to see you and Cousin Emily at some time during this year, if no war intervenes to prevent. I had hoped to come in the autumn, but both politics and some uncompleted work prevented me.

With best wishes for 1939,

Affectionately your cousin,

T.S. Eliot”

 

 

Examples from the 1943 Journal:

“August 10 Thursday…45 subtracted from 1943 brings us back to 1898 and the glorious days of San Juan Hill and the first Roosevelt now rather eclipsed; but perhaps history will refocus attention on his name. And here we have a lot of Spanish War vets convening in Boston with their wives in attendance. 45 years, and caps and badges & wives don’t add, by and large, any great dignity to the human body; rather, humps & bumps, and thick legs, and horrid obesity all over, in the most unexpected spots, - and I dare say not infrequently to the brain; - which is indicated by the very fact of their foregathering and dressing up. In the last few days they have been passing resolutions; memorializing Congress and FDR in a number of ways on a number of subjects, one of which, which caught the reporters’ eye, was a stern recommendation to the federal authorities (whoever might be the proper one) to forbid any and all Orientals – Japs & Chinese from entering the U.S.A.: where upon the Civil Liberties League whooped & hollered and asked how this behavior fitted in with Mr. Wilkie’s plan for one world?...”

“Aug 22 Sunday…We were very much intrigued to find that Nancy Oakes had been at their school in New York when she married Count de Marigny clandestinely and admitted it one afternoon after an examination on banking. Consternation! and inability to get Lady Oakes on the telephone before the Count came and claimed her & carried her off. A great to do, but nothing much to do about it. Both Miss C. & Mlle. T foresaw unhappiness, sizing up the Count as a scallywag who didn’t care anything about Nancy but had an eye o her money. He had been divorced from his first wife Farnesworth and all the available records were dark. And now look what she is facing! Her husband accused of murdering & trying to burn the body of her father – in the Bahamas!...”

“Aug 24 Tuesday…There are lots of WAVES at the Victoria lining up to go somewhere, and I am much impressed with their style, their carriage, & their dress. Also, recalling Bly’s remarks about the uniform color of their stockings. I wonder if the U.S. Gov. issues them, or commands them to use only one color of lip stick. I had a good opportunity to come to this conclusion…”

“Aug 25 Wednes…I was struck by the eventual usefulness of Copley Square. At last a valid solution of that much vexed triangle has been found; it has become a vegetable garden for the Copley Plaza Hotel, surrounded by a low, white picket fence, covered with vines; a well-worn path around it. The garden itself is very professional, set up in north-south rows of everything good to eat, and thriving under the skill of a professional farmer; who picks your beans as you sit in the merry-go-round, & has ‘em cooked when you’ve finished your cocktail. The garden does not occupy the entire grassy terrain, but leaves the corners free, -and as might be expected they are dedicated, by the completely unimaginative Mr. Long of the Park Dept., east to the exceedingly ugly raised garden a design in horrible stubby plants; a large V and north-south on Dartmouth St., of all things, groups of spindly rabble trees! Doubtless it’s Mr. Long’s fond secret hope to do something about the tree shortage…”

“Aug 26 Thurs…A nice quiet day with little happening. I call on Ralph Gray in the early morning. He seems pretty perky and wants me to take on the job he is yielding of custodian with Howard Church of the B.A.C. funds. There being little or no funds that seems no arduous job for me and I gladly take it off Ralph’s shoulders…Bly lunches with Mrs. Ellery Sedgewick at Emily Webbs (who remarks on my North Haven Church), and is joined by Tom Metcalfe from the adjacent Museum of Modern Arson (as he likes to call it, in memory of the Beacon Street episode)…”

“Aug 31 Tues…I have taken Ralph’s place as trustee of the B.A.C. educational funds. I could hardly do less though I’m heartily sick of trying to save that club house. And here are Stanley & I – Stanley for the most part – getting up a serious of lectures for next winter in the hope that we may gather in a few dollars, - and persuade the tax assessors the Club is an educational institution & should not be taxed…”

“Sept 1 Wed…I get the Ms. Of our lecture courses to Ms. King of Todd, and Walter Kilham & I enjoy a particularly pleasant luncheon at ‘270’…What a gay place 270 is at lunch time! Seemed full; even the cocktail lounge…M.F., chic & charming [winked] at me across the room, Harriet Allen and her Roger Warner, were near by & a perfectly lovely lady with large limpid eyes & vivacious [mouth] - & 2 friends (sex female) faced me at a near table (Walter a little irritated that his back was to her. But I noticed he managed a number of good squints in her direction). We both would undoubtedly recognize her again – and may go back to do so…”

“Sept 11 Sat…And in the meantime it should be noted that Adolph Hitler has made a speech…a rather pitiful affair, probably from Berchtesgaden over the radio, justifying everything in Italy, and on the Russian front. He is lost…and he knows it…probably now at the control of the army, who are using him to bolster public moral as much as he can. Meantime, they have taken over Rome, put the Pope under protective custody, which rather pleases me, the Pope never to my mind took a strong position and now he is being used for what his prestige & that of the shrines of Rome can give the Nazis as protection…”

      Collection Inventory:

       Outgoing Correspondence of Eliot Tuckerman:

81 retained copies of letters, 106 typescript pages, mostly unsigned, dated 7 May 1925 to 22 December 1950; written by Eliot Tuckerman to others; the bulk of letters date from the 1930s, 1 letter from 1925, 2 from 1940, and 1 from 1950; 48 of the letters were written by Tuckerman to Maj. Robert Emmet; 12 letters written to Robert B. Dodson; the remaining to various individuals; of these 79 letters, 2 are handwritten copies. Tuckerman, Emmet and Dodson were trustees of the James A. Garland Estate, with Emmet’s wife was one of the heirs. Emmet is mostly in Europe, with Dodson and Tuckerman in New York City. Most of this correspondence is about the Garland Estate, investing for the estate, quarterly distributions, stocks, bonds, cash on hand, arguments with Mrs. Emmet over the handling of the estate, worries about the economy, worries over the political scene in Europe (Germany), etc.

       Incoming Correspondence of Eliot Tuckerman:

78 letters, 157 pp. (mostly handwritten), dated 11 December 1933 to 27 December 1954; written by Major Robert Emmet to Eliot Tuckerman. Emmet’s wife Louise G. Emmet, was an heir to the James A. Garland Estate, of which Tuckerman was one of the Trustees handling the estate for Mrs. Emmet. Emmet and his wife appear to have gone to Europe for an extended stay lasting multiple years to seek treatment of his wife’s ailments. Major Emmet and Robert B. Dodson were also Trustees of the Garland Estate. Emmet writes several letters discussing the changes going on in Nazi Germany. Much of the correspondence deals with the Garland Estate.

15 letters, 16 manuscript pp., dated 20 June 1934 to 19 January 1938; written by Robert B. Dodson to Eliot Tuckerman; Dobson, like Tuckerman, was one of the Trustees handling the James A. Garland Estate for Mrs. Louise G. Emmet who was the heir and the wife of Major Robert Emmet, also a Trustee. Much of the correspondence deals with the handling of the Garland Estate.

6 letters, 20 pp., mostly handwritten dated 11 March 1919 to 12 March 1927, written to Eliot Tuckerman from family: his mother (1); Aunt Elizabeth (1); Jane and Emily Tuckerman (1); Jane F. Tuckerman (2); Emily Tuckerman (1).

4 letters, 14 pp., handwritten, dated 16 June 1901 to 10 March 1915; written by various members of the Choate family to Eliot Tuckerman: Mabel Choate, of New York City; J. H. Choate, Jr., writing from Munich, Germany; Anne Hyde Choate, of New York; and Wm. G. Choate, of Rosemary Farm, Wallingford, Connecticut. Tuckerman worked for the Evarts, Choate & Beaman law firm in New York City for a number of years.

4 letters, 12 typescript pp., dated 15 and 30 October 1935; written by Herbert J. Bickford to Eliot Tuckerman, these are two original letters, plus copies of those letters; Bickford was a member of the firm of Evarts, Choate, Curtin and Leon (Allen W. Evarts, Joseph H. Choate, Jr., John J. Curtin, & Maurice Leon), of New York City, New York. Bickford helped on the Garland Estate.

3 letters, 4 typed pp., dated 3 February 1919 to 2 August 1918; written by Henry Campbell Black to Eliot Tuckerman; Black was the editor of “The Constitutional Review,” a publication that published an article by Tuckerman. There is an essay/article in the ephemera collection, which would appear to be a copy of this article that Tuckerman wrote for this publication.

3 letters, 4 typed pp., dated 24 April 1935 to 20 September 1938, written by John S. Sheppard to Eliot Tuckerman; Sheppard was an attorney with “Sheppard, Jones, & Seipp” of New York City, New York (John S. Sheppard, Catesby L. Jones, & Henry G. Seipp); Sheppard may have been working for the Emmet family on the Garland Estate, or for the Emmet family individually from the estate.

35 letters, 66 pp., mostly handwritten by various individuals to Eliot Tuckerman, dated 15 March 1887 to 22 December 1950; of these letters, 23 are dated from 1915 to 1917. In 1915 Tuckerman was engaged and married and in 1917, he and his wife had their first and only child. These letters from 1915 and 1917 discuss these two events in Tuckerman’s life. The collection includes letters from: Harold Stirling Vanderbilt CBE (1884-1970), American railroad executive, a champion yachtsman, an innovator and champion player of contract bridge, and a member of the Vanderbilt family; Christine Griffen Keen, sister of U.S. Senators John Kean and Hamilton Fish Kean, and wife of William Emlen Roosevelt (1857-1930), prominent New York City banker and cousin of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt; presumably a Frances Tracy Morgan, daughter of Jack Morgan, American banker, finance executive, and philanthropist, who inherited the family fortune and took over the business interests including J.P. Morgan & Co. after his father J. P. Morgan died.

       Incoming Correspondence to Mary Fowler Tuckerman, wife of Eliot Tuckerman:

12 letters, 35 pp., mostly handwritten, dated 29 September 1915 to 14 December 1932; written to Mary Fowler from family: her husband Eliot Tuckerman (5); her father Robert L. Fowler (5); Jeanie and Emily Tuckerman (1); and her brother (1).

21 letters, 66 pp., mostly handwritten, dated 8 March 1915 to 7 April 1948, written by various individuals to Mary Fowler Tuckerman, wife of Eliot Tuckerman; 7 letters are not dated, and are from the same time period; 9 letters are from 1915 and 1917, with the undated letters likely being from this time period, as they pertain to Mary’s marriage to Tuckerman (1915) and the birth of their daughter (1917). Some of the letter writers are from prominent New York City families: Rachel Lenox Porter, Frances de Peyster, Sarah D. Gardiner, Alice Crary Sutcliffe, Margaret E. Zimmerman, etc.

Incoming Letters to Emily Lamb Tuckerman and her sister Jane F. Tuckerman, sisters of Eliot Tuckerman:

10 letters, 27 pp., handwritten, dated 1 January 1854 to 26 June 1943; written to Emily Lamb Tuckerman by various individuals, both family and friends, including her sister Jane and her cousins. A couple of the letters congratulate Emily upon her engagement. One or two of these earlier letters appear to be for another Emily Tuckerman, perhaps an aunt of Emily Lamb Tuckerman. One may have been written by Jane F. Tuckerman (1818-1856) as it was written in 1854, thus the Emily it is addressed to would have to be someone else.

9 letters, 14 pp., dated 18 October 1872 to 12 January 1939 written to Jane F. Tuckerman; one letter is written Corine Roosevelt Robinson, an American poet, writer and lecturer, and the younger sister of President Theodore Roosevelt and an aunt of future First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. Another correspondent is the poet T. S. Eliot, who writes two letters to Ms. Tuckerman, both are typed and signed, with envelopes, dated 11 April 1933 and 12 January 1939. T.S. Eliot calls Ms. Tuckerman his cousin, and mentions her sister “Cousin Emily” as well. T. S. Eliot also signs a Christmas card “T.S. Eliot.” The envelope is addressed to “The Misses Tuckerman” in New York City in 1938.

Miscellaneous Letters to the Tuckerman Family:

12 letters, 32 pp., handwritten, dated 4 May 1848 to 11 May 1935; miscellaneous letters written amongst members of the Tuckerman family.

       Journals, Estate Ledger, Pedigree Register, Scrapbook,

Journal of Eliot Tuckerman, octavo, 63 manuscript pp., plus blanks, bound in limp leather boards, worn at edges, dated 3 August to 9 September 1904; inside front flyleaf reads “Eliot Tuckerman / Personal Memoranda.”  First page states: “Tour of Duty with Troop A, 1^st New York Provisional Cavalry – at Manassas, Va. September 1904” followed by: “Pursuant to the provisions of the “Dick Bill” the Army authorities called for troops from the eastern States to take part in maneuvers to be held on the ground where the battles of Bull Run were fought in the Civil War…” This journal appears to be about this exercise that Tuckerman was a part of.

Journal of Eliot Tuckerman, octavo, 39 manuscript pp., plus blanks, bound in limp leather boards, worn at edges, dated 1909-1911; written in ink, in legible hand. The inside front flyleaf of the journal has inscribed: “Eliot Tuckerman / Journal / Dec 25, 1909 / from E.L.T.” The volume appears to have been given to Tuckerman for Christmas 1909 from his sister Emily Lamb Tuckerman.” The first page is dated “December 25, 1909” with the last entry dated “1911 July 26.” The volume was only occasionally used by Tuckerman.

Journal of an unidentified woman, octavo, 198 manuscript pp., dated 13 August to 27 September 1943, written in ink, in a legible hand; kept in a copybook. This journal was written by a single woman who works in an office in Boston, possibly the architectural firm of Kilham & Hopkins, formed in 1899 or 1900 by its founding members, Walter Harrington Kilham (1868-1948) and James Cleveland Hopkins (1873-1938). The firm later became Kilham, Hopkins & Greeley after William Roger Greeley (1881-1966) joined the firm in 1916, and Kilham Hopkins Greeley and Brodie after Walter S. (Steve) Brodie (1911-1985) joined the firm in 1945. The firm has been recognized for its contributions to early 20th century reform housing, including its work at the Atlantic Heights Development in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the Woodbourne Historic District in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, and for the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company in the Salem Point Neighborhood of Salem, Massachusetts. A number of the firm's works, including Blithewold and Hose House No. 2, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The journal does have the writing making architectural comments, design comments, etc., and she may very well be an architect herself. She lives with a woman by the name of Bly. The journal recounts daily activities and life of a woman, in the Boston area, traveling to Milton, New Bedford, elsewhere, mentions of the war efforts, etc. She at one point takes over as custodian of the funds of the Boston Architectural Club from architect Ralph Gray.

Estate Ledger Book for “Estate of Emily Lamb Tuckerman / Died July 8, 1943” & “Estate of Jane Frances Tuckerman / Died October 18, 1947,” small quarto, 69 manuscript pp., bound in quarter leather, cloth, edges worn, written in ink, legible hand; both estates’ accounts kept in the same ledger.

Register of Pedigree. Approved by The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1915.  Copyrighted 1895, by William Gordon Ver Planck. “The Pedigree of Jane F. Tuckerman,” 33 pp., written in ink, legible hand, with blanks, and with further handwritten material tucked in, bound in oblong 4to, measures 16” x 10”, cloth boards, wear to edges. A genealogy of the Tuckerman family compiled by Jane Frances Tuckerman.

Scrap Album of 59 newspaper articles clipped from New York City papers and laid into a quarto volume, measures 10” x 14”, boards detached, dusty. The articles appear to be mostly written by, or about, Eliot Tuckerman and his fight to declare the 18^th Amendment (Prohibition) wrongly enacted.

“Wedding Presents” ledger, small oblong quarto, 40 pp., with blanks, written in pencil, legible hand, bound in boards, with leather worn away; not dated, but mentions Emily Tuckerman as giving a gift, with the Fowler family as being the first listed, possibly kept by Eliot Tuckerman’s wife, Mary Fowler, and would date from 1915; occasionally in the “remarks” column it states “For Eliot” which would seem to indicate it was indeed kept by Eliot Tuckerman and his wife Mary Fowler; includes lists of names and gifts given, sometimes other remarks, such as where the gift was purchased, the address of the person who gave the gift (usually city), etc.

Photographs:

44 photographs, black and white, various sizes from 2 ¾” x 4” to 8” x 10”; includes 3 cabinet cards, 2 cyanotypes, most of the photos are inscribed and labeled on rear, many appear to be of Jane F. Tuckerman, some of her sister Emily; 5 of the photos were taken at the Biddle home in Andalusia, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; others in Maine; not dated, circa late 19th and early 20th century.

       Ephemera:

Paper Ephemera: Approximately 130 pieces of both printed and manuscript paper ephemera, including manuscript notes, essays, printed material, used envelopes, calling cards, greeting cards, estate papers, written genealogy pages, post cards, telegrams, newspaper clippings, etc.