Martha's Vineyard Museum
A Finding Aid to the Harriet Frances Bailey Collection1927-1942, 1964, undated
Table of Contents
Descriptive Summary
| Repository | Martha's Vineyard Museum,
Gale Huntington Research Library 59 School Street P.O. Box 1310 Edgartown, MA 02539 (508)627-4441 |
|---|---|
| Call Number | RU 456 |
| Creator | Bailey, Arthur P., collector |
| Title | Harriet Frances Bailey collection |
| Date | 1927-1942, 1964, undated |
| Extent | 1 box + 1 oversize folder (0.529 cubic feet) |
| Language | The materials are in English. |
| Abstract | The collection consists of photographs, poetry, short stories, a diary, correspondence and school work created by Harriet Frances Bailey of Chilmark, Massachusetts, and New York, New York. The material was collected by her brother, Arthur P. Bailey. |
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions, with the following exceptions: Student records in Box 1, folder 7 and Box 1, folder 8 are RESTRICTED until 2018 per Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) legislation.
Use and Reproduction Restrictions
Requests to reproduce material from this collection should be directed to museum staff. Reproduction fees may apply.
Preferred Citation
Martha's Vineyard Museum, RU 456, Harriet Frances Bailey Collection.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Arthur Bailey, brother of the creator, Harriet Frances Bailey. According to a May 1967 issue of the Dukes County Intelligencer, Arthur Bailey presented the society with the Harriet Frances Bailey Collection, consisting of photographs, letters, a diary, a few short stories, school papers and a dozen unpublished poems. A July 1960 letter to a museum staff member indicates that Arthur Bailey was still in the process of sorting through the material at that time. It therefore seems likely that the collection was received between 1960 and 1967, however, the exact date of accession and accession number are unknown.
Publication Information
Martha's Vineyard Museum
Gale Huntington Research Library59 School Street
P.O. Box 1310
Edgartown, MA 02539
(508)627-4441
Revision Description
Addition to the Collection; Addition of Box 1, Folder 11, Salvation Army case histories [CJ], August 2015
Processing Information
Finding aid prepared by Insley Julier, September-October 2013. Machine-encoded by Nathaniel Janick April 2014.
Creation of this finding aid was sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Related Materials
Related Materials
There is a published volume of Bailey's poems in the library collections. See: Bailey, Harriet Frances. Poems. New Bedford, Mass.: Reynolds Printing, 1942.
Index Terms
Genre(s)
- Black-and-white photographs
- Card photographs
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Manuscripts
- Poems
- Research notes
- Short stories
Geographic Name(s)
- Chilmark (Mass.)
- New York (N.Y.)
Personal Name(s)
- Bailey, Harriet Frances, 1918-1938
Contributor(s)
- Allen, Joseph Chase, 1892-
- Bailey, Harriet Frances, 1918-1938
Subject(s)
- Poetry
Biography/Historical Note
Harriet Frances Bailey was born in Chilmark, Massachusetts in 1918 to Charles Ezra Bailey and Ida Emma Mayhew Bailey. The family lived in New York City, where Charles Bailey was a tenor singer and taught voice lessons. The Baileys returned to Chilmark in the summer to a family home on North Road called, Ravenhurst. Harriet Frances Bailey, or Frances, as she was called by her family, had two siblings; Arthur P. Bailey and Virginia Bailey. A gifted student and child poet, Frances Bailey began writing verse at the age of six. She attended the St. Agnes School and the Lakeside School in Spring Valley, New York, where she served as a writer and editor of the school paper. Bailey completed high school in a little over two years, graduating at the age of 15. She was valedictorian. She went on to Barnard College in New York City, finishing her studies there at age 19. Harriet Frances Bailey married Warren L. Dahl of New York in 1937. Bailey died in December 1938 at St. Nicholas Hospital in New York at the age of 20.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of published and hand-written poetry and short stories, a diary, correspondence, school notes and research papers created by Harriet Frances Bailey, 1918-1938, and collected by her brother, Arthur P. Bailey. In addition, materials include black-and-white photographs of Harriet Frances Bailey and her friends, family and classmates, as well as newspaper clippings about her academic achievements, obituaries and tributes published after her death. A volume of Harriet Frances Bailey's poetry, entitled Poems, was posthumously published in 1942 under the auspices of the Dukes County Historical Society, predecessor to the Martha's Vineyard Museum. The collection contains an annotated, typescript manuscript of the work and drafts of a forward written by Joseph Chase Allen. It is unclear whether the Poems manuscript formed part of Arthur P. Bailey's gift. The photographic images gifted by him were separated from the textual materials at the time of accession or sometime thereafter. These photographs have been reunited with the textual collections however it is not possible to ascertain from institutional records if all of the images were received directly from Arthur Bailey.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged chronologically, with photographic materials filed at the end.
Collection Contents
| Box | Folder | |||
Poems, circa 1927-1937, undated | 1 | 1 | ||
Vineyard Gazette, 1928 August 10 | OS GEN 7 | 14 | ||
Clippings Regarding Academic Achievements, 1928-1934, undated | 1 | 2 | ||
Correspondence, 1929-1937, undated | 1 | 3 | ||
Prize Winning Poem, "New York", 1932 January | 1 | 4 | ||
Diary, 1932-1935 | 1 | 5 | ||
School Notes, circa 1932-1938 | 1 | 6 | ||
Roman Wall Paintings and Mosaics in the Metropolitan, circa 1932-1938 NoteFile is RESTRICTED per FERPA legislation until 2018. | 1 | 7 | ||
Gambetta, Man and Statesman, circa 1932-1938 NoteFile is RESTRICTED per FERPA legislation until 2018. | 1 | 8 | ||
The Tiger, 1933-1934 NoteSchool newspaper published by Spring Valley High School. | 1 | 9 | ||
The Tiger, 1934 April 17 | OS GEN 7 | 14 | ||
Valedictory Speech, 1934 | 1 | 10 | ||
Salvation Army case histories, circa 1935 | 1 | 11 | ||
Short Stories and Poetry Published in Barnard Quarterly, 1937 | 1 | 12 | ||
Short Stories, before 1938 December | 1 | 13 | ||
Obituaries, 1938 December 23 | 1 | 14 | ||
Tribute Published in Barnard Quarterly, 1939 | 1 | 15 | ||
Poems (Manuscript), 1942 | 1 | 16-17 | ||
Forward to Poems, by Joseph Chase Allen, circa 1942 | 1 | 18 | ||
Poem, "Your Portraits", undated | 1 | 19 | ||
Family Photographs from Childhood, circa 1919-circa 1930, 1964 | 1 | 20 | ||
Photographs with Family, Friends and Classmates, circa 1930-1938 | 1 | 21 | ||
Portrait Photographs of Harriet Frances Bailey, circa 1936 | 1 | 22 | ||