John Bigelow papers

John Bigelow (November 25, 1817 - December 19, 1911) lived a dynamic life during a period of social and industrial change. He was an American author, diplomat, lawyer, and distinguished man of letters who was involved in significant historical events such as discouraging France from building ships for the Confederacy during the Civil War and helping to expose the political corruption of Tammany Hall’s William “Boss” Tweed in New York City. A browsing of his collection reveals that his acquaintances, business associates, and friends represented an extensive list of the leaders of his time, with these leaders steering literary, political, and social movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Born in Malden-on-Hudson, New York to Asa and Lucy Isham Bigelow, John Bigelow studied at Washington College in Hartford, Connecticut, and then at Union College, where he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and the Philomathean Society. He graduated in 1835. From 1835-1837, he studied law in New York City, first at Dey and Bonney, and then at Robert and Theodore Sedgwick. It was during this time where he first made the acquaintances with poet Fitz-Green Halleck, politician Samuel J. Tilden, and poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant, with whom Bigelow would become co-owner and co-editor of the New York Evening Post. Admitted to the New York City Bar in 1838, Bigelow’s career moved from practicing law to writing and editing for the next ten years, contributing to The Plebeian, the New York Review, and the Democratic Review. He also assisted Josiah Gregg in writing Commerce of the Prairies, published in 1844. From 1845-1856, Bigelow’s experiences led to myriad accomplishments, such as becoming the inspector at Sing-Sing Prison, becoming acquainted with authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and William Gilmore Simms, visiting Jamaica and Haiti, helping to create the Republican Party, and publishing the biography of John C. Frémont. Bigelow’s first trip to Europe in 1858 allowed him to further entrench himself in artistic and literary circles upon meeting William Thackeray, William Hargreaves, Charles Dickens, and Anthony Trollope, among others.

From 1860-1861, Bigelow supported the nomination of Abraham Lincoln by the Republican Party and was appointed by Lincoln to be the Consul-General at Paris, serving under William L. Dayton. Seven years later, he edited and published his edition of the Benjamin Franklin autobiography. As the Consul-General to Paris, he was instrumental in preventing the British and French from building ships for the Confederacy and persuading Napoleon II from annexing Mexico. After returning to New York in 1867, Bigelow began working on his edition of the Benjamin Franklin Autobiography in 1868 after he found the manuscript in Paris. He also edited Franklin’s complete works, wrote a biography of U.S. presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden, and wrote several works on the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg. From 1870-1900, Bigelow was involved in New York State politics as he was elected Secretary of the State of New York, bolstered Samuel J. Tilden’s Presidential candidacy, and was appointed the Commissioner of the U.S. Section 5 at the Brussels Exposition of 1888. After Tilden’s death in 1886, Bigelow was elected as the President of the Board of Trustees for the Tilden Trust, and he was steadfast in helping to make Tilden’s dream to create a public library in New York City a reality. Because of his unwavering loyalty to Tilden’s vision, Bigelow became the first President of the New York Free Public Library. In addition, Bigelow was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; president of the Century Association; an honorary corresponding member of the New York Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Maryland Society; and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Bigelow also played an important role in supporting Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla in constructing the Panama Canal, a role for which U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was thankful. Bigelow died at the age of ninety-five on December 19 in 1911.

John Bigelow married Jane Tunis Poultney (1829-1889) on June 11, 1850. They had nine children, seven of which lived to adulthood: Grace Bigelow (1852-1932), John Bigelow Jr. (1854-1936), Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954), Jenny Bigelow Tracy, (1859-1955), Annie Bigelow Harding (1863-1922), and Flora Bigelow Dodge Guest (1868-1964). Two of their sons died as young children: Poultney Bigelow (1851-1853) and Ernest Bigelow (1861-1865).

John Bigelow authored many historical, biographical, sociological, and economic works. Some of his celebrated works include: "Jamaica in 1850 or the Effects of Sixteen Years of Freedom on a Slave Colony" (1856); "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" (1868); "France and Hereditary Monarchy" (1871); "The Life of Benjamin Franklin" (1875); "Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians" (1877); "Molinos the Quietist" (1882); "France and the Confederate Navy" (1888); "Some Recollections of Edouard Laboulaye" (1889); "The Bible that was Lost and is Found" (1893); "Life of William Cullen Bryant" (1893); "Life of Samuel J. Tilden" (1895); "The Mystery of Sleep" (1897); "Lest we Forget Gladstone, Morley and the Confederate Loan of 1863" (1905); "Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden" (1908); "Retrospections of an Active Live" (1909-1913); and "The Folly of Building Temples of Peace with the Untempered Mortar" (1910).