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David E. Cronin papers

Call Number

MS 670.9

Date

1861-1911, inclusive

Creator

Cronin, David Edward, 1839-1925

Extent

4 Linear feet

Language of Materials

The documents in this collection are in English.

Abstract

This collection consists of material relating to and collected by the artist David E. Cronin, Civil War illustrator and member of the 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles. Material includes memoirs, correspondence, and documents of Cronin and other Civil War soldiers, as well as Cronin's sketches of Civil War subjects, and a number of published volumes hand-illustrated by Cronin. The materials in this collection have been digitized and are available online to on-site researchers and to users affiliated with subscribing institutions via EBSCOhost.

Chronology

1839 July 12 David Edward Cronin born, Greenwich, NY.
1855 Cronin moves to New York City after studying art with Alban Conant in Troy, NY. In New York, he works in a law firm, and opens a studio on Canal Street. Cronin becomes a clerk at the Bryan Gallery of Art, where he copies old masters.
[1857-1860] Cronin travels to London and France to study art.
1861-1865 During the Civil War, Cronin serves as Private, Captain, and Brevet Major in the 1st New York Mounted Rifles, a cavalry outfit stationed in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. He also serves as a staff artist for Harper's Weekly under the pseudonym Seth Eyland.
[1865]-1874 Cronin works as a journalist. In 1872, he establishes The Binghamton [N.Y.] Times, which he also edits and publishes until 1874.
1874-[late 1870s] Cronin returns to art in New York City, painting a number of works depicting army life. He also works as a lawyer in New York, then moves to Texas to become a railroad promoter.
[1879] After his railroad venture fails, Cronin returns to New York and begins his life as a professional illustrator.
1880s-1890s Cronin illustrates poems of Poe, Browning, Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Tennyson, as well as Pepys' Diary, General U.S. Grant's Memoirs, Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome.
1884 Cronin's autobiography, The Evolution of a Life, described in the Memoirs of Major Seth Eyland is published, containing numerous marginal illustrations. (Seth Eyland was Cronin's pseudonym during the Civil War when he worked as an illustrator for Harper's Weekly.)
[c1887] Cronin meets Daniel Parish, Jr., who becomes his benefactor for nearly twenty-three years. The two cooperate on collecting and illustrating historical works, especially those relating to the Civil War.
1888-1893 He gathers material for an appendix to The Evolution of a Life, including correspondence, muster rolls, commissions, orders, and reports. This collection becomes the five bound volumes entitled War Relics and Reminiscences: An Appendix to Seth Eyland's Memoirs, by the Author.
1890 Cronin moves to Philadelphia, becoming a political cartoonist for the Philadelphia Record from 1892 to 1895.
1893-1902 The artist gathers material for the 'Cavalry Album,' his collection of correspondence, personal narratives, reports, and other items relating to cavalrymen in the Civil War.
1901-1902 Cronin illustrates the memoirs of Major W.W. Goldsborough, Confederate Army.
1902-1903 Cronin illustrates the poems of Joseph Rodman Drake, including The Culprit Fay.
1908-1910 Cronin writes and illustrates The Vest Mansion, its Historical and Romantic Associations as Confederate and Union Headquarters, 1862-1865.
1925 June 9 Cronin dies in Philadelphia.

Arrangement

This collection is organized in five series:

Series I. War Relics and Reminiscences
Series II. Cavalry Album
Series III. Memoirs of W.W. Goldsborough
Series IV. Correspondence
Series V. Illustrated Volumes

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of material relating to and collected by the artist David E. Cronin, Civil War illustrator and member of the 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles. Material includes memoirs, correspondence, and documents of Cronin and other Civil War soldiers, as well as Cronin's sketches of Civil War subjects, and a number of published volumes hand-illustrated by Cronin.

The five-volume War Relics and Reminiscences, compiled by Cronin as an appendix to his published memoirs The Evolution of a Life, consist of illustrations by Cronin, post war-correspondence with veterans, and war-time correspondence, orders, and diary entries. The volumes detail the activities of the 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles during the Civil War, in Virginia and North Carolina. The collection also contains material collected by Cronin related to Civil War cavalries (formerly titled the "Cavalry Album"), including correspondence, reminscences, portraits, histories, military documents, and newspaper clippings. Also included in the David E. Cronin Papers are the war reminscences of Confederate Major W.W. Goldsborough, one box of correspondence from Cronin, mostly to his patron Daniel Parish Jr., and a number of volumes hand illustrated by Cronin.

The materials in this collection have been digitized and are available online to on-site researchers and to users affiliated with subscribing institutions via EBSCOhost.

Access Restrictions

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Use Restrictions

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as David E. Cronin Papers, MS 670.9, The New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donation, Daniel Parish, Jr.

"War Relics and Reminiscences: An Appendix to Seth Eyland's Memoirs, by the Author," donated by the Association of Veterans of the First New York Mounted Rifles, 1893.

Related Materials

Material relating to the 1st N.Y. Mounted Rifles can be found in the Regiments collection. The collection War 1861-1865 contains a number of letters written by Cronin. See Manuscript Department card catalog for details.

The Library holds copies of Bibliography Relating to the Works Hand Illustrated by David Edward Cronin; The Evolution of a Life, described in the Memoirs of Major Seth Eyland, and a typewritten copy of Cronin's article "When Union Square Was Away Uptown." It also has a copy of Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant illustrated by Cronin.

The Library also holds two copies of History of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry which was Recruited and Known as the Anderson Cavalry in the Rebellion of 1861-1865, the published version of the draft found in Series II.

In addition, the Library has W.W. Goldsborough's The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:48:08 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information

This collection was originally processed in 2014. Archivist Joseph Ditta added material to Series IV and Series V, marked in the container list as the gift of Edward C. Peple Jr., 2018 (accession no. MS-2018-011).

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from cronin.xml

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024