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George B. McClellan, Jr. scrapbooks

Call Number

MS 3187

Date

1860s-1909 (bulk 1904-1909), inclusive

Creator

McClellan, George B. (George Brinton), 1865-1940

Extent

38.5 Linear feet in 26 boxes (89 volumes)

Language of Materials

The documents in the collection are in English.

Abstract

The collection includes 89 volumes, mostly scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings tracing George B. McClellan, Jr.'s (1865-1940) tenure as mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909. Six volumes include copies of McClellan's mayoral speeches, his veto statements, outgoing letters, budgets, incoming reports, and other documents. Six scrapbooks include clippings from his political career before becoming mayor. Three scrapbooks relate to McClellan's father, George B. McClellan (1826-1885), the Civil War general of the same name, mostly concerning his death and memorials.

Biographical / Historical

George Brinton McClellan (1865-1940) was the son of the Civil War general of the same name. McClellan served as President of New York City's Board of Aldermen (1892-1894) and later for eight years in the U.S. Congress (1895-1903). He was Mayor of New York City from 1904-1909, which is the period that most of these scrapbooks are focused on. After leaving office, McClellan went on to his alma mater, Princeton University, where he lectured in public affairs and economic history. He married Georgiana Heckscher, the donor of the collection, in 1889.

(This note is based primarily on Eleanor J. Conway's article about many of the scrapbooks in N-YHS's Quarterly Bulletin of October 1942.)

Arrangement

The collection is arranged with the scrapbooks from McClellan's mayoralty, which comprise the bulk of the collection, preceding those related to the years prior to his mayoralty, followed by the few scrapbooks related to McClellan's father, the Civil War general. McClellan mayoralty scrapbooks retain their original thematic and chronological arrangement.

Each album was given a unique identifier (e.g., SN-1, SN-2) by the processing archivists. These are intended only to facilitate reference and are not indicative of any overall numbering scheme found in the collection itself.

Scope and Contents

The bulk of the collection is comprised of scrapbooks dating from 1904-09, the years of McClellan's tenure as New York City mayor. Most of these scrapbooks hold only newspaper clippings and are in their original arrangement, which is broadly topical. These topics are "political," (22 volumes), "editorial: political & department," (9 volumes), "department" (28 volumes), "legislature," (5 volumes), and "political cartoons" (7 volumes). Political clippings are generally those that concern elections, party politics, candidates, and other partisan political matters. Department clippings relate to city agencies, bureaus, and other administrative and policy matters. Legislature clippings relate to New York state legislative concerns. The title of some albums refer to editorials, but these can be found in the other albums as well. The albums titled as cartoons hold those, but general clippings also. Each album is indexed and their clippings are captioned.

In addition to the clippings scrapbooks, there are 6 volumes of the "Mayor's Flimsey Books," so called likely because most of the documents in these albums are on fragile, tissue-like paper. These documents include copies of typed speeches, outgoing letters, incoming reports, mayoral veto statements, budgets, appointments, and other important documents tracing McClellan's mayoralty and political positions. Rapid transit, city governance, and street gas lighting are among the many topics reflected in the flimsies. The flimsey albums are indexed and the documents captioned.

Also related to McClellan's mayoralty is a bound volume of the published Supplement to the City Record of July 1909, with a comprehensive list of city officials and employees, and a scrapbook of lists and other arrangements for the ceremonies of the opening of the Willamsburg Bridge in 1903, which included mayor-elect McClellan.

The collection also includes 6 volumes of clippings documenting McClellan's career from 1890-1903, that is, before he became mayor, and one volume of reviews of his 1904 book "The Oligarchy of Venice."

Finally, the collection includes 3 volumes of clippings concerning McClellan's father, the Civil War general of the same name. Some of these clippings date from the 1860s, but most seem to date from around the elder McClellan's death in 1885 and later.

Access Restrictions

Open to qualified researchers. Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

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

The collection should be cited as: George B. McClellan scrapbooks, MS 3187, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please contact manuscripts@nyhistory.org prior to your research visit to coordinate access. Keep in mind that it will take between two (2) and five (5) business days for collections to arrive, and you should plan your research accordingly.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Georgiana McClellan (Mrs. George Brinton McClellan), June 5, 1942, and May 5, 1943.

Related Materials

N-YHS also holds the letterpress copybooks maintained by McClellan during his New York City mayoralty. These were also donated by Georgiana McClellan in May 1943, but cataloged separately at some point. Call phrase: BV McClellan.

Other documents related to McClellan can also be found with a search on his name in Bobcat, the online catalog.

Collection processed by

Elise Winks and Larry Weimer

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:46:11 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Archivist Elise Winks flagged the volumes in 2020 with SN numbers for ease of reference and preparwd a preliminary finding aid. Archivist Larry Weimer boxed the collection for offsite storage and completed the finding aid with a box level inventory.

Repository

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