Harry Bacon Collamore (ca. 1894- Sept 28, 1975) Steel company executive; examiner, National Fire Insurance Company, 1912-1916; later advanced to Chairman of the Board; retired in 1956. Chairman of the Board, Pittsburgh Steel Company, 1956 until final retirement. Upon retirement, lived in West Hartford, Connecticut.

The collection includes materials dated Oct. 21, 1935- Dec. 5, 1973.

The collection consists of two major parts. The first is concerned with the publication of the catalogue, Edwin Arlington Robinson, 1869-1935; a Collection of His Works from the Library of Bacon Collamore (Hartford, 1936), compiled by H. Bacon Collamore and Lawrence R. Thompson of Columbia University and the preparation of an E.A. Robinson exhibition for display at Wesleyan University’s Olin Library in February 1936. The second part of the collection consists of a group of letters from H. Bacon Collamore to John William Pye, a Trinity College graduate of 1970, an E.A. Robinson Collector, and the donor of the collection. There are, in addition, some miscellaneous letters to Collamore (June 19, 1936- June 8, 1967), including one from W. Denham Sutcliffe accompanying his account of the early life of Alfred Louis.

The correspondence in relation to the catalogue and exhibition includes letters between Collamore and Thompson and between Collamore and other individuals who helped with these projects. Among the correspondents are Lewis M. Issacs, lawyer and executor of the E.A. Robinson estate, John S. Van E. Kohn, proprietor of the Collector’s Bookshop, George T. Goodspeed, President of Goodspeed’s Book Shop, Robert Burns, representative of Frederick B. Ingram Productions, a stage presentation and publishing firm, Fremont Rider, Librarian of Wesleyan University, Charles Beecher Hogan, a collector and bibliographer of E.A. Robinson, and Edmund B. Thompson of Hawthorn House, printer of the catalogue. The inclusive dates of the correspondence are October 21, 1935 to April 2, 1936.

Also in the collection are miscellaneous items which are related to the preparation of the catalogue and exhibition. These include parts of the manuscript and typescript of the catalogue and notes and labels for the exhibition. A news story about the exhibition from the February 23, 1936 Hartford Courant is also among the items.

The second part of the collection consists of letters from H. Bacon Collamore to the collection’s donor, John William Pye. During his senior year at Trinity College, Pye prepared a bibliography and exhibition of E.A. Robinson books and manuscripts which Collamore had given to the Watkinson Library. The inclusive dates of the letters are December 3, 1969 to December 5, 1973.

Series I: Edwin Arlington Robinson Catalogue and exhibition

1.1: Correspondence: 1935-1936

1.1.1: Undated letters from Lawrence R. Thompson (4;6)*
1.1.2: October 21, 1935- November 22, 1935 (9;12;2)
1.1.3: December 2, 1935- December 10, 1935 (15;15;1)
1.1.4: December 11, 1935- December13, 1935 (9;14)
1.1.5: December 16, 1935- December 4, 1935 (14;14)
1.1.6: December 26, 1935- December 28, 1935 (9; 13+ 2 p. specimen; 2)
1.1.7: December 30, 1935- January 3, 1936 (15;21)
1.1.8: January 6, 1936- January 18, 1936 (13;15;4)
1.1.9: January 20, 1936- March 6, 1936 (10;12;1): includes letters of Carty Ranck
1.1.10: March 10, 1936- April 2, 1936 (9;15;1)

1.2: Miscellaneous items

1.2.1: Portions of the typescript and manuscript of the E.A. Robinson catalogue
1.2.2: Manuscript of the E.A. Robinson catalogue
1.2.3: Proofs of the E.A. Robinson catalogue
1.2.4: Notes and exhibition labels for the Olin Library exhibition
1.2.5: Miscellaneous notes and notes relating to the exhibition
1.2.6: Hartford Courant article (23 Feb. 1936) on the exhibition

Series II: Letters to H. Bacon Collamore to John William Pye: 1969-1973. Note: includes postcards from Collamore’s trips to the Pacific and Europe

2.1: December 3, 1969- December 12, 1970 (15)

2.2: December 21, 1970- February 25, 1971 (11)

2.3: March 1, 1971- June 18, 1971 (14)

2.4: July 1, 1971- October 2, 1971 (11)

2.5: October 10, 1971- February 14, 1972 (12)

2.6: March 20, 1972- June 7, 1972 (12)

2.7: June 23, 1972- March 2, 1973 (11)

2.8 April 30, 1973- December 5, 1973 (11)

Series III: Miscellaneous:

3.1: Correspondence: June 19, 1936- June 8, 1967; also March 26, 1928 and July 22, 1931 (14;33 including 15 p.
Denham Sutcliffe article; 6) Note: includes letters from Lawrence R. Thompson and Charles B. Hogan and also a
letter from Wilfrid Meynell to Denham Sutcliffe. Also added: letter from Edwin Valentine Mitchell and Collamore’s
reply- carbon, Nov 1935.

3.2 Other items
3.2.1: Bookplates of H. Bacon Collamore
3.2.2: Edwin Arlington Robinson, a Bio-Bibliography
3.2.3: The Robert Frost Collection in the Watkinson Library
3.2.4: MS talk by H. Bacon Collamore on EAR at Colby College
3.2.4: Collector’s Showcase (brochure for an exhibition at Dartmouth College in the spring of 1975)
3.2.5: Biographical information
3.2.6: Photographs

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Processed by: Sharin Sakurai, Student Assistant, and Jeffrey H. Kaimowitz, Curator, Watkinson Library, April 19, 1985 & August 6, 1985. Revised, July 26, 1989.
Prepared for electronic publication by Michael J. Breen '99, July 1999.