Collection inventory

Overview of the Collection
Creator:	Rose, Heloise Durant.
Title:	Heloise Durant Rose Letters
Inclusive Dates:	1873-1945
Quantity:	121 items (SC).
Abstract:	Papers of the American author, lecturer, founder of the Dante League of America. Incoming personal and business correspondence, much of it in connection with the Dante League in particular and the promotion of the arts in general.
Abstract:	Correspondents include Maude Adams, Samuel W. Baker, Bruce Barton, Poultney Bigelow, Arthur Brisbane, Andrew Carnegie, William B. Carpenter, Paul Claudel, Frank Crane, Chauncey Depew, John A. Dix, Morgan Dix, Lucie Duff Gordon, Norman Bel Geddes, Virginia Gildersleeve, Abram S. Hewitt, John Haynes Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes, Joyce Kilmer, F.F. Mackay, Edwin Markham, Adolph S. Ochs, George F. Peabody, Henry C. Potter, George Haven Putnam, Whitelaw Reid, James Whitcomb Riley, Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt, Luigi Rossi, Elizabeth Sewell, Otis Skinner, Helen Taft, Marie Taglioni, William Roscoe Thayer, Spencer Trask, Charles Dudley Warner, Helen Westley, Post Wheeler, Andrew D. White, Woodrow Wilson, and others.
Language:	English
Repository:	Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Heloise Durant Rose (1854?-1943) was an American author, playwright, and critic. The daughter of Heloise Durant and Union Pacific Railroad industrialist Thomas Clark Durant, she attended private schools in Europe and America and was fluent in Italian, French, German and Arabic.

Rose was a book reviewer for the New York Times and the author of plays, poems, essays, articles and short stories. Her dramatic poem Dante (1910) was translated into Italian and is believed to be the first American play produced on the Italian stage.

Rose founded the Dante League in 1917 "for popular propaganda for the study of Dante" and was a signatory of the "Memorial to the Columbia College Board of Trustees," an 1883 petition to allow female students to attend lectures and examinations at Columbia College. (Other signers included Parke Godwin, Georgina Schuyler, Caroline Sterling Choate, Susan B. Anthony, Chauncey M. Depew, Emma Lazarus, Josephine Shaw Lowell, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles Comfort Tiffany.)

[Portions of this biographical sketch adapted from the article "Rose, Heloise Durant" in the 1935 edition of Who's Who and What to See in Florida: A Standard Biographical Reference Book of Florida, pp 225-226.]

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Heloise Durant Rose Letters consist of incoming personal and business correspondence, much of which is in connection with the Dante League of America, of which Mrs. Rose was the founder. Correspondents include authors (Poultney Bigelow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joyce Kilmer, Edwin Markham, James Whitcomb Riley, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, William Roscoe Thayer, Post Wheeler); publishers (Arthur Brisbane, G. H. Putnam); diplomats (Paul Claudel, Whitelaw Reid); and educators (Virginia Gildersleeve, Andrew D. White).

Regarding the production of her dramatic poem, Dante, Mrs. Rose received correspondence from several theatrical people including Maude Adams, Normal Bel Geddes, Adeline Genee, F. F. McKay, Otis Skinner, and Helen Westley. The play was said to be the first American drama produced for the Italian stage.

In the promotion of the arts and an appreciation of Dante in the United States, Rose cultivated the support of political figures (Chauncey M. Depew, John A. Dix, Abram S. Hewitt, Charles Evans Hughes, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson) and philanthropists (Andrew Carnegie, George Foster Peabody, Spencer Trask).

Among the personal correspondence are letters of condolence on the death of Rose's first husband, Arthur Frethey, and items from several clergymen, including James Darlington, Morgan Dix, John Haynes Holmes, William Thomas Manning, and Henry Potter. Also present are two personal letters from Anne Thackeray Ritchie, daughter of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.

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Arrangement of the Collection

Letters are arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

Places

Genres and Forms

Occupations

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Héloïse Durant Rose Letters
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Finding Aid Information

Created by: KM
Date: Aug 1987
Revision history: 27 Mar 2008 - converted to EAD (MRC)

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Inventory

	Correspondence
SC 31		Adams, Maude 10 Dec 1897 (1 items)
SC 31		Baker, Samuel White 9 Sep 1891 (1 items)
SC 31		Barton, Bruce 9 Jul 1918 (1 items)
SC 31		Bigelow, Poultney 1906-1945 (20 items)
SC 31		Brisbane, Arthur 1920, 1932 (4 items)
SC 31		Carnegie, Andrew 1884-1909 (5 items)
SC 31		Carpenter, William Boyd 29 May 1912 (1 items)
SC 31		Claudel, Paul 9 Feb 1911 (1 items)
SC 31		Cooper, Julia undated (2 items)
SC 31		Crane, Frank 24 Nov 1916 (1 items)
SC 31		Darlington, James Henry 1928 (2 items)
SC 31		Depew, Chauncey M. 1917-1926 (5 items)
SC 31		Dix, John A. 1873, 1878 (2 items)
SC 31		Dix, Morgan 5 Oct 1882, undated (3 items)
SC 31		Duff Gordon, Lucie, Lady undated (1 items)
SC 31		Geddes, Norman Bel 2 Apr 1928 (1 items)
SC 31		Genee, Adeline 16 Jan 1910 (1 items)
SC 31		Gildersleeve, Virginia Crocheron 25 Jan 1917 (1 items)
SC 31		Hewitt, Abram Stevens 29 Nov 1898 (1 items)
SC 31		Hewitt, Sarah Amelia 14 Jul 1894 (1 items)
SC 31		Holmes, John Haynes 29 Jan 1915 (1 items)
SC 31		Holmes, Oliver Wendell 1886, 1894 (2 items)
SC 31		Hughes, Charles Evans 1920-1927 (4 items)
SC 31		Kilmer, Joyce 5 Feb 1916 (1 items)
SC 31		Mackay, Frank Findlay 16 Jul 1903 (1 items)
SC 31		Manning, William Thomas 1906, 1910, 1921 (3 items)
SC 31		Markham, Edwin 17 Jun 1916, undated (2 items)
SC 31		Ochs, Adolph S. 6 Sep 1921, undated (2 items)
SC 31		Peabody, George Foster 18 Nov 1902 (1 items)
SC 31		Potter, Henry Codman 1902, 1903, 1907 (4 items)
SC 31		Power, Tyrone undated (1 items)
SC 31		Pulitzer, Walter 1923, undated (2 items)
SC 31		Putnam, George Haven 19 Apr 1913 (1 items)
SC 31		Reid, Whitelaw 16 Nov 1896 (1 items)
SC 31		Riley, James Whitcomb 19 Nov 1915 (1 items)
SC 31		Ritchie, Anne Thackeray 16 Nov 1897, undated (2 items)
SC 31		Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt undated (2 items)
SC 31		Roosevelt, Theodore 23 Dec 1890 (1 items)
SC 31		Rossi, Luigi Melano 17 Nov 1923 (1 items)
SC 31		Sartain, William 1 Jul 1924, undated (2 items)
SC 31		Sewell, Elizabeth Missing undated (1 items)
SC 31		Skinner, Maud Durbin 17 Feb 1922 (1 items)
SC 31		Taft, Helen Herron 8 Feb 1911 (1 items)
SC 31		Taglioni, Marie 1880, 1883, undated (3 items)
SC 31		Thayer, William Roscoe 1917, 1920, 1921 (3 items)
SC 31		Trask, Spencer 8 May 1902 (1 items)
SC 31		Warner, Charles Dudley 20 Nov 1893 (1 items)
SC 31		Westley, Helen 6 Jun 1940 (1 items)
SC 31		Wheeler, Post 1901, 1902, undated (3 items)
SC 31		Wilson, Woodrow 5 Jan 1914 (1 items)
SC 31		Miscellaneous 1899, 1909, undated ( items)

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