Collection inventory

Special Collections home page

A. Hyatt Mayor Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: --
Date: 1966?

Biographical History

A. Hyatt Mayor was born in Gloucester, Mass. on June 28, 1901. In his early years he traveled to Europe with his mother, Harriet Hyatt Mayor and spent some time at his father's experimental marine biology station at Dry Tortuga, Florida. He graduated from Princeton University in 1922 and after teaching art history for a year at Vassar, he went on to do graduate work at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, after traveling extensively in Europe during the rest of the 1920s.

After working on several New York magazines, Hyatt Mayor joined the staff of Metropolitan Museum in the department of prints in 1932. The same year he married the former Virginia Sluder of St. Louis. In 1946 he was made curator of prints at the Metropolitan and held that position until his retirement. He had two children Alfred and Martha.

Mr. Mayor also served as a trustee of the American Federation of Arts and of Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. He was president of the Hispanic Society of America from 1955 until his death in 1980. He wrote several books and articles.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The A. Hyatt Mayor Papers covers more than forty years and comprises five series. They include correspondence, photos, childhood manuscripts, as well as journals of travels in Italy, Greece, and Egypt in the 1920's, and published materials including articles and newspaper clippings by and about Mr. Mayor and others.

Correspondence, includes incoming, outgoing, and correspondence to and from others. Subject File, contains book labels, a passport, photos, a program, and a book of photographs titled "Athens, 1927-1928". Manuscripts, consists of childhood school papers and sketches, journals, and copies of journal-letters from A. Hyatt Mayor's travels abroad, 1925-1927, a translation and other related items. Published Material, includes articles about others, and newspaper clippings about A. Hyatt Mayor and others. Oversize, consists of two photographs of Mr. Mayor which are located at the end of the collection.

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence are arranged alphabetically by author and Subject Files, Manuscripts, and Published Materials are arranged alphabetically by type. Oversize items are located at the end of the collection.

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.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center has numerous collections for the Hyatt-Mayor families. For information on members of the Hyatt, Mayor, Beebe, and Huntington families see the SCRC Subject Index for the finding aids of individual family members.

Subject Headings

Persons

Huntington, Anna Hyatt, 1876-1973.
Hyatt family.
Hyatt, Audella, 1840-1932.
Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974.
Mayor family.
Mayor, A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt), 1901-1980.
Mayor, Alfred Goldsborough, 1868-1922.
Mayor, Harriet Randolph Hyatt, 1868-1960.

Subjects

Art historians -- United States.
Art museum curators -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Bookplates.
Correspondence.
Diaries.
Manuscripts (document genre)
Passports.
Photograph albums.
Photographs.
Poetry.
Sketches.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

A. Hyatt Mayor Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Table of Contents

Correspondence

Subject File

Manuscripts

Published Materials

Oversize

Inventory