James E. Taylor letters, [ca. 1880-1897]

Summary

Creator:

Taylor, James E., 1839-1901

Abstract:

This collection is comprised of three letters by James E. Taylor, an artist famous for his work in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, to Colonel George Meade, son of General George Meade. The letters respect the sale and trade of photographs of deceased Civil War officers. The letters are accompanied by a list of photographs owned by Taylor depicting officers who died in the Civil War.

Extent:

4 items

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Sara Quashnie, December 2018

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection is comprised of three letters by James E. Taylor, an artist famous for his work in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper , to Colonel George Meade, son of General George Meade. The letters respect the sale and trade of photographs of deceased Civil War officers. The letters are accompanied by a list of photographs owned by Taylor, of officers who died in the Civil War. The dates of these letters likely fall between 1880 (internal evidence) and 1897 (the year of Colonel Meade's death).

See the Box and Folder Listing below for details about each item.

Biographical / Historical:

James Edward Taylor was born on December 19, 1839, to Orson Taylor and Mary Ann (White) Taylor of Cincinnati, Ohio. After the death of his father, Taylor's mother moved the family to northern Indiana where he attended school at the University of Notre Dame. Following the family's return to Cincinnati, Nicholas Longworth served as his patron and sponsored him at Robert Conner's Academy of Art. With the successful completion of a Revolutionary War panorama and election to the Cincinnati Sketch Club, Taylor gained the patronage of Dr. Henry W. Bellows, who sponsored his move to New York. In 1861, at the outbreak of war, Taylor enlisted with the 10th New York Volunteers (National Zouaves) and mustered out as a sergeant two years later. In 1864, he landed a position as war correspondent with Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Traveling with General Sheridan's army through the Shenandoah Valley, Taylor illustrated accounts of the war, including battles, people, and everyday life. Taylor continued as an artist for Leslie after the war. He became especially well-known for his depictions of Native American life in the West, including as an artist at the Medicine Lodge Creek Peace Commission in 1867, and for work done in Santo Domingo during annexation negotiations. In the post-war years, General William Tecumseh Sherman was an active patron, commissioning a number of pieces for the War Department, including The Last Grand Review. James Taylor died on June 22, 1901, in New York City and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery and Conservancy in the Bronx, New York.

Colonel George Meade (1843-1897) was born to General George Gordon Meade (1815-1872) and Margaretta (Sergeant) Meade (1814-1886) of Pennsylvania. He attended West Point before resigning to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War. Over the course of the conflict, he served as an aide-de-camp to his father, General George Meade, and eventually rose by brevet to lieutenant-colonel. Following the war, Meade became an avid collector of Civil War officers' photographs and was reported in his obituary as holding a picture of every general and every regimental commander of the Army of the Potomac. Meade married Bessie (Lewis) Meade (1849-1931) on December 10, 1874, in Philadelphia. They had eight children, five of whom lived to adulthood. He died on February 2, 1897, and is buried in the family plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Acquisition Information:

2017. M-7026.1 .

Arrangement:

The collection is housed in a single folder.

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Related Materials

Biographical File of James E. Taylor, Notre Dame Printed and Reference Material, University of Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame, Indiana.

George G. Meade Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

James E. Taylor Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

James E. Taylor Scrapbook of the American West, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

James E. Taylor Sketchbook, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.

James E. Taylor Works, The Becker Collection, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

James E. Taylor Works, The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

James E. Taylor Works, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, New York Public Library, New York, New York.

Meade, George. The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army. Edited by George Gordon Meade. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913.

Meade, George Gordon. With Meade at Gettysburg. Philadelphia: J. C. Winston Co., 1930.

Morris, Gouverneur. The History of a Volunteer Regiment. Being a Succinct Account of the Organization, Services and Adventures of the Sixth Regiment New York Volunteers Infantry Known as Wilson Zouaves. Where They Went- What They Did- And What They Saw in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1865. Prepared from official data, by Gouverneur Morris, late U.S.V., illustrated by James E. Taylor. New York: Veteran Volunteer Publishing Company, 1891.

Sketchbook, 1861, Joseph E. Taylor, The Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur, Delaware.

William T. Sherman Family Papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, Notre Dame, Indiana.

Bibliography

"Colonel George Meade," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1897.

Jensen, Oliver. "War Correspondent, 1864: The Sketchbooks of James E. Taylor." American Heritage, August/September 1980. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2013.

Schmidt, James M. Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory.

Taylor, James E. With Sheridan Up the Shenandoah Valley in 1864: Leaves from a Special Artist's Sketchbook and Diary. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, Inc., 1989.

Subjects

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Subjects:

Photographers--United States.
Photographs--Collectors and collecting.

Formats:

Letters (correspondence)

Names:

United States. Army--Officers--Portraits.
Meade, George, 1843-1897.

Places:

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Photographs.