Wood, Trist, d. 1952.

Trist Wood (d. 1952) of New Orleans, La., artist and genealogist, who compiled extensive records on his own and related families and on Zachary Taylor, from whom he was descended.

Trist Wood (died 1952) of New Orleans, Louisiana, appears to have chiefly worked as an artist, editor, and illustrator. After 1915, he seems to have turned his attention to genealogy, compiling extensive records on families related to his own and on Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) from whom he was descended.

The collection contains originals and copies of wills, deeds, inventories, letters, and other papers related to families of several states, from colonial times to the 20th century, and extensive compilations of family histories gathered by Wood. These families all unite in the Wood family of Louisiana, and include the Wood and Crooke families of Rhode Island, the Dabney and Jennings families of Virginia, the Taylor and Trist families of Virginia and Louisiana, and others. Also included in this collection are the following: papers of the Bringier family of New Orleans, 1808-1852, including many items relating to the buying and selling of slaves (most of these items are in French); the diary of Robert Crooke Wood (1799-1869) of Rhode Island, while an army surgeon during the Mexican War, 1846-1847; letters from H. B. Trist (1802-1856), Louisiana sugar planter, to his family, particularly to his children at school in Germany and New Orleans, 1852-1856; recollections of Trist Wood's father, Robert Crooke Wood (1832-1900), New Orleans businessman and city councilman, including letters to his family while traveling in the U.S. in the 1870s and to Mexico and Colombia in the 1880s; and letters from Trist Wood while he worked as an artist and editor in Paris and London, 1893-1905.

Zachary Taylor was a special interest of both Robert Crooke Wood and Trist Wood, and the collection contains many items relating to Taylor. These include a biographical sketch, a scrapbook of clippings dated 1848 through 1850, and about 100 photographs of paintings, drawings, etc., of Taylor.

Please note that this inventory incorporates parts of the inventory to the Trist Wood Papers that was compiled in the 1940s and 1950s. The order of the papers has been modified slightly, folders have been renumbered, and the description of the papers has been streamlined, with some additions and revisions.