Tailer, Edward Neufville, 1830-1917. Diaries, 1848-1917.
Title:
Diaries, 1848-1917.
Diaries, 1848-1917. Tailer began them when he was still a schoolboy, and kept them up to the end of his life. One volume, dated 1848, is a schoolboy composition book containing essays on moral and patriotic subjects. In about 1860 he began pasting newspaper clippings and other memorabilia into his diaries, and wrote his diary entries and comments in the margins. Subjects in the early years include his experiences learning the dry-goods trade; gymnastics; skating, fishing, etc., in New York City and elsewhere; an eye-witness account of the Astor Place riot; visits to the theater; his marriage to Agnes Suffern in 1855, and the death of their infant daughter the following year; notes on sermons he heard, and on his reading. He expresses pro-slavery views before the Civil War, describes visiting a slave auction in Richmond (Va.) in 1852, and comments approvingly on the execution of John Brown. He visited Cuba in 1860, and traveled extensively in the United States and Western Europe, both for business and pleasure, throughout his life. His travel experiences include a visit to the battlefield at Gettysburg three weeks after the battle, a visit to Boston after a major fire in 1872, and a visit to St. Louis after damage from a cyclone in 1896. He met President Franklin Pierce in 1856, Pope Pius IX in 1859, and Brigham Young in 1877. In 1896 he was on a coach which was robbed at gunpoint by a highwayman near Yosemite. Later volumes of the diary touch on his business interests, which included real estate in New York City, and his activities as trustee of the estate of his father-in-law, Thomas Suffern. He discusses political events, business failures, changes in the appearance of the city, and the deaths of family and friends. Clippings deal with current events, in New York and elsewhere, but also with accidents, disasters and executions. He himself was involved in railroad accidents, at Jamaica (N.Y.) in 1865, and at Millerton (N.Y.) in 1876. He was an eye-witness to executions in 1858, 1860, 1866, and 1880. Later volumes contain many clippings about social life and parties. Tailer was a member of several clubs, and led an active social life; in 1909 he attended three weddings in one day. Many of the clippings document the social activities of his son, Thomas Suffern Tailer; his daughters, Agnes, Mary and Fannie; and his sons-in-law, Henry L. Burnett, Robert L. Livingston, and Sydney Johnson Smith. As well as clippings, the volumes contain menus, place cards, postcards, telegrams, passenger lists, invitations, service sheets, and other ephemera. There are also some letters from friends and family, and a cabinet photograph dated 1887, of Tailer in fancy dress for a Vanderbilt ball, is laid in to vol. 20.
ArchivalResource:
57 v.
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