Clarence Winthrop Bowen (1852-1935), the son of Henry Chandler and Lucy Maria (Tappan) Bowen, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on 22 May 1852. He graduated from Yale University in 1873, and also received the degrees A.M. in 1876 and Ph.D. in 1882 from that institution. He began a career in journalism in 1874 in the editorial department of the Independent, a weekly Congregational journal with a strong anti-slavery bias that had been founded by his father. The following year he became its foreign correspondent, and from 1896 to 1912 its publisher and proprietor. After retiring from journalism, Bowen involved himself with historical research, genealogy, and world travel. His interests ranged from the George Washington Centennial Celebration (1889), to the establishment of the American Historical Association, the Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America, the 1892 World's Fair, the American Antiquarian Society, the Republican Party, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, and the Manhattan Congregational Church. In all these endeavors he was generous both with his money and his time. Bowen died in Woodstock, Conn., on 2 November 1935. Bowen married, on 28 January 1892, Roxana Atwater Wentworth (1854-1935), the daughter of John, a Chicago millionaire, and Roxana Marie (Loomis) Wentworth. They had one child: Roxana Wentworth (1895- ). Henry Chandler Bowen (1813-1896), father of Clarence Winthrop Bowen, founder of the Independent, was a close associate of Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Tilton. He married, on 6 June 1844, Lucy Maria Tappan (1825-1863), daughter of Lewis and Susanna (Aspinwall) Tappan. Herbert Wolcott Bowen (1856-1927), brother of Clarence Winthrop Bowen, graduated from Yale, studied law, and made his reputation as a diplomat. He was the consul-general in Spain and Persia, minister to Venezuela during the 1902 crisis, and was dismissed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. This comprehensive collection, assembled by Clarence Winthrop Bowen, covers his career from his college days at Yale to his death. It is not only a record of Bowen's many interests but also a reflection of his family's activities and, to some extent, a chronicle of the social, political, and literary events of the period. Bowen kept a journal from 1869 through 1934. The first volume (of thirteen) begins his life as a Yale undergraduate and the succeeding volumes trace his work on the Independent, his many social, academic, and charitable concerns, and his frequent travels to Europe and the western United States. Bowen was careful to record conversations and encounters with people he thought important. The journals are primarily descriptive, not reflective or analytical. There are approximately one thousand eight hundred (1800) items in the collection that have been cataloged, including family correspondence, correspondence with important political and social figures, poems, drafts, copies of speeches, reports, and records of meetings. Several scrapbooks that include some correspondence have not been cataloged. The bulk of the scrapbook material, however, is a potpourri of menus, invitations, list of ships' passengers, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, and mementos from all phases of Bowen's life. Many items in the scrapbooks concern the famous Fourth of July celebrations in Woodstock, Conn., initiated by Henry Chandler Bowen. There are photographs, invitations, programs, poems, and newspaper clippings all attesting to the appeal of the event. Clarence worked diligently to promote the career of his brother, Hebert Wolcott Bowen, and the collection includes many letters between the two, and letters that Clarence wrote on Herbert's behalf.
