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James B. Pond papers

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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

American lecture manager and memoirist James Burton Pond was born June 11, 1838, in Cuba, New York. Known familiarly as Major Pond, he represented American and British explorers, preachers, politicians, scientists, and writers, on the lecture circuit from 1874 to his death in 1903. His clients included Henry Ward Beecher, Winston Churchill, Henry M. Stanley, Thomas De Witt Talmage, and Mark Twain. Pond wrote two books recounting his memories of the famous figures he managed:

A Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher (1887) and Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage (1900).

At a young age, Pond moved with his family from New York to Illinois and then to Wisconsin where his father earned a living as a farmer and blacksmith. Pond took a printer's apprenticeship at fourteen, becoming a journeyman printer in 1856, and working for newspapers across the Midwestern states. When the Civil War broke out, Pond enlisted with the Third Wisconsin Cavalry, rising to the rank of major by the end of the war and receiving the Medal of Honor for his service at the 1863 Baxter Springs Massacre.

Pond's first client was Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young who renounced her marriage and Mormonism. In 1874, Pond, with friend George Hathaway, bought the Lyceum Theater Lecture Bureau in Boston from James Redpath, and Pond officially began to manage platform speakers. Pond later moved his headquarters to New York City in 1879. Pond was extremely successful in the lecture business, managing many of the great speakers of his time and earning himself a small fortune as well as recognition on a national and international level.

Pond was married twice during his lifetime, first to Ann Francis Lynch from 1859 until her death in 1871 and then to Martha Glass from 1880 until his death in 1903. Pond died suddenly when an amputation of his leg failed to stop the spread of an infection that originated from an ulcer on his foot. His son from his second marriage, James Burton Pond, Jr. (1889-1961) took over his father’s business after his death.

"James Burton Pond."Dictionary of American Biographyreproduced in Gale Biography In Context. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1 (accessed September 29, 2010)."Pond, James Burton."National Cyclopedia of American Biographyreproduced in Biography Reference Bank. http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/ (accessed September 29, 2010)."Major J.B. Pond is Dead." TheNew York Times, June 22, 1903. http://www.nytimes.com (accessed September 29, 2010).

Spanning the years 1878 to 1944, the James B. Pond papers are largely comprised of the incoming and outgoing correspondence of James Burton Pond (familiarly known as Major Pond), as well as two smaller groupings of correspondence to his son James Burton Pond, Jr. and to his second wife Martha Glass Pond. The collection also includes three holograph memos from Pond's business, two typescript manuscripts, miscellaneous printed matter, and two photographs related to Pond and his occupation as a lecture manager.

The collection is organized in two series: I. Correspondence, II. Manuscripts and Ephemera related to Pond.

Series I. consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence of James B. Pond and others. It is divided into two subseries: correspondence to and from Pond; and correspondence to others. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent's surname. Series I.A. comprises incoming and outgoing correspondence between James Burton Pond and his friends, admirers, and clients. A significant portion of the correspondence discusses business, including requests for lecture tours, suggestions for lecture topics, and scheduling concerns.

Another common theme of the letters is congratulations on and impressions of Pond's book

Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage (1900) in response to complimentary copies sent out by the author. Notable correspondents include author Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954); Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and his mother Jennie Randolph Churchill, known after her second marriage as Jennie Cornwallis-West (1854-1921); U.S. Senator Chauncey M. Depew (1834-1928); Native American lobbyist and writer Charles Alexander Eastman, also known as Ohiyesa Eastman (1858-1939); and author and journalist Julian Ralph (1853-1903). Correspondents range from adventurers, to business men, preachers, politicians, and writers. The collection includes letters from the adventurers Adrian Hofmeyr (1873-1919) and Joshua Slocum (1844-1909) and writers John Masefield (1878-1967), Justin Huntly McCarthy (1861-1936), and Daniel Webster Wilder (1832-1911). There are also three letters on White House stationary from three consecutive Secretaries to the President between 1896 and 1902, Henry T. Thurber, John Addison Porter, and George B. Cortelyou, referencing presidential reaction to Pond’s lectures.

Series I.B. contains four groupings of correspondence to Pond's second wife Martha Glass Pond, his son James Burton Pond, Jr., his employee Sadie Glass, Columbia University president Seth Low, and author and humorist Bert Leston Taylor, respectively. Letters are arranged alphabetically by sender within each grouping. Correspondence to Mrs. Pond is largely comprised of letters concerning Pond's health and condolences after his death from friends and public figures. Correspondence to James Burton Pond, Jr. and Sadie Glass deal exclusively with the Pond Lecture Bureau which Pond Jr. managed after his father's death. Noteworthy correspondents include wildlife photographer and artist Arthur Radclyff Dugmore (1870-1955), arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933), and radio news commentator H.v. Kaltenborn (1878-1965). There is a letter from Columbia University president Seth Low to a Jacob W. Mack in reference to a lecturer. The single letter from Bert Leston Taylor (1866-1921) is addressed to John N. Cook in reference to the possible publication of Taylor’s novel

The Bilioustine: A Periodical of Knock (1901). Taylor wrote a weekly humor column in verse for The Chicago Tribune titled "A Line o' Type or Two" from 1901 to 1903 and 1910 to 1921; however, there is no apparent connection between this letter and the Pond family.

Series II.A. comprises three holograph memoranda organized chronologically followed by undated. Two are on James B. Pond Agency Stationary, one regarding financial calculations and the second regarding childhood memories possibly by Pond. The third memorandum also deals with Pond’s business.

Series II.B. includes two typescript manuscripts organized alphabetically by title. The first is a partial manuscript with pages numbered 7-26 that includes retyped correspondence, conversation, and contextual information about Pond's troubled business relationship with Winston Churchill. The second manuscript is a typescript about Pond for a 1902 newspaper column by the otherwise anonymous columnist "The Philosopher." The newspaper of publication was possibly

The Wausau Daily Record or The Wausau Daily Herald .

Series II.C. contains a variety of printed material: a playbill for

Mr. William Terriss and Miss Millward at the Town Hall performed in Folkestone, England, on July 4, 1890; a photocopy of "A Dealer in Brains: Major J.B. Pond and His Association with Great Men" by Robert C. Burt from Pearson's Magazine , volume 5, January-June 1898, published in London; and a reprint of United States Senator Chauncey M. Depew's article "The Growing Importance of Transportation: Its Recognition by the Great Nations of the World."

Series II.D. consists of two photographs: a platinotype dated 1895 of U.S. District Attorney of Kansas (1874-1879) and president of the American Bar Association (1905-1906) George R. Peck (1843-1923) and a photograph circa 1897 of James B. Pond, American writer F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909), and an unidentified man.

  1. Box 1: Shelved in SPEC MSS manuscript boxes
  2. Box 2: Shelved in SPEC MSS manuscript boxes (1 inch)

Purchase, July 2010.

Processed and encoded by Julia Pompetti, October 2010.

Publisher
University of Delaware Library Special Collections
Finding Aid Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Finding Aid Date
2010 October 2
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce isrequired from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec

Collection Inventory

Scope and Contents

Series I. consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence of James B. Pond and others. Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent's surname. Names in brackets are approximations based on unclear signatures.

Scope and Contents

Series I.A. comprises incoming and outgoing correspondence between James B. Pond and his friends, admirers and clients. A significant portion of the correspondence discusses business, including requests for lecture tours, suggestions for lecture topics, and scheduling concerns. Another common theme of the letters is congratulations on and impressions of Pond's book

Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage (1900) in response to complimentary copies sent out by the author. Notable correspondents include author Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954); Winston Churchill (1874-1965) and his mother Jennie Randolph Churchill, known after her second marriage as Jennie Cornwallis-West (1854-1921); U.S. Senator Chauncey M. Depew (1834-1928); Native American lobbyist and writer Charles Alexander Eastman, also known as Ohiyesa Eastman (1858-1939); and author and journalist Julian Ralph (1853-1903). Correspondents range from adventurers, to business men, preachers, politicians, and writers. The collection includes letters from the adventurers Adrian Hofmeyr (1873-1919) and Joshua Slocum (1844-1909) and writers John Masefield (1878-1967), Justin Huntly McCarthy (1861-1936), and Daniel Webster Wilder (1832-1911). There are also three letters on White House stationary from three consecutive Secretaries to the President between 1896 and 1902, Henry T. Thurber, John Addison Porter, and George B. Cortelyou, referencing presidential reaction to Pond's lectures.
Ainsworth, F.C.
Box 1 Folder F1
Ainsworth, Paul.
Box 1 Folder F1
Aylesworth, Banton O.
Box 1 Folder F1
Baildon, H. Bellyse.
Box 1 Folder F1
[Beyeten], H.H.
Box 1 Folder F1
Bigelow, Poultney.
Box 1 Folder F1
Bridge, J. Howard.
Box 1 Folder F1
Bridgeman, Varlen.
Box 1 Folder F1
Brown, Neal.
Box 1 Folder F1
Bullen, G.
Box 1 Folder F1
Brooks, A.H.
Box 1 Folder F1
[Bungay, L.M.].
Box 1 Folder F1
Carey, William.
Box 1 Folder F2
Churchill, Jennie Randolph.
Box 1 Folder F2
Churchill, Winston.
Box 1 Folder F2
Clouston, E.S.
Box 1 Folder F2
Cooper, George M.
Box 1 Folder F2
Cornwallis-West, Jennie.
Box 1 Folder F2
Cortelyou, George B.
Box 1 Folder F2
Daniels, George H.
Box 1 Folder F3
Depew, Chauncey M.
Box 1 Folder F3
De Windt, Harry.
Box 1 Folder F3
Dickey, Sol. C.
Box 1 Folder F3
Dougherty, Daniel.
Box 1 Folder F3
Drury, [Em].
Box 1 Folder F3
Dyer, Charles E.
Box 1 Folder F3
Eastman, Charles Alexander.
Box 1 Folder F4
Engel, Edward.
Box 1 Folder F4
Ellsworth, William [D.].
Box 1 Folder F4
Ely, William B.
Box 1 Folder F4
Farrar, D.W.
Box 1 Folder F5
Fletcher, Austin B.
Box 1 Folder F5
Foss, S. W.
Box 1 Folder F5
Frothingham, Robert.
Box 1 Folder F5
Gardenhire, Samuel M.
Box 1 Folder F5
George, William Potts.
Box 1 Folder F5
Gleed, Charles S.
Box 1 Folder F5
Graham, Hugh.
Box 1 Folder F5
Holbrook, Amelia Weed.
Box 1 Folder F6
Hofmayer, Adrian.
Box 1 Folder F6
Hunt, Abel.
Box 1 Folder F6
Insley, Rebecca A.
Box 1 Folder F6
Irving, Henry.
Box 1 Folder F6
[Irwin, George Francis].
Box 1 Folder F6
Johnston, J. Wesley.
Box 1 Folder F7
Laforcade, G.E.
Box 1 Folder F7
Lampton, W.J.
Box 1 Folder F7
Larrant, Henry.
Box 1 Folder F7
Layton, Harvey Porter.
Box 1 Folder F7
Learned, Walter.
Box 1 Folder F7
Libbey, William.
Box 1 Folder F7
Lunston, Fred.
Box 1 Folder F7
Lynch, Arthur.
Box 1 Folder F7
MacArthur, Jessie.
Box 1 Folder F8
Masefield, John.
Box 1 Folder F8
McCarthy, Justin Huntly.
Box 1 Folder F8
McClurg, A.J.
Box 1 Folder F8
Moores, Julia M.
Box 1 Folder F8
Mott, Charles D.
Box 1 Folder F8
Opdyke, L.A.
Box 1 Folder F9
Peck, Ferdinand.
Box 1 Folder F9
Philips, John F.
Box 1 Folder F9
Potter, W.C.
Box 1 Folder F9
Ralph, Julian.
Box 1 Folder F10
Rose, [Francis] N.
Box 1 Folder F10
Rossington, W.H.
Box 1 Folder F10
K.R.R.
Box 1 Folder F10
Sands, J.S.
Box 1 Folder F11
Searle, W.S.
Box 1 Folder F11
Shaughnessy, J.J.
Box 1 Folder F11
Shipherd, Jacob R.
Box 1 Folder F11
Shutte, Robert.
Box 1 Folder F11
Slocum, Joshua.
Box 1 Folder F11
Smythe, Robert.
Box 1 Folder F11
Stikeman, H.
Box 1 Folder F11
Swensson, Carl.
Box 1 Folder F11
Terry, Ellen.
Box 2 Folder F12
Thurston, Bejamin Francis.
Box 2 Folder F12
Tough, L.M.
Box 2 Folder F12
van Winkle, Marshall.
Box 2 Folder F13
Ware, [E.J.].
Box 2 Folder F13
Watson, John.
Box 2 Folder F13
Weber, A.
Box 2 Folder F13
Weld, Leon C.
Box 2 Folder F13
Wilder, D.W.
Box 2 Folder F13
Young, S. Edward.
Box 2 Folder F14
Young, Jessie H. Dunholm.
Box 2 Folder F14
Unidentified, 1882-1901.
Folder F15
Scope and Contents

Series I.B. contains four groupings of correspondence to Pond's second wife Martha Glass Pond, his son James Burton Pond, Jr., his employee Sadie Glass, politician Seth Low, and author and humorist Bert Leston Taylor, respectively. Letters are arranged alphabetically by sender within each grouping. Correspondence to Mrs. Pond is largely comprised of letters concerning Pond's health and condolences after his death from friends and public figures. Correspondence to James Burton Pond, Jr. and Sadie Glass deal exclusively with the Pond Lecture Bureau which Pond Jr. managed after his father's death. Noteworthy correspondents include wildlife photographer and artist Arthur Radclyff Dugmore (1870-1955), arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933), and radio news commentator H.v. Kaltenborn (1878-1965). There is a letter from politician and future president of Columbia University Seth Low to a James Mack in reference to a lecturer. The single letter from Bert Leston Taylor (1866-1921) is addressed to John N. Cook in reference to the possible publication of Taylor’s novel The Bilioustine: A Periodical of Knock (1901). Taylor wrote a weekly humor column in verse for

The Chicago Tribune titled "A Line o' Type or Two" from 1901 to 1903 and 1910 to 1921; however, there is no apparent connection between this letter and the Pond family.
Appleby, Julia M.
Box 2 Folder F16
Atkinson, Louise F.
Box 2 Folder F16
Armbruster, Carl.
Box 2 Folder F16
Ball, Robert.
Box 2 Folder F16
Blond, Marie.
Box 2 Folder F16
Cashman, Charles A.
Box 2 Folder F16
Kunz, George F.
Box 2 Folder F16
Loomis, Charles.
Box 2 Folder F16
[Stimets] Adelene N.
Box 2 Folder F16
Dugmore, Arthur Radclyff.
Box 2 Folder F17
Hamilton, Clayton Meeker.
Box 2 Folder F17
Holmes, John Haynes.
Box 2 Folder F17
Judd, Walter H.
Box 2 Folder F17
Kaltenborn, H.v.
Box 2 Folder F17
Low, Seth.
Box 2 Folder F17
Rasmussen, Knud.
Box 2 Folder F17
Wagner, Charles.
Box 2 Folder F17
Seth Low to Jacob W. Mack.
Box 2 Folder F18
Bert Leston Taylor to John N. Cook.
Box 2 Folder F18
Charles Wagner to Miss Sadie Glass.
Box 2 Folder F18

Scope and Contents

Series II.A. comprises three holograph memoranda organized chronologically followed by undated. Two are on James B. Pond Agency Stationary, one regarding financial calculations and the second regarding childhood memories possibly by Pond. The third memorandum also deals with Pond’s business.

1887 December 7.
Box 2 Folder F19
1897 December 20.
Box 2 Folder F19
undated.
Box 2 Folder F19
Scope and Contents

Series II.B. includes two typescript manuscripts organized alphabetically by title. The first is a partial manuscript with pages numbered 7-26 that includes retyped correspondence, conversation, and contextual information about Pond's troubled business relationship with Winston Churchill. The second manuscript is a typescript about Pond for a 1902 newspaper column by the otherwise anonymous columnist "The Philosopher." The newspaper of publication was possibly

The Wausau Daily Record or The Wausau Daily Herald .
"Churchill".
Box 2 Folder F20
"A Matter of Opinion, Set Down for What It May Be Worth: Major James B. Pond".
Box 2 Folder F20
Scope and Contents

Series II.C. contains a variety of printed material: a playbill for Mr. William Terriss and Miss Millward at the Town Hall performed in Folkestone, England, on July 4, 1890; a photocopy of "A Dealer in Brains: Major J.B. Pond and His Association with Great Men" by Robert C. Burt from

Pearson's Magazine , volume 5, January-June 1898, published in London; and a reprint of United States Senator Chauncey M. Depew's article "The Growing Importance of Transportation: Its Recognition by the Great Nations of the World."
Playbill forMr. William Terriss and Miss Millwardat the Town Hall, Folkestone, England., 1890 July 4.
Box 2 Folder F21
Photocopy of "A Dealer in Brains: Major J.B. Pond and His Association with Great Men" by Robert C. Burt fromPearson’s Magazinevolume 5, published in London., 1898 January-June.
Box 2 Folder F21
Reprint of United States Senator Chauncey M. Depew’s article "The Growing Importance of Transportation: Its Recognition by the Great Nations of the World.".
Box 2 Folder F21
Scope and Contents

Series II.D. consists of two photographs: a platinotype dated 1895 of U.S. District Attorney of Kansas (1874-1879) and president of the American Bar Association (1905-1906) George R. Peck (1843-1923) and a photograph circa 1897 of James B. Pond, American writer F. Marion Crawford (1854-1909), and an unidentified man.

Platinotype of George R. Peck, 1895.
Box 2 Folder F22
Photograph of James B. Pond, Marion Crawford, and unidentified., ca. 1897.
Box 2 Folder F22

Print, Suggest