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HUTTON, LAURENCE (1843-1904)

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From a painting from life by Dora Wheeler Keith
From a painting from life by Dora Wheeler Keith

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Laurence Hutton was literary editor of the "Literary Notes" Department at Harper's Magazine from 1886 to 1898. In 1897, Hutton received an honorary M.A. from Princeton University, and from 1901 to his death in 1904 he was a lecturer on English at Princeton.

  • The Manuscripts Division houses the Laurence Hutton Papers (C0021) which includes the manuscripts of eleven of Hutton's stage and theater books, such as Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States, Curiosities of the American Stage, Plays and Players, Portraits in Plaster, and four of his literary landmarks books, covering London, Oxford, Florence, and Scotland. Also included are many shorter works representative of Hutton's interest in collecting books, autographs, and death masks and of his work in the history of the theater. The papers include some of Hutton's correspondence, mainly from 1885-1895, several documents, photographs and illustrations, and some works on the theater written by other people. Bound volumes include letterbooks (1868-1904), clippings of Hutton's contributions to the press, and several volumes of family photographs.

    In addition to the Laurence Hutton Papers, related correspondence and photographs are held in Laurence Hutton Correspondence (C0080), Laurence Hutton Letters to Edwin T. Evans (C0660), and Laurence Hutton Photograph Albums (C0937).

  • Laurence Hutton Collection. 
    Location designator: HTN

    "The Hutton Memorial Collection, consisting of 801 books, together with autographed portraits, paintings, etc., from the library of the late Laurence Hutton, A.M. This collection was left by Mr. Hutton to trustees to be put in some safe place for a permanent memorial and was presented by them to the University." - Catalogue of Princeton University (1913), p. 290. This is the earliest mention of the collection in the Catalogue of the University. Evidently it took about nine years for the Hutton trustees to resolve disposition of the collection. According to Hutton's will, the trustees were Junius S. Morgan, George Allison Armour, Stephen Palmer (president of N.J. Zinc), and Moses Taylor Pyne. 

    There are many autographed and inscribed books from his wide acquaintance in the worlds of literature, art and theatre from about 1863 to 1904. A record of the many inscribed volumes in the collection has been made by the Huttons themselves in the following privately printed volume: M.E. Wood, compiler. Laurence and Eleanor Hutton. Their Books of Association. (New York, 1905) [(HTN) 0513.49.4]. [full text] More than 10 volumes have presentation inscriptions from Thomas Bailey Aldrich (q.v.). Many volumes have been extra-illustrated by Hutton.

    Though the Hutton collection consists largely of 19th-century literary works, there are also large groups of books concerning theatre, history, printing, and art history.

    See also the published thesis by Gail Herndon Lawrence. The literary career of Laurence Hutton (Indiana: Univ. of Notre Dame, 1980).

  • The Graphic Arts division houses the Laurene Hutton Death Mask Collection.  For more, see: Death Masks.

Research Tools for Printed Material (Books, Maps, Prints, etc.)