Scope and Content Note
The papers of Henry and Nina Webster Dumont span the years from 1905 to 1943 with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period 1930-1936. The collection consists of two series: the Henry Dumont Papers and the Nina Webster Dumont Papers .
The Henry Dumont Papers are composed of three sections: correspondence, miscellany, and writings. Henry Dumont was a friend of George Sterling, an American poet in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and resident of the artists colony at Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, along with Jack London, Robinson Jeffers, and Upton Sinclair. Sterling encouraged Dumont to write poetry, and the collection contains numerous poems by Dumont with Sterling's comments and suggestions. Following Sterling's death in 1926, Dumont decided to write a biography of his friend and mentor. He used his own correspondence with Sterling in addition to correspondence he exchanged in 1935 and 1936 with Sterling's friends and acquaintances. Correspondents include two of Sterling's daughters, Alice Chrystal Sterling Gregory and Mary Isabelle Sterling Routhwaite; the photographer Arnold Genthe; and writers and publishers, such as Albert M. Bender, Theodore Dreiser, Charmian London, wife of Jack London, Virgil Markham, William McDevitt, H. L. Mencken, Upton Sinclair, and George Steele Seymour. A small file of family correspondence from some of Dumont's relatives on the Isle of Guernsey deals primarily with genealogical matters.
A miscellany section contains material relating to Dumont's career in advertising and marketing, such as advertising prospectuses and information on the Pacific Coast Borax Company for which he worked for many years. Dumont's interest in the visual arts is reflected in files referring to the Business Men's Art Clubs of Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, and a file containing drawings and etchings by him. There are also subject files on George Sterling and Ambrose Bierce. A scrapbook contains material relating to Dumont's published works, letters from poets and publishers, newspaper and magazine clippings, and numerous autographed poems by George Sterling.
The writings section, composed of works by Dumont or others, consists principally of notes and drafts of “Faun on Olympus,” Dumont's biography of Sterling. Drafts of novels include “Inflexible Optimist” and “The Taking of Desert Joe”; plays, including “His Baronial Highness,” “An Old Republican,” “Santa in Blunderland,” and “Teddy's Burglars”; and a nonfiction work entitled “Adventures in Advertising.” The poetry portion contains drafts of individual poems together with a list from the 1920s providing titles, publishers, and dates as well as drafts of poetry collections, including “Pilate to Jesus and Other Poems” and a collection with two working titles: “Children of the World” and “Kingdoms of the World.” There are also articles, short stories, and speeches. Included among the writings by others is an essay by the sculptress Gertrude Boyle Kanno describing her creation of a bust of Albert Einstein and a file containing poems by George Sterling, many of them autographed.
The Nina Webster Dumont Papers represent five of the federal and state agencies for which she worked: the Bureau of Home Economics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Public Health Service, and Social Welfare Department. The papers consist primarily of material relating to her work as a statistician and conductor of surveys for various studies. Topics include air pollution, consumer purchases, cost of living, health conservation, medical care and costs, and occupational morbidity and mortality. A miscellany contains biographical material, employment applications, personal correspondence, and information on Henry Dumont's divorce from his first wife with Nina Webster as correspondent.