Scope and Content Note
The collection of Tyler Dennett (1883-1949) relating to John Hay (1838-1905) spans 1861-1937, with the bulk of the collection concentrated in the period 1899-1937. The collection relates to Dennett's research for his biography of statesman John Hay, John Hay: From Poetry to Politics, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1934, and Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay. It includes Dennett's correspondence as well as letters between Hay and others.
Dennett was a professor and historian specializing in the foreign relations of the United States with Asia. The subject of his biography, John Hay, served as secretary of state during the William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administrations and in that capacity formulated foreign policy with Asian countries, particularly China and the Philippines, during the expansion of American diplomatic, commercial, and military initiatives in the region in the wake of the Spanish-American War. As a young man, Hay had been assistant private secretary to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
The collection is grouped into correspondence, galley proofs of correspondence, transcripts of correspondence, and miscellany. Much of Dennett's own correspondence is with his editor, Allan Nevins, and relates to his biography of Hay. Other correspondents include Charles Austin Beard, J. Franklin Jameson, and W. Easton Louttit.
Correspondence between Hay and others consists mainly of copies of letters that Dennett transcribed or of printed versions of letters in galleys of Dennett's books. The collection includes a few original Hay letters. Correspondents include Henry Adams (1838-1918), James A. Garfield, and Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919).