Scope and Content Note
The papers of Cass Gilbert (1859-1934) span the years 1801-1961, with the bulk of the papers dated between 1886 and 1934. The collection is organized into seven series: Diaries; General Correspondence; Special Correspondence; Speech, Article, and Poetry File; Letterbooks of Cass Gilbert, Jr.; Miscellany, and Oversize.
There are letters sent and received by Cass Gilbert for the years 1880-1934 as well as correspondence of his wife, Julia Finch Gilbert; brother, Samuel Gilbert; other family members; and letterbooks of his son, Cass Gilbert, Jr. (born 1894). The General Correspondence mainly concerns his architectural plans for the Woolworth Building, the New York Life Insurance Building, the Federal Courts Building in New York, the United States Treasury Annex, the United States Chamber of Commerce Building, the United States Supreme Court Building, and state capitol buildings in Minnesota, Arkansas, and West Virginia. The correspondence also reflects Gilbert's interest in national and international political affairs. Among the principal correspondents are Edwin Howland Blashfield, Nicholas Murray Butler, Arthur Cope, Kenyon Cox, Daniel Chester French, Edward Mandell House, J. J. Jusserand, Charles Moore, Elihu Root, and Aston Webb.
The Special Correspondence contains two letters received by President Thomas Jefferson from William Thornton on June 9, 1802, and June 28, 1804, and a typescript copy of James R. Dermott's letter to Jefferson dated March 7, 1801. These manuscripts came into Gilbert's possession in 1915 when they were presented to him by W. R. Bixby.
The papers also include many of the diaries that Gilbert kept from 1890 to 1934 as well as speeches, articles, and poems in manuscript and printed form. A Miscellany file and Oversize series complete the collection.