Scope and Content Note
The papers of Eugene Schuyler (1840-1890) span the years 1624-2015, with the bulk of the material dating from 1868 to 1890. The collection documents Schuyler's diplomatic career in Russia from 1867 to 1876 and in Turkey, Romania, Serbia, and Greece from 1876 to 1884, as well as his literary career. An appendix to this finding aid lists Schuyler's extensive travels, many of which are chronicled in the collection. The papers include correspondence, writings, reports, magazine and newspaper clippings, photographs, cards and stationery, drawings, financial records, a passport, a map, awards, and printed matter. Although the bulk of the collection is in English, materials in French, Greek, Russian, and Italian are represented throughout the collection. The papers are arranged in three parts. Part I consists of a letter received in 1917 and a letterpress book received in 1942. Part II contains items received in 2018, which are arranged in five series: Correspondence, Writings File, Printed Matter, Miscellany, and Oversize. Part III contains items received in 2021, which are arranged in six series: Correspondence, Writings File, Printed Matter, Family Genealogy, Miscellany, and Oversize.
Part I
The Correspondence and Writings (1873-1879) series in Part I consists of approximately six hundred pages of letterpress copies of Schuyler’s correspondence and writings between December 31, 1873, and January 9, 1878. The letterpress copies relate principally to Schuyler's activities as secretary of the American legation in St. Petersburg until 1876 and to his service as consul and secretary of the American legation in Constantinople (Istanbul) from 1876 to 1878. Schuyler’s diplomatic service coincided with the Russian advance into central Asia and with the simultaneous decline of the Ottoman Empire’s power. His correspondence, therefore, bears on the Balkan question and the Treaty of Berlin (1878). Also in the series are numerous letters relating to and draft chapters from Schuyler's Turkistan: Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkistan, Khokand, Bukhara, and Kuldja (1876), a book which criticized Russian rule in the East and which caused him some embarrassment because of his diplomatic status. The series also contains financial correspondence, discussions with Marshall Jewell about elective politics in the United States, and notes concerning Schuyler’s request to be transferred from St. Petersburg to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1876. Correspondents include Hamilton Fish, Marshall Jewell, Frederick William Seward, and Sir Henry Yule.
Part II
The Correspondence (1862-1915) series in Part II includes family, general, and third-party correspondence. The family correspondence (1862-1890) contains Schuyler’s letters to his wife Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler, his sister Evelyn ("Eva," "Eve," "Evalinka") Schuyler Schaeffer, his mother Matilda Scribner Schuyler, and his father George Washington Schuyler. The bulk of the family correspondence is addressed to his wife Gertrude. Schuyler’s letters discuss the people and places he encountered during his travels, his diplomatic and literary activities, and family and personal affairs. Many of his letters recount his travels to Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, England, Germany, and Turkey, among other places. They describe notable places including the palace of the Khedive in Istanbul, Turkey; Yasnaya Polyana, home of Leo Tolstoy in Tula Oblast, Russia; Heidelberg Castle in Germany; and his stays at historic hotels such as Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, and Hôtel de Rohan in Paris. Some of the letters include ink drawings and diagrams by Schuyler. Letters to Schuyler from his father George Washington Schuyler and his cousin A. P. Van Beusekom relate to family genealogy and are filed with other genealogical material in the Miscellany series.
The general correspondence (1870-1889) file consists of autograph signed letters received by Schuyler from persons outside his family. The topics relate to diplomatic affairs, social events, significant persons, atrocities in Bulgaria, and Schuyler's nominations and resignations. Correspondents include foreign dignitaries and heads of state, politicians, writers, translators, poets, artists, publishers, scholars, and educators. Featured among the correspondents are Alvey A. Adee; Chester Alan Arthur; George Bakhmeteff; Clara Bell; Eugene Benson; V. P. Bezobrazov; William Henry Bishop; John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, Marquess of Bute; Joseph Chamberlain; conte Luigi Córti; Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke; William Maxwell Evarts; Nicholas Fish II; Edward A. Freeman; Ivan Evstratiev Geshov; Karl Anton, Fürst von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (Prince Carol I of Romania); William Wilson Hunter; Marshall Jewell; Nicholas Konstantinovich (John Russel); Mite Kremnitz; James Russell Lowell; Titu Maiorescu; Fedor Fedorovich Martens, Emily Anne Beaufort Smythe, Viscountess Strangford; Charilaos Trikoupēs; Ármin Vámbéry; Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy; W. H. Waddington; and Alexander, Freiherr von Warsberg.
Filed separately in the Correspondence series are letters to and from Schuyler’s friend and Russian diplomat, George Bakhmeteff, between 1886 and 1890. The letters touch on many personal and professional topics, including Leo Tolstoy's The Cossacks, the earthquake that struck the Riviera in 1887, Russian politics, Schuyler’s illness in Egypt, and his decision to withdraw from consideration as assistant secretary of state. In the file about Armin Vámbéry (1874), Schuyler questioned the veracity of Vámbéry’s account of his travels to central Asia. There are additional letters written to Schuyler by Armin Vámbéry in the general correspondence file. Other items filed separately include a telegram of appreciation from the president of the National Assembly in Tirnova, Bulgaria; Schuyler’s acceptance of an invitation to join the Central Relief Committee for Bulgaria in 1876; and a letter of receipt for Schuyler’s resignation from his position as U.S. consul in Reval, Russia. Third-party correspondence in the series consists largely of letters to Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler from her sister, Mary King Waddington. Waddington's letters discuss family and social matters, her experiences in Paris, World War I, and significant persons. Although a few of her letters date from 1879 to 1915, most are undated.
The Writings File (1868-2015) series in Part II contains drafts and published copies of Schuyler’s writings. Included are printed copies of many of his magazine and newspaper articles. Topics include Russia, Schuyler’s travels to Serbia and a new Serbian constitution, the Turkish history of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, the 1887 earthquake on the French Riviera, the qualities of an ideal ambassador, Italian immigration, and American marriages abroad, among other subjects. Also found in the series is the 1901 posthumous edition and 2015 reprint of Schuyler’s Selected Essays. Handwritten manuscripts include Schuyler’s writings on Byzantine churches and accounts of his travels to Turkestan and Utrecht, the Netherlands. Other material includes notes, lists, and transcriptions and translations by Schuyler of poems, prayers, and quotations, and his favorite childhood book Sam Willson’s Ghost by John Pierson. Although the majority of the series consists of Schuyler’s writings and notes, there is a small file of writings by his wife Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler. Her writings touch on her father Charles King; the King family history in Elizabeth, New Jersey; Oyster Bay, New York and Rome; and events during the Civil War including the New York City draft riots in 1863. The series also includes a file of notes on Anthony Jenkinson’s travels in central Asia.
The Printed Matter (1874-1909) series in Part II consists largely of magazine and newspaper clippings mentioning Schuyler as well as clippings on other topics collected by him. Included among the clippings are reviews of Schuyler’s books as well as articles concerning his writing, travels, reporting on world events, and diplomatic career. Many of the clippings are mounted in a scrapbook dated 1879-1891. The scrapbook documents Schuyler’s family history, diplomatic service, literary works, lectures, social life, diplomatic appointments and nominations, his investigation of the atrocities in Bulgaria, his translation of The Cossacks (1852) by Leo Tolstoy, the withdrawal of his nomination for assistant secretary of state due to adverse reactions to his book American Diplomacy (1886), and his health and death in 1890. Other printed matter includes a report of the Central Committee for the Relief of Distress in Bulgaria, a Greek pamphlet on canon law, and an 1877 executive document relating to the revolt in the Turkish provinces.
The Miscellany (1663-1905) series includes a graphite sketch, family genealogy, a map of famine in Russia, an 1871 Russian passport, an 1861 certificate in Russian, blank cards and stationery, obituaries and memorials, letters of receipts detailing donations of Schuyler’s library, royalties earned from his books, photographs, and unidentified items. The graphite sketch is drawn on the back of a menu from the Lawn View United States Hotel in Saratoga, New York. Photographs include grayscale cabinet cards of Schuyler and his wife, Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler, as well as a young Persian apprentice and images of Seraglio Point and Scutari in Istanbul, Turkey. The family genealogy (1663-1901) file relates to the Cochrane, Schuyler, and Van Rensselaer families.
Part III
The Correspondence (1859-1933) series in Part III consists of correspondence to and from Schuyler as well as third-party correspondence. The series is organized into family, general and third party. Family correspondence mainly consists of Schuyler’s letters to his sister, Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer. These letters detail Schuyler’s travels, the parties and events he attended, the books he read, and his diplomatic work. General correspondence mainly consists of Schuyler’s professional contacts. Frequent and notable correspondents include George H. Boker, Samuel S. Cox, Nicholas Fish II, Edward A. Freeman, Sir Henry H. Howorth, Marshall Jewell, and Frederick William Seward. Third-party correspondence consists mainly of correspondence to and from Schuyler’s family members after Schuyler’s death in 1890. This includes letters written to Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler (wife) from her sister, Mary King Waddington. Correspondence to Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer (sister) often discusses Schuyler, such as the letters from the National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Also included are letters to Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer’s family, including her husband, Charles Ashmead Schaeffer, and their daughter, Gertrude Key Schuyler Schaeffer.
The Writings File (1855-1890) in Part III contains works written by Schuyler, about Schuyler, and several translations by Schuyler and others. Works by Schuyler include nonconsecutive diary entries (1868-1890), a speech by Schuyler on the superstitions connected with the days of the week, and a report on an 1877 conference in Constantinople (now Istanbul). Writings about Schuyler include a paper titled “Prelude to Turkistan,” by Frank G. Siscoe, on the events in Schuyler’s life that led to writing his book Turkistan. Translations form a large part of this series, including Schuyler’s translations of Russian accounts of fourteenth and fifteenth-century pilgrimages and journeys to Constantinople and Jerusalem, as well as those by others, such as notes on the various European orders, “The Bondage and Travels of Johannes Schiltberger,” and Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol Sketches.”
The Printed Matter (1868-1914) series in Part III consists mainly of newspaper clippings relating to Schuyler, including articles on Schuyler’s “Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria” (1876), clippings on Schuyler’s diplomatic career, Schuyler’s obituaries from numerous American newspapers (1890), and reviews of Selected Essays with a Memoir by Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer (1901). The series also includes a small number of pamphlets related to Schuyler’s social and academic activities.
The Family Genealogy (1624-1964) series in Part III consists of various items relating to the Schuyler family dating back to 1624 in Europe. Included are letters from Schuyler’s father, George Washington Schuyler, documenting his research on the Schuyler family. George Schuyler’s letters detail early Schuyler history from the seventeenth century in Europe through their immigration to the United States. This series also includes materials from Schuyler’s sister, Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer, and her descendants through the early twentieth century. Items in this series include biographies and obituaries of various Schuyler family members, including a biography of George Washington Schuyler and Matilda Scribner Schuyler, parents to Eugene and Evelyn, written by Evelyn. Drafts of Evelyn’s memoirs are also included. This series also contains photographs, obituaries, and ephemera of Evelyn’s family, including her husband, Charles Ashmead Schaeffer, their daughter, Gertrude Key Schuyler Schaeffer (named after her aunt Gertrude Wallace King Schuyler), and Gertrude’s husband, John Dunlop.
The Miscellany (1876-1908) series in Part III contains various notes and ephemera from Schuyler’s personal and professional life. Personal items include his marriage certificate to Gertrude Wallace King in Paris in 1877, calling cards for Schuyler and Schuyler’s guests, and certificates of membership for various professional and social clubs. Professional items include notes and ephemera related to Schuyler’s writings and translations as well as papers regarding Schuyler’s diplomatic appointments to Serbia, Romania, and Greece. Also included are awards and honors given to Schuyler for his work, “Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria.”
A large portion of the Oversize (1872-1890) series in Part III consists of official documents like diplomatic appointments, awards and proclamations, and memberships to professional associations. The diplomatic documents were issued by the United States Department of State and served as Schuyler’s official introduction as an American diplomat to foreign dignitaries. Several of the awards and proclamations are in Russian and Italian, reflecting Schuyler’s diplomatic appointments in Europe. Also included is Schuyler’s 1862 certificate allowing him to practice law in New York State and two Egyptian newspapers in French and English with Schuyler’s 1890 obituary.
An appendix to this finding aid lists Schuyler’s residences and travels by city and country. It serves as an aid for locating resources within the collection. The information in the appendix was compiled from Schuyler's correspondence and scrapbook and is arranged in chronological order.