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The William B. Osgood Field papers consist of family, personal, and office correspondence; financial documents; diaries; genealogical records; school and college memorabilia; photographs; and ephemera recording his and his family's commercial, philanthropic and social activities, chiefly between the years 1897 and 1934.
While the papers of William B. Osgood Field form the bulk of the collection, other family members are well-represented, including his mother Augusta, his wife Lila, his sister Mary, his uncle Osgood, and his sons and daughters. The collection documents Field's education in Dresden, Germany; his business, legal and real estate affairs; his military service during World War I; his collecting interests, particularly concerning rare books, book illustration and caricatures, coins and collectibles; his support of numerous charitable and cultural organizations; and his interest in angling and hunting, shared by his wife Lila. Also reflected are family members' schooling, extensive travels, residence abroad, intellectual and political interests, social activities, and military service of family members and friends during World War II. Also present are correspondence and other materials from prominent Europeans and Americans in contact with Field family members, including authors, activists, artists, musicians, singers, and political figures. Examples include letters and manuscript sheet music of Leopold Stokowski in the papers of Mary Pearsall Field, and original work by Edward Lear, Ernest Henry Griset, John Leech and William Francklyn Paris collected by William B. Osgood Field. The collection contains genealogical and other materials concerning members of their allied families of Bowne, Osgood, Sloane and Vanderbilt; and household documentation concerning William B.Osgood Field's homes in New York City, Mohegan Lake, N.Y., and Lenox, Mass.; and Osgood Field's residence in Rome. |
