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Bacon (Francis) Library Archive
602120
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Francis Bacon Library archive
Creator:
Francis Bacon Foundation
Identifier/Call Number: 602120
Physical Description:
70.6 Linear Feet
(152 boxes, 1 oversize folder, 1 object)
Date (inclusive): 1846-1996
Date (bulk): 1920-1990
Abstract: The Francis Bacon Library was a private
rare book research library on the campus of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California.
It was founded by Walter Conrad Arensberg and his wife, Louise Stevens Arensberg. In 1938,
they established The Francis Bacon Foundation to promote study of the life and works of
statesman Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The Foundation administered the Francis Bacon
Library, which included a comprehensive collection on the Shakespeare authorship
controversy, a subject of great personal interest to Walter Arensberg, who believed that
Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare's plays. This archive contains the records of the
Library, which closed in 1995, including papers and correspondence of scholars interested in
Bacon and the authorship question. It also contains the personal and family papers of the
Arensbergs, and Walter Arensberg's cryptographic files and research on the authorship
controversy.
Language of Material: The records are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Francis Bacon Library archive, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by the Francis Bacon Foundation, Claremont, California, November 1995.
A small bronze sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington (American, 1876-1973) that was part of
Series 5. Art and Artifacts was transferred to The Huntington Art Division on June 10, 2019.
The item description read: WA-2/778. Sculpture. Artist: Hyatt. Bronze, feline.
The Francis Bacon Library was a private rare book library that stood on the campus of
Claremont Colleges, California, from 1960 to 1995. It was established and operated by the
Francis Bacon Foundation, created in 1938 by Walter Conrad Arensberg (1878-1954) and his
wife, Louise Stevens Arensberg (1879-1953).
The library grew out of the private collection of Walter Arensberg, a scholar, poet and
art collector born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a wealthy industrial family. He became
interested in Dante during his undergraduate years at Harvard University, 1896-1900, and
started collecting Dante material. His interests grew to include the Renaissance, and in
particular, philosopher, essayist and statesman Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). Arensberg
began collecting books by and about Bacon, along with material in all the fields of Bacon's
interest: law, politics, affairs of state, philosophy, the natural and physical sciences,
literature, cryptography, magic, witchcraft, the occult, alchemy, and Rosicrucianism. He
became convinced that Bacon was the true author of the plays and poems attributed to William
Shakespeare, and embarked on what would become a lifelong obsession – using cryptographic
methods to discover supposed hidden meanings and secret messages embedded in Shakespeare's
text by Bacon or by a Baconian secret society. Arensberg, an intellectual with a passion for
chess, numerology and word games, became engrossed with analyzing texts, and hired
researchers and cryptographers to assist him. He published
The
Cryptography of Shakespeare
in 1922 and other works on the subject throughout the
1920s. Though Arensberg's efforts were ultimately unsuccessful and his unorthodox cipher
systems considered incapable of proof, his conviction and enthusiasm for his theories seldom
waned, even up until his death in 1954.
The Arensbergs had relocated from New York to Los Angeles in 1921. They had begun
collecting art in New York, where they had developed friendships with avant-garde
intellectuals and artists--in particular, Marcel Duchamp. After moving west, they eventually
settled, in 1927, into a home in Hollywood that became filled with books and art. While
Walter steadily enlarged his library and conducted his cryptographic research, he and Louise
were also building an important collection of modern and pre-Columbian art.
In 1938, Walter and Louise Arensberg founded the Francis Bacon Foundation as an
educational and research institution to promote study in science, literature, religion,
history and philosophy, with special emphasis on Bacon's life, character and influences.
Booksellers in Europe became aware of the Arensbergs' search for rare books and manuscripts,
and together with Foundation President and Library Director Elizabeth Wrigley, the
Arensbergs assembled one of the most extensive libraries of Bacon material in the world.
The Foundation administered the library out of the Arensbergs' home at 7065 Hillside
Avenue, Hollywood, until it was moved to an office building in Pasadena in 1954, after the
Arensbergs' deaths. There, the Francis Bacon Library opened its doors to the public for the
first time, as the Arensbergs had intended. In 1960, the library found a permanent home on
the campus of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California, in a new building financed by
the Foundation. The small red-brick building was formally dedicated May 8, 1960, and drew
scholars, students, faculty and members of the public to its doors for 35 years, until it
was closed in 1995. A major factor in its closing was the failing health of Elizabeth
Wrigley, longtime director of the library, who had begun working for Mr. Arensberg in 1944.
(See Biographical Note on Elizabeth Wrigley in Library Records series.)
Under Wrigley's guidance, the library had grown to over 14,000 titles by 1995. It had one
of the world's largest collections on Francis Bacon, and one of the largest collections on
the Shakespeare authorship controversy in the United States. The library also held works by
numerous other Elizabethan and Jacobean authors, and supporting collections in emblem
literature, Rosicrucian works, and early American political theory.
The library primarily served the academic community but made efforts to welcome the larger
public pursuing scholarship, education or simply personal interest. The library staff held
regular open houses and exhibits to attract new visitors, many of whom were students. Each
year, they mounted a major themed exhibition and a lecture and fete in honor of Bacon's
birthday. The library interior was richly decorated with Oriental rugs, gooseneck lamps and
an iron chandelier that hung from a beamed oak ceiling. It was a place for serious research
but had its lighthearted moments too. A 1987 exhibit on divination included 20 different
methods of divination for visitors to actually try. There was an overwhelmingly favorable
response and coverage in the local media, including an article in a local newspaper
featuring a photo of a costumed librarian gazing into a crystal ball. The library held
memberships in professional organizations and co-sponsored events and lectures related to
Bacon and Renaissance literature. It was an associate presenter of the Renaissance
Conference of Southern California, along with the Huntington Library, the Getty and others.
The library also sponsored a lecture series at the University of Southern California
featuring prominent scholars from all over the world.
Regarding the Bacon-Shakespeare authorship question, in a 1981 letter, library director
Elizabeth Wrigley explained: "Our late founder, Walter Arensberg, had his own cipher system,
and we continued to work on it for six years after his death. At that time the Board of
Trustees felt that we should not continue as we did not have his guidance. The Foundation
does not promote the controversy. We make written materials available to scholars, but that
is it. We serve as a kind of clearinghouse for Bacon scholarship, which does include some
work on the controversy."
When the library closed in 1995, its collection of books and manuscripts were donated to
the Huntington Library, along with institutional records and some of the Arensbergs'
personal papers. The papers related to the Arensbergs' art collection and most of the
Foundation's administrative records were given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which had
earlier been given the art collection.
This collection contains the archive of the Francis Bacon Library, a private rare book
research library on the campus of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, California. The
archive is organized into five series: Library Records; Personal Papers given to the
Library; Francis Bacon Foundation Records; the Walter and Louise Arensberg Papers; and the
Art and Artifacts Collection.
The Library records include administration and collection records, gifts and acquisitions,
exhibit records, and a large portion of correspondence. The correspondence, almost entirely
written by library director Elizabeth Wrigley, is with students, other organizations,
scholars, and, notably, interested Baconians (supporters of the theory that Francis Bacon
was the true author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare). There are also records of gifts
to the library, including books, ephemera and papers of Baconians and other scholars
studying the Shakespeare authorship question. These papers comprise the Personal Papers
series, and are organized by owner name: Isabelle Kittson Brown, Eugene Dernay, George
Drury, Johan Franco, R. W. (Reginald Walter) Gibson, Olive Woodward Hoss, Karl [Richards]
Wallace, and A. Allen Woodruff.
The Francis Bacon Foundation papers contain articles of incorporation, financial and legal
documents, and some correspondence of the board members. There are also clippings and
photostats on Shakespeare, Bacon and Elizabethan history that were collected for research
purposes. This represents only a portion of the Foundation records; the remainder are in the
collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The personal and family papers of Walter and Louise Arensberg include Walter Arensberg's
cryptographic research files, charts and notes; personal papers; drafts of his poems and
books; correspondence with Baconians; photographs; and letters of Arensberg and [Louise]
Stevens family members. The letters between Walter and his brother Charles F. C. Arensberg
are particularly personal and informative.
This portion of the Arensbergs' personal papers does not include their correspondence with
artists or their art-collecting activities. Those papers (the Arensberg Archives) were given
by the Francis Bacon Foundation to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which also holds the
Arensberg Art Collection of Modern and pre-Columbian art.
The last series of the archive is a group of art objects and historical artifacts that
belonged to the Foundation and library. Some were collected by the Arensbergs, and some were
acquired by the library after their deaths. They are listed with their original descriptions
kept by the Foundation.
The collection is organized into these series and subseries:
- Series 1. Library Records
- 1.1 Administrative records
- 1.2 Collection records
- 1.3 Correspondence
- 1.3.1. General
- 1.3.2. Colleges, Universities and Schools
- 1.3.3. Foundations, Societies, etc.
- 1.3.4. Libraries and Related Institutions
- 1.3.5. Correspondence with Baconians
- 1.4 Exhibits
- 1.5 Financial records
- Series 2. Personal Papers
- 2.1. Isabelle Kittson Brown Papers, circa 1880-1928
- 2.2. Eugene Dernay Papers, 1861-1960
- 2.3 George Drury Papers, 1960-1964
- 2.4. Johan Franco publication plates, undated
- 2.5. R. W. (Reginald Walter) Gibson Papers, circa 1940-1959
- 2.6. Olive Woodward Hoss Papers, circa 1920-1969
- 2.7. Karl [Richards] Wallace Papers, circa 1960-1973
- 2.8. A. Allen Woodruff Papers, circa 1893-1949
- Series 3. Francis Bacon Foundation Records
- Series 4. Walter and Louise Arensberg Papers
- 4.1. Correspondence
- 4.1.1. General
- 4.1.2. Correspondence with Baconians
- 4.1.3. Arensberg Family correspondence
- 4.1.4. Stevens Family correspondence
- 4.2. Personal
- 4.3. Writings
- 4.4. Financial
- 4.5. Legal
- 4.6. Research
- 4.7. Photographs
- Series 5. Art and Artifacts Collection
The arrangement and titles of the files have been kept as much as possible in the original
order of the records maintained by the Arensbergs and the library staff. Folders are
arranged alphabetically by title within series. Documents within folders are arranged in
chronological order by date with undated materials residing at the end of each folder. One
exception is research files, which have been kept in their original order, which was not
always chronological, but often by topic.
- Arsenberg, Walter, 1878-1954. Journal entries for a work in progress [microfilm]. The Huntington Library (Call number: MSS MFilm 00337, reels 1-14)
- Francis Bacon Foundation/Arensberg Collection. The Huntington Library. Selected collection of manuscripts, rare books and reference books formerly in the Francis Bacon Library. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
- Arensberg Archives. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Archives.
- Francis Bacon Foundation Records. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Archives.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cryptography.
Ciphers.
Francis Bacon Library.
Research libraries.
Rare books.
Claremont Colleges.
Lichfield Cathedral.
Art objects
Artifacts
Audiotapes
Business records
Clippings -- 19th century
Clippings -- 20th century
Ephemera
Letters (correspondence)
Notes -- United States
Passports -- United States -- 20th century
Personal Papers -- United States
Photographs -- 19th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Poems -- 20th century
Scrapbooks
Arensberg, Walter,
1878-1954
Arensberg, Lou (Mary Louise
Stevens)
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 --
Authorship.
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 --
Bibliography.
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626 --
Criticism and interpretation.
Brown, Isabelle,
1860-1928
Franco, Johan, 1908-1988
Friedman, William F. (William
Frederick), 1891-1969
Gibson, R. W. (Reginald
Walter)
Manly, John Matthews,
1865-1940
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 --
Authorship -- Baconian theory.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 --
Criticism and interpretation.
Stevens, John E.
1909-1988
Wallace, Karl Richards,
1905-1973
Wolfe, Clyde Lynne Earle, b.
1885
Wrigley, Elizabeth S.
Bynner, Witter, 1881-1968
Huston, John, 1906-1987
Keller, Helen, 1880-1968
Lawrence, Frieda von Richthofen,
1879-1956
Miller, Henry, 1891-1980
Weston, Edward, 1886-1958
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900