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Wood (C. E. S.) Papers
mssWD
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: C. E. S. Wood papers
Creator:
Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, 1852-1944
Creator:
Field, Sara Bard, 1882-1974
Identifier/Call Number: mssWD
Physical Description:
365 Linear Feet
(312 boxes, 4 oversize folders, 2 rolls)
Date (inclusive): 1829-1980
Date (bulk): 1870-1940
Abstract: A collection of correspondence, manuscripts, and ephemera related to the life and work of soldier, lawyer, and author Charles
Erskine Scott Wood and his wife Sara Bard Field Wood, poet, suffragist, and author.
Language of Material: Materials 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]. C. E. S. Wood papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gifts of Sara Bard Field Wood, 1947-1969; gift of Edwin Grabhorn, November 1946; gift of Mrs. G. Kirkham Smith, September
1947; gift of Eliza Bryson Wood Smith, September 1947; gifts of Nan Wood Honeyman, 1949-1958; gift of James D. Hart, June
1949; gift of Jacob C. Weinstein, March 1954; gifts of Vanguard Press, 1955 and 1989; gift of Lute Pease, 1956; gift of Mrs.
Kent Robinson, April 1956; gift of Mary Gow Scott, 1960; gifts of Mrs. James Caldwell, 1974-1978; gift of Mrs. William M.
Wood IV, February 1978; gift of Erskine Wood, April 1980; gift of Ansel Adams Archive, December 1980; gift of Elizabeth Elkus,
April 1980; gift of John Miller, January 1985; purchased from Doris Harris; gift of Nan S. Johns, 1989.
Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852-1944) was a U.S. Army officer, lawyer, and author. After graduating from the U.S. Military
Academy in 1874, he became an aide to General O.O. Howard in 1877, serving with him in the Pacific Northwest during the Bannock
and Paiute and Nez Percé Indian wars. He later attended Columbia University, obtained his law degree, and established a practice
of maritime and corporation law in Portland, Oregon. In addition to his successful law practice, Wood painted, wrote, was
a champion of social justice, and liberal causes. Wood married Nanny Moale Smith (-1933) in 1878 and they had three sons and
two daughters: Erskine Wood, Max Wood, Berwick Wood, Nan (Wood) Honeyman, and Lisa Wood. In 1910 he met Sara Bard Field (1882-1974),
who was campaigning for women's suffrage in Oregon. Field married Albert Ehrgott in 1900 and they had two children: Albert
Field Ehrgott and Katherine (Ehrgott) Caldwell; the couple was divorced in 1914. Field was a poet, suffragist, and author;
professionally she always used her maiden name Sara Bard Field. Wood and Field established a home together in 1917 (they married
in 1938); "The Cats," their home near Los Gatos, California, became a center of art, music, and culture. Wood's publications
include The poet in the desert (1915) and Heavenly discourse (1927), as well as various articles for the Pacific monthly and
Century magazines.
A collection of approximately 30,000 items which consists of letters, manuscripts, documents, diaries, sketches, photographs,
printed material, and scrapbooks related to the lives and work of Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Field Wood. The
collection includes material about William Maxwell Wood (1809-1880), C.E.S. Wood's father; papers from C. E. S. Wood's army
career, including materials from West Point, Alaska, and the Indian campaigns in the Pacific Northwest; C. E. S. Wood's activities
in the development of eastern Oregon (note: there are no papers belonging to Wood's law office); Sara Bard Field's reports
on the McNamara case, her life in San Francisco and her associations with journalists, labor leaders, Soviet sympathizers,
pacifists, and artists; materials related to Sara Bard Field's work for woman suffrage and women's rights; and C. E. S. Wood
and Sara Bard Field Wood's cultural circle, including letters from other writers, critics, publishers, social reformers, artists,
sculptors, theatrical figures and musicians. Persons represented in the collection include politicians, journalists, cultural
leaders, artists, suffragists, authors, and musicians: Charles Altschul, Roger Nash Baldwin, Alva Belmont, Albert M. Bender,
William Rose Benét, Henriette de S. Blanding, Alfred Brennan, Maurice Browne, George De Forest Brush, Beniamino Bufano, Witter
Bynner, Bennett Cerf, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Clarence Darrow, Kenneth Durant, Max Eastman, Gilson Gardner, Inez Haynes
Gillmore, William Hanley, Walter Morris Hart, Childe Hassam, Nan Wood Honeyman, O.O. Howard, Robinson Jeffers, Willard Maas,
Alexander Meiklejohn, Eugene Meyer, Josephine Miles, Harriet Monroe, Richard L. Neuberger, Frederick O'Brien, Mrs. Fremont
Older, Fremont Older, Lemuel Parton, Alice Paul, Lute Pease, Louis Freeland Post, John Cowper Powys, Llewelyn Powys, Alexander
Phimister Proctor, John W. Redington, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Muriel Rukeyser, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Theodore Spiering,
Lincoln Steffens, Walter Steilberg, Doris Stevens, Genevieve Taggard, Mark Van Doren, Mabel Vernon, Langdon Warner, Olin Levi
Warner, Julian Alden Weir, Marie de L. Welch, George P. West, Frances G. Wickes, Ella Winter, Emma Wold, Erskine Wood, Art
Young, and Ella Young.
Materials created by US presidents in this collection include: James Buchanan autograph letter signed to John Buchanan Floyd,
1858 July 27; Ulysses S. Grant document signed appointment of William Maxwell Wood as medical director of US Navy, 1871 May
23; Benjamin Harrison signature on White House calling card, approximately 1890; Rutherford B. Hayes autograph note signed
to Carl Schurz, approximately 1877-1881; threee Theodore Roosevelt letters to Charles Erskine Scott Wood, 1897-1898; Woodrow
Wilson letter to Charles Erskine Scott Wood, 1913 January 6; Woodrow Wilson letter signed to Sara Bard (Field) Wood, 1916
June 16.
Processed by Virginia Rust, circa 1985. In 2021, Gayle Richardson created the finding aid derived from a legacy in-house summary
report. In 2022, Melissa Haley enhanced description of the presidential material present in the collection as part of the
American Presidential Papers Project.
Organized in the following series: 1. Manuscripts by C. E.S. Wood; 2. Manuscripts by Sara Bard Field; 3. Correspondence and
manuscripts by other authors; 4. Business papers, scrapbooks, drawings, photographs, and ephemera; 5. Printed material.
Former call number: mssWD Boxes 1-312.
C. E. S. Wood papers addenda (1897-1970), mssWDaddenda.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Artists -- United States
Authors, American -- 19th century
Authors, American -- 20th century
Bannock Indians Wars, 1878
Indians of North America -- Northwest, Pacific -- Government relations
Indians of North America -- Wars -- Northwest, Pacific
Labor -- United States
Nez Percé Indians -- Wars, 1877
Paiute Indians -- Wars
Poets, American
Women -- Suffrage -- United States
Women's rights -- United States -- History
Working class -- United States
Alaska -- Description and travel
Oregon -- History -- 1859-
Diaries -- 19th century
Diaries -- 20th century
Letters (correspondence) -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- 19th century
Manuscripts -- 20th century
Photographs -- 19th century
Photographs -- 20th century
Poems -- 19th century
Poems -- 20th century
Scrapbooks -- 19th century
Scrapbooks -- 20th century
Altschul, Charles, 1857-1927
Baldwin, Roger N. (Roger Nash), 1884-1981
Belmont, Alva, 1853-1933
Bender, Albert M. (Albert Maurice), 1866-1941
Benét, William Rose, 1886-1950
Blanding, Henriette de S., 1891-1973
Brennan, Alfred, 1853-1921
Browne, Maurice, 1884-1961
Brush, George de Forest, 1855-1941
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
Bufano, Beniamino, 1898-1970
Bynner, Witter, 1881-1968
Cerf, Bennett, 1898-1971
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910
Darrow, Clarence, 1857-1938
Durant, Kenneth
Eastman, Max, 1883-1969
Gardner, Gilson, 1869-1935
Gillmore, Inez Haynes, 1873-1970
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885
Hanley, William
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901
Hart, Walter Morris, 1872-1964
Hassam, Childe, 1859-1935
Hayes, Rutherford B., 1822-1893
Honeyman, Nan Wood, 1881-1970
Howard, O.O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909
Jeffers, Robinson, 1887-1962
Maas, Willard
Meiklejohn, Alexander, 1872-1964
Meyer, Eugene, 1875-1959
Miles, Josephine, 1911-1985
Monroe, Harriet, 1860-1936
Neuberger, Richard L. (Richard Lewis), 1912-1960
O'Brien, Frederick, 1869-1932
Older, Fremont, 1856-1935
Older, Fremont, Mrs., 1875-1968
Parton, Lemuel, -1943
Paul, Alice, 1885-1977
Pease, Lute, 1869-1963
Post, Louis F. (Louis Freeland), 1849-1928
Powys, John Cowper, 1872-1963
Powys, Llewelyn, 1884-1939
Proctor, Alexander Phimister, 1860-1950
Redington, John W., 1851-1935
Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt, 1861-1933
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Rukeyser, Muriel, 1913-1980
Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847-1917
Spiering, Theodore, 1871-1925
Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936
Steilberg, Walter, 1886-1974
Stevens, Doris, 1888-1963
Taggard, Genevieve, 1894-1948
Van Doren, Mark, 1894-1972
Vernon, Mabel
Warner, Langdon, 1881-1955
Warner, Olin Levi, 1844-1896
Weir, Julian Alden, 1852-1919
Welch, Marie de L. (Marie de Laveaga), 1905-1974
West, George P.
Wickes, Frances G. (Frances Gillespy), 1875-1967
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Winter, Ella
Wold, Emma, 1871-1950
Wood, Erskine
Wood, William Maxwell, 1809-1880
Young, Art, 1866-1943
Young, Ella, 1867-1956
United States. Army -- History -- 19th century
United States. Army -- Officers