| Quantity: | 10 Boxes (3.0 cubic feet) |
|---|---|
| Access: | Open to research |
| Acquisition: | Collation of papers was accessioned separately between 1950 and 1980; see accession files for details |
| Processed By: | Honor Conklin, September 1990; revised July 2017 |
Cuyler Reynolds (August 14, 1866-May 24, 1934) was born in Albany, the son of Dexter Reynolds, an attorney, and Catherine Maley Cuyler, of Cuylerville, New York. He was educated at the Albany Academy and at a boarding school for boys in Catskill, New York. Upon graduation, he worked in the newspaper field, writing and publishing. In 1898 he became a librarian at the Albany Historical Society and, in 1899, he was named curator of the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society. In 1906 he published Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ..., and in 1911 he, as editor, published the four-volume Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State ...
Reynolds was elected to honorary membership in the New York State Historical Association and the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society; he also was a member of the National Geographic Society and of the American Copyright League. In 1907 he served as director of the New York State History Exhibit for the Jamestown Exposition. Reynolds was appointed Albany city historian on January 4, 1923, by Mayor William S. Hackett, a post he held until his death.
Reynolds married Janet Gray Gould on September 24, 1891; they had one child, Kenneth Gray Reynolds. He is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery.
This series of papers consist chiefly of correspondence, writings, research notes, and newspaper clippings related to Reynolds's efforts to document the lives and careers of "Gold Star" men: soldiers and sailors from New York State who died in service during World War I. It appears that he gathered this information to generate public interest in and support for the erection of monuments in honor of soldiers and sailors of the war. He was particularly interested in fallen soldiers and sailors of Albany, and compiled information about them in two scrapbooks titled "Albany Heroes of World War I."
The first of the four scrapbooks includes letters (1921-1934) of approval of the project, which Reynolds hoped would evolve into "500 volumes of the records of fully 12,000 men" in New York State, that, once deposited at the New York State Library, would make the information available to any researcher. Included are letters from Vice President Calvin Coolidge, New York State Governors Nathan L. Miller (1922), Alfred E. Smith (1923), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (1930), four New York State adjutant generals, U.S. Senator James W. Wadsworth, Jr., City of Albany Mayor William S. Hackett, commanders of the American Legion, New York State Historian James Sullivan, and James I. Wyer, director of the New York State Library.
A list of the names included in the scrapbooks is appended to the end of the box-and-folder list. Loose newspaper clippings intended for the scrapbooks are in Boxes 5 and 6.
These papers also include correspondence, essays, and research materials related to Cuyler family genealogy and to the history of Albany; and, in Boxes 8-10, a collection of broadsides, posters, and advertisements promoting the American war effort during World War I.
| Box | Folder | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Correspondence, 1926 |
| 1 | 2 | Correspondence, March-July 1932 |
| 1 | 3 | Correspondence, August-December 1932 |
| 1 | 4 | Correspondence, 1933-1934 |
| 1 | 5 | Bank Statement, August 10, 1926 |
| 1 | 6 | Genealogy of Cuyler and Gansevoort families |
| 1 | 7 | Framed photograph of a lake with a reflection written by Cuyler Reynolds, August 14, 1924 |
| 1 | 8 | Dealer's list of Cuyler Reynolds's library |
| SUBJECT FILES | ||
| Albany, New York | ||
| 1 | 9 | Re: Fort Orange, [Westerlo Island Project], 1926 |
| 1 | 10 | Nomenclature: First Names in Dutch and English (For example: Saal = Solomon): Typescript and manuscript |
| 1 | 11 | Early settlers, Albany, [New York], before 1700: Typescript and manuscript |
| 1 | 12 | Albany, [New York], Freeholders, 1720 (by ward): Typescript. "Printer's Copy" |
| 1 | 13 | Photoprints of black-and-white illustrations regarding Schuyler family, including close-up of DeLaets Eylandt from the 1631 map of Rensselaerswyck; profile portrait of J. Massey Rhind, sculptor of Philip Schuyler statue; full-length image of Philip Schuyler statue; full-length portrait of Pieter Schuyler, mayor, Albany, N.Y. (1686-1694); three-quarters portrait of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the patroon (ca. 1630?); the Schuyler Flatts homestead photographed ca. 1924; image a painting of the Schuyler Mansion |
| 1 | 14 | Essay, [Albany in War: Early regiments to Spanish-American War]. Holograph |
| 1 | 15 | Essay, "General Washington's Visit to Albany." Typescript |
| 1 | 16 | Albany Ancestry Directory, 1813. Typescript. "Printer's Copy." Includes four-page introduction; list of occupations (arranged alphabetically) and number identified as such in the directory; list of occupations (arranged by number of each in a descending order of number) |
| 1 | 17 | Re: Port of Albany, New York, 1926 (newspaper clippings) |
| Revolution | ||
| 1 | 18 | Essay, Benedict Arnold. Typescript, 1926 |
| 1 | 19 | Essay, Jane McCrea. Typescript, 1916 [date penciled in on title page] |
| Miscellaneous | ||
| 1 | 20 | "Authors Give Lists of 'Immortals' for Kipling's Roll of Twelve," New York Herald Tribune, July 9, 1926
Editorial cartoon comparing Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days with round trips being broken time and again by airplanes, Albany Knickerbocker Press, July 17, 1926 |
| 1 | 21 | Correspondence re: the Napoleon Tomb Weeping Willow Tree Project and the Burgoyne Surrender Tree, 1926. Includes black-and-white photograph of each tree |
| 1 | 22 | Book Review, Charles Willis Thompson on Owen Wister's Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship, New York Times, June 15, 1930 |
| 1 | 23 | "Shaw Draws Fire from Hollywood," New York Times, March 3, 1931. Re: George Bernard Shaw |
| World War I | ||
| 2 | Albany Heroes of the World War, scrapbook: [Volume 1]: See Appendix for names of soldiers. | |
| 2 | Albany Heroes of the World War, scrapbook: [Volume 2, 1917-1921]: See Appendix for names of soldiers. | |
| 3 | Albany Heroes of the World War, scrapbook: [Volume 3]: "Photostatic copy" of letters in Volume 1 plus 2 letters: one from John H. Finley to James I. Wyer, dated June 18, 1934; the other, n.d., not signed but probably written by Cuyler Reynolds) | |
| 3 | Albany Heroes of the World War, scrapbook: [Volume 4, 1921-1922]: Mounted photoprint clippings of World War I-related images from the New York Herald and the New York Times, including the burial of America's Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on November 11, 1921. | |
| 4 | 28 | Albany, New York, Armistice Day 1926: newspaper clippings |
| 4 | 29 | Albany, New York, Armistice Day 1927: newspaper clippings; letter and two tickets for seats in the churchyard of Grace Episcopal Church on Robing Street at Clinton Avenue; words for the six songs that were to be sung at the memorial |
| 4 | 30 | Armistice Day, 1924 and 1932, clippings from the New York Times, |
| 4 | 31 | "Albany Heroes in the World War," Correspondence, 1921-1929 |
| 4 | 32 | "1,153 Casualties in Old New York Guard," Albany Times Union, December 7, 1918 "Albany Co. Gave 213 Lives in World War … Total Number in State 12,276 …," Albany Evening Journal, January 12, 1922 – Lists numbers casualties for each county |
| 4 | 33 | Cemeteries, 1919, 1921 |
| 4 | 34 | No Folder 34 |
| 4 | 35 | Currency: German, French, Belgian, Italian, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Polish |
| 4 | 36 | Parker F. Dunn and dedication of bridge, 1917-1933, including two letters he wrote to his mother in 1917 and ahead-and-shoulders photograph of Parker |
| 4 | 37 | Memorials, 1921, 1922, 1924, 1925 (newspaper clippings) |
| 4 | 38 | Miscellaneous, 1921, 1924, including "The White Acres in France" (Boston Evening Transcript, July 16, 1921) |
| 4 | 39 | "New York City List [of names]: Calls and Correspondence." Typescript |
| 4 | 40 | "New York State Heroes of the World War," proposal correspondence to Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1929 |
| 4 | 41 | "World Heroes of New York State: Proposition of Providing a Fund to Prosecute Their Compilation," ca. 1919-1925. Typescript |
| 4 | 42 | New York State War Memorial, 1930 (newspaper clippings) |
| 4 | 43 | New York State War Memorial, 1931 (newspaper clippings) |
| 4 | 44 | War Savings Stamps from various countries, 1914-1919 (mounted on heavy stock) |
| 4 | 45 | Tributes, 1919-1925 (newspaper clippings) |
| New York State Heroes [of World War I]: Obituaries (clippings from various New York State newspapers) | ||
| 5 | 46 | January-August 1918 |
| 5 | 47 | October 1918 |
| 5 | 48 | November 1918 |
| 5 | 49 | December 1918 |
| 5 | 50 | January-March 1919 |
| 5 | 51 | June 1919-1920 |
| 5 | 52 | February-March 1921 |
| 5 | 53 | April 1921 |
| 5 | 54 | March 1921 |
| 5 | 55 | April 1921 (1 of 3 folders) |
| 5 | 56 | April 1921 (2 of 3 folders) |
| 5 | 57 | April 1921 (3 of 3 folders) |
| 5 | 58 | May 1921 |
| 5 | 59 | June 1921 |
| 5 | 60 | July 1921 |
| 6 | 61 | August 1921 |
| 6 | 62 | September 1921 (1 of 2 folders) |
| 6 | 63 | September 1921 (2 of 2 folders) |
| 6 | 64 | October 1921 (1 of 2 folders) |
| 6 | 65 | October 1921 (2 of 2 folders) |
| 6 | 66 | November 1921 |
| 6 | 67 | December 1921 |
| 6 | 68 | January 1922 |
| 6 | 69 | February 1922 |
| 6 | 70 | March 1922 |
| 6 | 71 | April 1922 |
| 6 | 72 | May 1922 |
| 6 | 73 | June 1922 |
| 7 | 74 | World Leaders Portrait Illustrations (1 of 3 folders), 1926-1929 – Mounted Newspaper Clippings |
| 7 | 75 | World Leaders Portrait Illustrations (2 of 3 folders), 1926-1929 – Mounted Newspaper Clippings |
| 7 | 76 | World Leaders Portrait Illustrations (3 of 3 folders), 1926-1929 – Mounted Newspaper Clippings |
| What Became of Them (newspaper clippings) | ||
| 7 | 77 | Balfour, 1930 |
| 7 | 78 | Clemenceau, 1929 |
| 7 | 79 | De Rivera, 1930 |
| 7 | 80 | Ebert, 1925 |
| 7 | 81 | Edwards, 1931 |
| 7 | 82 | Erzberger, 1921 |
| 7 | 83 | Jadwin, 1931 |
| 7 | 84 | Joffre, 1931 |
| 7 | 85 | Scott, 1934 |
| 7 | 86 | Tikhon, 1925 |
| 7 | 87 | Von Tirbits, 1930 |
| 7 | 88 | Miscellaneous, 1924-1925 |
| 7 | 89 | Memorials to the "Unknown Soldier" (1 of 3 folders) – Newspaper Clippings |
| 7 | 90 | Memorials to the "Unknown Soldier" (2 of 3 folders) – Newspaper Clippings |
| 7 | 91 | Memorials to the "Unknown Soldier" (3 of 3 folders) – Newspaper Clippings |
| Posters / Advertisements clipped from magazines and mounted; (3 Boxes) Size of mounts in Folders 92-98: 410 x 360 cm; sizes of images varies |
||
| 8 | 92 | Black-and-white images clipped from magazines and mounted (34 items) |
| 8 | 93 | Black-and-white images clipped from magazines and mounted (36 items), Volume 4 |
| 8 | 94 | Black-and-white images clipped from magazines and mounted (30 items), Volume 5 |
| 9 | 95 | Posters (some in full color) mounted (36 items), Volume 7: Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamps. (Some duplicate items in the SC23360.) |
| 9 | 96 | Posters (some in full color) mounted (36 items), Volume 8 |
| 10 | 97 | Posters (some in full color) mounted (36 items), Volume 9 |
| 10 | 98 | Black-and-white Posters mounted (31 items), Volume 6 [sic]: Includes New York Telephone Company slicks |
| 10 | 99 | Black-and-white images clipped from magazines and mounted (35 items). Mount size: 30.5 x 25.5 cm. |
Pages devoted to individuals who died in World War I in Volumes 1 and 2 of the scrapbooks contain newspaper articles (death notices, obituaries, reports on bodies being returned from overseas, and/or funeral announcements) and/or a typed form which gives the individual's name, rank, regiment, serial number, date he entered the service, date he died, citations (if any), address, civilian occupation, religion, names of father and mother, place of birth, date of birth, cause of death, place of death, date of death, place of burial and "remarks." Many, but not all the men, lived in Albany, New York, before the war.
VOLUME 1 (letters of approval of Cuyler Reynolds's idea, 1921-1934; newspaper articles – death notices, obituaries, reports on bodies being returned from overseas, and/or funeral announcements – 1918-1922)
VOLUME 2 (newspaper articles – death notices, obituaries, reports on bodies being returned from overseas, and/or funeral announcements – 1917-1921)
Volume 3: "Photostatic copy" of letters in Volume 1 plus 2 letters: one from John H. Finley to James I. Wyer, dated June 18, 1934; the other, n.d., not signed but probably written by Cuyler Reynolds.
Volume 4: Mounted photoprint clippings of World War I-related images from the New York Herald and the New York Times, including the burial of America's Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on November 11, 1921.