MS003
HENRY (HARRY) BACON PRIVATE
PAPERS
1880 - 1922
Photocopies
When Harry was a young boy, the Bacons settled in Wilmington, eventually at 114 South Third Street. Anna Parsley Savage, who was to become a dear friend of Harry’s older sister, Katherine, lived next door. In the papers is an anecdote by Anna Savage about Harry when he was a boy. The letters are addressed usually to his mother, sometimes to his older sister Katherine, and twice to his younger brother Carl. His other sister and brothers were Lucy Elizabeth, Francis Henry (the oldest, who also became an architect and later a furniture manufacturer in Boston, MA), James Hayward, and George Fisher Bacon. Several of these letters were written from Illinois State University at Champaign, Illinois, where Harry spent one year before joining Chamberlin & Whidden’s Boston architectural firm as a draftsman. Many are illustrated with humorous sketches portraying various predicaments of daily life. He refers to Tileston, Miss Bradley, Dr. Bellamy, and the Sea Sides -- a Wilmington ball club.
The post-college letters in this group came from scattered times of his life and contain frequent though modest allusions to his professional achievements. He speaks of his wife’s growing friendship with Mrs. Hanna, and remarks “The mausoleum...is looking very well.” Indeed it did. This mild statement refers to one of his many notable achievements in architecture -- the (Senator Mark) Hanna Monument in Cleveland, Ohio, on which he collaborated with sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
This group of Henry (Harry) Bacon’s letters to his family in Wilmington, NC, are photocopies of letters lent to the William Madison Randall Library of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1969 by Miss Elizabeth F. McKoy, for an exhibit of Bacon materials. The Bacon Papers have been designated Accession Number 3 of the Manuscripts Collection, Special Collections Department, William Madison Randall Library, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 601 South College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403-3297.
Biographical Sketch
Henry (Harry) Bacon, the author of these letters, was born in Watseka, Illinois, on November 28, 1866, of Henry and Elizabeth (Kelton) Bacon, both of Massachusetts. The family moved to Wilmington after Harry’s father, a U.S. Government engineer, was placed in charge of Cape Fear River and Harbor improvements in 1875. In this capacity, Captain Bacon directed the closing of New Inlet with a dam between Federal Point and Smith Island. An engineering feat of its time, this dam is now called The Rocks.
Harry spent one year at Illinois State University at Champaign, Illinois, before starting his architectural career at Chamberlin & Whidden’s in Boston, MA, as a draftsman. After three years there, he joined the noted New York firm of McKim, Mead & White. In 1889 Bacon won the Rotch Traveling Scholarship which provided him with two years of study and travel in Europe. Afterwards he rejoined McKim, Mead & White until 1897, when he formed a partnership with James Brite. Brite and Bacon dissolved in 1902. Thereafter Harry Bacon worked alone. On April 27, 1893, Bacon married Laura Florence Calvert, daughter of the British consul at Dardanelles, Turkey. They had no children.
Bacon collaborated with various sculptors, notably August Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, designing the pedestals and accompanying architectural settings for statues. He also designed numerous public buildings and private homes. His crowning achievement was his design for the Lincoln Memorial, chosen in 1912 by the Fine Arts and Lincoln Memorial Commissions for erection by the U.S. Government in Washington, D.C., at the cost of $2,000,000, and dedicated in 1922. In May 1923 Bacon stood on its steps and received from President Harding the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the highest distinction his fellow craftsmen could confer. Less than a year later, Harry Bacon died on February 17, 1924, in New York City. He came home to rest, however, and his gravesite can be found in Oakdale Cemetery, here in Wilmington, NC.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American
Biography. Johnson, Allen, editor. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964.
vol. 1, pp.477-8.
Howell, Andrew J. The Book of Wilmington.
Wilmington, NC: Wilmington Printing Company, 1930. pp.169, 218.
McKoy, Henry
Bacon. The McKoy Family of North Carolina and other Ancestors Including
Ancrum, Berry, Halling, Hasell, Usher. Greenville, SC: Keys Printing
Company, 1955. p.58.
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography.
New York: James T. White & Co., 1929. University Microfilms Reprint, 1967.
vol. 20, p.339.
New York Times. February 17, 1924, p.23, col. 1.
February 20, 1924, p.19, col. 5. February 28, 1924, p.5, col. 2.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
Processed by Judith H. Davis
Manuscripts
Collection
William Madison Randall Library
The University of North
Carolina at Wilmington
1976
Inventory
Manuscript/Box/File
003/1/1
Brief narrative by Anna Parsley Savage of boat trip from Masonboro Sound,
NC, to Beaufort, NC. Henry Bacon (HB) was one of the four crew members, no
date
003/1/2
Letter, HB at Roxbury to his younger brother Carl Kelton Bacon (CKB) at
home in Wilmington, NC. Includes sketch of Harry falling while ice skating and
an illustration of the year 1880 ending and 1881 arriving, 1881
003/1/3
Letter, HB at Illinois State University (ISU) at Champaign, Illinois, to
CKB. Includes sketch of toy train HB sent CKB with suggestions about assembling
the train, 1884 Dec 25
003/1/4
Letter, HB at ISU to his parents, Henry and Elizabeth Kelton Bacon (EKB)
in Wilmington, NC. Mentions Miss Bradley, 1885 Jan 25
003/1/5
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Feb
14
003/1/6
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Feb
003/1/7
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Mar 25
003/1/8
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Mar
29
003/1/9
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Apr 12
003/1/10
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 Apr 26
003/1/11
Letter, HB at ISU to EKB, 1885 May
3
003/1/12
Fragment of letter from HB at ISU to his family, 1885 Undated
003/1/13
Letter, HB at Cambridge, MA, to EKB. Written day after his 19th birthday.
Describes Thanksgiving Day celebration with relatives at Natick, MA,
1885 Nov 29
003/1/14
Letter, HB from near Winchester, MA, to EKB. Writes of Dr. Bellamy.
Mentions Chamberlin’s (Chamberlin & Whidden, Boston firm of architects with
whom he began as a draftsman), 1887 Dec
5
003/1/15
Letter, HB at Winchester, MA, to EKB, 1888
Mar 18
003/1/16
Letter, HB at Bronxville, NY, to his sister, Katherine Bacon McKoy (KBM),
Wilmington, NC. Writes about his wife, Laura Florence Calvert Bacon,
1894 Jan 4
003/1/17
Letter, HB at Glasgow, Scotland to EKB, written on stationery from St.
Enoch Station Hotel, Glasgow. Describes Bramshill -- country home of Sir Anthony
Cope -- one room of which served as museum for family heirlooms. HB notes an
“iron chest in which an ancestor of the family who was cofferer for Henry VII,
kept the king’s money.” HB visited there because a client, Mrs. Crocker, wanted
“her home to be in the style of Bramshill.” Also mentions James Brite, his
partner from 1897 to 1902, 1902 Sep 5
003/1/18
Letter, HB to KBM. Lists his travel to Cleveland, Patterson, and Long
Island on business. Speaks of Mrs. Hanna and the Hanna mausoleum. Worries about
Bess (Elizabeth Francenia McKoy, KBM’s first child) taking four year’s work at
Converse College, Spartanburg, SC in three years, 1905 Dec 17
003/1/19
Letter, HB to EKB, on stationery headed with “Henry Bacon -- Architect
160 Fifth Avenue -- New York”. A brief complimentary note to his mother,
referring to a Sunday Tribune clipping (about himself apparently). The clipping
is not in this group of papers, 1911 Sep 4
003/1/20
Letter, HB to KBM. Relates that Frank (Francis Henry Bacon, older brother
and furniture manufacturer in Boston, MA) had “some small work to do in the
Capitol -- furnishing a room in the Senate wing.” Also states that HB is “now a
member of the Commission of Fine Arts.” 1921 Nov
2
003/1/21
Letter, Helen Hagan of William Madison Randall Library, UNCW to Elizabeth
F. McKoy, Wilmington, NC, acknowledging use and return of Bacon materials by
Library, 1969 Feb 25
Addition 1
003/1/22
1994 Feb
16 Photograph of HB's gravesite.
COPYRIGHT: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.