Moses Coit Tyler collection, 1779-1900-(bulk 1850-1900)
Collection Number: 14-17-2641

American scholar, Congregationalist minister from 1859-1862, professor of English 1867-1881 at University of Michigan, then the first professor of American history, at Cornell University from 1881-1900. Pioneered in the scholarly study of American literature; helped to found the American Historical Association in 1884.

Correspondence, diaries, manuscripts, clippings, and documents by, to or about Moses Coit Tyler, richly documenting his personal and family life, his religious and scholarly pursuits, and the reception of his scholarly work. Includes correspondence among many members of Tyler's family, ranging in date from 1779-1899; drafts of sermons, lectures, and speeches Tyler gave, including an 1871 speech, "Woman is a Person"; diaries Tyler kept from 1858-1859 and 1870-1899; manuscripts (mainly letters) of prominent Americans; and commonplace books in which Tyler recorded quotations, kept from 1853-1855 and 1857-1861. Also included are reviews of and personal letters about Tyler's books A History of American Literature During the Colonial Time, 1607-1765; The Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763-1783; Patrick Henry; Three Men of Letters; and Glimpses of England. Correspondence includes letters from Tyler to his wife Jeannette in which he records his and other people's reactions to the events of the Civil War.

Correspondents include Charles Kendall Adams, J.B. Angell, M.D. Conway, Willard Fiske, S.S. Harris, Paul Hamilton Hayne, G.H. Putnam, H.W. Sage, Jacob Gould Schurman, Edmund Clarence Stedman, T. Tilton, and A.D. White. Family correspondents include Roland Greene, Mary Greene Tyler, Charles C. Tyler, John Tyler, Elisha Tyler, Olive Tyler, Rebecca Tyler, and Jeannette Tyler. Manuscripts collected by Tyler include letters by John Trumbull, Nathaniel Niles, and William Wirt Henry, with 2 letters by Daniel Webster and an autograph essay by Abbé Raynal, "Nouvelle Angleterre."

Most of the correspondence and reviews, and all of the manuscripts Tyler collected, are bound in scrapbooks; diaries and lecture notes are also bound.

Moses Coit Tyler collection, #14-17-2641. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.