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Collection Data
- Description
- Gilbert Holland Montague (1880-1961) was a lawyer in New York City who served as a consultant to oil corporations in anti-trust matters. In 1953 he was appointed to the U.S. Attorney General's committee to study anti-trust laws. He was active in the American Bar Association and wrote on economic and legal topics. Also, he was an authority on Emily Dickinson to whom he was related. His wife, Amy Angell Collier Montague (1873-1941), was involved with the American Committee for Devastated France. Her parents were Caroline Frances Angell Collier and Peter Collier (1835-1896), an agricultural chemist who served as chief chemist of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture from 1867 to 1877 and director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, N.Y. from 1887 to 1895. Collection consists of correspondence, legal and financial documents, and writings, principally of Gilbert Holland Montague, his wife and her parents. Montague's family correspondence, 1907-1915, includes incoming letters from his mother and siblings. General correspondence, 1907-1960, is mainly incoming letters from associates and colleagues. Financial and legal documents and writings constitute the remainder of this series. Amy Montague's family correspondence, 1883-1941, contains letters from her husband (some from the courtship period before their marriage in 1907) and from her mother and her cousins; general correspondence; financial documents; notes; and notebooks, scrapbooks and sketchbooks. Peter Collier's papers consist of family correspondence; general correspondence, 1874-1904; legal and financial documents; notes; laboratory notebooks; and assorted materials. Caroline Collier series contains family correspondence, 1869-1907; general correspondence, 1863-1911; financial documents; notebooks, address books and cookbooks; photographs (ca. 1890s to early 1940s); sketchbooks; and record album.
- Names
- Montague-Collier Family (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1863 - 1960
- Library locations
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Shelf locator: MssCol 2036
- Genres
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Documents
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: The Montague-Colliers are distinguished families connected through the marriage of Gilbert Holland Montague and Amy Angell Collier. Gilbert Holland Montague, lawyer and autograph collector, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on May 27, 1880 to Helen (Perry) Montague and Dwight Billings Montague. Montague graduated from Harvard College, summa cum laude (1901); M. S. (1902) and Harvard Law School (1904). He taught economics for three years at Harvard College and practiced law with the firm Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett of New York City before setting up his own practice.
As part of his law practice Montague served as consultant to oil corporations in anti-trust matters. He appeared frequently before the United States Senate and the House of Representatives pro bono public. Montague advocated less stringent application of the laws against business monopolies.
In 1953, Herbert Brownell Jr., then United States Attorney General, appointed Montague to the Attorney General Committee to study Anti-trust laws. Montague was chairman of the anti-trust division of the section of corporation, business law, and vice chairman of the committee on monopolies and restraints of trade for the American Bar Association. His publications on economic and legal topics include Trusts of Today (1903).
Montague was an authority on Emily Dickinson to whom he was related. He donated his Emily Dickinson collection to Houghton Library at Harvard University. The New York Public Library received the Montague-Collier Family Papers, the Gilbert H. Montague Collection, a portrait of William Butler Yeats and the Fulton Collection. Montague married Amy Angell Collier in 1907. There were no children. He died on February 6, 1961.
Amy Angell Collier Montague was born on 1873 in Burlington, Vermont to Caroline Frances (Angell) Collier and Peter Collier. She was educated in Washington, D. C. and also at the Art League in New York City. She was actively involved with the American Committee for Devastated France. An avid horticulturalist, Montague served as president of the Garden Club of Mount Desert. She died from a cerebral brain hemorrhage on September 23, 1941, at the Montague estate in Beaulieu, Maine. She was 68 years old.
Montague was survived by her husband Gilbert and her cousin Amy Aldrich. Amy Montague's family included her uncle President James B. Angell of the University of Michigan; her cousins Richard Aldrich music critic for The New York Times. James Rowland Angell, president of Yale (1921-1927), and Chester H. Aldrich, Director of the American Academy in Rome.
Peter Collier was an agricultural chemist. He graduated from Yale College (1861) and continued graduate studies in chemistry while receiving a doctorate of Philosophy. From 1867 to 1877, Collier served as Chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. During this period, he published a comprehensive work on the problem of sugar production and the cultivation of sorghum. In 1887 he was appointed Director of the New York State Agricultural Experiment station at Geneva, New York where he remained until overcome by illness. Collier died in 1896, and was survived by his wife Caroline Frances Angell, a sister of James Burrell Angell, and his children.
- Content: The papers, 1861-1951, document the wealthy and prominent Montague and Collier families who were connected through marriage. The papers principally reflect the professional and social lives of Gilbert H. Montague, Amy Angell Collier Montague, Peter Collier and Caroline Frances Angell Collier.
Dominant in the collection is correspondence between family members, particularly the letters of Gilbert H. Montague to his wife Amy. These letters 1902-1940, cover their courtship period and marriage. Other papers include notes, laboratory notebooks of the agricultural chemist Peter Collier, cookbooks and assorted financial documents and photographs. The photographs are circa 1890s with a few from the early 1940s. Many of the pictures serve as excellent examples of dress worn during the 1890s, especially clothing worn by upper-income women. Also included are photographs of a procession of the Barnum circus on horseback; nude and seminude women; exteriors and interiors of houses, American soldiers in the Philippines during the 1900s; as well as snapshots of a European tour, including a visit to the Mediterranean sea area.
- Acquisition: Gift of Gilbert H. Montague C1960.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 37 linear feet (86 boxes and 3 scrapbooks)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b11635613
- MSS Unit ID: 2036
- RLIN/OCLC: NYPW92-A216
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 80bc0530-8669-0139-db39-0242ac110002
