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Gilder mss., 1781-1984
Biographical Note
Richard Watson Gilder, 1844–1909, was born in Bordentown, New Jersey. Among Richard
Gilder's books of poetry are
The New Day (1875),
Poems and Inscriptions (1901), and
A Book of Music (1906). With Newton Crane, he founded the Newark
Register and he edited
Scribner's
Monthly
(later
The Century Magazine), a post
he held until his death. His brother William Henry Gilder was managing editor of the
Register, but is most well–known for his Arctic
expeditions. He was second in command on the
Eothen in
search of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to discover the North Pole and wrote
several books about the Arctic. In 1883 he was a war correspondent in Tonking during
the French–Annamese War. Richard's sister Jeannette Leonard Gilder was co–founder
and joint editor with another brother Joseph Benson Gilder of
The Critic, a literary magazine.
His wife, Helena, 1846–1916, was born in New York City. She was a painter, founder of
the Art Students league and co–founder of the Society of American Artists. She
studied with Winslow Homer and John La Farge, as well as at the Cooper Union
Institute and the National Academy of Design. Together Richard and Helena had seven
children. Their son Rodman was an author and married Comfort Tiffany, daughter of
Louis Comfort Tiffany. Their daughter Dorothea had a brief stage career, while
Rosamond, the youngest, also became a writer. She was the author of
Enter the Actress: the First Woman in the Theatre and the
editor of
Letters of Richard Watson Gilder and an
unpublished volume of letters between her mother and Mary Hallock Foote, tentatively
titled
Dialogue.
