William Page and Page Family papers, 1815-1947, bulk 1843-1892

This series contains essays, lectures, notes, notebooks, diaries, and poems written by William Page, Sophia Page, their family and associates. William Page's writings include handwritten essays and lectures on art subjects, annotated page proofs of published articles, notes, notebooks, and poetry. The extensive writings of Page's wife, Sophia Candace Page, include multiple revisions of her husband's essays and lectures as well as her own writings, including a series of travel essays written in the 1850s and published in the New York Tribune and other newspapers. Clippings of her columns are found in Printed Materials. Writings by the Page's children and Sophia Page's first husband, Stephen W. Hitchcock, are also found. The subject of writings in this series are described in greater detail in the folder list, below. Titles listed in quotation marks are taken from the original documents.

The papers are interspersed with notes written by Page's son, granddaughter, and biographer, Joshua Taylor, about items found within the collection. Joshua Taylor conducted research in a portion of the Page papers around 1949, and the papers include a list of the manuscripts he identified, filed under his name. Taylor's notes for individual items are filed with the manuscripts they describe. Other notes written by Taylor are found with Sophia Page's large notebook and letter book of the 1860s to 1880s.

Authorship of writings in this series is complicated by Sophia Page's effort to edit and compile her husband's writings for publication in the late 1870s. Multiple versions and fragments of William Page's essays and lectures therefore exist in Sophia Page's handwriting and other handwritings, possibly of the Page children and Rose Durfee of the National Academy, who assisted Sophia Page in her efforts. Because of Taylor's observation that Sophia Page's versions of these writings contain substantial paraphrasing and additions, they have been filed under her name. Manuscripts of works attributed to William Page, but which appear to be in Sophia Page's handwriting, are filed with William Page's writings. Other items written by William Page have been annotated by Sophia Page. The nature of Sophia and William Page's collaboration on these writings is unknown.

Additional notes are found in Biographical Materials, Personal Business Records, and Artwork. See series descriptions for further details.