The John Hay collection documents the life of John Milton Hay (1838-1905), Brown Class of 1858, and consists of two major components: a collection of books and Hay's personal papers.
The John Hay book collection comprises approximately 2,000 books by or about Hay and his period. Much of this material was given by members of the Hay family.
John Hay's desk is also housed in the Brown University Library. The desk used by John Hay is a partner desk with space for two people to work opposite each other. It was a gift to the Library by Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney (Mrs. John Hay Whitney). Her husband, John Hay's grandson, had inherited the desk and used it as his own. The John Hay desk is on view in the Bruhn Room (2nd floor) at the John Hay Library (as of January 2025).
Photograph of John Hay sitting in office chair
John Milton Hay was born Oct. 8, 1838, in Salem, Indiana, and raised in Illinois, the third son of Dr. Charles Hay and his wife Helen (nee Leonard). In 1851 John went to an academy at Pittsfield in Pike County, where he met an older student, John G. Nicolay, who would play an important role in Hay's later career.
In 1852, John Hay attended Concordia College at Springfield, Illinois (later Illinois State University); but three years later he was sent to Brown, from which his maternal grandfather, David Augustus Leonard, had graduated as a member of the Class of 1792. At Brown, Hay was admitted to advanced standing and could have finished college in 1857, but finding himself behind in some areas, he wrote home that he preferred to pursue a more leisurely pace so as "to avail myself of the literary treasures of the libraries." While at Brown, Hay came under the influence of Sarah Helen Whitman and Nora Perry, and was received into their literary circle. Appointed Class Poet, he read a poem of his own composition entitled "Erato" at Class Day (June 10, 1858) of his senior year, captivating his audience.
Following his graduation from Brown that year with an M.A. degree, Hay found himself in Springfield, studying law in the office of his uncle Milton Hay. Fortuitously, Milton Hay's office was next door to the law office of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was persuaded by his secretary, John Nicolay, to hire Hay as an assistant private secretary, and Hay thus became a member of the White House household. Early in 1864, Hay was named Assistant Adjutant-general in the Army and detailed to the White House with the successive ranks of major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel.
Hay's marriage in 1874 to Clara L. Stone, daughter of wealthy Amasa Stone of Cleveland, would assure him financial independence and change his life. He resigned from the Tribune and moved to Cleveland to conduct the financial affairs of his father-in-law, and found himself free to resume writing. He and John Nicolay began their monumental ten volume work, Abraham Lincoln: a History which was finally published in 1890. He also authored the novel The Breadwinners (1884) which attacked the rising trade union movement. In 1878, however, he moved back to Washington to join the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State during the Hayes administration. There, he and Henry Adams occupied adjoining town houses designed by H. H. Richardson at 800 Sixteenth Street, N.W., across from the White House. In 1881, while Whitelaw Reid was in Europe, Hay served as editor of the Tribune; then, having decided to give up politics, he began his own travels. For the next dozen years, Hay continued to be involved in domestic political affairs as a private citizen.
When his friend William McKinley was elected president in 1896, Hay's political star grew brighter; he was appointed ambassador to Great Britain the following year, where he was much admired and succeeded in improving American relations with Britain. In September 1898, he was brought back to Washington to take up the post of Secretary of State, which he held until his death.
The stressful events of the next few years - the end of the Spanish-American War, the "Open Door" policy in China, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, the Alaska boundary treaty, and the Panama Canal treaty - eventually took their toll, and Hay, who had been in ill health for most of this time, died at his summer home, "The Fells," on the shores of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, on July 1, 1905.
The John Hay papers consist of over 9,100 items, encompassing Hay's correspondence with his family and with literary, diplomatic, and political contemporaries; diaries kept by Hay as Lincoln's White House aide and as Secretary of the Legations in Paris, Vienna, and Madrid, 1866-1870; manuscript poems; galley proofs; personal letterpress copy books; photographs of Hay, his family, and various political figures; political cartoons; sound recordings; and a small collection of objects. Subjects include: Civil War; Lincoln and his administration; Reconstruction; court life in Paris; the bi-metal monetary standard; the Canadian boundary settlement; the fur seal question; Japanese naval activity; Chinese-American relations; the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars; British and American politics. See the online finding aid for further details on the archival records.
In July of 1905, John Milton Hay (Class of 1858, perhaps the most famous Brown graduate of his day) died in office as U.S. Secretary of State. The following year his widow, Clara Stone Hay, presented 400 books and manuscripts from Hay's personal library to Brown. These books include many volumes which are inscribed to John Hay. These books can be searched for in the Library's catalog as the John Hay Personal Library Collection.
Portions of the papers have been microfilmed. There is a separate finding aid for the microfilm version of the collection. See the online finding aid for further details on the microfilm.
The John Hay Papers, 1829-1916 contains original photographs. See the online finding aid for additional information about the original photographs. Browse the digitized photographs using the Brown Digital Repository.
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