Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr.

Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr. (March 28, 1910 – January 7, 2001) was an American bibliophile and the director of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City from 1948 to 1969.

For other uses, see Frederick Adams (disambiguation).

Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr.
Born(1910-03-28)March 28, 1910
Greenwich, Connecticut
DiedJanuary 7, 2001(2001-01-07) (aged 90)
Chisseaux, Indre-et-Loire, France
NationalityUnited States
EducationSt. Paul's School
Alma materYale University
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Known forBibliophile
Board member ofYale University Press, Pierpont Morgan Library
Spouse(s)
Ruth Potter
​
​
(m. 1933; div. 1940)​

Betty Abbott
​
​
(m. after 1941)​

Marie-Luise, Prinzessin von Croÿ
​
​
(m. after 1969)​
Parent(s)Frederick Baldwin Adams
Ellen Walters Delano

Early life

Adams was born in Greenwich, Connecticut on March 28, 1910 and grew up in the family home at 8 East 69th Street in Manhattan and at their country home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick. He was the son of Ellen Walters (née Delano) Adams (a first cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Frederick Baldwin Adams.[1] Among his relatives were his sibling Laura Delano Adams (wife of Jack Eastman, Director of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture), and daughters Gillian Adams, and Ann Baldwin Adams.[2] Among his large extended family was great-uncle were Henry Walters, the founder of the Walters Art Museum.[3]

Adams attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire before graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale College in 1932, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.[4] After Yale, he attended Corpus Christi College in Cambridge, England.[5]

Career

After Cambridge, he worked at the Air Reduction Company, a manufacturer of oxygen, acetylene, and other gasses and oxy-acetylene cutting and welding equipment, founded by his father and uncle, among others. At the company, he researched how New Deal legislation might affect the company.[5]

From 1948 until 1969, he was director of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, succeeding Morgan's longtime librarian Belle da Costa Greene. He served as president from 1959 to 1971, Governing Board 1952–, Yale University Press; Member, Yale Corporation, 1964–71; Yale University Council, 1949–58 and President of the New-York Historical Society. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954.[6] He was president of the Grolier Club from 1947 to 1951.[5]

After his third marriage in 1969, Adams resigned from the Morgan Library and moved to Paris with his wife after their marriage. There he served at president of the Association Internationale de Bibliophile, the most prestigious organization of bibliophiles in the world.[5]

His own collection, which included the largest holdings of works by Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost and an extensive collection of writing by Karl Marx, was dispersed at Sotheby's in London in November 2001.[5]

Personal life

On June 10, 1933, Adams was married to Ruth Potter (1912–2005)[7] at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, New York. Ruth, a writer and editor, was the daughter of Roderick Potter and Eleanor (née Hotchkiss) Potter,[8] and the attendees at the wedding included Sara Delano Roosevelt, the president's mother.[9] Before their divorce on August 5, 1940, they were the parents of:[10]

  • Gillian Adams (1934–2016), who married Jerry Thomas Bidlack,[11] Kurt Heinzelman,[12] and Warner Barnes, was a teacher at the Buxton School in Williamstown and editor and publisher of Children's Literature Abstracts for the International Federation of Library Associations.[13]
  • Anne Baldwin Adams (1937–2017), who married Carl Avery Bross in 1959.[14] In 1992 she married Durno Chambers Jr. (1933–2004).

After their divorce, Ruth immediately remarried to Francis W. LaFarge in Reno, Nevada. Francis was the son of architect Christopher Grant LaFarge and the brother of writer Oliver La Farge and poet Christopher La Farge.[15] They divorced in 1945 and she married Charles Halliwell Duell of Riverside, Connecticut,[11] a founder of the publishing company Duell, Sloan and Pearce who was himself divorced in 1945.[16][17]

In 1941, Adams remarried to Betty Abbott (1917–2012), the daughter of Hunt Abbott of Wellesley, Massachusetts.[18] Together, they were the parents of two more daughters:

  • Judith Adams.
  • Lauren Adams, who married Hubert C. Fortmiller Jr. in 1967.[19][20]

He married his third wife, the Swedish princess Marie-Luise, Princess von Croÿ (b. 1919), on July 23, 1969. Marie-Luise was the daughter of Karl von Croÿ, 13th Duke of Croÿ, and the former Nancy Louise Leishman (daughter of John George Alexander Leishman, a Carnegie Steel executive who served as the United States Ambassador to Switzerland, Turkey, Germany and Italy). Her father was a nephew of Princess Isabella of Croÿ, wife of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen (who opposed her parents morganatic marriage in 1913) and Marie-Louise was married in 1941 (and divorced in 1949) from Richard E. Metz (son of Herman A. Metz),[21][22] and widowed from Horatio Nelson Slater III.[23]

He died on January 8, 2001 at his home in Chisseaux, Indre-et-Loire in France.[5]

Honors

Adams was awarded honorary degrees from his alma mater Yale, Williams College, Union College, Hofstra University, and New York University.[3]

Works
  • Radical Literature in America: An Address by Frederick B. Adams Jr., to which is Appended a Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Grolier Club in New York City Overbrook Press, 1939, 61 pages [24]
  • An Introduction to the Pierpont Morgan Library. 1964.[25]
  • Homage to the Book, written with Leonard Baskin. Westvaco Press. 1968 [26]

References
  1. "Frederic Adams, Rail Officer, Dies: Director of Several Lines, 83, Had Also Been Banker". New York Times. October 24, 1961. p. 37.
  2. "Paid Notice: Deaths EASTMAN, LAURA DELANO ADAMS". The New York Times. September 28, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  3. Bidwell, John (2001). FREDERICK BALDWIN ADAMS, JR (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. pp. 498–502. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  4. "Yale Tap Day Critic Accepts Election". The New York Times. May 15, 1931. p. 3.
  5. "Frederick Adams, 90, Morgan Library Director". The New York Times. January 25, 2001. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  6. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 1, 2011.
  7. "LENOX -- Ruth Duell, 92, of Pine Hill at Kimball Farms died Sunday at home". The Berkshire Eagle. January 19, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  8. "MISS RUTH POTTER TO BE WED JUNE 10; Bride-Elect of F. B. Adams Jr. Will Have 12 Attendants in Ceremony at Buffalo. SISTER MAID OF HONOR Wedding to Take Place in Westminster Church--Reception Will Follow at Potter Home" (PDF). The New York Times. May 29, 1933. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  9. "MISS RUTH POTTER IS WED; Becomes the Bride of F. B. Adams Jr. In Church at Buffalo" (PDF). The New York Times. June 11, 1933. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  10. "DIVORCES F. B. ADAMS; Former Ruth Potter in Reno Charged Cruelty" (PDF). The New York Times. August 6, 1940. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  11. "Gillian Adams Is Married" (PDF). The New York Times. May 4, 1955. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  12. "Fred Heinzelman, Metals Processor" (PDF). The New York Times. May 28, 1962. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  13. "ADAMS, Gillian". Austin American-Statesman. August 26, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  14. "Anne B. Adams And Carl Bross Will Be Married; Ex-Students at Barnard and Michigan Engaged -- Nuptials May 23" (PDF). The New York Times. May 4, 1959. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  15. "F. LAFARGE FACES DIVORCE". Newport Mercury. February 16, 1945. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  16. "CHARLES DUELL DIVORCED; Agreement Is Reached on Custody of Three Children" (PDF). The New York Times. January 3, 1945. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  17. "Charles H. Duell, Publisher, Is Dead" (PDF). The New York Times. July 12, 1970. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  18. "Abbott -- Adams" (PDF). The New York Times. April 20, 1941. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  19. "Lauren Adams to Be Bride Of Hubert C. Fortmiller Jr" (PDF). The New York Times. June 30, 1967. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  20. "Andover Bridal for Lauren Adams" (PDF). The New York Times. August 21, 1967. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  21. "PRINCESS CROY ENGAGED; Granddaughter of John Leishman Fiancee of Richard E. Metz" (PDF). The New York Times. February 20, 1941. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  22. "RICHARD E. METZ DIVORCED; Former Princess of Croy Gets a Decree in Reno" (PDF). The New York Times. June 12, 1949. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  23. "H. Nelson Slater, Textile Executive" (PDF). The New York Times. May 2, 1968. Retrieved August 26, 2019.
  24. Adams, F. B., Rogers, B., Overbrook Press., & Pforzheimer Bruce Rogers Collection (Library of Congress). (1939). Radical literature in America: An address. Stamford, Conn: Overbrook Press.
  25. Adams, F. B. (1964). An introduction to the Pierpont Morgan Library. New York.
  26. Adams, F. B., & Baskin, L. (1968). Homage to the book. New York: Westvaco.
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