MAUD VAN CORTLANDT TAYLOR HILL:

An Inventory of Her Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

Manuscripts Collection

OVERVIEW


	Creator:	Hill, Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor, 1870-1961, creator.
	Title:	Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill papers,
	Dates:	1777-1986.
	Language:	Materials in English, French, and Turkish.
	Abstract:	Diaries, letters, photographs, genealogical data, and other materials of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill, wife of Great Northern Railway president and chairman Louis W. Hill.
	Quantity:	9.5 cubic feet (19 boxes).
	Location:	See Detailed Description section for shelf locations.

Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor was born in Staten Island, New York, on April 11, 1870, to a wealthy family descended from early American colonists. She met Louis W. Hill, son of railroad baron James J. Hill, while living with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota. Maud began studying to become a nurse at Presbyterian Hospital in New York in 1900 but ended her schooling when she became ill with typhoid later that year. She became engaged to Louis Hill in April of 1901 and they married at the home of her brother on June 5. After a trip through Europe the couple settled on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, later moving into a newly constructed house immediately next door to the James J. Hill residence.

Maud and Louis had four children, Louis Jr., Maud, Jerome, and Cortlandt, all born between 1902 and 1906. The family split their time between their homes on Summit Avenue in St. Paul and at the North Oaks family farm. Maud was heavily involved in charity work; she and Louis founded a family foundation, later known as the Northwest Area Foundation, and she was active in the Red Cross, the Colonial Dames of America, the Schubert Club, and the Church of St. John the Evangelist in St. Paul. The Hills frequently traveled to California, Glacier National Park in Montana, New York City, St. John River in Quebec, the Caribbean, and the British Isles and continental Europe; in later years Maud regularly visited France, where her son Jerome kept a home. Maud and Louis separated in 1934 after which she maintained her own home on Portland Avenue in St. Paul. Maud died on August 23, 1961 in St. Paul.


Date	Event
1870	Born April 11 in Staten Island, New York, to Cortlandt Mulcaster Taylor and Mary Beekman Foulke Taylor.
1888	Family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, when Mr. Taylor accepted the position of secretary of the St. Paul Real Estate Title Insurance Company.
1888	Joined the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist.
1899	Family returned to New York City.
1900	Began nursing school at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York in September, but quit after becoming ill with typhoid in December.
1901	Engagement to Louis W. Hill announced on April 10.
1901	Marriage to Louis W. Hill June 5, at the home of Maud's brother Walter Taylor, 9 East 18st Street, New York, New York.
1901	Maud and Louis tour Europe on a honeymoon trip, returning to St. Paul in September.
1901	Maud and Louis moved from James J. Hill's home at 240 Summit Avenue in St. Paul to a rented house at 217 Summit Avenue.
1902	Birth of first child, Louis W. Hill, Jr., May 19.
1903	Birth of second child and only daughter, Maud Van Cortlandt Hill, June 1.
1903	Moved in December into a newly constructed home at 260 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, next door to the home of James J. Hill.
1905	Birth of third child, James Jerome Hill, II, March 2; he was always known as Jerome.
1906	Birth of fourth and final child, Cortlandt Taylor Hill, March 31.
1917	Organized a Red Cross chapter at the Church of St. John the Evangelist.
1931	Awarded the "National Patron of Honor" certificate by the Disabled American Veteran's of the World War in recognition of her work with the American Red Cross.
1934	Separated from Louis W. Hill and moved into her own home at 475 Portland Avenue, St. Paul.
1940	Purchased winter home, "Stonehill," in Palm Springs, California.
1948	Husband Louis W. Hill died April 27.
1961	Died August 23 in St. Paul, Minnesota at the age of 91.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The papers of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill document the personal life of an extremely wealthy and civic minded resident of St. Paul. The papers include records of Maud's continual travels to Europe and other locations, her family life and relations with her husband Louis W. Hill and their four children, and her work with charitable organizations including the American Red Cross, particularly during the two World Wars.

The papers also contain materials related to the Taylor family and their ancestors, including genealogical research, items which belonged to Maud's father Cortlandt Mulcaster Taylor, her mother Mary Beekman Foulke Taylor, and other relatives, and records related to Maud's participation in the Colonial Dames of America.

Also documented in the papers is Maud's friendship with Almeric Paget, Lord Queenborough, an eccentric British noble and industrialist who lived for a time in St. Paul.

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ARRANGEMENT

The papers are organized into the following sections:


	Diaries

	Correspondence

	Genealogical Material

	Financial Records

	Ephemera

	Prose and Poetry Writings

	Printed Material

	Photographs and Graphic Material

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OTHER FINDING AIDS

Inventories to the Hill Family Collection that include the papers of other family members are also available.

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Provenance:

The Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill Papers are part of the Hill Family Collection.

Major portions of this collection were previously held at the James J. Hill Reference Library. These portions were transferred to the Minnesota Historical Society in March, 2008.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 16,137

Processing Information:

Processed by: Jillian Odland, September 2009.

Work on the Hill Family Collection was supported with funds granted by the Northwest Area, Grotto, and Jerome Foundations.

Catalog ID number: 990069805040104294

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

DIARIES

Line-a-day diaries, appointment books, travel journals and other travel related volumes, noting Maud's travels in the U. S., the Caribbean, and Europe, her social activities and contacts, and her purchases.

Location

64.B.5.2

Diaries, 1901, 1907-1925, 1932-1933, 1936, 1939-1942, 1945-1953.

Location

64.B.5.3

Travel journals, 1922, 1924-1925. 2 folders.

Typed transcript of diary of family trip West, 1908.

European address books, [1913-1929].

Travel expense journals, 1924-1928.

Travel notebook, undated.

Unidentified volume, undated.

Volume is an alphabetical index of individual names with tally marks next to each name that may denote the number of calls or letters.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Primarily incoming correspondence, these letters document Maud Hill's daily life, including travel, courtship, family life, the Hills' 1901 marriage, James J. Hill's death in 1916, and the birth of Maud's children. There are large separate files of correspondence from Maud's sons Jerome and Louis Jr. and a few other small subject files.

Location

64.B.5.3

General correspondence, undated and 1846-1893. 6 folders.

Location

64.B.5.4

General correspondence, 1894-1900.

Location

64.B.5.5

General correspondence, 1901-March 1903.

Location

64.B.5.6

General correspondence, April 1903-June 17, 1905.

Location

64.B.5.7

General correspondence, June 18, 1905-1907.

Location

64.B.5.8

General correspondence, 1908-1912.

Location

64.B.5.9

General correspondence, 1913-1916.

Location

64.B.6.1

General correspondence, 1917-1935.

Location

64.B.6.2

General correspondence, 1936-1961. 11 folders.

Letters from Jerome Hill, undated and 1912-1937. 8 folders.

Location

64.B.6.3

Letters from Jerome Hill, undated and 1938-1950.

Location

64.B.6.4

Letters from Louis W. Hill, Jr. and Dorothy Hill, undated and 1916-March 16, 1943.

Location

64.B.6.5

Letters from Louis W. Hill, Jr. and Elsie Fors Hill, March 29, 1943-1958. 7 folders.

Subject Files:

Wedding of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor and Louis W. Hill, June-July 1901. 3 folders.

Charitable work with French and Turkish children, 1918-1921, 1931. 2 folders.

Visit of Queen Marie of Romania, October 26-November 2, 1926.

Family horoscopes, 1929.

Estate of Cortlandt E. Taylor, 1936-1941.

Personal health, 1939-1951.

Jewelry bequests, 1946-1963.

80th birthday, April 1950. 3 folders.

Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill papers cataloging information, [1960s-1980s].

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GENEALOGICAL MATERIAL

Series is comprised of records related to the history and genealogy of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill's ancestral families, including the Taylor, Van Cortlandt, Foulke, and Beekman families. Some of the material was collected by Maud's sons Louis Hill, Jr. and Cortlandt T. Hill and grandson Laurence Dorcy.

Location

64.A.3.4

Jephson family, 1777-1814.

Denham Jephson estate, Mallow, Ireland, 1813. 3 folders.

Jephson and Mallow Castle, Cork, Ireland, 1889-1938.

Van Cortlandt family, undated.

Van Cortlandt Manor, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, 1922-1988. 3 folders.

Taylor family, undated and 1888.

A Short History of Staten Island, 1926.

Location

64.A.4.4

Colonial Dames of America, 1896-1935.

One Family, Robert Orr Baker, 1986.

A published biography and family history of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill.

Location

64.C.6.4

Taylor family tree, undated. 2 rolled items.

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FINANCIAL RECORDS

Financial records primarily relate to the renovation and furnishing of 475 Portland Avenue, the St. Paul home Maud moved into when she separated from Louis Hill in 1934. Additional documents related to the finances of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill, including vouchers and records of trusts and bank accounts, can be found in the Louis W. Hill papers.

Location

64.A.4.4

475 Portland Avenue construction invoices, March-November 1934. 5 folders.

Furnishings and jewelry invoices, 1933-1955. 2 folders.

Insurance policies, 1959-1962.

Tax receipts, expense sheets, charitable contributions, 1936-1957.

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EPHEMERA

Most of the ephemera was at some point separated from Maud Hill's general correspondence files. The ephemera includes material collected by Maud and relating to her, her father, and Lord Queenborough.

Location

64.A.4.4

Personal material, 1896-1937.

Includes passport, hunting license, rail pass, confirmation card.

Cortlandt M. Taylor material, 1846-1872.

Certificates/awards, [1918]-1946.

Invitations, 1893-1928.

Calling and gift enclosure cards, 1902-1915. 6 folders.

On occasions of births of children and hospital stays.

Business cards, New York and Paris merchants, undated. 2 folders.

Removed from a leather wallet.

Location

64.A.4.5

Greeting cards, undated and 1901-1953. 4 folders.

The Royal Society of St. George, London, England, 1938-1947.

Miscellaneous, 1916-1948.

Location

64.C.6.4

Poster print of Lord Queenborough, undated. 1 rolled item.

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PROSE AND POETRY WRITINGS

Series is comprised of hand written and typed manuscripts on looseleaf sheets and in bound journals including short stories and poems. Some of the material is attributed to friends of Maud but for much of writing the author is unknown.

Location

64.A.4.5

Unidentified manuscript, undated.

A Dramatic Tale, undated.

Little Miss Moneybags, undated.

A Dramatic Tale, undated.

The Wrong Man, undated.

Maria F. Gibson poetry albums, 1856-1872. 2 volumes in folder.

Albums include hand copied poems and original verses.

Writings of Kenelm Winslow, M.D., 1940.

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PRINTED MATERIAL

Printed material including published works of non-fiction and poetry, religious volumes, and periodicals, are from the library of Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill as indicated by her personalized book plate in each. Some of the volumes had previously belonged to her relatives including her father and grandmother. Series includes one folder of clippings.

Location

64.A.4.5

Clippings, 1903-[1944].

Pocket Medical Dictionary, 1900. 1 volume in folder.

May have been used by Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor during her nursing training.

Dover-Ostend timetable, May 1901. 1 volume in folder.

World War I pamphlets, 1916-1917.

Newsweek magazine, June 12, 1950.

Location

64.A.4.6

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and Other Poems by Thomas Gray, 1853. 1 volume in folder.

Volume given to Mary Beekman Foulke in 1854.

Cortlandt M. Taylor prayer book and bible, 1838, 1846. 2 volumes in folder.

Lydia Foulke and Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill prayer books, undated and 1868. 2 volumes in folder.

Location

64.A.2.3

Religious pamphlets, 1922-1943.

Books from Lord Queenborough, 1943-1945. 4 volumes in 2 folders.

Volumes on religious, historical, and political topics by various authors.

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PHOTOGRAPHS AND GRAPHIC MATERIAL

Series is comprised of photographs and other graphic material, primarily picture postcards. The topics represented in the images include Maud Van Cortlandt Taylor Hill, her family members and friends, and their travels. Many of these items were separated from the General Correspondence and related documents may be found there. The photographs were once part of the Louis W. Hill papers and are numbered in sequence with the photographs remaining there.

Location

Image

64.A.2.3

5968

Olaf Stevense Van Cortlandt, 1638.

Photograph of a painting by Henri Conturier, painted in 1638. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.