Dear reader, I have – for the most part – wrapped up the reporting on my jam-packed whirlwind Dickinson-themed road trip from last month, with stops in New York City, Boston, Medford, and Amherst…
 | …and all of the posts are linked along with plenty of pics and slide shows on my travelogue, “Dial ‘Em’ for Emily,” HERE. I say “for the most part” because various future posts will be “spin offs” related to the fact-finding funtabulistic investigatory research I conducted at the various stops on my trip. For example, assorted posts on details linked to my perusal of the 1924 edition of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson at the New York Public Library will be forthcoming. And another example – today’s post on the Montague family lineage as related to she who was at the heart of my exploratory excursion. ’Twas Lady Capulet who, in Act 3, Scene 1, of Romeo and Juliet, uttered the line, “He is a kinsman to the Montague” – and now, here, in this epilogue of sorts to my midsummer excursion, I audaciously transform the line into a question: “He is a kinsman to the Montague?” Have I rendered you bewildered, dear reader? Bothered? Bewitched? Here’s the scoop. |
Just two days ago, I penned a posted entitled “Bits and Pieces – and a Puzzlement” (HERE). I focused on the ED artifacts on display at the Frost Library at Amherst College, and I mentioned George Montague:
“George William Montague (1836) was an Amherst neighbor and relative whom Emily Dickinson affectionately called ‘Cousin.’ He and his wife, Sarah, occasionally exchanged baked goods and notes with Dickinson.”
In that same post, just mere lines later, I typed this:
“And then in 1950, this happened: ‘The world's largest collection of Emily Dickinson poems-including autograph drafts of 958 of her works-has been presented to Houghton Library. The donor is Gilbert Holland Montague '01, New York lawyer and bibliophile.’”
George Montague? Gilbert Montague?
My brain went to work:
“George William Montague (1836) was an Amherst neighbor and relative whom Emily Dickinson affectionately called ‘Cousin.’ He and his wife, Sarah, occasionally exchanged baked goods and notes with Dickinson.”
In that same post, just mere lines later, I typed this:
“And then in 1950, this happened: ‘The world's largest collection of Emily Dickinson poems-including autograph drafts of 958 of her works-has been presented to Houghton Library. The donor is Gilbert Holland Montague '01, New York lawyer and bibliophile.’”
George Montague? Gilbert Montague?
My brain went to work:
I ran to the kitchen to check for any baked goods we might have on hand. Hmm…George Montague? Gilbert Montague? There was something about those two names! Just as I spied a slice of banana bread in the pantry, my brain clicked.
Aha! Was Gilbert Holland Montague, he with the collection, related to George William Montague, he with the baked goods and delightful cakes?
I could not find much on the two at first, so I turned to two super-hero librarians/archivists I’d met on my journey for help – Mimi at the Frost Library, where I encountered the artifact associated with George Montague, and Kyle at the New York Public Library. Turns out that the NYPL is home to the Gilbert Holland Montague collection of Robert Fulton manuscripts, and their website included this information:
“Gilbert Holland Montague was born in 1880 in Springfield, Massachusetts. After receiving degrees from Harvard in economics and law Montague became a foremost practitioner of antitrust law….In addition to his legal work Montague was a lifelong collector of manuscripts and rare books. His collection consisted of over 15,000 books, 20,000 pamphlets and included a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta.”
That detail about Springfield, Massachusetts sure made it seem probable that the two Montagues were kin.
From Kyle at the NYPD, I heard this:
“We do have some family papers of the Montague-Collier families as you note. Additionally, a line in the bio reads ‘Also, he was an authority on Emily Dickinson to whom he was related,’ so I can confirm that as well with you. So it appears they are indeed *possibly* related.”
He also referred met to his “wonderful” librarian colleagues in the Milstein Division here, who focus on tracing family histories, so I will follow up with them soon to see if they can provide any additional details.
Mimi at the Frost library shared this, from the "History and Genealogy of the Montague Family in America":
“Both George and Gilbert are in the book (the latter just barely as he was a 5 or 6 year old at the time of publication), but it seems that although they're cousins, you'd have to go way, way back to find the common ancestor. If you go to the beginning of this book, you'll find that it takes you back to the Montagues of France and England, all the way through the Plantagenets and Yorks and Lancasters – to America. Two different lines lead to George and Gilbert. So, yes, cousins – and I'd guess they would've regarded each other as cousins just based on sharing the name, even if they didn't know the specifics – but very distant ones.”
Mimi also provided these pages from the book. On the left, info on George Montague, son of Luke Montague. On the right, there are the bottom, Gilbert Holland Montague is listed at the son of Dwight Billings Montague.
Aha! Was Gilbert Holland Montague, he with the collection, related to George William Montague, he with the baked goods and delightful cakes?
I could not find much on the two at first, so I turned to two super-hero librarians/archivists I’d met on my journey for help – Mimi at the Frost Library, where I encountered the artifact associated with George Montague, and Kyle at the New York Public Library. Turns out that the NYPL is home to the Gilbert Holland Montague collection of Robert Fulton manuscripts, and their website included this information:
“Gilbert Holland Montague was born in 1880 in Springfield, Massachusetts. After receiving degrees from Harvard in economics and law Montague became a foremost practitioner of antitrust law….In addition to his legal work Montague was a lifelong collector of manuscripts and rare books. His collection consisted of over 15,000 books, 20,000 pamphlets and included a 14th century copy of the Magna Carta.”
That detail about Springfield, Massachusetts sure made it seem probable that the two Montagues were kin.
From Kyle at the NYPD, I heard this:
“We do have some family papers of the Montague-Collier families as you note. Additionally, a line in the bio reads ‘Also, he was an authority on Emily Dickinson to whom he was related,’ so I can confirm that as well with you. So it appears they are indeed *possibly* related.”
He also referred met to his “wonderful” librarian colleagues in the Milstein Division here, who focus on tracing family histories, so I will follow up with them soon to see if they can provide any additional details.
Mimi at the Frost library shared this, from the "History and Genealogy of the Montague Family in America":
“Both George and Gilbert are in the book (the latter just barely as he was a 5 or 6 year old at the time of publication), but it seems that although they're cousins, you'd have to go way, way back to find the common ancestor. If you go to the beginning of this book, you'll find that it takes you back to the Montagues of France and England, all the way through the Plantagenets and Yorks and Lancasters – to America. Two different lines lead to George and Gilbert. So, yes, cousins – and I'd guess they would've regarded each other as cousins just based on sharing the name, even if they didn't know the specifics – but very distant ones.”
Mimi also provided these pages from the book. On the left, info on George Montague, son of Luke Montague. On the right, there are the bottom, Gilbert Holland Montague is listed at the son of Dwight Billings Montague.
 |  |
By the way, after some additional sleuthing on my own, I tracked down Gilbert Holland Montague’s obituary in the New York Times, and the article includes this line:
“Mr. Montague was an authority on the writings of Emily Dickinson, of whom he was a collateral relative.”
“Mr. Montague was an authority on the writings of Emily Dickinson, of whom he was a collateral relative.”
 | Here's the complete obituary: Gilbert H. Montague, one of the country's authorities on antitrust law, and a collector of manuscripts, died of a heart ailment Saturday night at his home, 152 East Thirty-seventh Street. His age was 80. Much of Mr. Montague's large law practice had been as a consultant to oil corporations in antitrust matters. He frequently made public statements or appeared before legislative groups in opposition to attempts to extend the functions of antitrust laws. Various branches of the Standard Oil interests were among Mr. Montague's better known clients. Gilbert Holland Montague was born at Springfield, Mass., on May 27, 1880. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Harvard in 1901. While studying at the Harvard Law School, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, Mr. Montague taught economics at Harvard. Franklin D. Roosevelt was among his students. Mr. Montague was admitted to the New York Bar in 1904 and opened a law office of his own in 1910. From the beginning he practiced antitrust law. |
Gave Testimony in Capital
Mr. Montague was a familiar figure before administrative agencies in Washington in connection with antitrust cases. In later years he was often called upon by members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives for what are called pro bono publico (for the public good) opinions. He made many addresses on these and similar subjects before universities and bar associations and he headed numerous groups that advocated less stringent application of the laws against business monopolies.
In 1953, Herbert Brownell Jr., then United States Attorney General, appointed Mr. Montague to the Attorney General's Committee to Study Antitrust Laws. Two years later the committee submitted a 405 page report, on which much of the work was done by Mr. Montague. Mr. Montague was an authority on the writings of Emily Dickinson, of whom he was a collateral relative. Many questions about her that had piqued the curiosity of generations of poetry lovers were solved through the study of a collection of her letters and manuscripts made available to scholars by Mr. Montague in 1950.
Mr. Montague gave the collection, including more than 900 letters and manuscript poems, many books from the poet's library and items of her furniture, to the Houghton Library of Harvard University, where they are now preserved in the Emily Dickinson Room. He gave Harvard several other valuable gifts, including a fourteenth-century copy of the Magna Charta, the Hugo von Hofmannstahl collection of manuscripts, and a portrait of William Butler Yeats by Charles Shannon. To the New York Public Library, Mr. Montague gave his Robert Fulton collection.
Active in National Group
In the American Bar Association, Mr. Montague had been chairman of the antitrust division of the section of corporation, banking and business law and vice chairman of the committee on monopolies and restraints of trade. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hancock County (Me.) Public Reservations and of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical Garden. He was a fellow and lifetime patron of the Morgan Library.
For many years Mr. Montague maintained a home, Beaulieu, in Seal Harbor, Me. The extensive gardens that surrounded this residence were visited by amateur and professional gardeners from many parts of the world.
Beaulieu was destroyed by fire in January, 1956. After clearing up the ravages of fire, Mr. Montague gave the property to Colby College. The college sold it to Governor Rockefeller. In 1907, Mr. Montague married Amy Angell Collier. She died in 1941.
Mr. Montague was a familiar figure before administrative agencies in Washington in connection with antitrust cases. In later years he was often called upon by members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives for what are called pro bono publico (for the public good) opinions. He made many addresses on these and similar subjects before universities and bar associations and he headed numerous groups that advocated less stringent application of the laws against business monopolies.
In 1953, Herbert Brownell Jr., then United States Attorney General, appointed Mr. Montague to the Attorney General's Committee to Study Antitrust Laws. Two years later the committee submitted a 405 page report, on which much of the work was done by Mr. Montague. Mr. Montague was an authority on the writings of Emily Dickinson, of whom he was a collateral relative. Many questions about her that had piqued the curiosity of generations of poetry lovers were solved through the study of a collection of her letters and manuscripts made available to scholars by Mr. Montague in 1950.
Mr. Montague gave the collection, including more than 900 letters and manuscript poems, many books from the poet's library and items of her furniture, to the Houghton Library of Harvard University, where they are now preserved in the Emily Dickinson Room. He gave Harvard several other valuable gifts, including a fourteenth-century copy of the Magna Charta, the Hugo von Hofmannstahl collection of manuscripts, and a portrait of William Butler Yeats by Charles Shannon. To the New York Public Library, Mr. Montague gave his Robert Fulton collection.
Active in National Group
In the American Bar Association, Mr. Montague had been chairman of the antitrust division of the section of corporation, banking and business law and vice chairman of the committee on monopolies and restraints of trade. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hancock County (Me.) Public Reservations and of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical Garden. He was a fellow and lifetime patron of the Morgan Library.
For many years Mr. Montague maintained a home, Beaulieu, in Seal Harbor, Me. The extensive gardens that surrounded this residence were visited by amateur and professional gardeners from many parts of the world.
Beaulieu was destroyed by fire in January, 1956. After clearing up the ravages of fire, Mr. Montague gave the property to Colby College. The college sold it to Governor Rockefeller. In 1907, Mr. Montague married Amy Angell Collier. She died in 1941.
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