William Cullen Bryant Articles

By Carol L. Clarke September/October 2018 Note: In 1866, William Cullen Bryant purchased the farm in Cummington, Massachusetts where he had spent his childhood. He planned to create a retreat in the Berkshire Mountains, where his invalid wife, Fanny (Frances...

By Carol L. Clarke Happy New Year to all Bryant Library patrons, especially those who visited the Bryant Room over the past year — whether you came with a question about an aspect of Roslyn’s past, were propelled by an...

By Myrna Sloam On January 22, 1842, British author Charles Dickens (1812-1870) arrived in Boston on his first trip to America, and was greeted with great enthusiasm. Although not quite thirty years old, he had already written “Sketches by Boz,”...

By Myrna Sloam In May of 1857 William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) and his wife Frances (1797-1866) sailed for Europe, on what would be their last trip abroad. They were accompanied by their daughter Julia (1831-1907) and one of her friends...

By Myrna Sloam Having successfully managed the New York Evening Post newspaper from 1829 through 1832, journalist and poet William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) began a series of travels. He visited his brother in Illinois and then went to northern New...

By Myrna Sloam William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) purchased Cedarmere in Roslyn Harbor in 1843, as a country home. This poem, written at Cedarmere, and published in Harper’s Weekly in May 1857, not only extolls the joys of Spring, but invites...

By Myrna Sloam November 3rd 2012 marks the 218th birthday of William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), founder of the “Reading Room” in Roslyn, which in 1878, became the Bryant Library. Although Bryant’s influence as poet and social activist may have waned...

By Myrna Sloam As Editor and part owner of the New York Evening Post newspaper for nearly fifty years, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was in a unique position to express his views on social and political matters. Although remembered today...

By Myrna Sloam Always concerned with the promotion of the arts, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) delivered this speech on December 29, 1856. It can be found in the book, “Orations and Addresses” by William Cullen Bryant. NY: Putnam, 1873. The...

By Myrna Sloam The following is excerpted from an 1899 article written by Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), best known as the author of Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). It is interesting to note that like William Cullen Bryant...

By Myrna Sloam Remembered locally as the Roslyn area’s most prominent former resident, and as the founder of the Roslyn “Reading Room,” which later became the Bryant Library, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) was known internationally as a poet, journalist, and...

By Myrna Sloam March 25, 2011 was the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire which killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, in lower Manhattan. Out of this tragedy came an increased public awareness of working conditions in...

By Myrna Sloam November 3rd 2009 is the 215th birthday of William Cullen Bryant. Remembered in Roslyn as the founder of the first Reading Room (which later became the Bryant Library) and as an early resident of Roslyn Harbor, Bryant...

This article by former LHC Archivist Myrna Sloam was originally published in the November/December 2004 Bryant Library Newsletter. In this current presidential election year, it is fitting to recall another significant American election. In 1860, noted journalist and poet William...

By Myrna Sloam  To those of us in Roslyn, William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) is remembered as the founder of the Reading Room, which later became the Bryant Library. Bryant’s interests and influences were however, far broader. The following editorial, written...