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Colket and Van der Poel Papers

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Archives, Washington, D.C.

Repository: Dumbarton Oaks Archives, Washington, D.C.

Call Number: Dumbarton Oaks History/Colket and Van Der Poel Files

Location: Archives 058, SUC, 02, boxes 1 and 2, and SUA, 04, box 54

Name of Creator(s): Meredith B. Colket, Jr. and Peter G. Van der Poel

Title: Colket and Van der Poel Papers

Inclusive Date: ca. 1955 to 1958

Language(s): English

Quantity: 13 folders (including folder 1, Finding Aid) housed in 3 boxes

 

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information: These papers came to Dumbarton Oaks from Meredith B. Colket, Jr. on October 15, 1958.

Processing Information: The papers were inventoried by James N. Carder in 1999–2000.

Terms of Use and Access: These papers can be used for research and publication purposes.

Physical Access: An appointment is required for access to these papers. For appointment and queries, fill out the online form.

Preferred Citation: Colket and Van der Poel Papers, Dumbarton Oaks Archives. Courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.

 

Historical Note

Meredith Bright Colket, Jr. (1912–1985) and Peter G. van der Poel (also Vander Poel) were genealogists. In 1957, Meredith B. Colket, Jr. became Director of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. In 1955, Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss engaged them to research the ownership history of the land and property that the Blisses named Dumbarton Oaks. Their research, which comprises the Colket and Van der Poel Papers, was the basis for Walter Muir Whitehill’s book, Dumbarton Oaks, The History of a Georgetown House and Garden, 1800–1966 (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967).

 

Scope and Content

The Colket and Van der Poel Papers contain their notes, correspondence, photographs, and transcriptions of historical documents related to the ownership history of the land and buildings of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

 

Collection Inventory and Description

Box 1 (SUC, 02)

Folder 1: Finding Aid

Folder 2: Correspondence between Meredith B. Colket, Jr. and Peter G. Van der Poel and with Robert Woods Bliss, Catherine A. Hasson, Secretary to Robert Woods Bliss, and Dorothy S. Coleman.

Folder 3: Photographs of individuals related to the ownership history of Dumbarton Oaks.

Folder 4: Meredith B. Colket, Jr.’s notes and transcriptions of documents related to the ownership history of Dumbarton Oaks.

Folder 5: Miscellaneous notes, correspondence, and transcriptions related to the ownership history of Dumbarton Oaks.

Folder 6: Miscellaneous notes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photostats, and transcriptions related to the ownership history of Dumbarton Oaks.

Folder 7: Draft manuscript (two copies) of Meredith B. Colket, Jr.’s history of Dumbarton Oaks: I. The Rock of Dumbarton, II. William Hammond Dorsey, Builder of the Mansion, III. Robert Beverley, Virginia Aristocrat, who Named the Mansion Acrolophos, IV. The Beverley Children and the Sale of Acrolophos, V. The Residence of John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War and Vice-President, VI. Brooke Mackall, Georgetown Customs House Official, VII. “Monterey” Renamed “The Oaks”, Home of the Georgetown Merchant, Edward Magruder Linthicum, VIII. The Dents at “The Oaks”, IX The Blounts and a Period of Great Hospitality.

Box 2 (SUC, 02)

Folder 8: Second draft manuscript (two copies) of Meredith B. Colket, Jr.’s history of Dumbarton Oaks.

Folder 9: Miscellaneous notes and correspondence belonging to Mildred Barnes Bliss and a typescript copy of Alexandra Armstrong, “The History of Dumbarton Oaks,” Senior Thesis, October 2, 1960.

Folder 10: Miscellaneous notes and correspondence belonging to Robert Woods Bliss including copies of Marie MacNeil’s Ninian Beall and the “Rock of Dumbarton” (s.l., s.d), Andrew Mair’s Dumbarton Castle, Historical and Descriptive Notes (Dumbarton: Bennett & Thomson, Printers, s.d. [ca. 1916]), and R. S. Rait’s “Dumbarton’s Place in Scottish History,” Royal Burgh of Dumbarton, Seventh Centenary 1222–1922 (s.l., s.d.) [ca. 1922].

Folder 11: Miscellaneous notes and correspondence belonging to Mildred Barnes Bliss and a typescript copy of Helen Woods’s “Dumbarton Oaks.”

Folder 12: Correspondence and related materials to and from Jeanie (Mrs. A. S.) Greenwood pertaining to Dumbarton, Scotland, 1944–1948.

Box 3 (SUA, 4)

Folder 13: Listing of photographic and photostatic copies of historical documents pertaining to the site and house of Dumbarton Oaks that Meredith B. Colkert, Jr., Cleveland, Ohio, sent to Robert Woods Bliss on October 15, 1958; these copies include the following plats or maps:

  • Washington, Plate 39, North-West [undated];
  • Georgetown, The National Archives, Washington, D.C. [undated];
  • The Original 22-Acre Mansion Property and Nearby Landmarks (2 copies) [undated];
  • Pencil drawings of land parcels (2 pages) [undated];
  • “Rock of Dumbarton…,” [undated];
  • Washington [undated];
  • Map of N.W. Washington (2 copies, 1 inscribed in pencil on verso) [undated];
  • Pencil boundary map of Dumbarton Oaks Park [undated];
  • “The part of the Rock of Dumbarton…,” (inscribed in pencil on verso) [undated];
  • District of Columbia, Sheet No. 54 [undated];
  • Part of Second District, District of Columbia; and
  • 62 photographic copies of handwritten or printed documents [some dated in text].