Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight (June 11, 1846 – February 3, 1917) was an American librarian, archivist, and diplomat who was a member of Boston's elite homosexual subculture in the late 19th century. His place in American literary history was secured when he served for almost a decade as Henry Adams's literary assistant and family archivist.
Early life
Theodore Frelinghuysen Dwight was born in Auburn, New York, the son of Almon Dwight (1814–1902) and Cyria Charge White (1817–1897).
His father professed the Millerite Doctrine, the belief that the second coming of Christ would occur around 1843 or 1844 and, acting on that belief, lived in Jerusalem for four years before Theodore's birth, between 1837 and 1841, where he ran an industrial school.
From 1865 until 1869, Theodore Dwight attended Rochester Collegiate Institute and paid his way through school by working in a wholesale saddlery and hardware store.
Career
The major portion of Dwight's career was as a librarian and archivist. Later in life, he served as an American diplomat. He occasionally worked as a bookkeeper, editor, and proofreader.
Early literary work
Around 1869, Dwight moved from Rochester to San Francisco, where he lived at 256 Bush Street and worked as a bookkeeper for the Pacific Union Express Company. Shortly after arriving in San Francisco, Dwight became a member of the local literary scene that included such established writers as Bret Harte, Ina Coolbrith, and Charles Warren Stoddard. Dwight began writing for Harte's magazine Overland Monthly, primarily about books and autograph collecting. His writing occasionally drew notice in East Coast publications. His place in the local arts and letters scene was recognized when in January 1872 he was elected a trustee of the San Francisco Mercantile Library Association.
In the early fall of 1873, Dwight moved to New York City to take a position in the publishing house of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
State Department librarian
In 1875, Dwight left Putnam’s and moved to Washington, D.C., where he served briefly as a literary assistant to the American historian George Bancroft.
While working for Bancroft, Dwight became known to the State Department Library senior staff, who eventually offered him the position of Chief of the Bureau of Rolls and Library. The Bureau was the repository of manuscripts related to the foreign relations of the United States, beginning with the Continental Congress in 1774. Dwight held the position from 1875 until 1888.
While there, Dwight assembled what was at the time called "the best international law library outside of the British Museum.”
In 1881, Secretary of State James G. Blaine instructed Dwight to assist the U.S. Government in acquiring a collection of Benjamin Franklin's papers. The papers were on the market in London, England, and Dwight, who was then traveling in Europe, went to London to examine the papers and assess their relevance to American history. He reported to the Senate that the papers "are the veritable records of our history, and are as worthy of a place among the national archives as those of Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton."
Adams family archivist
In 1888, Dwight left Washington to take charge of organizing and indexing the Adams family political papers, including those of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, housed in that historic American family’s so-called “Stone Library” (a reference to its construction in stone) on the Adams estate in Quincy, Massachusetts, a position he held for the next four years. His duties for the Adams family included organizing and indexing the presidential and family papers as well as serving as a proofreader for Henry Adams and his brother Charles Francis Adams Jr.