Update From the Archives: Constant Huntington

Constant and his wife, Gladys

For nearly two months, I have been nose-deep in the correspondence of Constant Huntington, the middle son of George Putnam Huntington and Lily St. Agnam Barrett Huntington, graciously donated by Katherine Urquhart Ohno. There is something extraordinarily intimate about reading someone’s letters with their family, friends, and business colleagues. Although I will never meet Constant, I feel that I know him at least a little from reading his letters to his siblings, business requests between his colleagues, travel stories to his friends, and much much more. 

When you spend so much time with a person’s words you are bound to find hidden treasures. One was this photo of Constant and his wife, Gladys, labelled “Tamia’s Wedding”. Constant and Gladys had many friends in many places, they were quite the esteemed pair. I love the sophistication in their clothing and the way that they interact with the camera as if this photograph was taken on their way to somewhere much more important. 

I found a fascinating letter from Hans Fallada to Putnam + Sons written in 1946. Fallada was an author from Germany who in his letter opens up about his isolation in the years after WWII and the aftermath the war had on his family and his career. Hans Fallada was a controversial author in Berlin during WWII due to the Nazi’s politicizing his work, and the allegations against him that he was homosexual. His work was very popular in the mid-1930’s, and one of his novels, Little Man, What Now?, was even filmed by Universal pictures (Wilkes). It was fascinating to find this tidbit of history amongst Constant’s letters especially when this letter was written in the year before Hans Fallada’s death. 

After a fruitful six weeks of reading and studying Constant’s letters, I ended up with six full boxes of archived and organized materials. Countless histories, secrets, and family dramas can be revealed in these pages, and it is exciting to have begun the process of uncovering them!

Sources:

Wilkes, Geoff. Afterword of Every Man Dies Alone (10th Anniversary Edition). Melville House. 2019