19th Century American Poet & Physician -- E. F. Eldridge Papers

Dr. Edward Fayette Eldridge, American physician, poet, and novelist, was born in New York in 1855 or 1857. He attended the State Normal School in Cortland, New York and graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1881. Eldridge practiced medicine in Boston and in Wisconsin before traveling in Europe and relocating to Grand Junction City, Colorado, in 1892. Over the next twenty years, he published poems in Grand Junction newspapers, primarily on themes relating to the natural beauty of the Colorado landscape, and authored California Girl (1902) and The Sinbad Mines: a Tale of the Rockies (1905). In 1914, seeking to improve his health, Eldridge moved to San Diego, California. He died in San Diego on March 8, 1916.
The E. F. Eldridge Papers consist of a scrapbook and other papers documenting the life and writings of Dr. Edward Fayette Eldridge. The scrapbook, likely compiled by Edward Fayette Eldridge's daughter Jennie though inscribed by her father on February 15, 1913, reuses a 300 page ledger originally used to record undated accounts of treatments and charges for Eldridge's patients. Clippings, printed ephemera, and other materials are pasted in from page 47 to page 81 of the ledger. Items include: clippings of Eldridge's poems published in Grand Junction newspapers; business and calling cards; and postcards and pamphlets printed with Eldridge’s poems. The Beinecke has also recently acquired a number of printed works by Eldridge, including Alkazar, the Moorish Alchemist and Other Poems, published in 1898 in Grand Junction, Colorado; a broadside entitled My Cabinet of Bric-a-brac; and sheet music composed by Eldridge and his daughter Matie. (KB)
More Information: ORBIS Catalog Record for E. F. Eldridge Papers