Lee Garnett Day was born in New York, New York on May 5, 1890. He was the youngest child of Henry Mason Day, Sr. (1851-1909) and Emily D. Day (1869-1954). The family called him Garnett. His father was a partner in Bennett, Day and Company, founded in 1882. The firm imported nuts and dried fruits.
After graduating from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in 1911, Day traveled around the world before taking over as president of his late father’s firm. In 1932 the business was sold and renamed the Baker-Bennett-Day Division of General Foods Corporation. Day served as its vice president until his retirement from business life in 1941.
In 1914, Day and Alfred M. Collins organized and funded the Collins-Day South American Expedition. The purpose of this expedition was to collect specimens of birds and mammals for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, New York, and for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. The members included Alfred M. Collins, a hunter of large game; George K. Cherrie, a naturalist at the American Museum of Natural History; Willard Walker, also a hunter; Robert Becker of the Field Museum of Natural History, and Lee Garnett Day. The expedition left New York on December 26, 1914 for Mollendo, Peru. After traveling by train, mule train and at times on foot, the expedition ended in the state of Para in northern Brazil. The expedition returned to New York at the end of April 1915.
Day had a long and successful military career. In 1916 he enlisted in Troop B, Squadron A, Cavalry of the New York National Guard. He was part of the American expedition commanded by General John J. Pershing that was sent to the Mexican border to apprehend Francisco “Pancho” Villa, a Mexican revolutionary leader. During World War I Day served eighteen months in France, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Quartermaster Corps. As a result of his service Day was awarded the Croix de Guerre, with palm; Chevalier, Legion of Honor; the Distinguished Service Medal and the Purple Heart. Day returned to the army during World War II, where he was responsible for sending supplies to troops in Europe. In 1944 he was promoted to Colonel. He later received the Legion of Merit, a military award given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements.
Day was a patron of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois and an Honorary Life Member of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, New York.
Lee Garnett Day and Nancy Sayles were married on September 25, 1925 at Saleholme, Nancy’s family home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. They had two children, Nancy Lee Day Gillespie and Lee Garnett Day, Jr.
The Days raised Great Dane dogs at Daynemouth Kennels in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1940 the family purchased Cobble Mountain Farm in West Cornwall, Connecticut, where they raised Shropshire sheep and Nubian goats.
Lee Garnett Day died at his home in West Cornwall on May 24, 1968.
Nancy Sayles Day was born April 12, 1905. Her father, Frank A. Sayles (1866-1920) was a successful industrialist in Rhode Island. Her mother, Mary Dorr Ames Sayles (1871-1946) was a descendent of several well-known Rhode Island families, including that of Roger Williams, who began the European settlement of what later became the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
In the summer of 1925 Nancy created much speculation in the society pages when she abruptly broke her engagement to Lt. Ernesto Lardinelli Becci, Undersecretary of the Interior in the Italian cabinet. The two had met in Rome in the spring of that year while Nancy and her mother were touring Europe. Within six weeks they were engaged. Becci learned that their wedding, scheduled for August 12, 1925, had been cancelled after he arrived in the United States from Italy on August 7. Nancy married Lee Garnett Day, with whom she had been friends, on September 25 of that year.
Nancy was an avid traveler, having made several trips around the world and to Europe both before and after her marriage. She was an art collector as well as a talented artist who worked in ceramics, glass and sculpture. The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island houses the Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art. She contributed to many charities, including the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Connecticut, and the Daynemouth Shelter for homeless animals in Cornwall, Connecticut. In addition, she was a co-founder of the Animal Virus Laboratory at Cornell University and founder of the Nancy Sayles Day Mycology Laboratory at Yale University. She was deeply involved in the restoration of the Historic Old St. Luke’s Church, built in 1631 in Smithfield, Virginia.
Nancy Sayles Day died on October 23, 1964 after a brief illness.
The Lee Garnett Day and Nancy Sayles Day papers contain correspondence and other materials belonging to Lee Garnett Day, Nancy Sayles Day and their families. Most of the other material consists of photographs from around the world, taken both before and after the Day’s marriage. A large number of photographs were taken on the Collins-Day South American Expedition in 1914-1915. The material is dated from 1890 to 1968, with the bulk dated from 1911 to 1945.
The papers have been organized into the following 7 series:
The correspondence includes letters to Nancy and to her parents. The correspondence to Nancy from Ernesto Lardinelli Becci, Nancy’s fiancee before her marriage to Lee Garnett Day, is in Italian. The correspondence to Nancy from Pierre Vercommen in Belgium is in French.
This series also includes membership certificates, newspaper clippings, passports, photographs, school notebooks and travel diaries. The newspaper clippings are primarily about Nancy Sayles’ broken engagement to Ernesto Lardinelli Becci in 1925. Photographs that were enclosed in travel diaries were left in the diary. Other photographs, including an album of photographs of Saleholme, are in Series 7. Photographs and postcards. The membership certificates belonged to Nancy’s mother Mary Sayles. They are from the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the Society of the Colonial Dames of America. Ephemera include the questions and answers to an undated Rhode Island drivers test and two drawings.
The correspondence in this series is to and from the Day family and friends. Correspondence related to the Day's trip to Portugal, some of which is in Portuguese, is in a separate folder, as is material regarding Lee Garnett Day's 1927 expedition to Mount Roraima in South America. Other material includes an address book, the Day's marriage certificate, information regarding the Day’s property in Connecticut, newspaper clippings, obituaries for members of the Day family and passports.
The scrapbook in this series consists of newspaper clippings regarding the trial and conviction of Garnett’s brother Henry Mason Day, Jr. of contempt of court for jury shadowing. In 1929 he was accused of hiring a team of private detectives to follow and investigate the twelve jurors in the case of United States v. Harry F. Sinclair and Albert P. Fall. Henry Mason Day, Jr. worked for Sinclair, who was the head of the Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. Sinclair was accused of conspiracy to defraud the government in the Teapot Dome scandal in the early 1920s.
Most of the material in this series consists of photographs. The series also includes the January 1916 issue of
Most of the material in this subseries consists of correspondence and photographs. Most of the correspondence was written by Lee Garnett Day and his brother Henry Mason Day Jr. to their family in New York while they were in France during the war. The military correspondence is typewritten and concerns Lee Garnett Day's official duties. The photographs in this subseries are of various places in Europe, primarily France. They are not labeled or dated. Other material includes reports compiled by Lee Garnett Day as part of his duties as a regulating officer, and maps, primarily of Verdun and Metz, France. The dated material is from 1917 to 1922.
Most of the material in this subseries consists of photographs taken in Europe and in Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia. The subseries also includes a small amount of correspondence, information regarding Day's service record and citations, and several publications regarding the army and the army’s supply division. The material is dated from 1941 to 1951. Most is dated between 1944 and 1945.
The personal photographs include photographs taken on Nancy’s trips to Europe and around the world with her mother, Mary Sayles; family vacations, summer camp, and the Day's trip to the British Isles. This series also contains several photographs of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh and the airplane they named Tingmissartoq, a Lockheed Model 8 Sirius that they flew in the 1930s. Tingmissartoq is an Inuit word that means "one who flies like a big bird". These photographs were most likely taken in 1933, when Lindbergh was working as a technical advisor for Pan American Airways.
The picture postcards in this series are of scenes from various countries around the world. They were not written on or mailed.
Lee Garnett Day and Nancy Sayles Day papers, Ms. 2014.003, Brown University Library
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
This collection is arranged in 7 series.
The Lee Garnett Day and Nancy Sayles Day papers were given to the Brown University Library by Nancy Gillespie (Brown Class of 1979) and Thaddeus (Ted) R. Gillespie in 2013 and 2014.
Two books were donated with the collection and have been cataloged separately and are located in the John Hay Library.
This book is hollow on the inside to create a hidden comparment.
A book that provides phrase codes to allow a person to send coded messages
All photographs in fragile condition, rolled. Images of Collins Day expedition which may duplicate other photos in this collection. Images of World War I military service.
Bound album of black and white photographs of the exterior and interior of the house.