CAMEO | Ask A Librarian |  Site Search | Home

Anne Lyon Haight Collection of "Twas The Night Before Christmas"

In 1982, Anne Lyon Haight's collection of more than 300 editions of "A Visit from St. Nicholas", (also known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") was donated to Carnegie Mellon in her memory. She began her collection in the 1930s. The Haight collection contains all of the known publications of the poem in its first fifty years of existence, lacking only an original copy of its very first publication (in the Troy Sentinel ) which is represented by a photocopy. The collection was exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York in 1962.

Author and bibliophile, Mrs. Haight wrote a reference work Banned Books: Informal Notes on Some Books Banned for Various Reasons at Various Times and in Various Places, and compiled Portrait of Latin America as Seen by her Printmakers. Mrs. Haight helped form the Hroswitha Club, a counterpart to the Grolier Club. Another co-founder was Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, a lifetime friend of Mrs. Haight and a benefactor of Hunt Library.

While "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" is not Clement Clark Moore's only work, it is certainly the most famous. (He was Professor of Biblical Languages at the Central Theological Seminary in New York and also wrote The Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language).

He composed the poem in his head on Christmas Eve 1822, while he drove downtown to buy a turkey. On his return home, he wrote the verses down and read them to his family after dinner. The next Christmas season, Miss Harriet Butler, a family friend, copied the poem and gave it to Orville L. Holley, the editor of The Troy Sentinel. Holley printed the verses as "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" in his newspaper on December 23, 1823. Holley may or may not have known who wrote the poem, but his introduction says, "We do not know to whom we are indebted for the following description...", and he ran it as an anonymously penned work. Due to popular demand, the Sentinel reprinted the poem every holiday season. The authorship remained unknown until 1837 when the piece appeared in The New York Book of Poetry credited to Moore. Moore never copyrighted his famous work, so it remains as public property, free to all. Just before his death, he began to realize the enormous popularity of his classic poem.

For the past century, the public's conception of Santa Claus has been based on the poem. Since its first publication, it has attracted the attention of many artists. Thomas Nast, Grandma Moses, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Arthur Rackham, and Tasha Tudor are among the many artists who have illustrated the poem. Also, designers such as Bruce Rogers, Helen Gentry, and Peter Beilenson have produced an edition.

We would be grateful for editions of "'Twas the Night before Christmas" to add to the collection. To see the collection, please call 412.268.6622.