Lee Garnett Day and Nancy Sayles Day papers (Ms.2014.003)

Biographical note

Lee Garnett Day

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

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.