By Terri Jo Ryan

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Surely few poets ever had as faithful a disciple as Andrew Joseph Armstrong, who channeled his passion for the life and times of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning into a career celebrating the words that flowed from their pens.

Armstrong, chairman of the English department at Baylor University for almost 40 years, was for much of the 20th century acknowledged as the nation’s foremost authority on Robert Browning (1812-1889) and his wife, Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861).

The son of a Southern belle and a California gold miner, Armstrong was born in Kentucky on March 29, 1873. His father died when he was 12.

He first came to Baylor to teach in 1908, but went abroad to do research for the British Museum, married and had a son. He returned to Baylor in 1912 as head of the English department, a post he held until late 1951, when he was named founding director of the Armstrong Browning Library.

The Browning Library, located for almost 60 years at 710 Speight Ave., traces its origins to Armstrong’s private collection, which he started in 1905. He presented the collection to Baylor in 1918, and the “Browning Room” at the Carroll Library was the result.

The library’s holdings now include more than 4,000 books by or about Robert Browning and his times; some 4,000 magazine articles on his activities and influence on literature; hundreds of his personal copies of the works of other poets; and even a lock of the poet’s hair.

One of the most famous items in the collection, the 1853 bronze cast known as “Clasped Hands of the Poets,” was stolen from the library in January 1952. The cast, American sculptor Harriet Hosmer’s depiction of the Brownings’ hands, was presented to Baylor on June 14, 1920, during celebrations commemorating the university’s 75th anniversary.

“Clasped Hands” was found days later, caked in mud and apparently tossed into the back seat of a car belonging to W.T. Gooch, a university vice president.

Visitors to the Browning Collection through the years have included poets Carl Sandburg, William Butler Yeats, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Robert Frost; actors Basil Rathbone, Katharine Cornell, Helen Hayes and Jane Withers; polar explorers Adm. Richard Byrd and Roald Amundsen; Prince William of Sweden; and former president William Howard Taft.

During the 1920s and ’30s, especially, Armstrong brought in a variety of writers, dancers and musicians for fundraising lectures.

The long-planned-for Armstrong Browning Library finally had its ground-breaking on May 7, 1948 — the poet’s 136th birthday — and it was dedicated in late 1951. It cost $1.75 million, or $15 million in today’s dollars.

Sources: Carolyn Ramsey, former student curator, Browning Library; BrowningLibrary.org; Baylor.edu; Rita S. Patteson, interim director of the Armstrong Browning Library.