• The Indiana Historical Society maintains a page devoted to the John Hay birthplace that includes a good biographical sketch of Hay. If you have an interest in history, spend some time with the society's home page.

• Warsaw, Illinois, also claims John Hay as a native son -- this town on the Mississippi is where he grew up after his family left Salem. Warsaw celebrates "John Hay Days on the Mississippi" every October.

• John G. Nicolay and John M. Hay -- Compare this brief biographical sketch to two others -- the one from Brown University and the other from the book review immediately below. Did Lincoln hire Hay first or Nicolay? The stories conflict.

• "Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay" -- This book review quotes a visitor to the White House who describes John Hay as "a nice fellow, who unfortunately looks about seventeen and is oppressed with the necessity of behaving like seventy."

• The Complete Poetical Works of John Hay -- The complete text of this book is available online through the University of Michigan. If you have never read "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle" you should do so right now.

• The Gettysburg Adress: Drafts -- The Library of Congress holds two of the five known copies of Lincoln's most famous speech written in his own hand. These two copies were originally presented by Lincoln to his two private secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, and both were given to the Library by the descendents of Hay.

• Dinner to Whitelaw Reid - Mark Twain -- John Hay worked as an editorial writer for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune in the 1870s. One of his co-workers (and later editor of the paper) Whitelaw Reid, was the catalyst of a long-term friendship between John Hay and Mark Twain. Reid recruited Mark Twain as a contributor, and it was on a visit to the paper in 1871 that Twain met Hay. The humorist remained Hays' warm friend for the rest, of his life, according to Mark Twain A-Z by R. Kent Rassmussen: Hay was a great admirer of Mark Twain's writing and helped to get 1601 printed in 1880. Mark Twain mentions Hay in "My Boyhood Dreams" (1900) and devotes a long passage in his Autobiography to praising him as a man worthy to be president. Twain's "A Horse's Tale" (1906) adapts its bullfight descriptions from Hay's Castilian Days, writes Rasmussen. When Twain visited England to receive his honorary degree from Oxford in 1907, Reid was the U.S. ambassador there, and held a dinner it Twain's honor. Twain reciprocated the next year, when he made a speech at a dinner honoring Reid. In that speech (which is available in full under the link above) Mark Twain recalled his 1871 visit to the Tribune and his meeting with Hay.

• The full text of The Education of Henry Adams appears to be here. Chapter 23 mentions John Hay and Whitelaw Reid. The adjoining homes of Henry Adams and John Hay were a focus of social life in Washington D.C. Today the site is occupied by the Hay-Adams Hotel.

• The Library of Congress' history of the Spanish-American War on the Web devotes some space and a couple of photographs of John Hay in his role as Secretary of State.

• First Open Door Note, by John Hay -- In its own earlier diplomatic relations with Asia, the American government had always insisted upon equality of commercial privileges for all nations. However, idealism in American foreign policy was at odds with the desire to compete with Europe's imperial powers in the Far East. In September 1899 Secretary of State John Hay addressed a note to the powers concerned, resulting in the doctrine of the "Open Door" for all nations in China -- that is, equality of trading opportunities (including equal tariffs, harbor duties and railway rates) in the areas they controlled. Despite its idealistic component, the "Open Door," in essence, became a diplomatic maneuver to gain the advantages of a colony without the necessity of wresting one from the Chinese.

  With the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the Chinese struck out against the foreigners. In June, insurgents seized Peiping (Beijing) and attacked the foreign legations there. Hay promptly announced to the European powers and Japan that the United States would oppose any disturbance of Chinese territorial or administrative rights or of the Open Door policy. Once the rebellion was quelled, it required all Hay's skill to carry out the American program and to protect China from crushing indemnities. In October, however, Great Britain and Germany once more signaled their adherence to the Open Door policy and the preservation of Chinese independence, albeit under foreign domination, and other nations soon followed. -- from An Outline of American History

  The Small Planet Web site presents an interesting summation of the the Boxer Rebellion and Hay's role.

• John Hay -- A brief article found on the Web site for the PBS television series "The American Experience."

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