United States of America -- Connecticut -- Fairfield County -- Greenwich
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes a worksheet and a property plan.
General:
This 4.6 acre property, formerly known as the Peacock Garden, was once the home of naturalist and author Ernest Thompson Seton, his wife Grace Gallatin Seton, and their family. Originally developed around 1915 as a summer cottage site, it was later converted to a year-round residence. On an upper level, close to the house, is a walled garden with a sunken pool, brick paths and patio, and perennial borders on three sides. A screened, pagoda-roofed "tea house" occupies one corner. Several steps lead down to a formal rose garden bordered by a boxwood hedge grown from cuttings. A gate and further steps down lead to an alleĢe of pines through which the pond is visible. To the right is a small vegetable garden and beyond that a large perennial border at the base of the "tea house." Open lawns lead to stone benches by the pond, which contains four islands. The present owner has planted dogwoods by the pond and many ornamentals including azaleas, weeping dogwood, yellow magnolia, and wisteria. A wildflower garden occupies the wooded hill behind the house.
Persons associated with the garden include: Ernest Thompson Seton (former owner); and Grace Gallatin Seton (former owner).
Related Materials:
Contentment related holdings consist of 2 folders (10 35 mm. slides)
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
Scientist and art administrator; Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Ernest Seton was a craftsman from Santa Fe, N.M.
Provenance:
Donated 1955 by Robert T. Hatt.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The papers of art writer and editor Mary Fanton Roberts measure 3.8 linear feet and are dated 1880 to 1956. The bulk of this collection is Roberts' correspondence with numerous important artists, dancers, actors, writers, and musicians of the day. Also found are scattered biographical materials, family correspondence, writings, printed material, photographs and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of art writer and editor Mary Fanton Roberts measure 3.8 linear feet and are dated 1880 to 1956. The collection is comprised mainly of correspondence with family members, artists, dancers, actors, writers, musicians, and visual and performing arts organizations. Also found are scattered biographical materials, writings, printed material, photographs and artwork.
The collection contains a small amount of biographical material about Mary Fanton Roberts and her husband, William Carman Roberts, including his journal of a vacation with Ernest Thompson Seton and his wife. Personal Correspondence is with her husband and sister Belle Fanton, and with friends. Business and political correspondence documents her career as a magazine editor and writer, her participation in political organizations and events, her participation in radio talks, and her correspondence regarding war issues.
Art correspondence/subject files include correspondence with and collected materials on artists, photographers, art patrons, critics, and wives of artists, as well as arts organizations, museums, and schools. Correspondence of note is with George Gray Barnard, Gutzon Borglum, Ben Ali Haggin, Leon Kroll, Frederic Remington, W. Goodridge Roberts, Nicholas Roerich, Pierre Troubetzkoy, illustrator Oliver Herford, John Butler Yeats, and Ashcan school artists Robert Henri, John Sloan, and William Glackens, as well as many others. Dance and theatre correspondence/subject files include correspondence with actors, dancers, playwrights, patrons, organizations and theatres. Correspondence of note in this series is with Charles "Orlando" Coburn, Eva Le Gallienne, Angna Enters, and the "Duncan Dancers." Literary and music orrespondence/subject files include correspondence with authors, poets, critics, singers, publishers, and musicians, such as Bliss Carman, Yvette Guilbert, and Lloyd Osbourne. Additional material found in these subject files, other than letters, includes invitations, photographs, calling cards, artwork, news clippings, and printed material.
Writings by Roberts include an autobiographical essay about her youth and early career, guest lists and notes concerning hosted events, and typescripts of poems by her niece Dorothy Gostwick Roberts. Printed material is comprised of art exhibition catalogs, published articles and trade bulletins written by Roberts, and newsclippings. Photographs are of Roberts, her family, friends, and places she lived, and include autographed portraits given to her, primarily from actors and actresses. Also found are photographs taken by Nickolas Muray of art models. Scattered artwork in this collection includes several small drawings by unidentified artists, as well as a pencil portrait of Roberts by John Butler Yeats.
Series 2: Personal Correspondence, 1902-1951, undated (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 3: Business and Political Correspondence, 1903-1959, undated (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 4: Art Correspondence/Subject Files, 1898-1956, undated (Box 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 5: Dance and Theatre Correspondence/Subject Files, 1902-1953, undated (Box 2-3; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 6: Literary and Music Correspondence/Subject Files, 1900-1952, undated (Box 3; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: General Correspondence, 1898-1946, undated (Box 3-4; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Writings, 1915-1926, 1952, undated (Box 4; 3 folders)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1899, 1909-1947, undated (Box 4-5; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographs, 1880-circa 1943, undated (Box 5; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 11: Artwork, 1906, undated (Box 5; 3 folders)
Biographical Note:
Mary Fanton Roberts was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1864. When she was a young girl her family moved to Deadwood, in the Montana territory, where her father had mining prospects. When she was old enough, she and her sister were sent back to New York to attend the Albany Female Academy. After finishing school, Roberts pursued journalism and became a staff writer for four years for the Herald Tribune, the Journal, and the Sun in New York. During her long career she was editor of Demorest Magazine, editor-in-chief of New Idea Woman's Magazine, managing editor of The Craftsman, and creator and editor of The Touchstone Magazine and Decorative Arts magazine. Her longest period at one publication was seventeen years as editor of Arts and Decoration. She often wrote articles on the topic of decorative arts and home decorating, and published two books, Inside 100 Homes, and 101 Ideas for Successful Interiors.
In 1906 she married William Carman Roberts, writer and editor of Literary Digest for thirty years. They lived in Manhattan and Waterford, Connecticut.
Roberts was very involved in the artistic, theatrical, and literary circles in New York City, and met and became friends with many young avant garde American artists, including Robert Henri and John Sloan. Through her husband she met many writers and poets, including Theodore Dreiser and Bliss Carman. Roberts was active in organizations such as the Women's City Club, Pen and Brush, and the MacDowell Society and also attended countless art openings, theater performances, and other social events. As an avid supporter of modern dance, she became friends with many performers, including Isadora Duncan and Angna Enters. After her husband's death in 1941, Roberts moved to the Chelsea Hotel, where she lived for the rest of her life. She maintained lifelong relationships with a wide circle of friends and continued to correspond with them and attend social events until her death in 1956 at the age of 92.
Provenance:
The collection was donated in 1957 by Phoebe DuBois and Violet Organ.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Editors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Catalog Number 4722: Dakota "Supt. E. D. Mossman at Standing Rock" Agency building Photographer: Clyde Fisher Date: 1927. Clyde Fisher and Frank Zahn examining concretions along Cannon-ball River" Clyde Fisher 1927. "Sitting Bull's Grave, Fort Yates, N. D." Clyde Fisher 1927. "Ernest Thompson Seton at Sitting Bull's grave, Fort Yates, N. D." Clyde Fisher 1927. "Grey Whirlwind Taking to Ernest Thompson Seton by sign-language. Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1927 BAE Copy Negative Number 43,196. "Sioux Women Dancing, Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1927. "William Zahn and his woman, Floating Cloud, Solen, N. D." Clyde Fisher 1927. "White Bear (Tom Frosted) at Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1927. "Clyde Fisher and Frank Zahn at Sitting Bull's grave, Fort Yates, N. D." Clyde Fisher 1932. "Little Soldier, Sioux, survivor of the Custer Battle, Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1932 BAE Copy Negative Number 45,877. "Sioux Woman and child at Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1932. "Mrs Long Chase, daughter of Afraid-of-Bear, Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1932. "The daughters of Clyde Fisher at The Standing Rock" Clyde Fisher 1932. Left to right: Black Horse, White Bear, Crow Man, Gray Dog. Standing Rock Reservation, Fort Yates, North Dakota Clyde Fisher 1932. "Replica of Mandan Earthlodge on Capitol-grounds, Bismark, N. D" Clyde Fisher.
Rolf in the woods the adventure of a boy scout with Indian Quonab and little dog Skookum ; Over two hundred drawings Written & illustrated by Ernest Thompson Seton
Anatomy of animals : being a brief analysis of the visible forms of the more familiar mammals and birds : designed for the use of sculptors, painters, illustrators, naturalists, and taxidermists / by Ernest E. Seton Thompson ; illustrated with one hundred drawings by the author
The Arctic prairies; a canoe-journey of 2,000 miles in search of the caribou; being the account of a voyage to the region north of Aylmer Lake, by Ernest Thompson Seton ...
Folder 12 Seton, Ernest Thompson (1860-1946). Includes numerous articles and clippings by him and about his life and work; obituaries; press releases for his six volume "Library of Pioneering and Woodcraft" and other books, 1893-1946.
Container:
Box 15 of 17
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7320, National Museum of Natural History. Division of Mammals, Biographical File
Typed paragraph inclosed relative to the "Cos Cob Massacre," December 24, 1641, asking that the account be confirmed or refuted. Letter dated June 9, 1936.
Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds, by Frank M. Chapman...With seventy-five full page plates and numerous text drawings by Ernest Seton Thompson
Author:
Chapman, Frank M (Frank Michler) 1864-1945 Search this
Handbook of birds of eastern North America : with introductory chapters on the study of birds in nature / by Frank M. Chapman ; with full-page plates in colors and black and white by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and text-cuts by Tappan Adney and Ernest Thompson Seton
Title:
Birds of eastern North America
Author:
Chapman, Frank M (Frank Michler) 1864-1945 Search this