Correspondence, photographs and printed materials documenting the career of Gertrude Fiske and the Boston Society of Etchers, of which Fiske was a founding member.
Letters from friends, colleagues, and museums include a small number of letters from Frank Benson, Harry Leith-Ross, Charles Hopkinson, and H. Dudley Murphy. A notebook on the Boston Society of Etchers contains a list of members, minutes of the founding meeting (1917), notes on expenses, lists of works exhibited (includes a sketch of works on exhibition), announcements, catalogs, and letters from members including Philip Little, Ignaz Gaugengigl and others. Other materials consist of biographical notes, two sketches, one possibly of Fiske, a sales receipt, a scrapbook of clippings and catalogs, and photographs of Fiske and friends, works, and exhibitions.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter. Fiske studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, under such luminaries as Tarbell, Benson and Hale, and later with Charles Woodbury in Ogunquit, Maine. A woman of means and socially well-connected, Miss Fiske was a co-founder of the Guild of Boston Artists (1914), the Boston Society of Etchers (1917), and the Ogunquit Art Association (1928).
Provenance:
Harold B. (Bus) Willis, the owner of the collection, is the nephew of Gertrude Fiske.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
