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Catalog Data

Photographer:
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964  Search this
Wood, Richard Carver  Search this
Donor:
Asch, Patsy  Search this
Names:
Abbott, George, 1887-1995  Search this
Baragwanath, Jack  Search this
Barrett, Edith  Search this
Barrymore, Ethel  Search this
Borge, Victor  Search this
Bowman, Patricia  Search this
Brown, John Mason, 1900-1969  Search this
Cassini, Igor, 1915-  Search this
Castle, Irene, 1893-1969  Search this
Cornell, Katharine, 1893-1974  Search this
Coward, Noel, 1899-1973  Search this
Dowling, Eddie  Search this
Eckstein, Gustave  Search this
Edmonds, Walter Dumaux, 1903-1998  Search this
Fleischmann, Raoul L.  Search this
Fontanne, Lynn  Search this
Frost, Robert, 1874-1963  Search this
Gordon, Ruth, 1896-  Search this
Hart, Moss, 1904-1961  Search this
Keller, Helen, 1880-1968  Search this
Leigh, Vivien, 1913-1967  Search this
Lunt, Alfred  Search this
Martin, Mary, 1913-  Search this
Marx, Harpo, 1888-1964  Search this
McMein, Neysa  Search this
Meade, Donald  Search this
Miller, Alice Duer, 1874-1942  Search this
Olivier, Laurence, 1907-1989  Search this
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929-1994  Search this
Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967  Search this
Radziwill, Lee Bouvier, 1933-  Search this
Rice, Grantland, 1880-1954  Search this
Skinner, Cornelia Otis, 1901-  Search this
Swope, Herbert Bayard, 1882-1958  Search this
Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943  Search this
Extent:
2 Cubic feet (11 boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
Vermont
Date:
1935-1978, undated
Summary:
Photographs taken by Wood including persons prominent in the New York City social, literary, and theatrical fields. Other subjects include architecture, landscapes, still life, dunes, military, and theater in the United States and other countries.
Scope and Contents:
Photographs, in both print and negative form, by Richard Carver Wood, including architectural photographs; art photographs, including landscapes and still life's; portrait and family photographs; photographs of persons prominent in the New York City social, literary, and theatrical fields. Many of these were taken at theater critic Alexander Woollcott's property at Lake Bomoseen in Vermont, and include Dorothy Parker, Vivien Leigh, Ethel Barrymore, and numerous others. Materials were maintained in the three series that Wood created: Series 1, People, Series 2, Places and Series 3, Subjects. The materials in each series are arranged in alphabetical order by Wood's folder titles.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into three series. Series 1: People, 1935-1960, undated Series 2: Places, 1939-1978, undated Series 3: Subjects, 1941, undated
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Carver Wood was born in 1902 in Binghamton, New York to Frank Hoyt and Eva Wood. He studied at Hamilton College then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1922-1929 where he graduated with a degree in architecture. In the 1930s, Wood struggled to find work in his field and turned his attention to photography. His adopted father, a professor at Hamilton College, put him in contact with a former student, Alexander Woollcott, by then a theater critic with The New Yorker. It was through Woollcott that Wood met many of the famous people he photographed, many on Woollcott's Lake Bomoseen, Vermont, property, though Wood also photographed places, buildings, and subjects like the Perkins School for the Blind. When America became involved in World War II, Wood was stationed in Hawaii as part of the Army Signal Corps. It was there that he turned to film, and after the end of World War II he worked first with a small dental company for a few years, and then began freelancing. His film work culminated with the 1954 Academy Award winning documentary The Unconquered, a biography of his one-time photography subject Helen Keller. It was around the time of the Keller documentary that Wood again found work as an architect with an East Hampton firm. He would remain in architecture from then on, rarely taking photographs. Wood died on November 23, 1989 at the age of eighty-seven years old.
Provenance:
Donated by Wood's daughter, Patsy Asch, to the Archives Center in 2007.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Topic:
Celebrities -- 20th century  Search this
Photographers -- New York  Search this
Citation:
Richard Carver Wood Photographs, 1935-1978, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Patsy Asch.
Identifier:
NMAH.AC.0964
See more items in:
Richard Carver Wood Photographs
Archival Repository:
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ep8720dee42-a2de-4a50-aee3-840ec71be055
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0964