General correspondence documents Cox's career and professional relationships with artists and architects, art institutions and organizations, federal, state and local government agencies and members of congress; private clients including banks and residences; and private social clubs in which Cox was active.
Cox's work at the United States Capitol is well represented here through correspondence, resumes, legal documents including contracts, condition reports, congressional reports and resolutions, and photographic material. Substantial correspondence between Cox and Representative Frank Schwengel document their earliest discussions when Cox first indicated his interest in the Capitol commission, and their ongoing professional relationship as the work continued. Also found is correspondence with artists Arthur Conrad, Adrian Lamb and Deane Keller who worked under Cox in his capacity as supervising artist on the portraits for the Senate Reception Room; and correspondence with the United States Capitol Historical Society, the office of the Architect of the Capitol, the Smithsonian Institution, and various historical societies and organizations with whom Cox consulted during the research phases of the Capitol projects. Correspondence with Cox's assistant, Cliff Young, is generally filed separately.
14 folders of records including correspondence, memoranda, and contracts, document Cox's work for the George Washington Masonic National Memorial.
American Battle Monuments Commission records include correspondence and contracts with architects Francis Keally and John Harbeson, and mosaic fabricator Fabrizio Cassio. Also found is correspondence with: architects John Barrington Bayley, Charles Downing Lay, Philip Trammell Shutze, with whom Cox collaborated on a variety of private residences including the Calhoun House in Atlanta, Georgia, and Roscoe DeWitt, who worked with Cox on a commission for St. Paul's Hospital in Dallas, Texas; artists Stuart Frost, Edward Laning; historian Bernard Berenson; interior decorator Emma Romeyn; journalist Joseph C. Harsch; models, including Jay Martin; and writer Katharine Hayden Salter who wrote many letters to Cox on the subject of Kenyon Cox.
Dumbarton Oaks records include correspondence with Mildred Bliss, Venetian Art Mosaics Inc Studio, and others involved in the project to replace Cox's deteriorating exterior loggia mural of Diana and Actaeon with a glass mosaic design of the painting. Cox's work with Venetian Art Mosaics Inc. also extended to other projects, such as the mosaic panels for the General Grant National Memorial (formerly Grant's Tomb), in New York City.
Art Students League correspondence docments Cox's role as instructor at the League, 1940-1941. Art Commission of the City of New York records document Cox's service on the Art Commission.
Correspondence with Nathaniel Pulsifer, and with Essex County Greenbelt Assocation, documents matters related to the Cox Reservation, a property purchased by Allyn Cox in 1940 as a summer home with a barn which he used as his studio, and which he donated to the Essex County Greenbelt in 1974.
Cox's membership in private social organizations, including nomination and acceptance of new members, can be found in the the Century Association, Cosmopolitan Club, and Cosmos Club folders.
Arrangement:
Correspondence is arranged alphabetically, typically in named files for those correspondents represented with 5 or more items, and general letter files for all others.
Collection 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. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and are not served to researchers. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Allyn Cox papers, 1856-1982. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
