The bulk of the correspondence found in this series is between Julia Colt Pierson Emmet, Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and Rosina Emmet Sherwood. Other correspondents include additional family members and a wide range of international artists, writers, musicians, actors, and other creative individuals who interacted with members of the Emmet family. The letters discuss daily events, marriages, births, and deaths within the family, creative activities including details regarding commissions and clients, personal observations on art and society, and relationships between family members and their notable colleagues including Cecil Beaton, Cecilia Beaux, Pablo Casals and Susie Metcalfe Casals, Lynne Fontanne and husband Alfred Lunt, cousin Henry James, Louis Bancel LaFarge, Frederick MacMonnies, Lucien Monod, Roger Quilter, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Emily and John Singer-Sargent, Violet Sargent Ormond, and Stanford White. Letters also document experiences while traveling and living in Europe, and the turmoil of two World Wars, including Jane's life in England during the Blitz.
A number of the letters from the Emmet sisters, particularly early letters from Rosina Emmet Sherwood, are illustrated. Also found, are some transcriptions, particularly for early letters of Lydia Field Emmet.
Correspondence with Lynn Fontanne includes one photograph and three contact sheet images of portraits of Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn taken by Cecile Beaton on a visit to Jane, March 30, 1960. One image shows Beaton reflected in the mirror besides Emmet's bed.
At the end of the series is a reasonably comprehensive, although not all-inclusive, chronological list of individual letters found in this series, noting sender, recipient, date, and main subjects. It was compiled by AAA staff in 1992 and begins with a list of frequently mentioned Emmet family members and friends in order to clarify their identities.
Arrangement note:
Records are arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent. General files for correspondents not arranged in named files, and for correspondents whose names or surnames are unknown, are at the end of the series. Researchers should note that pages for individual letters may not be sequential, due to the nature of the folded note paper on which many of them are written.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. 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:
Emmet family papers, 1792-1989 (bulk 1851-1989). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art
