Correspondence is mostly personal letters and covers subjects such as personal matters, updates on the lives of Woodstock residents, and the careers of artist friends. Early correspondence highlights Wilna Hervey's film career and travels. Other than the letters written by Nan Mason to Wilna Hervey, there are very few letters in this series written by either Hervey or Mason.
Notable correspondents include artists and friends Albert Heckman, Georgina Klitgaard, Manuel Komroff, Leon Kroll, Doris Lee, Fred Dana Marsh, Henry Lee McFee, William Pachner, Caroline and Paul Rohland, Andrée Ruellan, Eugene Speicher, and Dorothy Varian. There are over 250 letters from Elsie Speicher, wife of portrait artist Eugene Speicher. The bulk of Elsie Speicher's correspondence is from the months of November - March; between April to October each year the Speichers were usually in Woodstock with Hervey and Mason. Speicher occasionally sends correspondence from friends in common, notably Louise Lindin, Daphne Mattson, Caroline Rohland, Jean Rosen, and Andrée Ruellan.
Early correspondence from Karin Whiteley concerns a project to publish Hervey's memoirs (which were never published). Whiteley's correspondence also includes numerous enclosed newspaper clippings regarding Dan Mason's acting career. Additional correspondence from Karin Whiteley regarding the memoirs is located in Series 3: Memoir Book Production, 1883-1959. Other items of interest in this series includes a letter from Robert Pollack (1918) that includes a Smileage Book (movie coupons from the Military Entertainment Service), a New York City subway ticket, and caricatures drawn by Wilna Hervey, illustrated letters by cartoonist John Striebel, and occasional snapshots of artists and friends. Correspondence to Dan Mason from Hervey and Nan Mason has been separated and is filed with the other personal files of Dan Mason in Series 6, 1919-1928.
This series also includes correspondence that was neither written by Hervey or Mason, nor sent to them. It may be that the letters were sent to Hervey and Mason as enclosures in other correspondence. Such correspondence is arranged at the end of this series as Miscellaneous Collected Correspondence.
See Appendix for list of selected correspondents in Series 2.
Arrangement note:
Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by the correspondent's last name and then chronologically within folders; undated letters are located at the end of the folder. Correspondents with fewer than five letters are filed by last name in folders labeled alphabetically. Letters from unidentified correspondents are filed at the end of the series.
Appendix: Selected Correspondents in Series 2:
Adams, Kenneth M.: 1955
Antenucci, Margaret: 1961
Arndt, Paul Wesley: 1976
Baumann, Mag and George: 1964, 1970
Bellows, Emma: 1948-1958
Bentley, John W. (Jack): 1922, 1931
Bettels, Kathryn: 1926
Blanch, Lucile and Arnold: 1931, 1955
Booth, Jean Bellows: 1945-1978
Cannon, Eleanor Rixson: 1950-1954
Capra, Frank: 1935, 1973
Carlson, Margaret: 1958
Cator, Bruce: 1948-1959
Cator, Eleanor: circa 1924
Cator, Thomas Vincent: 1928-1929
Chavez, Edward and Jenne: 1950-1952
Clark, Susan: 1960-1966
Clement, Jean: 1931, undated
Currie, Bruce: 1946, circa 1951-1952
De La Vergne, Gladys Hurlbut: 1959, undated
Eddy, Ruth: 1934-1959
Ganso, Emil and Nina: 1933
Gonzales, Betty (Mrs. Boyer Gonzales): 1959
Gonzales, Nell (Mrs. Boyer Gonzales): 1936
Harris, Alexandrina (Allie): 1926, 1931, 1959
Harrison, Jenny (Mrs. Birge Harrison): 1941, 1945
Heckman, Albert and Florence: 1949-1964
Hervey, Anna: 1908-1922
Hervey, W.R.: 1913-1925
Hervey, Wilna: circa 1919-1961
Hitzig, William M.: 1940-1972
Holt, Percy W.: 1923-1930, 1953
Karoly: 1939
Kesselring, Joe and Charlotte: 1949-1952
Klitgaard, Georgina: 1933, 1974, undated
Komroff, Odette and Manuel: 1945-1978
Kroll, Leon: 1939, 1963
Laufman, Beatrice (Mrs. Sidney Laufman): 1970
Lee, Doris: 1950-1953
Lindin, Louise (Mrs. Carl Lindin): 1936-1968
Loederer, Richard: 1923-1924
Magafan, Ethel: 1957
Marsh, Fred Dana: 1948-1952
Mason, Dan: 1921-1929
Mason, Nan: 1919-1921
Mattson, Henry and Daphne: 1931-1959
McFee, Aileen (Mrs. Henry Lee McFee): circa 1928-1936
McFee, Henry Lee: 1931-1936
Mearns, Hughes and Fagley: 1942, circa 1952-1960
More, Edna (Mrs. Hermon More): 1930-1943
Pachner, Lorraine "Zombie" (Mrs. William Pachner): 1949-1978
Pachner, William: circa 1950-1975
Petersham, Maud and Miska: circa 1930s-1959
Pollock, Muriel "Mollie" (Donaldson): circa 1916-1959
Rheinish, Arthur: 1920-1921
Rohland, Caroline Speare: 1926-1960
Rohland, Paul: circa 1931, 1935
Rosen, Jean (Mrs. Charles Rosen): 1936-circa 1961
Rosen, M. (Mrs. Charles Rosen): 1924-1927
Rosen, Polly: before 1959
Ruellan, Andrée (Mrs. John Taylor): 1943-1977
Search, Frederick Preston: 1933
Shore, Henrietta: 1933
Smith, Georgine Wetherell: 1951-1953
Speicher, Charles: 1931-1945
Speicher, Elsie (Mrs. Eugene Speicher): 1926-1959
Speicher, Eugene: 1935-1961
Striebel, Fritzi (Mrs. John H. Striebel): 1946-1978
Striebel, John H.: 1961
Summers, D.: 1952-1961
Summers, Pauline "Paul": 1952-1961
Varian, Dorothy: 1954-1977
Webster, Florence: 1954, 1978
Weston, Brett: 1958
Weston, Edward: 1935, 1951
Whiteley, Karin: 1945-1981
Collection Restrictions:
Use of the original papers requires an appointment.
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:
Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason papers, 1883-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.