Thayer's general correspondence is with artists including George Grey Barnard, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Edward Martin Taber, and George Alfred Williams, and with fellow Dublin painters Frank Weston Benson, and George de Forest Brush. Other correspondents found here include Philip Ayers of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests regarding title to land in Monadnock; Samuel Clemens; critic and long-time admirer Royal Cortissoz; Charles Lang Freer regarding his patronage of Thayer and Freer's acquisition of Thayer's artwork; and Theodore Roosevelt regarding wildlife preservation.
Letters to Franklin D. Roosevelt, when Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, describe Thayer's ideas for camouflage of naval vessels during the First World War. Thayer was involved in helping the Allies be the first to apply concealing coloration to all their equipment.
The letters are a combination of hand-written originals and typed copies. Folder dates indicate the dates of original letters, even when the folder contains only copies of those letters.
Arrangement:
Correspondence is primarily arranged alphabetically: individually named correspondents are followed by general correspondence. At the end of the series are 6 folders of annotated copies of correspondence arranged chronologically, which are a combination of family and general correspondence.
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.
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:
Nelson and Henry C. White research material, circa 1851-1961. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art
