Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm.
Summary:
Papers gathered by Ednah Cheney, wife of Seth Wells Cheney, for her memoirs of the two brothers, Seth and John Cheney, prominent 19th century engravers, composed of correspondence, clippings, notes, lists, a diary, and family photographs.
Included are 89 letters to Ednah Dow Cheney, 1873-1897, most from authorities on engraving, chiefly, Sylvester Rosa Koehler and Charles Henry Hart concerning the location and identification of engravings pursuant to compilation of a Cheney catalog; a letter describing an 1892 meeting of the National Suffrage Association; 2 lists of casts for a sculpture collection; a diary, August 1848, kept by Anna Cabot Lowell during Seth Cheney's stay while executing family portraits, describing his activities and character; a phrenological study of Cheney; 33 family photographs and daguerrotypes of John Cheney's drawings (not microfilmed); and miscellany.
Citation:
Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney papers relating to Seth Wells Cheney and John Cheney, 1848-1897. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
35mm microfilm reel 284 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
Biography Note:
Seth Wells Cheney was an engraver, as was his brother John Cheney, of Manchester, Connecticut. Ednah Cheney wrote Memoirs of Seth Wells Cheney, 1881, and Memoirs of John Cheney, 1889.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
Donated 1960 by Alice Williams (married to Corcoran Gallery of Art director Hermann Warner Williams, Jr.), who inherited the Cheney's studio remains.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
