Theodore Bolton papers; University of Miami Richter Library; 1300 Memorial Drive, Coral Gables, Florida.
Theodore Bolton (born in Columbia, South Carolina on January 12, 1889; died in Miami, Florida, December 7, 1973) was a librarian, art historian, and artist. Bolton received a diploma in the arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1915, where he also studied library science, receiving a diploma in that subject in 1924. He pursued formal academic work later in his life as well, receiving in 1937 a B.S. in education and a M.A. in education in 1940, both from New York University. Thereafter, he received a M.F.A. from Columbia in 1955. Although he illustrated editions of Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihl (1923) and Prosper Merimee's Diane de Turgis (1925), which he also translated, and had his works shown in a number of exhibitions, his hoped-for career as an artist was cut short when his elbow was shattered in a gymnasium accident. He then spent his time writing about art more than creating it. Bolton's first major published work in the field was Early American portrait painters in miniature, a volume of brief biographical sketches of artists of the genre together with a checklist of their extant portraits. His later publications include Early American portrait draughtsmen in crayons, American book illustrators: bibliographic check lists of 123 artists, and Ezra Ames in Albany. Bolton served in various posts in the Washington, D.C. Public Library from 1911 to 1913, the Library of Congress from 1918 to 1921, and the Brooklyn Public Library from 1924-1926. From 1926 until his retirement in 1958, Bolton was librarian of the Century Association in New York City.
Summary:
Research drawings and clippings relating to Bolton's published and unpublished works on American art.
