The papers of painter and muralist Daniel Putnam Brinley and his wife, linguist and writer Kathrine Sanger Brinley, date from 1879 to 1984 and measure 14.3 linear feet. The Brinleys' careers and lives are documented in biographical materials, as well as extensive correspondence with one another, family, friends, art galleries, organizations, publishers, and others. Also found within the papers are writings by both, including 16 diaries (1 by Daniel Putnam Brinley and the rest by Kathrine), essays, manuscripts, typescripts, notes and notebooks, poetry, and various other writings. There are mural commission files, files for organizations of which the Brinleys were members, financial and legal records, exhibition catalogs, news clippings, and other printed material. Also found are photographs of the Brinleys, family, friends, travels, and artwork, and six sketchbooks and original artwork by Daniel Putnam Brinley.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter and muralist Daniel Putnam Brinley and his wife, linguist and writer Kathrine Sanger Brinley, date from 1879 to 1984 and measure 14.3 linear feet. The Brinleys' careers and lives are documented in biographical materials, as well as extensive correspondence with one another, family, friends, art galleries, organizations, publishers, and others. Also found within the papers are writings by both, including 16 diaries (1 by Daniel Putnam Brinley and the rest by Kathrine), essays, manuscripts, typescripts, notes and notebooks, poetry, and various other writings. There are mural commission files, files for organizations of which the Brinleys were members, financial and legal records, exhibition catalogs, news clippings, and other printed material. Also found are photographs of the Brinleys, family, friends, travels, and artwork, and six sketchbooks and original artwork by Daniel Putnam Brinley.
Biographical material consists of biographical sketches and professional summaries for both Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley, passports, personal mementos, award certificates, two radio interview transcripts, and military records documenting Daniel Putnam Brinley's service in the American Expeditionary Forces and the Camouflage Corps.
The papers contain extensive correspondence (4.6 linear feet) divided into family correspondence and general correspondence. Family correspondence includes letters between Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley and with their parents and siblings. General correspondence primarily includes the Brinley's personal correspondence with friends and extended family. These letters discuss travel, mutual acquaintances, social events, and general news. Also found is professional correspondence regarding the exhibition and commission of artwork by Daniel Putnam Brinley and the publication of writings by Kathrine Sanger Brinley. Also discussed in the letters are the Brinleys' participation in art, social, and religious organizations. Correspondence of note is with Edwin Blashfield, Edward Bruce, William A. Coffin, Charles H. Davis, John Erskine, Anthony Euwer, Esperanza Gabay, Robert Henri, Hildreth Meiere, Ernest Peixotto, and Hugh Troy.
Writings and notes are by Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley. Included among their writings are one diary by Daniel Putnam Brinley, 15 diaries by Kathrine Sanger Brinley, essays, notebooks and notes, manuscripts, and typescripts. Subjects of their writings include essays about religion, poetry, and autobiographical and travel essays. Also found among Daniel Putnam Brinley's writing are lecture notes, fictional stories and plays, essays about art, and historical research for his mural projects.
Mural commission files include correspondence, lists, contracts, financial agreements, notes, plans, sketches, and photographs for specific murals. There is extensive documentation on murals Brinley completed for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York and the Liberty War Memorial in Kansas City Missouri. Organization files document the Brinleys' participation in art and social organizations.
Scattered financial and legal records include receipts, account books, leases, estate and power of attorney documents, and records regarding their house and property in New Canaan, Connecticut. Printed material consists of published items documenting the careers, social activities and personal interest of the Brinleys, and includes books, exhibition catalogs and announcements, news clippings, newsletters, and items from their travels abroad.
Photographs depict Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley, individually and with family and friends, and include photographs of Daniel Putnam Brinley working on mural commissions. Also found are photographs of their travels, their homes, Daniel Putnam Brinley's artwork, and reference photographs for his murals. Artwork in this collection includes six of Daniel Putnam Brinley's sketchbooks, primarily from his travels in Europe and Canada, loose drawings and mural studies, drawings by Albert Sterner and Reinhold Palenske, and a lithograph by John Steuart Curry.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 9 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1879-1970s (Box 1, OV 16; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1879-1984 (Box 1-6; 4.6 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1895-1964 (Box 6-9; 3.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Commission Files, 1920-1979 (Box 9-10; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 5: Organization Files, 1909-1964 (Box 10-11; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 6: Financial and Legal Records, 1896-1965 (Box 11; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1895-1979 (Box 11-13, OV 16-17; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1881-1971 (Box 13-14, OV 22; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 9: Artwork, 1891-1950s (Box 14-15, OVs 18-21; 0.9 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Daniel Putnam Brinley (1879-1963) was a muralist and painter in New York City and New Canaan, Connecticut. Brinley was born in Newport, Rhode Island, and studied from 1900 to 1902 at the Art Student's League under Kenyon Cox and John Henry Twachtman. Influenced by Twachtman, he became an impressionist landscape painter for a time. In 1904, he married his childhood friend, writer Kathrine Gordon Sanger (1877-1966). For the next four years they traveled throughout Europe and lived in Paris, where Brinley studied art independently and became a member of the modernist circle of painters.
In 1908 the Brinleys returned to the United States and Daniel established a studio in New York City. During this period his work was heavily influenced by the modernist movement, with flattened forms and a deeper hued palette. Brinley had his first one-man show at Madison Avenue Galleries in 1910, exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery at 291, and helped organized the 1913 Armory Show. He was also a founding member of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and the Grand Central Art Galleries. In 1914 the Brinleys built a home, Datchet House, in New Canaan, Connecticut, and spent part of each year there for the remainder of their lives.
In 1917 Daniel Putnam Brinley trained with the American Expeditionary Forces and went to France as the Director of Decoration for the Foyers Du Soldat (YMCA), remaining there until 1919. After returning to the United States he became a mural painter and received numerous commissions for memorials, office buildings, churches, and public spaces over the next forty years. Perhaps most notable of these commissions was the Liberty War Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, for which Brinley painted 24 decorative maps showing the history of World War I. He remained active in the art community as a member of the Architectural League of New York, the National Academy of Design, and the Silvermine Guild of Artists, among others.
Kathrine Sanger Brinley was a writer and linguist who worked in Europe, New York City, and Connecticut. She lived in Europe from 1904 to 1908 where she studied the arts and crafts of the middle ages and became an expert on English writing and language of the 14th century. She published articles and books on these subjects and during the 1920s had a successful career touring as a dramatic recitalist of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. From 1934 to 1938 the Brinley's spent their summers traveling throughout Canada, and Kathrine published four travel books which were illustrated by Daniel Putnam Brinley. Kathrine Sanger Brinley published and wrote professionally under the name Gordon Brinley.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is the Elizabeth Loder research material on Daniel Putnam Brinley, 1919-1990.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming on reel 1427, including select family photographs. Loaned material was returned to the lender is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley papers were lent for microfilming by their niece, Elizabeth Loder, in 1978-1979. Loder subsequently donated all but select family photographs in 1991 and additional material in 1992.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Daniel Putnam Brinley and Kathrine Sanger Brinley papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Topic:
Muralists -- Connecticut -- New Canaan Search this
Mural painting and decoration -- United States Search this
1 microfilm reel (130 items on partial microfilm reel)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Date:
1906-1960
Scope and Contents:
The microfilm collection of the Vincent Aderente papers contains correspondence (1910-circa 1934), including four letters from Edwin Blashfield; 5 sketches by Aderente; and notes and printed material on three mural commissions executed by Aderente. Commissions include murals at the main post office in Flushing, NY depicting local historical events; at the general court house in Jamaica, NY (circa 1942-1943) depicting the different periods of law from Egyptian to American; and at the main branch of the Lincoln Savings Bank in Brooklyn, NY depicting Lincoln's life. Also included in the collection is a list of portraits and murals by Aderente, including works by Edwin Blashfield on which Aderente worked as an assistant; a photograph of Aderente; and printed material, including many reproductions of Aderente's murals and graphic work, and a series of booklets on the history of the Detroit Library.
Biographical / Historical:
Vincent Aderente (1880-1941) was an Italian American muralist. He studied at the Art Students League and was Edwin Blashfield's assistant. Aderente's work can be found across the United States, including at St. Matthew's Cathedral; the Detroit Public Library; the United States Post Office in Flushing, Queens; the Queens County Court House; and the Long Island Savings Bank.
Related Materials:
The Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection holds the Vincent Aderente papers, 1899-1965.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1969 by Mrs. Vincent Aderente, widow of Aderente.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Letters, business records, diary, and photographs.
REEL 380-413: Primarily correspondence, mostly Gardner's own, but including family correspondence and Gardner Museum correspondence. Also included are misc. items and printed material. Correspondents include: Edwin Austin Abbey, Lyman Abbott, Brooks Adams, Alexander Agassiz, Elizabeth C. Agassiz, Louis Agassiz, Luigi Agostini, Hamilton Aide, Thomas B. Aldrich, Abram P. Andrew, Boris Anisfeld, George Arliss, Anne L. Balch, George G. Barnard, Grace Edith Barnes, Cecilia Beaux, Martin Birnbaum, William Sturgis Bigelow, William Phipps Blake, Edwin Howland Blashfield, Wilhelm von Bode, Martin Brimmer, J. Appleton Brown, Dennis Miller Bunker, Bryson Burroughs, Theodore Byard, Morris Carter, Paul Chalfin, Conrad Chapman, John Jay Chapman, Alfred Q. Collins,
Frederick Shepard Converse, Walter William Spencer Cook, Archibald Cary Coolidge, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Charles Townsend Copeland, Kenyon Cox, Ralph Adams Cram, Francis Marion Crawford, Raymond Crosby, Sally Cross, Ralph W. Curtis, Howard G. Cushing, Charlotte Cushman, Walter Damrosch, Richard Harding Davis, Elsie De Wolfe, Mary Dexter, Nathan H. Dole, John Donoghue, Ruth Draper, Duveen Brothers, J. S. Dwight, Theodore F. Dwight, Louis Dyer, Charles W. Eliot, Barry Faulkner, Gabriel Faure, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Daniel Chester French, Helen C. Frick, Roger E. Fry, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, John Lowell Gardner, William Amory Gardner, I. M. Gaugengigl, Richard Watson Gilder, Rene Gimpel, Edwin L. Godkin, Leon Gordon, Lady Augusta Gregory, Louise I. Guiney, Edward E. Hale,
Mary (Mrs. Richard Walden) Hale, Philip Leslie Hale, Mrs. Philip Hale, Richard Hammond, Walter Hampden, George C. Hazelton, Paul Helleu, Henry Lee Higginson, Thomas W. Higginson, Robert Hinckley, Malvina Hoffman, Edward W. Hooper, Harriet Hosmer, Julia W. Howe, Archer M. Huntington, Vincent d'Indy, Henry Irving, August F. Jaccaci, Clarence King, William Kittredge, Louis Kronberg, Petr A. Kropotkin, Anna C. Ladd, John La Farge, Charles Rollinson Lamb, Charles Lanman, Charles G. Loring, James R. Lowell, Dodge Macknight, Mary L. Macomber, Richard Mansfield, Paul Manship, Frank J. Mather, Francis John McComas, Nellie Melba, Francis Davis Millet, S. Weir Mitchell, Helena Modjeska, Pierre Monteux, John S. Mosby, Gilbert Murray,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Andrews Norton, Lily Norton, Richard Norton, William O'Connell, Kazuzo Okakura, Jean N. Oliver, William O. Partridge, Walter Pater, Anna Pavlova, Waldo Peirce, Joseph Pennell, Harper Pennington, Lilla Cabot Perry, Edward C. Pickering, Sophia L. Pitman, Matthew Stewart Prichard, John Quinn, Robert Reid, Amelie Rives, Elizabeth W. Roberts, Auguste Rodin, Denman Ross, Will Rothenstein, Lillian Russell, Paul J. Sachs, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Ruth St. Denis, Franklin B. Sanborn, Charles Sprague Sargent, John Singer Sargent, J.M. Sears, C. Arnold Slade, Irene Slade, Henry Davis Sleeper, F. Hopkinson Smith, George Warren Smith, Joseph L. Smith, Albert Spaulding, Maurice Sterne, William James Stillman, Julian Story, Thomas W. Story, Henry Swift,
John Addington Symonds, Ellen Terry, Celia Thaxter, Abbott H. Thayer, William R. Thayer, Mary A. Tiffany, Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, Adelaide E. Wadsworth, Francis Amasa Walker, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mrs. Fiske Warren, Edmund March Wheelwright, James McNeill Whistler, Margaret White, Sara de Prix Wyman Whitman, Wildenstein Galleries, Owen Wister, Charles H. Woodbury, Rufus F. Zogbaum, Anders Zorn, Mrs. Anders Zorn, and others.
REELS 631-632: Personal papers of Gardner and some records of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum including dealers' files containing invoices, notes, cancelled checks, and letters; a record book, "Prices Paid for Paintings," 1917; a record book, "Prices Paid for Works of Art"; 118 installation photographs of the museum as arranged by Gardner, 1924; a diary kept in Egypt, 1874, with sketches; a diary kept in Shanghai and India, 1883-1884; "Directions for my funeral," 1912; and "Suggestions for Running a Museum," 1913.
REELS 696-698: Letters from Bernard Berenson to Gardner, 1887-1924. Letters contain references to literary topics, Berenson's impressions of Europe, various paintings and artists, advice to Gardner on the purchase of paintings and information on their sale.
REEL 846: Checklist of Gardner's letters to Bernard and Mary Berenson, 1894-1924; typescripts of personal and official correspondence (originals found on AAA microfilm reels 696-698), 1887-1924.
Biographical / Historical:
Art patron, collector, and museum founder; Boston, Mass. Immediately after graduation from Harvard, Bernard Berenson was hired by Gardner to travel throughout Italy collecting Italian Renaissance art for her recreated Venetian palazzo in Boston. She established her palazzo as a museum of fine European art with stipulations that after her death none of the exhibited works was to be moved or rearranged, but left as she had designed during her lifetime.
Provenance:
Microfilm lent by Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for duplicating, 1972-1975.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Occupation:
Art patrons -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Art, Renaissance -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
REEL 640: Sketchbooks, 7 v., 1886, 1888-1920, 1896 & undated, France, Boston, and elsewhere. Most of the sketches are in pencil. [Previously filmed on reel 593.]
REEL 862: Scrapbook, 1 v., 1893-1953, including: clippings,announcements and reviews of Paxton's exhibitions covering most of his career and several years after his death, reproductions of his work, and letters and telegrams with galleries and others. Also included is a letter from Robert Hale Ives Gammell to Elizabeth Paxton, 1953.
REELS 3714-3715: Correspondence of William McGregor Paxton and of his wife, Elizabeth, including letters from Philip Leslie Hale, Kenyon Cox, Maria Oakey Dewing, Edwin Blashfield, Horace Burdick, Susan Eakins, George Wales, from sitters thanking Paxton for their portraits, and from others. Elizabeth Paxton correspondence relates to her own paintings and exhibitions, donations, and sales of her husband's paintings after his death; poems, 2 notebooks and other writings; card files listing portrait information; clippings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and lists of paintings.
UNMICROFILMED: Undated drawings and a sketchbook; 9 etchings by Paxton, ca. 1918-1938?; photographs, undated and 1896-1941, of works of art, Paxton, and of miscellaneous subjects; and glass negatives, half-tone printing plates, copper and zinc printing plates.
ADDITION: Biographical documentation; family genealogy; sketchbooks, some containing loose sketches done at a later date [most previously filmed on reel 640 as a loan]; photographs of Paxton and his work; reproductions of work by him and of art used as reference by Paxton; clippings; and posthumous exhibition material. ca. 1870s-1979. Also, Elizabeth Okie Paxton (ca. 1878-ca. 1968): biographical information; correspondence; exhibition and sales records; illustrations of her studio/residence, Boston; printed material; photographs of her, her family, and her work; and correspondence regarding William Paxton exhibitions. ca. 1880s-ca. 1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, teacher; Boston, Massachusetts. Paxton was born in Baltimore in 1869. He was raised outside of Boston, Mass., trained in Paris and Boston, and taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was an active participant in several artists' organizations in Boston, Provincetown, and New York City. Elizabeth Okie Paxton was born in Providence, R.I. to Howard Okie, a Baltimore physician who had been brought to Providence by a wealthy patron, Thomas Ives, an uncle of Robert Hales Ives Gammell, painter, writer, and friend of the Paxtons. She met Paxton while studying with with him. After marriage they resided Newton Centre, Mass. Following Paxton's death, she lived in a studio/residence in the Fenway Studios, Boston.
Provenance:
Papers on reels 3714-3715 were donated by Robert Douglas Hunter, executor of Elizabeth Oakie Paxton's estate. He also lent for microfilming the sketchbooks on reel 640 and the scrapbook on reel 862 in l973 & 1974, respectively. The scrapbook was subsequently donated by Hunter in 1997, and the sketchbooks were subsequently donated in 1998 by his wife, Elizabeth Ives Hunter along with additional papers of Paxton and those of Elizabeth Okie Paxton. Additions are expected.
Restrictions:
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. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Biographical accounts, letters, notes, writings, art work, scrapbooks, printed material, and photographs document the careers of William Meyerowitz and his wife Theresa Bernstein, both painters and printmakers.
REELS D285-D285a: Letters, 1918-1967, from patrons and colleagues, including John Taylor Arms, Edwin Blashfield, Maxim Karolik, Duncan Phillips, and John Weichsel; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1920-1967; 35 photographs of art works; a scrapbook, 1923-1944, containing exhibition announcements and catalogs, a clipping, and a photograph of an art work; 16 drawings; 3 prints; a list of Bernstein's work; 2 poems; a 4-page typescript "Reflections on the Art Status" by Bernstein; a typescript concerning painting in America by Oscar Bluemner; miscellaneous manuscripts, undated and 1964; 2 receipts for gifts of art work, 1927 and 1957; and a copy of the by-laws of the Cape Ann Arts Council, 1955.
REEL N69-137: Three exhibition catalogs, 1969, for works of Meyerowitz and Bernstein.
REEL 4866: Biographical accounts; 2 award certificates for Bernstein; letters, 1921-1978, from patrons and colleagues, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Homer Saint-Gaudens, and Lynd Ward; 3 lists of Bernstein's works; 7 poems; a manuscript "On Portraiture"; a typescript by Bernstein about Meyerowitz' work; 22 drawings; 1 print; a scrapbook of clippings, 1915-1918; a scrapbook, undated and 1931, containing a clipping, a photograph of an art work, and exhibition catalogs; clippings, 1929-1978; a reprint "On the Need of Art" by Meyerowitz, 1944; exhibition announcements and catalogs, 1921-1977; reproductions of art works; a card advertising a summer art course taught by Meyerowitz and Bernstein; 10 photographs of the artists, 1930-1962; and 19 photographs of art works.
Biographical / Historical:
Painters and printmakers; New York, N.Y. William Meyerowitz was born in Russia in either 1889 or 1898. Moving to New York in 1908, he studied at the National Academy of Design from 1912-1916. He married Theresa Bernstein in 1918, and travelled in Europe from 1922-1923. During his exhibition at the Corcoran in 1930, he met Oliver Wendell Holmes, who became a patron and a subject for later work. Theresa Bernstein was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and continued her studies at the Art Students League in New York. She died on Feb. 13, 2002, and was generally believed to be 111, though she could have been as old as 116.
Provenance:
Donated 1966-1978 by Mr. and Mrs. William Meyerowitz. Microfilmed 1994 with funding provided by the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation, the Goldie-Anna Charitable Trust, the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, and the Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation.
Restrictions:
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. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Wyeth, N. C. (Newell Convers), 1882-1945 Search this
Extent:
20.5 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Date:
1896-2006
bulk 1970-2006
Summary:
The Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States measures 20.5 linear feet and dates from 1896 to 2006 with the bulk of the material dating from 1970 to 2006. The collection is comprised of Murray's extensive research files, scattered writings, and photographic materials for his life-long research on mural painting in the United States.
Scope and Contents:
The Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States measures 20.5 linear feet and dates from 1896 to 2006 with the bulk of the material dating from 1970 to 2006. The collection is comprised of Murray's extensive research files, scattered writings, and photographic materials documenting his life-long research on mural painting in the United States.
Mural research files are organized by city, state, artist, and general mural research. The files contain photocopies of printed material, notes, photographs, and correspondence. Artists with extensive documentation include John White Alexander, Edwin Blashfield, Kenyon Cox, John LaFarge, Will H. Low, H. Siddons Mowbray, John Warner Norton, Violet Oakley, Maxfield Parrish, John Singer Sargent, Eduard Steichen, and N.C. Wyeth. Other files consist of bibliographies, a mural catalog and index, hand-drawn statistical graphs, and files on murals in Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Writings include drafts of articles "Painted Words: Murals in the Library of Congress" and "Progressive Era Murals in Chicago's Public Schools." There are also writings by others. Subject files consist of compiled notes, photographs, printed materials, and photocopies on general art related topics such as European art history and theory, art criticism, the life of an artist, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, immigration, and decorative arts.
Photographic materials include photographs and negatives of the American Academy in Rome, the Hotel de Ville, and public and private murals throughout various cities. The series also includes two microfilm reels of the Kenyon Cox papers with an index, and a small amount of Murray's personal photographs.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 4 series.
Series 1: Mural Research Files, 1896-2006 (15.2 linear feet; Boxes 1-16, OV 22)
Series 2: Writings, circa 1990s-2006 (0.4 linear feet; Box 16)
Series 3: Subject Files, 1967-2000 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-17)
Series 4: Photographic Materials, 1916-2006 (3.9 linear feet; Boxes 17-21)
Biographical / Historical:
Richard Murray (1942-2006) was a curator, educator, and museum administrator in Washington, D.C.
Murray received a bachelor of arts from California State University in San Jose in 1968 and a M.A. in art history and theory from the University of Chicago in 1970. As a research fellow at the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA), now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, he began his dissertation research on mural paintings in the United States. Murray's research on American mural painting continued for decades. Although never officially published, the research project was titled "Hope and Memory: Mural Painting in the United States, 1876-1920." He authored numerous articles about mural painters and painting. Murray also conducted extensive research and organized exhibitions on painters Abbott Handerson Thayer and Elihu Vedder at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
In the 1970s, Murray worked as an assistant to the NCFA director and assisted in the preparation of the seminal bicentennial exhibition entitled America as Art. From 1979 to 1983, Murray was director of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama. In 1983, he returned to Washington, D.C. and served as director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art until 1987, when he accepted the position of chief curator and assistant director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He remained in this position until his death in 2006.
Related Materials:
Also available at the Archives of American Art is Richard Murray research material regarding Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1948-2004, bulk 1994-2001.
Separated Materials:
Research files on Abbott Handerson Thayer found within this collection were separated and filed with the AAA collection, Richard Murray research materials on Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1948-2004, bulk 1994-2001.
Provenance:
The bulk of the Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States was donated in 2006 by Murray's wife Marciela Murray. Additional files were transferred from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2009 and 2014 via Rachel Kase in the curatorial office.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Rights:
The Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Mural painting and decoration, American Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Richard Murray research material regarding mural painting in the United States, 1896-2006, bulk 1970-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund
Awards, medals, photographs, drawings, printed material and miscellany.
Included are a Gold Medal Certificate awarded to Blashfield in 1904; two medals; drawings, some of medieval armour, in pen and ink, oil and pencil. The photos, many extensively annotated, are of Blashfield including two of him painting murals at the Library of Congress and of Blashfield and others, of armour, and of his paintings and murals in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, state capitols, Library of Congress, libraries in Detroit, Kansas City, the New York City College (now C.C.N.Y.), M.I.T., Grove Academy of Athens (Georgia), Baltimore and Cleveland court houses, and private homes and businesses. and a bound volume with reproductions of engravings by Blashfield and others. Also found are a poster, money, and anti-German stamp designs.
Biographical / Historical:
Mural painter. Having studied at P.A.F.A. and in Paris, Blashfield worked on: the Court House, Baltimore; Cleveland Federal Building; Citizens Bank, Cleveland; Hudson County Court House, Jersey City; Capitol, Masdison, Wis.; Essex County Court House, Newark; Appellate Court, N.Y..; C.C.N.Y.; Church of the Saviour, Phila.; Capitol, Pierre, S. Dak.; Bank of Pittsburgh; Capitol, St. Paul, Minn.; Library of Congress; Luzerne County Court House, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Mahoning County Court House, Youngstown, Ohio; St. Matthew's Church, Wash., D.C.; First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Public Lib., Detroit, M.I.T.; and the Episcopal Church, Chappaqua, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1973 and 1980 by the Williams College Museum of Art.
Restrictions:
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. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Transcripts and handwritten drafts of interviews of 86 artists and architects associated with the National Academy of Design, conducted by Lockman. Also included are a few biographical sketches.
Interviewees include: Mrs. Edwin Austin Abbey, Wayman Adams, Robert I. Aiken, Ernest Albert, Alonzo R. Beal, Edward A. Bell, Edwin H. Blashfield, Roy H. Brown, George E. Browne, Arnold Brunner, Alexander S. Calder, Carleton T. Chapman, Benjamin West Clinedinst, Alphaeus Cole, Timothy Cole, Irving E. Couse, Robert B. Crane, Charles C. Curran, B. Franklin De Haven, William R. Derrick, Louis P. Dessar, Thomas W. Dewing, Frederick I. Dielman, Edward Dufner, John W. Dunsmore, Jared B. Flagg, John G. Flanagan, August R. Franzen, Daniel C. French, Sherry E. Fry, Edward Gay, Cass Gilbert, Walter Granville-Smith, Chester Harding, Childe Hassam, Charles W. Hawthorne, William H. Howe, Henry S. Hubbell, William H. Hyde, William S. Jewett, Francis C. Jones, Dora Wheeler Kieth, William Fair Kline, Jonas Lie, Louis Loeb, Will H. Low, Edward McCartan, Frederick MacMonnies, Herman A. MacNeil, Gari Melchers, Francis Luis Mora, H. Siddons Mowbray, Raymond P. R. Neilson, George G. Newell,Robert H. Nisbet,
Ivan G. Olinsky, Willard Dryden Paddock, Walter L. Palmer, Arthur Parton, William McGregor Paxton, Ernest C. Peixotto, Joseph Pennell, Edward H. Potthast, Henry Prellwitz, Wilhelm F. Ritschel, Henry Rittenberg, Frederick Roth, Carl Rungius, Emily Sartain, John Sartain, William Sartain, Henry B. Snell, Robert Spencer, Egerton Swartwout, Douglas Volk, Bessie & Robert Vonnoh, Horatio Walker, Harry Watrous, Adolph Weinman, Charles D. Weldon, William Whittemore, Irving Wiles, Frederick B. Williams, and Cullen Yates.
Biographical / Historical:
DeWitt Lockman was a portrait painter, New York, N.Y. He studied in Europe, 1891-1892 and 1901-1902; a pupil of James H. Beard, Nelson N. Bickford and William Sartain; and was president of the National Academy of Design and records secretary of the New York Historical Society.
Provenance:
Lent 1973 by the New York Historical Society.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Topic:
Artists -- United States -- Interviews Search this
Architects -- United States -- Interviews Search this
