A transcript of an interview with James Earle and Laura Gardin Fraser; biographical data; letters to Laura Fraser; general correspondence; lists of people and their addresses; unpublished manuscripts and notes, including James Fraser's INDIAN PRAIRIE, recording his childhood memories in the Dakota territory of 1880; financial material; printed material, including catalogs, brochures, announcements, scholarship data, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and reproductions; drawings and sketches; Mary Goff's undated sketchbook; and ca. 900 photographs of the Frasers and their works of art.
Biographical / Historical:
Sculptors; Westport, Connecticut.
Provenance:
Lent 1982 by Mrs. Erving Wolf. It is unclear how she acquired the papers.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of sculptor Janet DeCoux date from 1895-2000 and measure 3.92 linear feet. The collection documents DeCoux's career through scattered biographical material, correspondence, audio cassette tapes of an autobiographical narrative, an interview transcript, miscellaneous notes and writings, sketchbooks and drawings, files for commissioned sculpture projects, printed material, photographs of DeCoux, family members, friends, colleagues, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of sculptor Janet deCoux measure 3.92 linear feet and date from 1895 to 2000. Found within the papers are scattered biographical material, including curriculum vitae and a file concerning deCoux's induction as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania. Correspondence is primarily between family, friends, and colleagues. It includes letters from Carl Milles, Bruce Moore, C.P. Jennewein, the Guild of Liturgy, Art and Design (GLAD), the Liturgical Arts Society, Inc., sculptor James Earle Fraser, offering advice on various sculpture projects, his wife Laura Gardin Fraser, a letter of congratulations from Paul Manship on the occasion of deCoux's election to the National Academy of Design, and approximately fifty letters, 1944-1952, from Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer and wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh. There are also one or two letters from Lu Duble, Joseph Bailey Ellis, Mark Tobey, and Albert Wein.
Found within the papers are a transcript of an interview of deCoux by George Gurney, and audio cassettes with transcripts of an autobiographical narrative by deCoux. Miscellaneous notes and writings include autobiographical accounts and poems by deCoux and miscellaneous writings by others. Seven of deCoux's sketchbooks and a folder of drawings by deCoux, as well as a portrait of deCoux by C. Paul Jennewein are found in the Artwork series. Project files contain letters, receipts, clippings, brochures, and photographs for sculpture projects primarily commissioned by religious organizations. Printed material includes clippings, exhibition catalogs, and miscellaneous brochures. Photographs are of deCoux, family members, friends including Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her children, colleagues including James Earle Fraser, Laura Gardin Fraser, Carl Milles, and Bruce Moore, and sculpture.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series. Glass plate negative housed separately and closed to researchers.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1895-1993 (Box 1; 13 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1895-2000 (Boxes 1-2; 1.0 linear feet)
Series 3: Interviews, 1978, 1990 (Box 2; 3 folders)
Series 4: Notes and Writings, 1937-1996 (Box 2; 23 folders)
Series 5: Artwork, 1928-1929 (Boxes 2, 6; 9 folders)
Series 6: Project Files, 1942-1982 (Boxes 2-3, 6; 36 folders)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1906-2000 (Box 3; 20 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, 1926-1996 (Boxes 3-6, MGP 1; 1.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Janet deCoux was born on October 5, 1904 in Niles, Michigan, the youngest of the five children of Bertha Wright deCoux and Rev. Charles John deCoux, an Episcopal clergyman. The family moved to Grand Rapids in 1908 and four years later to a farm in Gibsonia, outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
deCoux studied with Joseph Bailey Ellis at the Carnegie Institute of Technology from 1925 to 1927. She then apprenticed in the New York studio of C. Paul Jennewein for fifteen months, followed by a year at the Gorham Bronze Division learning architectural modeling. She also worked with Aristide Cianfarani in Providence, and for Alvin Meyer in Chicago. While serving her apprenticeships, she attended night school at the New York School of Industrial Arts, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Art Institute of Chicago. deCoux was then employed in James Earle Fraser's studio where she had previously assisted Gozo Kawamura.
In 1932 deCoux met Eliza Miller in the sculpture department of Carnegie Tech, beginning a sixty-year relationship in which they shared a shop and adjoining studios in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania. For several months in 1935, deCoux traveled to Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, where she joined her friend Aly Moore, the wife of sculptor Bruce Moore. She first met longtime friend Father Hughson on a ship returning to the United States from Europe.
A Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to deCoux in 1938 was renewed for a second year. In 1943, she became resident instructor at Cranbrook Academy of Art.
Janet deCoux died in December 1999.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Janet deCoux done by George Gurney, May 5, 1978.
Provenance:
The Janet deCoux papers were donated in 1992 by the artist and in two later installments in 2000-2001 by her longtime companion, Eliza Miller.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment.
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.
Occupation:
Sculptors -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
1.2 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 1 reel))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1897-1971
Scope and Contents:
Letters, photographs, sketches, printed material and miscellany.
REEL 74: Photocopies of letters received commenting on specific sculptures and discussing such matters as exhibitions of his work and the theft of several of his sculptures from an art gallery. Includes letters from James Earle Fraser and his wife, Laura G. Fraser, David French of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as Mrs. Albert Laessle's correspondence with the National Collection of Fine Arts. Also included are copies of sketches, biographical data, D. Roy Miller's article about Laessle entitled "A Sculptor of Animal Life," and clippings.
UNMICROFILMED: Correspondence from colleagues, patrons and students; photographs of Laessle's work as a student and sculptor, clippings, and articles. Among the photos are one of him with a penguin sculpture taken by Vivian Chappel, 1917, and a group photo of Laessle, Charles Grafly, E. Boutier, and Victor Hugo Zoll in front of a sculpture, 1904. [Copyprints of these 2 photographs were microfilmed on reel 1817 with AAA's Photographs of Artists-Collection II].
Biographical / Historical:
Animal sculptor; Miami, Fla.
Provenance:
Donated 1971-1972 by Laessle's widow.
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.
Weinman, Adolph A. (Adolph Alexander), 1870-1952 Search this
Extent:
1.1 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on two reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Interviews
Date:
1916-1981
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence (1916-1981); business records (1922-1971); notes (undated and 1929); interview transcript (1978); printed material (1929-1981); and photographs (1920-1945).
REELS 3612-3613: Correspondence concerning work done by the Continis for sculptors, including letters from Bryant Baker, A. Stirling Calder, Rudolph Evans, James Earle Fraser, John Gregory, Walker Hancock, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Gaston Lachaise, Bruce Moore, A. Phimister Proctor, Richard Recchia, David Rubins, and Adolph Weinman; photographs of the Contini family and of works of art, including "End of the Trail" by James Earle Fraser and works by Rudolph Evans, Anna Hyatt Huntington, and Richard Recchia (1920-1945); Attilio Contini's address book; and a notebook listing works of art.
Also, receipts and invoices addressed to various sculptors (1922-1971) and a contract for work on Frederic Remington's sculpture "Coming Through the Rye" for the National Cowboy Hall of Fame; a transcript of an interview with Cesare Contini conducted by George Gurney on August 26, 1978; clippings (1950-1981), exhibition catalogs (1929-1939), and 2 programs for the unveiling of the Martin Luther monument in Baltimore, Maryland (1936) and the Bing Crosby statue in Spokane, Washington (1981).
UNMICROFILMED: Three undated photographs mounted on board of historical panels at the West Point Library executed by Laura Gardin Fraser.
Biographical / Historical:
Plaster casting firm; New York, N.Y. Following training in Italy, Attilio (1884-1960) and his son Cesare (b. 1907) came to America and operated A. Contini and Son, New York, N.Y, making plaster molds for sculptures by wide group of artists, including James Earle Fraser, Ivan Mestrovic, Herbert Haseltine, A. Stirling Calder, Adolph Weinman, Gaston Lachaise, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
Provenance:
Donated 1984 by Cesare Contini.
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.
