Correspondence, including a letterbook which contains some drafts of Cummings' own communications, and letters received; broadsides; and clippings.
Among the correspondents are many 19th century New York painters and National Academy of Design members, including Gorham D. Abbott, William Aspinwall, Anthony Barclay, Albert Bierstadt, Victoria Bellamy, Robert Bunch, Charles Butler, J. G.Chapman, Vincent Colyer, Mortimer De Motte, Asher B. and John Durand, F. W. Edmonds, Charles L. Elliott, Isaac Ferris, Hamilton Fish, Robert Fraser, William Gibbons, Régis Gignoux, R. K. Haight, Walter Harding, Daniel Huntington, Charles Ingham, Henry Inman and his widow Jane Inman (re proceeds from an Inman memorial exhibition organized by Cummings), William Kemble, Louis Lang, James Lenox, Edward Lester, Charles Leupp, John Lewis, Benson Lossing, James J. Mapes, James McMurtrie, John Morgan, George P. Morris, S. F. B. Morse, E.W. Perry, William H. Seward, D. Seymour, James Shegogue, John R. Smith, William Stillman, Russell Sturgis, Thomas Sully, Henry Tappan, Thomas Thorpe, T. B. Wakeman, Prosper Wetmore, and James Whitehorne.
Biographical / Historical:
Thomas Seir Cummings (1804-1894) was a miniature and portrait painter from New York, N.Y. One of the founders of the National Academy of Design.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1958 by the Century Association.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Twelve artist files (1835-1954) containing materials by William Boggs, Henry Farrer, Regis Gignoux, Augustus Kollner, Robert Carey Long, George Luks, Walter Shirlaw, Marianna Sloan, Lilly Martin Spencer, Edwin Whitefield, Daniel Huntington, and Oscar Bluemner. Most files contain drawings or watercolors. The Boggs file also contains notes about pigments; the Sloan file also contains a letter (1952) thanking Mr. Stone for flowers and 2 copies of Sloan's obituary; the Spencer file also contains a diploma awarded by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association to Spencer for a painting, "Power of Fashion," contributed to the exhibition of 1853, and a lithograph, "The Young Students," by A. Siroudy, 1858, after a painting by Spencer; and the Bluemner file contains primarily handwritten notes with only a few small sketches. Two photographs show Robert Henri's father, Robert Cozad, and his family, and Lyndhurst, Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
Provenance:
Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld, 1975, 1981 and 1984.
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.
Correspondents include: John White Alexander, William H. Beard, Eugene Benson, Albert Bierstadt, William Bispham, Edward A. Brackett, George L. Brown, Henry Kirke Brown, John G. Brown, John G. Chapman, William A. Coffin, Frederick S. Cozzens, Christopher P. Cranch, Charles T. Dix, Francis W. Edmonds, John W. Ehninger, Regis F. Gignoux, Horatio Greenough, George H. Hall, Thomas Hicks, Alfred C. Howland, Daniel P. Huntington, Laurence Hutton, Joseph Jefferson, Eastman Johnson, John LaFarge, Louis Lang, Samuel Laurence, William H. Lippincott, Jervis McEntee, Frank B. Mayer, Charles H. Miller, Samuel F. B. Morse, Louis L. Noble, Thomas S. Noble, William R. O'Donovan, Johannes A. S. Oertel, Thomas A. Richards, Horace W. Robbins, John Rogers, Thomas P. Rossiter, Samuel W. Rowse, Napoleon Sarony, James D. Smillie, Bayard Taylor, Cephas G. Thompson, Launt A. Thompson, John Q. A. Ward, John F. Weir, Robert W. Weir, Edwin D. White, Worthington Whittredge, and Thomas W. Wood.
Reel N25: A calling card of Herbert Adams; a letter to Mrs. Frederic N. Goddard from Adams, returning photographs of Bryant; and a letter to Bryant from F. Tabbot about his painting of a forest.
Biographical / Historical:
Poet; New York City. Bryant's son-in-law, Parke Godwin, was an author, one of whose books was a biography of Bryant, THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 1883.
Other Title:
Bryant-Godwin collection (NYPL microfilm title)
Provenance:
Microfilmed 1956 by the Archives of American Art with other art-related papers in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. Included in the microfilming project were selected papers of the Art Division and the Prints Division.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
![view Thomas Seir Cummings correspondence and printed material [microfilm] digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")