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.
Collection Citation:
John Davis Hatch, 1790-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art
Letters in this series include the personal and professional correspondence of William Page, his wife, Sophia Candace Stevens Page, and their families, as well as correspondence of Sophia Page's first husband Stephen Hitchcock and his family.
William Page's correspondence is found from 1833 to 1885 only, with the bulk of his correspondence dating from 1852 to 1877. Drafts of outgoing letters written by William and Sophia Page are found throughout the series. Correspondence is arranged chronologically, with undated correspondence filed alphabetically by author at the end of the series. Correspondence of Page's children, which is voluminous from the early 1880s onward, and other family correspondence of the Page, Stevens, and Hitchcock families has not been indexed.
The earliest correspondence is that of Page's relatives of the Mathies, Dunnel, and Baldwin families of New York State. From 1840 through 1852, much of the correspondence is that of the Hitchcock family. See Series 2.3 for correspondence between Sophia and Steven Hitchcock. Love letters between William Page and Sophia (then Hitchcock) are prevalent in 1857, the year they were married. Family correspondence among Sophia Page, her parents, and her brothers Henry, B. Frank, and Simon Stevens is prevalent from the 1850s through the 1880s. By 1884, much of the correspondence is that of the Page children, including their personal, business, and family correspondence. A long, amorous correspondence from Charlotte "Sharly" Briggs to Candace "Dacie" Page, which documents an apparently intimate relationship between the two women, is found from the late 1880s onward, with many undated letters.
William Page's significant correspondents include artists such as Thomas Hicks, Enoch Wood Perry, William Stark, Theodore Tilton, and Lemuel Wilmarth; patrons Wendell Phillips, J. Hopper, William Walker Scranton, and Francis G. Shaw; writers James Russell Lowell, Charles Frederick Briggs (see also Series 2.2), George W. Curtis, and the actress Charlotte Cushman. An unusually lengthy letter from Page to a young artist "W" (possibly William Stark) about painting is dated 1860. Sophia Page's correspondents include Thomas K. Beecher, Mary Olmsted and Bertha Olmsted.
See Appendix for a list of selected correspondents from Series 2.1.
Appendix: Selected Correspondents from Series 2.1.:
The following is a selective list of correspondence of William and Sophia Page in Series 2.1: General Correspondence.
Spellings and abbreviations of names below reflect the actual signatures of letters. Names preceded by question marks indicate partially-legible signatures. Letters with unsigned and illegible signatures which could not be indexed are common in the correspondence, so this index should not be considered comprehensive.
Adam, Sarah W.: 1877-1878
Allan, W.G.: 1848
Allen, Elizabeth Akers: 1863-1864, 1880, 1885-1888, 1892, undated
Alsop, ?H.J.W.: 1871
Ammon, W.E.: 1887-1888
Appleton, Nathan: 1874
Arcadian Club: 1874
Armstrong, William: 1889
Austin Baldwin and Co.: 1863
Avery, Charles: 1870
Avery, Sam P.: undated
Badeau, Adam: 1866
Baker, H.: undated
Baker, W.J.: 1874
Balducci, Y.: 1855
Bard, M.I.: undated
Barney, C. H.: 1863
Barney, Hiram: undated
Bartholemew, E.: 1855-1856
Bartlett, C.E.: undated
Barton, Sam: 1870, 1879
Bates, L.: undated
Beardsley, Annie: 1885
Beatty, John W.: 1900, 1902
Becker, Dr.: undated
Beckwith, James Carroll: 1899
Beecher, Thomas K.: 1850, 1853-1854, undated
Bellinger, Louis: 1887
Benedict, Robert D.: 1856, 1876, 1886
Benedict, Taft, and Benedict: 1880
Benet, W.V.: 1861
?Bennett, J.R.: undated
Berdam, D.W.: 1861
Betty, Edward: 1875
Biglow, L.G.: 1883
Bigmore, Edward: 1880
Birney, E.P.: 1865
Blomeger, Georgina: undated
Boies, H.M.: 1875-1876
Bossange, H.: 1855
Bradford, J.F.: 1870
Brady, J.R.: 1873
Brehart, Mary: 1888, undated
Briggs, Charles Frederick: 1852, 1861, undated (see also series 2.2)
Briggs, Charlotte "Sharly": 1877, 1882-1883, 1886-1894, 1896, 1899, undated
Richards, T. Addision: 1882, 1886 (see also the letters used as evidence in Page's probate trial; Series 4)
Richmond, Victoria and J.W.B.: 1883, 1886
Rider, George S.J.: 1868
Ridner, Caroline: 1885, 1887
Rively, Mary: 1886-1887
Robertson, Ann Elize Worcester: 1877
Robinson, A.S.: 1852-1853, 1855, 1862
Robinson, E.: 1874
Robinson, George C.: 1868, undated
Robinson, Mrs. Jennie: 1870
Robinson, M.C.: 1853
Robinson, W.H.: 1875-1876
Rogers, John: undated
Rogers, W.K.: 1877
Rose, J.W.: 1882
?Rossel: 1878
Ruggles, Edward: 1861
Sanborn, ?O.H.: 1868
Sartain, John: 1875
Schultz, E.A.: 1873
Schuyler, Louisa Lee: 1877
Schwab, Charles M.: 1906
Scott, Frank H.: 1875
Scott, Julian: 1874
Scranton, William Walker: 1874-1875, 1877-1879, 187?, 1880-1881
Scribner editors: 1879
Searle, L.: undated
Sellstedt, L.G.: 1863-1864, undated
Shaw, Anna K: 1863, undated
Shaw, Francis George: 1850-1851, 1853-1855, 1859, 1861, 1863-1864, 1872-1874, 1876-1877, 1880-1881, undated (see also letters used as evidence in Page's probate trial; Series 4)
Shaw, Sarah B.: 1877, 1879, 1881, 1883, 1885-1889, 1892, undated
Shegogue, J.H.: 1848
Shelton, W.H.: 1905
Shinn, Earl: 1873
Shipman, Andrew: 1892
Shipman, Frank: 1886
Shipman, Mary C.: 1886, undated
Skinner, Mabel R.: 1879
Smith, Charles E.: 1868
Smith, J. Eustace: 1884
Southland, William D.: 1886
Spencer, L: 1862
Sperry, Watson: 1880
Spring, Jeanie: 1861
Spring, Marcus: 1867, 1869, 1872
Spring, R.B.: undated
Spring, Rebecca: 1886
Stafford, John: 1864, 1877
Stafford, O.H.: 1864
Stark, William and Madelaine: 1858, 1860-1862
Stebbins, A.: 1869
Stenton, Josephine: 1872
Stoddard, W.O.: 1870
Storrs, R.S.: 1870
Story, Mr. and Mrs. William Wetmore: 1850, undated
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
William Page and Page Family papers, 1815-1947, bulk 1843-1892. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
