Wyeth, N. C. (Newell Convers), 1882-1945 Search this
Extent:
103.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Visitors' books
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Date:
1821
1815
circa 1896-2011
Summary:
The records of the New York City gallery James Graham & Sons measure 103.2 linear feet and date from 1815, 1821, circa 1896-2011 (bulk 1950s-1980s). The collection generally documents the gallery's contemporary art department during the time in which Robert Claverhouse Graham, Sr. worked at the gallery (1940-1979); records prior to 1954 are sparse and scattered. Gallery records include artist files; correspondence; exhibition files; financial records; inventory records; printed materials; sales, loans, and consignment records; scrapbooks; and photographic materials. Also found are records from Coe Kerr Gallery regarding exhibitions.. There is a 8.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2018 that includes artists' files regarding exhibitions and photographs of works of art.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the New York City gallery James Graham & Sons measure 103.2 linear feet and date from 1815, 1821, circa 1896-2011 (bulk 1950s-1980s). The collection generally documents the gallery's contemporary art department during the time in which Robert Claverhouse Graham, Sr. worked at the gallery (1940-1979); records prior to 1954 are sparse and scattered. Gallery records include artist files; correspondence; exhibition files; financial records; inventory records; printed materials; sales, loans, and consignment records; scrapbooks; and photographic materials. Also found are records from Coe Kerr Gallery regarding exhibitions of artwork by Jamie Wyeth, and to a lesser extent, Andrew and N.C. Wyeth.
Over the years, the gallery changed names and established contemporary art departments. In addition to records of James Graham & Sons, the collection holds the records of Duveen-Graham Modern Art (in partnership with Albert Duveen), Graham Gallery, Graham Modern, JG|Contemporary, and, to a lesser extent, The Clapp and Graham Co.
Alphabetical files are a mix of business correspondence and business records. The bulk of the series contains correspondence with galleries, museums, other institutions, and, to a lesser extent, clients regarding sales, consignments, and loans of artwork. Also found are materials relevant to the daily operations of the gallery, including correspondence, subject files, and scattered financial, business and legal records.
Exhibition files provide scattered documentation of the gallery's exhibitions through catalogs, clippings, correspondence, guest books, notes, photographs, press materials, price lists, and sales receipts and other financial records.
Artists' Files document the numerous artists who have been represented by the gallery, especially modern American artists. Folders for each artist can contain a variety of materials, including correspondence with the artist or with institutions regarding consignments, loans, sales and exhibitions; photographic materials primarily of artwork; sales invoices; exhibition catalogs, postcards, and other printed materials; press releases; magazine and newspaper clippings; price lists; artist binders; and research materials on artists and artwork. Also found are some subject files, per original arrangement. There is extensive material related to artists Carmen Cicero, Susan Crile, Elaine De Kooning's portrait of President John F. Kennedy, Edwin Dickinson, muralist Seymour Fogel, Nancy Fried, Irving Kriesberg, Gari Melchers, Jonathan Santlofer, Reeve Schley, Peter Stevens, Joan Thorne, and Selina Trieff.
Artwork files document sales, consignments, and loans of artwork primarily from the mid-1980s to 2000s. Materials include agreements and contracts; condition reports; correspondence; invoices and receipts; photographs of artwork; shipping records; and photocopied printed material and other documentation. This series requires written permission from the donor in order to access.
Sales records from 1959-1984 (missing 1974) are found in the Financial Records series. Also found are check stub books from the mid-late 1950s; price lists; records for the Four Seasons Charter Corp.; and scattered banking, consignment, tax, and other financial records. Inventory cards from mid-1950s-1970s and inventory lists, often with notations and prices, are found in the series Inventory Records.
Coe Kerr Gallery Records regarding the Wyeths document Jamie Wyeth's exhibitions primarily from the mid-1970s-early 1980s. Also found is limited material regarding Andrew Wyeth and N.C. Wyeth. Materials include correspondence, photographs, exhibition printed materials, and extensive newspaper clippings.
There are exhibition catalogs, books, announcements, magazines, clippings, postcards, posters and other printed materials related to artists, John Graham & Sons exhibitions, and exhibitions by Graham artists held at other galleries and museums. Also found is an 1815 fifty cent note which was redeemed in 1821.
Seven scrapbooks document discrete aspects of the business, including the gallery's advertising, participation in an art fair, and the careers of artists Guy Coheleach and Van Dearing Perrine. Materials housed in the scrapbooks include clippings, catalogs, photographs, and other printed materials.
Photographic Materials include mostly black and white photographs, negatives, slides and transparencies of artwork; scattered photographs of installations, artists, and the gallery; and a handful of personal snapshots. The bulk of the photographs are undated, but were likely printed between 1950s-1990s.
There is a 8.0 linear foot unprocessed addition to this collection donated in 2018 that includes artists' files regarding exhibitions and photographs of works of art.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Series 1: Alphabetical Files, circa 1896, 1902-1999, bulk 1955-1986 (Boxes 1-15; 15 linear feet)
Series 2: Exhibition Files, 1912, 1947-2004 (Boxes 16-24; 8 linear feet)
Series 3: Artists' Files, circa 1907-2006, bulk 1955-1999 (Boxes 24-62, 95-96; 39.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Artwork Files, circa early 1900s-2011, bulk mid-1980s-2009 (Boxes 63-71, 94, 101; 9.3 linear feet)
Series 5: Financial Records, circa 1937-1993 (Boxes 72-76, 96; 4.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Inventory Records, circa 1954-1993 (Boxes 76-78, 96; 2.1 linear feet)
Series 7: Coe Kerr Gallery Records Regarding Wyeths, 1964-1988 (Boxes 78-80, 97; 2.7 linear feet)
Series 8: Printed Materials, 1815, 1821, 1949-2006 (Boxes 81-82, 97; 2.1 linear feet)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1897-1990s (Boxes 82, 98-100; 0.9 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographic Materials, 1929-1990s (Boxes 83-93, 96, 100-101; 11.5 linear feet)
Series 11: Unprocessed Addition, circa 1940-1980 (Boxes 102-109; 8 linear feet)
Historical Note:
The James Graham & Sons gallery has been owned and managed by the Graham family in New York City since 1857. Throughout its history, the gallery has specialized in decorative arts, antiques, and 19th-early 20th century and contemporary American art.
In 1857, Samuel Graham founded a gallery at 66 Third Street and specialized in furniture. Graham was joined by his son James in the 1880s and expanded the business to include antiques and decorative arts. James A. Graham, the third generation Graham, joined the gallery in the early 20th century. James Graham and antiques dealer Marshall Clapp created Clapp & Graham in 1914, a partnership which was dissolved around 1940.
James R. Graham, the fourth generation Graham, joined the gallery in 1937, followed by his brother Robert Claverhouse Graham, Sr. in 1940. The gallery was then named James Graham & Sons and was located at 514 Madison Avenue. At this time, the gallery specialized in bronzes, ceramics, silver, sculptures, and 19th-early 20th century American art. Robert C. Graham, Sr. introduced modern American art, especially The Eight, into the gallery's inventory.
In 1955, the gallery moved to 1014 Madison Avenue, where it remained until the late 2000s. That same year, Graham opened its first contemporary department with Albert Duveen. Duveen-Graham Modern Art gallery was based on the third floor of the Madison Avenue building and dealt solely in contemporary art until its closing in 1958. Robert C. Graham, Jr. (Robin) joined the gallery in 1963, becoming the fifth generation Graham to run the family business. The gallery is currently located at 32 East 67th Street.
Betsy Fahlman's "James Graham & Sons: A Century and a Half in the Art Business" (2007) was a valuable resource in constructing this Historical Note.
Related Material:
Among the other resources relating to James Graham & Sons in the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Robert Claverhouse Graham, November 19, 1976, and the David Herbert papers, 1950-1995.
Provenance:
The James Graham & Sons records were donated in 2007, 2008, and 2012 by Priscilla Caldwell and Jay Grimm of James Graham & Sons and in 2018 by Cameron Shay of James Graham & Sons.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Artwork Files (Boxes 63-71, 94) and some photographic materials (Box 93 and 101) require written permission to access.
Rights:
The James Graham & Sons records 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.
Correspondence, printed material, and photographs relating to Rosenthal's work, primarily as a portrait painter and collector of American art and artists' papers. Some material pertains to Rosenthal's father, the engraver Max Rosenthal.
Included are: biographical notes and articles by and about Rosenthal and his father, Max; writings by Albert about his father; and reproductions of Albert's work.
Rosenthal's research material on early American art consists of articles on artists, notes about portrait painters, typescript copies of letters of or about early American artists, among them Rembrandt Peale, G.P.A. Healy, and John Rampage, several original letters, including 5 from John Quincy Adams Ward to various people, and one from Ben Silliman to Asher B. Durand, and an engraved copy of a letter from Ben Franklin to Mr. Strahan, July 5, 1775.
Other material includes files on Rosenthal's portraits of French officers who served in the American Revolution; Gilbert Stuart's (George) Washington portraits, 1922-1923; the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia (includes correspondence with Jules Mastbaum, the founder of the museum, and others, 1925-1932); Jean Antoine Houdon's busts of Washington and Lafayette, 1925-1932; Harry T. Peters' book "America on Stone", 1931; and on "Rosen-Thal," Albert's home that was originally the Huffinagle mansion in Buck's County, Pa.
There is voluminous business and other correspondence, 1860-1940, relating to Max, Louis, and Albert Rosenthal's work and to Albert's portraits of Supreme Court Justices. Among the diverse group of correspondents are: Samuel Putnam Avery, William Hunt Diederich, Charles Henry Hart, Sakakichi Hartmann, Oliver Wendell Holmes, A. Mitchell Palmer, Alfred Stieglitz, William Howard Taft, and J. Alden Weir.
Photographs are of Rosenthal's work and of unidentified portraits possibly by Rosenthal; reproductions of European paintings, miniatures, sculptures; and miscellaneous portraits by various artists.
Unmicrofilmed material (0.4 feet) consists of miscellaneous photographs and reproductions.
Biographical / Historical:
Albert Rosenthal (1863-1939) was a portrait painter, printmaker, writer, and collector in Philadelphia, Pa. Rosenthal was a student of his father, engraver Max Rosenthal, and later published a book about him. He is also known for his portraits of Supreme Court Justices, and his collection of American drawings, which he donated to the Free Library of Philadelphia in 1927.
Provenance:
Donated by Albert Duveen, 1959. Duveen collected American artists' and art related papers with the intention of forming an American artists reference facility. He purchased at least some of Rosenthal's papers and much correspondence from the Albert Rosenthal Estate, and subsequently gave them to AAA upon its formation.
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.
The collection measures 0.2 linear feet and consists of three notebooks, notebook fragments, and two letters written by African American primitive painter Horace Pippin. The three notebooks and notebook fragments contain Pippin's World War I memoirs written in the 1920s, one of which is illustrated by Pippin with six drawings of war scenes. Two letters are dated 1943 and circa 1943. One of the letters is written to "Dear Friends" and begins with "life story of art."; the other is written to dealer Robert Carlen about showing his painting Domino [Game] Players.
Scope and Content Note:
The collection measures 0.2 linear feet and consists of three notebooks, notebook fragments, and two letters created by African American primitive painter Horace Pippin. The notebooks recount Pippin's World War I experiences, including his being wounded. One of the notebooks is illustrated.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Series 1: Horace Pippin Notebooks and Letters, circa 1920s, 1943; 8 items
Biographical Note:
Horace Pippin (1888 -1946) was a self-taught painter from West Chester, Pennsylvania. Pippin was inspired to paint by his experiences in France during World War I. He lost the use of his right arm when wounded during the war and, when painting, had to use his left hand to guide his right. He gained a national reputation as "a true American primitive" in the 1940s for his paintings depicting childhood memories, war experiences, heroes, and religious subjects.
Provenance:
Horace Pippin's war memiors/notebooks and one letter were purchased from Robert Carlen, Pippin's dealer, in 1956. The 1943 letter from Pippin to Carlen was donated by Dr. and Mrs. Matthew Moore in 1983.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Rights:
The Horace Pippin notebooks and letters 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.
Occupation:
Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Seventeen photographic lantern slides on glass and pottery manufacture. Includes diagrams of a gas-fired glass tank, the Fourcault process for making plate glass, the Colburn process for making sheet glass, a recuperative glass tank, silica minerals, a graph of the time-temperature curve for annealing flat glass, and pictures of the Kastner Neill Process calcining furnace, a pug mill, kilns at West Virginia University and pottery made there, and a porcelain decorating factory.
Biographical/Historical note:
These slides were used as teaching aids at West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Professor Emory L. Kemp, 1985, May 14.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Letters to Newnam written in response to queries regarding portraits Newnam is painting or selling. Included are letters, 1937, from Victor Morris Tyler, Morris Tyler, and Constance Rourke regarding a Henry Inman portrait of John J. Audubon which Newnam wishes to copy; from Mildred Steinbach,1952, Asst. Librarian at the Frick Art Reference Library regarding portraits by Thomas Eakins of Frank Linton and Samuel Meyers; from Hannah J. Howell, 1952-3, Librarian at the Frick Art Reference Library regarding photographs of Gilbert Stuart's portraits of Edward Penington and Mrs. Penington; from Raymond Rubicam, 1955, regarding his purchase of a portrait by William K. Hewitt of his great uncle Jonathan Rubicam; also included is a photograph of the portrait; from Howell, 1957, thanking Newnam for a photo of a painting by Gustavus Hesselius; letters and a photograph regarding a portrait of Baroness Brudenell, 1966 and 1970; and a letter from Marguerite Coolbaugh, 1978, regarding a photograph of Abraham Lincoln.
Biographical / Historical:
Art dealer and portrait painter; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Provenance:
Donated 1994 by Edward A. Newnam.
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:
Portrait painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Art dealers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Biographical files cover the period from 1938-1989 and include resumes, clippings, correspondence, certificates, awards, speeches, brochures for exhibitions, and artwork. Project files cover the period from 1934-1961 and contain clippings, catalogs, brochures, and scrapbooks. This collection documents Bach's work as an industrial designer, architect, and painter from 1934-1992.
The files on the Ridgeway Center mall are particularly extensive. Photographs cover the period from 1937-1961 and document Bach's design projects, particularly the Ridgeway Center, his house in Stamford, and the Miami and New York offices of Callaway Mills. Portraits of Bach and his family are included as well. Glass lantern slides document of seven of Bach's interior and exterior design projects. Also included are several signed and numbered prints of Bach's watercolor scenes of the Riviera.
Arrangement:
Materials are arranged chronologically within four series.
Series 1: Biographical files, 1938-1989
Series 2: Project files, 1934-1961
Series 3: Photogaphs, 1937-1961
Series 4: Glass Slides
Biographical / Historical:
Industrial designer, architect, and painter. Born in Germany, 1904. Bach studied film directing and design in Europe. He turned to industrial design upon immigrating to the United States in 1926. His design work from 1932-53 include a Philco radio, furniture for Heywood-Wakefield, carpets for Bigelow-Sanford, and appliances for General Electric. Bach designed and built his own home in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1938.
In the late 1940s, he developed a plan for one of the first shopping malls in America, the Ridgeway Center of Stamford. He remodeled the interior and exterior of Sach's furniture store, 1948-49, and redesigned the Seneca Textile Building on 34th Street in Manhattan in 1952. Bach moved to Florida in 1959, where he designed the Palm Trail Plaza, a marina apartment complex in Delray Beach, completed in 1961. In addition, Bach was also a noted painter. His watercolors were featured in numerous exhibitions in the United States and Europe.
Related Archival Materials:
431 drawings of designs for furniture, textiles, lamps, pianos, clocks, appliances, and retail, office, and home interiors.,Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Drawings and Prints Department.
Provenance:
All materials were donated by Alfons Bach in 1993.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Tolman, Ruel P. (Ruel Pardee), 1878-1954 Search this
Extent:
5.1 Linear feet ((partially microfilmed on 5 reels))
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1917-1958
Scope and Contents:
Correspondence, typescripts of books, publications and clippings relating to Bolton's published and unpublished works on American art.
UNMICROFILMED: Included are drafts for AMERICAN BOOK ILLUSTRATORS (N.Y., 1938), EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAIT PAINTERS IN OILS, DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN ARTISTS, A WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY...RELATING TO ART IN PENNSYLVANIA...NOTES FOR A REVISION (Philadelphia, 1948), a portion of Sinclair Hamilton's EARLY AMERICAN BOOK ILLUSTRATORS, 1670-1870 (Princeton, 1958), "A Brief History of the French Impressionists," "Annotated Bibliography of Early American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers to 1860," A Brief History of Colonial American Painting" (1942); 75 typewritten pages of a working bibliography of books, magazine articles and catalogs relating to art in Pennsylvania by Harold E. Dickson and Bolton, 1948; catalogs of works of several artists; notes on artists, Greek vases and architecture, the Dutch masters, the Museum of San Marco, painting technique, the French Impressionists, Early American Painting, and English historical painting. Also included are checklists of books illustrated by Howard Pyle, Katharine Pyle and Joseph Pennell; articles by R. P. Tolman and related correspondence; sketches and drawings by Bolton; and clippings and book reviews relating to Bolton.
REEL N140: A revised typescript, 1958, of AMERICAN BOOK ILLUSTRATORS.
REELS D9 & D10: A letter from book designer Bruce Rogers, annotated by Bolton, February 14, 1945 regarding Rogers' design of THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; 2 letters from Ruel Pardee Tolman, June 12, 1949 and May 19, 1953, regarding his own painting and miniatures and other paintings he is buying and studying; and 5 letters from illustrator Thornton Oakley, undated and March 10-April 19, 1946.
REELS 439-440: Copy of a photograph - probably from a book, of Winslow Homer (reel 439); and a photograph, ca. 1850, of (L to R.): Henry Kirke Brown, Henry Peters Gray and Asher Brown Durand and Emanuel Leutze, photographer unknown. [A similiar photo filmed on reel NY59-19, fr. 1-2, Mary Bartlett Cowdrey artists' files pictures William Kemble (non-artist) on Brown's right.]
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, scholar and librarian of the Century Association; New York, N.Y. Died 1973. He specialized in book illustration and portrait miniatures.
Provenance:
From 1956-1959, Bolton donated 3 feet of material to the Archives and 2 feet to the Library of the National Museum of American Art, which subsequently transferred it to the Archives, 1981. There is some duplication within the two groups of material.
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.
