The Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers measure 5.4 linear feet and date from 1833 to 1904, with the bulk of the material dating from 1870 to 1890. The collection consists primarily of Koehler's extensive correspondence to and from many notable artists and printmakers such as Jean F. Harfin, John M. Falconer, Frederick Juengling, and James D. Smillie, as well as friends, and family members and professional correspondence concerning Koehler's activities as a writer, curator, and editor of the American Art Review. The collection also contains financial records and other miscellaneous items.
Scope and Content Note:
The Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers measure 5.4 linear feet and date from 1833 to 1904, with the bulk of the material dating from 1870 to 1890. The collection consists primarily of Koehler's extensive correspondence to and from many notable artists and printmakers such as Jean F. Harfin, John M. Falconer, Frederick Juengling, and James D. Smillie, as well as friends, and family members and professional correspondence concerning Koehler's activities as a writer, curator, and editor of the American Art Review. The collection also contains financial records and other miscellaneous items.
Correspondence includes hundreds of letters to and from Koehler. Correspondents include many prominent artists, engravers, architects, art critics, curators, historians, journalists, authors, educators, publishers, and others during the late 1800s. Also found is correspondence with family, most of which is in German. Much of the correspondence concerns Koehler's role as editor of the publication American Art Review, and his work promoting American graphic arts.
Financial Records include Koehler's receipts, primarily from 1885, and a handwritten estimate of costs for publishing the American Art Review.
Miscellany includes biographical information on the wood engraver, Alexander Anderson, various notes by unidentified authors, news clippings, programs and handwritten song texts for music performances.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1833- circa 1904 (Box 1-6; 5.1 linear feet)
Series 2: Financial Records, circa 1870-circa 1890 (Box 6; 14 folders)
Series 3: Miscellany, circa 1859-circa 1896 (Box 6; 11 folders)
Biographical Note:
Art historian and curator Sylvester Rosa Koehler was born in Leipsic, Germany in 1837. He came to the United States with his family in 1849 and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1868 he became the Technical Manager of Louis Prang and Company, a lithograph publisher. Koehler was the founding editor of the American Art Review, which commissioned artists for original etchings, and ran from 1879-1881. Through this publication, as well as his work as writer and exhibition curator, Koehler encouraged an American etching revival in the 1880s. Koehler also published many books on American art and was the first Curator of Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From 1886 to 1900 he served as the first Curator of Graphic Arts at the United States National Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution. While there, he created a permanent and traveling exhibition of graphic arts. His knowlege of the art world and his extensive personal contacts brought many important collections to the museum. Koehler died in Littleton, New Hampshire in 1900.
Related Material:
Additional correspondence can be found at the Library of Congress, which houses the Papers of S. R. Koehler, 1868-1904, and includes approximately 3,500 letters. Syracuse University Library houses S. R. Koehler Correspondence, 1879-1896, and includes 107 items.
Provenance:
The collection was purchased from Argosy Book Stores, Inc, in 1959. A letter from John Sartain and eleven letters from William Merritt Chase were donated by Charles E. Feinberg, 1955-1962. Two postcards were donated in 2009 by William A. Turnbaugh, an autograph collector. In 2017, John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan donated
sixty-nine letters from A. Barry, Truman Howe Bartlett, William Merritt Chase, Timothy Cole, Edward Henry Clement, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, Robert Swain Gifford, George Inness, Anna Lea Merritt, Stephen Parrish, John Sartain, Francis Hopkinson Smith, and Frederic Porter Vinton.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
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:
Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Items "From Diary of J. W. Barber" pasted onto paper: a sketch of Lorenzo Dow, "Preaching on the steps of the South Portico of the State House at New Haven, Conn. June 30th 1832," an illustration from a wood engraving of the "Hudson Co. Court House & Jail Hudson City New Jersey," said to be "the last engraving done by Dr. [Alexander] Anderson" and "published in 1868 by J. W. Barber," and a receipt of 1868 acknowledging that Anderson "Rec.d from Mr. John W. Barber Seven dollars in full for engraving Rahway cut."
On the obverse are two newspaper clippings (one, undated, about "the venerable artist and patriot, Nathaniel Jocelyn" and another of 1853 entitled, "The Bible vs. Tradition!!") as well as an undated illustration from a wood engraving of a large institutional building. On another sheet are pasted a verse, which is said to be a "Fac-Simile of the hand-writing of Dr. Watts," and an illustration from an etching entitled, "Our Grandmothers Kitchen," said to have been "designed in 1867 by John W. Barber, then in his 70th year."
Biographical / Historical:
Engraver (of both copper and wood), topographical draftsman, and historian. Born February 2, 1798 in East Windsor, Conn.; apprenticed to Abner Reed, engraver; operated his own engraving business in New Haven; studied history and traveled the eastern U.S., gathering information for the books which he wrote and then illustrated with his engravings; died in New Haven on June 22, 1885.
Provenance:
These pages were found in a book purchased by the Detroit Institute of Arts, which subsequently gave them to the Archives of American 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.
Letters and documents of 19th century Americans, outstanding in literature and the arts.
Correspondents include: Washington Allston, Alexander Anderson, John Audubon, Samuel P. Avery, John Warner Barber, Mathew B. Brady, John Casilear, Vincent Colyer, Christopher P. Cranch, Felix O. C. Darley, Daniel P. Huntington, Washington Irving, James J. Jarves, Charles Lanman, Charles Leslie,Benjamin Lossing, Samuel F. B. Morse, Rembrandt Peale, Thomas B. Read, Thomas A. Richards, Thomas B. Thorpe, William D. Washington, and Benjamin West.
Biographical / Historical:
Editor; New York City. Edited, with his brother George, Literary World, 1847, and published a journal with him, 1848-1853. Also, edited CYCLOPAEDIA OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1855.
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.
Historical view of the progress of discovery on the more northern coasts of America from the earliest period to the present time By Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq., R.S. and F.S.A. ; With descriptive sketches of the natural history of the North American regions. / By James Wilson, Esq., F.R.S.E. and M.W.S. ; To which is added an appendix, containing remarks on a late memoir of Sebastian Cabot, with a vindication of Richard Hakluyt. ; Illustrated by a map and nine engravings
Title:
Progress of discovery on the more northern coasts of America
The architecture of country houses including designs for cottages, farm-houses, and villas, with remarks on interiors, furniture, and the best modes of warming and ventilating with three hundred and twenty illustrations, by A.J. Downing
Title:
Downing's Country houses
Country houses
Author:
Downing, A. J (Andrew Jackson) 1815-1852 Search this
The Holy Bible : containing the Old and New Testaments : translated out of the original tongues: and with the former translations diligently compared and revised : with marginal references
The New-York annual register for the year of our Lord 1830. : Containing an almanac; civil and judicial list; with political, statistical, and other information respecting the state of New-York and United States. / By Edwin Williams
Life and works of Alexander Anderson, M. D., the first American wood engraver. By Frederic M. Burr ... Three portraits of Dr. Anderson, and over thirty engravings by himself
An authentic narrative of the loss of the American brig Commerce, wrecked on the western coast of Africa, in the month of August, 1815 ... : and observations historical, geographical, &c., made during the travels of the author ... / by James Riley ... ; preceded by a brief sketch of the author's life ; and containing a description of the famous city Tombuctoo ... ; narrated to the author at Mogadore by Sidi Hamet, the Arabian merchant ... ; illustrated and embellished with ten copper plate engravings ; revised, and his life continued, by the author, in January, 1828
Terrible tractoration!! : a poetical petition against galvanising trumpery, and the Perkinistic institution. : in four cantos : most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians / by Christopher Caustic ..
