Search Results

Creator:

Brumbaugh, Thomas B. (Thomas Brendle), 1921-  Search this

Gibbs, Wolcott, 1902-1958  Search this

Faulkner, Barry, 1881-1966  Search this

Hardin, Louis  Search this

Lassaw, Ibram, 1913-2003  Search this

Rosin, Harry  Search this

Soyer, Isaac, 1902-1981  Search this

Names:

Barnes Foundation  Search this

Greenough, Horatio, 1805-1852  Search this

Rox, Henry  Search this

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

White, Nelson C.  Search this

Collection Creator:

Brumbaugh, Thomas B. (Thomas Brendle), 1921-  Search this

Extent:

10 Items (Letters, written in ink, ball point, graphite, typewritter)

Type:

Archival materials

Correspondence

Date:

1941-1970

Scope and Contents:

This collection is an amalgamation of letters written and recieved by prominent figures in 19th and 20th century American art. Included in this folder are letters between the collector, Thomas Brumbaugh, and various artists, including American playwright and writer Oliver Wolcott Gibbs, mural artist Barry Faulkner, and Louis Hardin.

Arrangement:

Organized chronologically.

Biographical / Historical:

Beginning in his youth Thomas Brumbaugh collected autographed correspondence. Mr. Brumbaugh's collecting instincts resulted in a unique collaborative collection providing a glimpse into the lives of a variety of 19th and 20th century American artists, such as Abbott Thayer. Brumbaugh was a professor of fine arts at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and author of many articles on American art and artists.

Oliver Wolcott Gibbs was an American playwright and writer who lived in New York City. He wrote for The New Yorker and worked as a humorist and theatre critic. Gibbs was a direct descendent of President Martin Van Buren.

Barry Faulkner was an American artist who studied with Abbott H. Thayer, George de Forest Brush, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Along with sculptor Sherry Edmundson Fry, Faulkner organized artists to train as camouflage specialists. Faulkner was born in New Hampshire, traveled to Europe as he studied art, and then returned to New York, where he began work as a mural artist. He completed "The Constitution" and "The Declaration" in 1936 for the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives.

Isaac Soyer was a social realist painter from New York City who used working-class and unemployed people as the subjects in his paintings. He also painted portraits for friends, and used his friends and family as models for his work.

Louis Hardin, commonly known as "Moondog," was a blind American composer and poet who lived on the streets of New York for a large portion of his life. He wore clothes inspired by the Norse god Thor, giving him the epithet, "The Viking of 6th Avenue." Moondog was influenced by ambient noises in his environment, and Native American music.

Henry Rox was a German artist who studied in Berlin and Paris before settling in the United States in 1938, where he taught at many universities, including Mount Holyoke College. He is known for fruit and vegetable photo-sculptures.

Ibram Lassaw was an American sculptor in the 20th century. Born in Egypt to Russian parents, Lassaw grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He was influenced by Alexander Calder and Wassily Kandinsky. Lassaw created open-space sculptural abstractions with metal, and helped abstract art grow in the United States.

Harry Rosin was an American sculptor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After working around the area following his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he traveled to Tahiti, where he married his wife. He is known for his iron sculptures.

Local Numbers:

FSA A2009.06 3

Other Archival Materials:

Thomas B. Brumbaugh research material on Abbott Handerson Thayer and other artists, 1876-1994 (bulk 1960s-1994); Also located at Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Busts  Search this

Runes  Search this

Genre/Form:

Correspondence -- 19th century

Correspondence -- 20th century

Identifier:

FSA.A2009.06, Series FSA A2009.06 3

See more items in:

The Brumbaugh Collection of Artist Letters

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-fsa-a2009-06-ref1

Creator:

Beal, Gifford, 1879-1956  Search this

Andrews, Ambrose, 1805-1859  Search this

Bates, Edward, 1793-1869  Search this

Bohrod, Aaron  Search this

Cloar, Carroll  Search this

Colman, Samuel, 1832-1920  Search this

Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 1876-1961  Search this

Rogers, Daniel Denison, 1751-1825  Search this

Elliot, William Parker  Search this

Brush, George de Forest, 1855-1941  Search this

Harding, Chester, 1792-1866  Search this

Names:

Art Students League (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Beach, Ella  Search this

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

Town, Ithiel, 1784-1844  Search this

Watson, Forbes, 1880-1960  Search this

Collection Creator:

Brumbaugh, Thomas B. (Thomas Brendle), 1921-  Search this

Extent:

14 Items (Letters, written in ink, ball point, graphite, typewritter)

Type:

Archival materials

Lithographs

Correspondence

Place:

New York (N.Y.)

Date:

1779-1981

Scope and Contents:

This folder is an amalgamation of letters written and recieved by prominent figures in 19th and 20th century American art. Included in the folder are letters by Ambrose Andrews, Edward Bates, Gifford Beal, Aaron Bohrod, Carroll Clear, Samuel Colman, Josephine Daskam, Daniel Denison Rogers, William Elliot, George de Forest Brush, and Chester Harding. The letters' subjects cover a wide range of topics, including the buying and selling of art, invitations to dinner, and general correspondence.

Arrangement:

Organized alphabetically by author.

Biographical / Historical:

Ambrose Andrews was a portrait, miniature, and landscape portrait who worked throughout New England and the United States. He was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1801 and studied at the National Academy of Design. He exhibited paintings at many different institutions, including his portraits of Henry Clay and Sam Houston. Andrews's work is now in the New York Historical Society.

Edward Bates was a representative for Missouri in the mid-1800s. He served in the War of 1812 as a sergeant in a volunteer brigade, studied and practiced law, attended the state constitutional convention, was district attorney from 1821 to 1826, and was a member of the state senate. He declined to serve as Secretary of War for President Fillmore, but was appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Lincoln, and served from March 5, 1861 to September 1864. Bates died on March 25, 1869.

Admiral Charles Henry Davis was born on January 16, 1807, and served as Chief of the Bureau of Navigation between 1862 and 1865. He then served as Superintendent of the Naval Observatory. He had three ships named after him.

Forbes Watson was an art critic, lecturer, and administrator in New York City in the early 20th century. He served as art critic for the New York Evening Post. In 1933 he was appointed Technical Director of the first New Deal art program, the Public Works of Art Project, which provided work for artists in the decoration of non-federal buildings. He later worked at the Treasury Department of Painting and Sculpture, which administered funding for decorating federal buildings. Watson finally served in the Treasury Department's War Finance Division, where he organized exhibitions and posters by combat artists to promote the sale of war bonds. Forbes Watson's papers are held in the Archives of American Art.

Gifford Beal was an American artist who worked with many organizations for the advancements of the arts, finding inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including holiday scenes, every-day life, and landscapes. Beal loved spontaneity and was influenced by French Impressionists. He was commissioned by the government to paint two murals: one on the post office in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and one in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C. Beal's papers are held in the Archives of American Art.

Aaron Bohrod was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 21, 1907, where he studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago. He worked for a while in the advertising art department at the Fair Department Store in Chicago, but eventually moved to New York City, where he joined the Art Students League. He died on April 3, 1992. During World War II, Bohrod worked as an artist for the United States Army Corps of Engineer and Life magazine in Europe.

Carroll Cloar was an American realist and surrealist who lived from 1913 to 1993. He grew up in Arkansas, but later moved to Tennessee, travelled Europe, and joined the Art Students League in New York City. During World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, and although he did complete some artwork during this period, none of it survives. Cloar then settled in Memphis. One of his paintings was chosen to commemorate President Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Cloar died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 10, 1993, after a long battle with cancer.

Samuel Colman was an American painter who belonged to the Hudson River School, and is most well-remembered for his landscapes. He was born in Portland, Maine, in 1832, and began exhibiting at the young age of 18. At 27 he was elected an associate of the National Academy, and later studied abroad in Paris and Spain. He was made a full Academician upon his return to the United States, and both founded and served as the first president of the American Water-color Society. He continued to both study in Europe and exhibit artwork, moving from New York to Rhode Island. Colman is represented in the metropolitan Museum, Chicago Art Institute, and many other collections. He died in New York City in 1920.

Josephine Daskam Bacon was an American writer known for writing about "women's issues" and using female protagonists. She wrote a series of juvenile mysteries and helped pioneer the Girl Scouts movement, writing a guidebook for the organization.

Daniel Denison Rogers is perhaps most widely remembered for the painting that John Singleton Copley completed of his wife, Abigail Bromfield.

Ithiel Town was an American architect and civil engineer who lived from October 3, 1784 to June 13, 1844. He worked in the Federal and revivalist Greek and Gothic styles, and was widely copied. He was born in Connecticut, and built both Center Church and Trinity Church in New Haven. Town patented a wooden lattice truss bridge, which made him quite wealthy. He formed a professional architecture firm with Alexander Jackson Davis. One of Town's most amazing feats was the construction of the Potomac Aqueduct in Washington, D.C., which allowed fully loaded canal boats to cross the Potomac River.

William Parker Elliot designed the old U.S. Patent Office, a very important Greek Revival building, with Ithiel Town.

George de Forest Brush was an American painter who grew up in Connecticut and is typified by his paintings and drawings of Native Americans. Even after moving from Wyoming, where he met the Native Americans, back to the East, Brush still occasionally enjoyed living in a teepee. Brush's artistic style later developed into Renaissance-inspired portraits. He was friends with Abbott H. Thayer, and along with Brush's wife, Mary, and son, Gerome, they all contributed to early camouflage designs. Brush died in New Hampshire in 1941.

Chester Harding was an American portrait painter born in Massachusetts in 1792. He worked in many different professions, finally becoming a self-taught itinerant portrait painter. Harding settled in Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, in a building that now houses the Boston Bar Association (the Chester Harding House, a Historic National Landmark). He studied at the Philadelphia School of Design, later setting up a studio in London, where he befriended and painted for royalty and nobility. Harding finally returned to Boston, where he died in 1866.

Local Numbers:

FSA A2009.06 4

Other Archival Materials:

Thomas B. Brumbaugh research material on Abbott Handerson Thayer and other artists, 1876-1994 (bulk 1960s-1994); Also located at Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Art, American  Search this

Real property  Search this

Drawing  Search this

Genre/Form:

Lithographs -- 1950-2000

Correspondence -- 19th century

Correspondence -- 20th century

Identifier:

FSA.A2009.06, Series FSA A2009.06 4

See more items in:

The Brumbaugh Collection of Artist Letters

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-fsa-a2009-06-ref2

Creator:

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

Subject:

Dow, Thomas Millie  Search this

Emerson, Edward Waldo  Search this

Emerson, Ralph Waldo  Search this

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne  Search this

Colman, Samuel  Search this

Cortissoz, Royal  Search this

White, Stanford  Search this

Thayer, Kate Bloede  Search this

Thayer, Mary  Search this

Faulkner, Barry  Search this

Fuertes, Louis Agassiz  Search this

Roosevelt, Theodore  Search this

French, Daniel Chester  Search this

Foster, Ben  Search this

Plunket, Jean Reasoner  Search this

Meryman, Richard Sumner  Search this

Kent, Rockwell  Search this

Gellatly, John  Search this

Freer, Charles Lang  Search this

Taber, E. M.  Search this

Sainsbury, Everton  Search this

Reasoner, David  Search this

Thayer, Gladys  Search this

Thayer, Gerald Handerson  Search this

Thayer, Emma B.  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Topic:

Naturalism  Search this

Camouflage (Biology)  Search this

Art and camouflage  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7440

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209598

AAA_collcode_thayabbo

Theme:

Diaries

Lives of American Artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209598

Creator:

Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921  Search this

Names:

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 1835-1910  Search this

Colman, Samuel, 1832-1920  Search this

Cortissoz, Royal, 1869-1948  Search this

Dow, Thomas Millie  Search this

Emerson, Edward Waldo, 1844-1930  Search this

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1803-1882  Search this

Faulkner, Barry, 1881-1966  Search this

Foster, Ben, 1852-1926  Search this

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this

French, Daniel Chester, 1850-1931  Search this

Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927  Search this

Gellatly, John, 1853-1931  Search this

Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971  Search this

Meryman, Richard Sumner, 1881-1963  Search this

Plunket, Jean Reasoner  Search this

Reasoner, David  Search this

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919  Search this

Sainsbury, Everton  Search this

Taber, E. M.  Search this

Thayer, Emma B., 1850-1924  Search this

Thayer, Gerald Handerson, 1883-1939  Search this

Thayer, Gladys, 1886 or 7-1945  Search this

Thayer, Kate Bloede  Search this

Thayer, Mary  Search this

White, Stanford, 1853-1906  Search this

Extent:

5.12 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Date:

1851-1999

bulk 1881-1950

Summary:

The papers of painter and naturalist, Abbott Handerson Thayer, and the Thayer family date from 1851 to 1999, with the bulk of the material dating from 1881 to 1950, and measure 5.12 linear feet. Thayer's painting career, interest in concealing coloration (camouflage) in nature, and relationships with artists, patrons, family, and friends are documented through correspondence, writings, scattered legal and financial records, printed materials, and a scrapbook. Photographs are of Thayer, his family, studio, and friends, including artists. The collection also contains family papers created by his second wife, Emma Beach Thayer, his son Gerald, his daughters Mary and Gladys, and Gladys' husband David Reasoner, who managed Thayer's estate after his death.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of painter and naturalist, Abbott Handerson Thayer, and the Thayer family date from 1851 to 1999, with the bulk of the material dating from 1881 to 1950, and measure 5.12 linear feet. Thayer's painting career, interest in concealing coloration in nature, and relationships with artists, patrons, family, and friends are documented through correspondence, writings, scattered legal and financial records, printed materials, and a scrapbook. Photographs are of Thayer, his family, studio, and friends, including artists. The collection also contains family papers created by his second wife, Emma Beach Thayer, his son Gerald, his daughters Mary and Gladys, and Gladys' husband David Reasoner, who managed Thayer's estate after his death.

Scattered Biographical Material includes a brief autobiographical statement and chronology by Abbott Thayer, lists of artworks by Abbott Thayer and Gladys Thayer Reasoner, and biographical information about Thayer's granddaughter, Jean Reasoner Plunket. Two linear feet of family correspondence includes Abott Thayer's correspondence with patrons Charles L. Freer and John Gellatly; with many artists, several of whom were close friends, including Samuel Colman, Thomas Millie Dow, Daniel Chester French, Richard Meryman, Everton Sainsbury, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and E. M. Taber; and former students, such as Ben Foster and Barry Faulkner; and with other friends, many of them prominent members of society, such as Samuel Clemens, Royal Cortissoz, Edward Waldo Emerson, and Stanford White. Also found is Thayer's correspondence with scientists and naturalists discussing his theories on protective coloration in nature. Correspondence of his second wife Emma Beach Thayer, his first wife, Kate Bloede Thayer, his daughter, Gladys Thayer Reasoner, her husband and executor of Thayer's estate, David Reasoner, and other family members are also included in the papers.

Writings and notes by Thayer record his thoughts on concealing coloration, nature, restoration of artwork, and other topics. Writings by others include those by Emma Beach Thayer, daughters Mary and Gladys, and Thayer scholars. The collection also contains correspondence of David Reasoner and other family members, as well as financial and legal documents regarding the estate of Abbott Handerson Thayer and Emma Beach Thayer. Additional financial and legal material includes ledgers, accounts statements, bills, a patent granted to Thayer and Gerome Brush, legal agreements, property deeds, and a map of Thayer's property.

Printed material include books, including one written by Theodore Roosevelt in response to Thayer's book on concealing coloration. Also found are newspaper and magazine clippings, and exhibition announcements and catalogs. Photographs are of Abbott Thayer, his wife Emma; his studio and home in Dublin, New Hampshire; friends, including Rockwell Kent and Ralph Waldo Emerson; and of unidentified people. Artwork includes a few drawings by Thayer, drawings and paintings by his children, and sketchbooks belonging to David Reasoner and Jean Reasoner Plunket. The collection also includes one large scrapbook kept by David Reasoner documenting Abbott Thayer's artwork.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 10 series. Glass plate negative is housed separately and closed to researchers.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1878 - circa 1966 (Box 1; 7 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1867-1987 (Box 1-3; 2.0 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings, 1888-1945 (Box 3; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 4: Estate Papers, 1921-1954 (Box 3-4; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 5: Other Financial Records, 1889-1957 (Box 4; 7 folders)

Series 6: Legal Records, 1891-1927 (Box 4; 4 folders)

Series 7: Printed Material, 1851, 1896-1999 (Box 4-5; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1861-1933 (Box 5, MGP 2; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 9: Artwork, 1887 - circa 1940s (Box 5-6, 8; 8 folders)

Series 10: Scrapbook, circa 1910-1920 (Box 7; 0.3 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921) was born in Boston to Dr. William Henry Thayer and Ellen Handerson Thayer. After his birth his family moved to Woodstock, Vermont, and in 1855 settled in Keene, New Hampshire. As a child Thayer developed a love of nature that was encouraged by his close family, which included three sisters, Ellen, Margaret, and Susan. At the age of fifteen he was sent to the Chauncy Hall School in Boston, and while there he met Henry D. Morse, an amateur animal painter. Under Morse's instruction Abbott developed his skill in painting birds and other wildlife and began painting animal portraits on commission. In 1867 he moved to Brooklyn, New York and attended the Brooklyn Academy of Design where he studied under J. B. Whittaker for two years. In 1868 he began showing his work at the National Academy of Design and enrolled there in 1870, studying under Lemuel Wilmarth. He met many emerging artists during this period, including his future first wife, Kate Bloede and his close friend, Daniel Chester French. Thayer became part of progressive art circles, showing his work at the newly formed Society of American Artists, while continuing to develop his skill as an animal and landscape painter.

Thayer and Kate Bloede were married in 1875. They moved to Paris and he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, first under Henri Lehmann, and then with Jean-Léon Gérome. While in Europe he befriended fellow artists Everton Sainsbury, Thomas Millie Dow, George de Forest Brush, and Dwight Tryon. His daughter Mary was born in 1876 and his son William Henry in 1878. The family returned to America in 1879 and settled in his parent's home in Brooklyn, where he changed his focus to portraits. After the tragic deaths of William Henry in 1880 and of their second son, Ralph Waldo, in 1881, the family led a migratory existence living in various parts of New England. In 1881 while living in Nantucket they met Emmeline (Emma) Beach (1850-1924) who would become close friends with Abbott and Kate and would be known as "Addie" to the family. In 1883 their son Gerald was born and in 1886 their daughter Gladys was born. In 1887 Thayer settled his family in Keene, New Hampshire, and began teaching a small group of students. Around this time his wife began suffering from severe depression and went to a sanatorium in 1888. She died in 1891 and that fall Thayer married Emma Beach who had helped to care for him and his children during his wife's illness.

Despite family tragedies, Thayer became a leader in the New York art world during the 1880s and 1890s. He was a successful portraitist and painted allegorical figures of angels, women, and children, which were popular among collectors of this period, including his patrons Charles Lang Freer and John Gellatly. He often used his children as models, especially his eldest daughter, Mary.

In the late 1880s one of Thayer's students, Mary Amory Greene, built a house and studio for the Thayer family on her land in Dublin, New Hampshire, and in 1901 the family settled there permanently. Many of Thayer's artist friends lived nearby, such as Richard Meryman and George de Forest Brush, and the Thayer family frequently entertained prominent visitors such as Edward Waldo Emerson and Samuel Clemens. Abbott Thayer taught painting to his children, and Gerald and Gladys both became artists and art educators. Gladys married David Reasoner, a student of Abbott Thayer who later became his assistant. Other students of Thayer included Rockwell Kent, Ben Foster, Barry Faulkner, and Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

Greatly influenced by transcendentalism and the spirituality of nature, Thayer again began to paint landscapes, especially of nearby Mount Monadnock. He was very interested in the study of protective coloration in the wild, and was an advocate for nature conservation and bird sanctuaries. He published the book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom in 1909 with his son Gerald, but encountered much resistance to his theories. Thayer also wrote about how his camouflage theories could be applied to military warships and uniforms. These theories failed to gain widespread government interest and after suffering from nervous exhaustion, he spent the rest of his life painting landscapes at his home in Dublin, until his death in 1921.

Related Material:

The Archives of American Art holds several collections related to Abbott Handerson Thayer. These include research material on Abbott Handerson Thayer and other artists, 1895-1990, donated by Thomas B. Brumbaugh; the Abbott Handerson Thayer letter and drawings to Caroline Peddle Ball, circa 1890-1893; "The Drawings of Abbott Thayer", by Elizabeth Robins Pennell, circa 1921; and the Nelson and Henry C. White research material, 1898-1978, which includes many letters, photographs, and other material originally belonging to the Thayer family.

Separated Material:

The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reels 48 and 3417) including a diary kept by Thayer, a "Family Record" written by William Henry Thayer, correspondence, printed material, photographs, and original artwork by Abbott Handerson Thayer. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.

Provenance:

Anne Whiting, a niece of Abbott Handerson Thayer, loaned the Archives of American Art material for microfilming in 1971 and Jean Reasoner Plunket, Thayer's granddaughter, loaned original artwork for microfilming in 1985. The rest of the Abbott Handerson Thayer and Thayer Family papers were donated in 1999 by Abbott Thayer's great-grandson, John Plunket, who received the papers from his mother Jean Reasoner Plunket. In 2005 Bruce Gimelson donated additional material purchased from the relatives of Emma Beach Thayer.

Restrictions:

The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.

Rights:

Reel 3417 (art works): Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from Jean Reasoner Plunket. Contact Reference Services for more information.

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:

Painters -- New Hampshire -- Dublin  Search this

Topic:

Naturalism  Search this

Camouflage (Biology)  Search this

Art and camouflage  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Citation:

Abbott Handerson Thayer and Thayer Family papers, 1851-1999 (bulk 1881-1950). 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.

Identifier:

AAA.thayabbo

See more items in:

Abbott Handerson Thayer and Thayer Family papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-thayabbo

Extent:

21.66 cu. ft. (34 document boxes) (7 12x17 boxes) (11 3x5 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Manuscripts

Scrapbooks

Clippings

Glass negatives

Black-and-white photographs

Place:

Alaska

Mexico

France

Saint Michael (Alaska)

Wrangell Island (Wrangell, Alaska)

Arizona

California

Date:

circa 1873-1946 and undated

Descriptive Entry:

This collection consists primarily of papers documenting the professional career and personal life of Edward William Nelson. A smaller amount of material was created by Edward Alphonso Goldman and relates to both professional and private matters. Apparently, Goldman assumed control of Nelson's papers after the latter's death, probably for reference in his continuing work summarizing the results of their Mexico field investigations. Due the pair's close professional relationship, it was decided to keep the collection intact. The papers of each individual have been kept distinct and reside in separate series, with the exception of photographs, which mostly document the Mexico field work. Other photographic materials have been placed in the same series as a matter of convenience.

Nelson's papers are valuable in documenting his work as a field naturalist, particularly in Alaska and Mexico; his administrative career with the Bureau of Biological Survey and consequential involvement in conservation issues of the day; his research on birds and mammals; his participation in professional societies and conservation organizations; personal and family matters; and commercial ventures, especially his ownership of fruit-growing businesses in California and Arizona.

The papers include a large file of incoming and outgoing correspondence that relates to all aspects of his professional life, but is particularly important in documenting his administrative tenure with the Bureau of Biological Survey, 1914-1927. The letters provide information on the role of the Biological Survey in conservation issues of the era, as well as Nelson's own attitudes on the matters--attitudes that sometimes clashed with other conservationists, including William Temple Hornaday. He corresponded extensively with most of the major figures in the conservation movement including Hornaday, John B. Burnham, Charles Sheldon, George Bird Grinnell, and John C. Phillips. Especially well represented by correspondence are the negotiations for the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, 1916, and the protracted fight over the Public Shooting Grounds-Game Refuge Bill during the 1920s. The correspondence also relates Nelson's role in the formative periods of several professional societies and conservation organizations including the American Society of Mammalogists, the American Game Protective Association, and the American Wild Fowlers.

Nelson's career as an explorer and field worker is documented in a series of journals and notebooks maintained between 1877 and 1930. The journals kept during his landmark work in Alaska and Mexico provide a running narrative of his daily activities and include notes on the fauna, flora, and physiography of the areas explored; information on specimens and artifacts collected; observations on native peoples and their cultures; and sketches of people, villages, fauna, and natural phenomena. The journals from his Alaska work are relatively complete; however, journals from the Mexico investigations from 1903 to 1906 are missing. Also included is a journal from the Death Valley Expedition, 1890-1891, and journals and notebooks kept during many of Nelson's official trips for the Bureau of Biological Survey.

The collection includes a series of records documenting Nelson's private life and business affairs. Especially well represented is his involvement with the Nelson-Goldman Orchard Company, 1911-1933, and the Arizona Orchard Company, 1921-1923. Also included is a voluminous correspondence with his brother, Fred W. Nelson, which concerns family and business matters; and various records concerning health issues, investments, real estate, and other financial matters.

Nelson's research is documented in a large series of notes, lists, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, and publications. Most of the material concerns his work on birds and mammals. The file also contains collected materials on many of the conservation issues of the day.

The papers of Edward Alphonso Goldman found in this collection are just a fragment of the material generated during his long career with the Bureau of Biological Survey. They are most valuable in documenting his biological survey of Mexico with Nelson. Included is an incomplete series of journals which contain a chronological narrative of Goldman's activities. Specific volumes are devoted to notes of birds and mammals observed and collected. Other papers of Goldman include correspondence, mostly with Nelson, and his brothers, George and Luther; and materials documenting his research on mammals.

The collection contains a series of photographs, photograph albums, and glass plate negatives documenting the careers of both men. Most of the material relates to their biological investigations of Mexico, 1892-1906. Included are images of areas visited, native peoples, and flora and fauna. Many of the photographs are unidentified. Also included are photographs of Nelson and Goldman; photographs of colleagues; and photographs taken in France during Goldman's service in World War I.

The collection also contains some papers of the conservationist Charles Sheldon, a close personal friend of Nelson. Apparently, Nelson acquired the papers when he was writing a biographical memorial on Sheldon. They consist of correspondence, notes, photographs, manuscripts, and related materials documenting Sheldon's work in conservation and natural history.

Finally, the collection includes a manuscript (with Nelson's annotations) of George Shiras' "Hunting Wild Life with Camera and Flashlight; A Record of Sixty-Five Years' Visits to the Woods and Waters of North America," and a few pieces of correspondence concerning the manuscript.

Additional materials documenting field work of Nelson and Goldman can be found in Smithsonian Institution Archives Record Unit 7176, Field Reports of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 1860-1961, Field Reports. Voluminous field notebooks, lists, and other specimen related records for both men are housed in the Division of Birds and the Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History.

Historical Note:

The biological explorations made by Edward William Nelson and Edward Alphonso Goldman in Mexico from 1892 to 1906 have been described as ". . . among the most important ever achieved by two workers for any single country." They conducted investigations in every state in Mexico, collecting 17,400 mammals and 12,400 birds, as well as amassing an enormous fund of information on the natural history of the country. The best account of the work is Goldman's Biological Investigations in Mexico, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 115, July 1951.

EDWARD WILLIAM NELSON (1855-1934)

Described by Theodore Roosevelt as ". . . one of the keenest naturalists we have ever had . . .," Edward William Nelson was born in Manchester, New Hampshire. He developed an interest in the outdoors around his boyhood home in New England, and in Chicago where his family moved in 1868. Shortly after enrolling in Cooke County Normal School in 1872, Nelson was invited to join Edward Drinker Cope and Samuel Garman on a fossil collecting trip to the Badlands of Wyoming. After returning to Chicago, his interest in natural history continued to grow as he became acquainted with Joel Asaph Allen, Robert Ridgway, Stephen A. Forbes, Henry W. Henshaw and others.

In the winter of 1876, Nelson traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and enlist his help in securing a position as a field naturalist. Through Baird's influence, Nelson traveled to Alaska as a weather observer in the Signal Corps of the United States Army in April 1877. From June 1877 to June 1881, he was stationed at St. Michael on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska with a charge to ". . . secure an unbroken series of meteorological observations, and, in addition, to obtain all the information possible concerning the geography, ethnology, and zoology of the surrounding region." Nelson made several dog-sled excursions around the region, compiling data on the lives and customs of the native people, and making ethnological and natural history collections for the Smithsonian. The results of his work were published in "Report upon Natural History Collections Made in Alaska between the Years 1877-1881," 1887, and "The Eskimo about Bering Strait," 1900. In June 1881, he accompanied the revenue steamer Corwin on its search for the missing arctic ship Jeannette. The expedition was the first to reach and explore Wrangell Island.

Nelson spent most of the period from 1882 until 1890 in Arizona recovering from pulmonary tuberculosis contracted in Washington, D.C., while preparing his report on the birds of Alaska. In 1890, he accepted an appointment as a Special Field Agent with the Death Valley Expedition under C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, United States Department of Agriculture. This was the start of a career with the Division and its successor, the Bureau of Biological Survey, that would continue until 1929. In January 1892, Nelson received orders to conduct a three-month field survey in Mexico with Edward Alphonso Goldman, whom he had recently hired as an assistant. The trip evolved into an exhaustive, fourteen-year biological investigation of the entire country.

After concluding the Mexico work, Nelson's duties with the Bureau of Biological Survey gradually shifted from scientific to administrative. He was Chief Field Naturalist, 1907-1912; Assistant in charge of Biological Investigations, 1913-1914; Assistant Chief, 1914-1916; Chief, 1916-1927; and Senior Biologist, 1927-1929. Nelson was also an honorary Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution from 1930 until his death. During the decade in which he led the Biological Survey, Nelson was actively involved in most of the major conservation issues of the era. He helped negotiate the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916 with Great Britain and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Public Shooting Grounds-Game Refuge Bill, the Alaska Game Law Bill, and the Migratory Bird Conservation Act. He was also instrumental in developing policies to improve conditions of domestic reindeer herds in Alaska, and the promoting of bird-banding as a method of ornithological research.

In the field, Nelson was an all-round naturalist, observing and collecting most things that he encountered. He was a prolific author, and his bibliography included over two hundred titles, mostly concerning birds and mammals. Over one hundred animals and plants were named in his honor. Nelson Island and Nelson Lagoon, along the coast of the Bering Sea, and Nelson Range, a short mountain range in California, also bear his name. Nelson was President of the American Ornithologists' Union, 1908-1909, the Biological Society of Washington, 1912-1913, and the American Society of Mammalogists, 1920-1923. He received an honorary M.A. from Yale University in 1920, and an honorary Doctor of Science from the George Washington University in the same year.

Nelson was involved with the Goldman family in the operation of fruit orchards in California and Arizona. He was a co-owner and director of the Nelson-Goldman Orchard Company, 1911-1934, and the Arizona Orchard Company, 1921-1923.

For more detailed biographical information on Nelson, see Edward Alphonso Goldman, "Edward William Nelson - Naturalist," The Auk, April 1935, vol. 52, no. 2; Margaret Lantis, "Edward William Nelson," Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, December 1954, vol. 3, no. 1; and William W. Fitzhugh and Susan A. Kaplan, Inua. Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982).

EDWARD ALPHONSO GOLDMAN (1873-1946)

Edward Alphonso Goldman, field naturalist and mammalogist, was born in Mount Carroll, Illinois. His family moved to Tulare County, California, in 1888, and he went to work as a foreman in a vineyard near Fresno at the age of seventeen. After a fortuitous meeting between his father and Edward William Nelson of the Bureau of Biological Survey, Goldman was hired by Nelson in January 1892 to assist his biological investigations of California and Mexico. Thus began an association with Nelson and the Biological Survey that would continue for the remainder of his life. Shortly thereafter, he received appointment as a Field Naturalist with the Biological Survey, and he spent most of the next fourteen years with Nelson collecting in every region of Mexico.

Goldman served in a variety of positions with the Biological Survey. He was Field Naturalist, 1892-1917; Biologist in Charge, Division of Biological Investigations, 1919-1925; Biologist in Charge, Game and Bird Reservations, 1925-1928; and Senior Biologist, Division of Biological Investigations, 1928-1943. Goldman also had an honorary position with the Smithsonian Institution as Associate in Zoology from 1928 to 1946. His service with the Biological Survey was marked by extensive field investigations in every region of the United States.

In 1911-1912, Goldman conducted faunal studies as part of the Biological Survey of Panama during construction of the canal. His results were published in The Mammals of Panama in 1920. During World War I, he was a Major in the Sanitary Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces, in charge of rodent control in France. In 1936, he was chosen to assist the United States Government in negotiations with Mexico for the protection of migratory birds and game mammals.

Goldman's bibliography included more than two hundred titles. He named over three hundred forms of mammals, most of them subspecies. Approximately fifty mammals, birds, reptiles, mollusks, and plants bear his name. Goldman Peak in Baja California was also named in his honor. A member of many professional organizations, Goldman was President of the Biological Society of Washington, 1927-1929, and the American Society of Mammalogists, 1946.

For additional biographical information on Goldman, see Stanley P. Young, "Edward Alphonso Goldman: 1873-1946," Journal of Mammalogy, May 1947, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 91-109.

Chronology:

-- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF EDWARD WILLIAM NELSON

1855 -- Born in Manchester, New Hampshire, May 8

1868 -- Family moved to Chicago

1872 -- Assisted Edward Drinker Cope and Samuel Garman on a fossil collecting expedition to the Badlands of Wyoming

1876 -- Visited Washington, D.C. and met Spencer F. Baird

1877-1881 -- Weather Observer for the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army at St. Michael, Alaska. Made extensive natural history and ethnology collections and observations of the Bering Strait Eskimos.

1881 -- Accompanied revenue steamer Corwin on search for missing arctic exploring ship Jeannette. Was a member of the first party to explore Wrangell Island.

1887 -- "Report upon Natural History Collections made in Alaska between the years 1877-1881" (Arctic Series of Publications Issued in Connection with the Signal Service, United States Army, no. 3)

1890-1891 -- Special Field Agent, Death Valley Expedition, Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, United States Department of Agriculture

1890-1907 -- Field Naturalist, Bureau of Biological Survey

1892-1906 -- Field investigations of Mexico with Edward Alphonso Goldman

1899 -- "Revision of the Squirrels of Mexico and Central America" (Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 1)

1900 -- "The Eskimo about Bering Strait" (Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Pt. 1)

1907-1912 -- Chief Field Naturalist, Bureau of Biological Survey

1908-1909 -- President, American Ornithologists' Union

1909 -- "The Rabbits of North America" (U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, North American Fauna, no. 29)

1911-1934 -- Part owner, Nelson-Goldman Orchard Company, Orosi, California

1912-1913 -- President, Biological Society of Washington

1913-1914 -- Assistant in charge of Biological Investigations, Bureau of Biological Survey

1914-1916 -- Assistant Chief, Bureau of Biological Survey

1916-1927 -- Chief, Bureau of Biological Survey

1918 -- "Wild Animals of North America" (National Geographic Society; rev. ed., 1930)

1918-1919 -- Vice-President, American Society of Mammalogists

1920 -- Honorary Master of Arts, Yale University

1920 -- Honorary Doctor of Science, George Washington University

1920-1923 -- President, American Society of Mammalogists

1921-1922 -- President and Director, Arizona Orchard Company

1922 -- "Lower California and its Natural Resources" (Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 16)

1927-1929 -- Senior Biologist, Bureau of Biological Survey

1930-1934 -- Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution

1934 -- Death, May 19

-- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF EDWARD ALPHONSO GOLDMAN

1873 -- Born in Mount Carroll, Illinois, July 7

1888 -- Family moved to Tulare County, California

1891 -- Hired by Edward William Nelson as a field assistant, beginning a long professional and personal association

1892-1917 -- Field Naturalist, Bureau of Biological Survey

1892-1906 -- Biological investigations of Mexico, mostly with Nelson

1910 -- Revision of the Wood Rats of the Genus Neotoma (U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, North American Fauna, no. 31)

1911 -- Revision of the Spiny Pocket Mice (genera Heteromys and Liomys) (U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, North American Fauna, no. 34)

1911-1912 -- Conducted faunal studies as part of the Biological Survey of the Panama Canal Zone

1913-1917 -- Biological investigations of Arizona

1918 -- Rice Rats of North America (U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey, North American Fauna, no. 43)

1918-1919 -- Major, Sanitary Corps, American Expeditionary Forces, in charge of rodent control in France

1919-1925 -- Biologist in Charge, Division of Biological Investigations, Bureau of Biological Survey

1920 -- Mammals of Panama (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 69, no. 5)

1922-1937 -- Reserve Major, Sanitary Corps, U.S. Army

1925-1928 -- Biologist in Charge, Game and Bird Reservations, Bureau of Biological Survey

1928-1944 -- Senior Biologist, Division of Biological Investigations, Bureau of Biological Survey

1928-1946 -- Associate in Zoology, United States National Museum

-- 1936 assisted with negotiations of United States-Mexico migratory bird and mammal treaty

1944 -- "The Wolves of North America," with Stanley P. Young (American Wildlife Institute)

1944-1946 -- Collaborator, United States Fish and Wildlife Service

1946 -- President, American Society of Mammalogists

1946 -- "The Puma: Mysterious American Cat," with Stanley P. Young (American Wildlife Institute)

1946 -- Death, Washington, D.C., September 2

1951 -- Biological Investigations in Mexico (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 115)

Topic:

Mammalogy  Search this

Ornithology  Search this

Orchards  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Genre/Form:

Manuscripts

Scrapbooks

Clippings

Glass negatives

Black-and-white photographs

Citation:

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7364, Edward William Nelson and Edward Alphonso Goldman Collection

Identifier:

Record Unit 7364

See more items in:

Edward William Nelson and Edward Alphonso Goldman Collection

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian Institution Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-sia-faru7364

Edited by:

W.E.B. Du Bois, American, 1868 - 1963  Search this

Subject of:

The Crisis, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, British, 1875 - 1912  Search this

Illustrated by:

John Henry Adams Jr., American, 1880 - 1944  Search this

Written by:

Charles Edward Stowe, American, 1850 - 1934  Search this

Jessie Redmon Fauset, American, 1882 - 1961  Search this

Jane Addams, American, 1860 - 1935  Search this

Lafayette M. Hershaw, American, 1863 - 1945  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper with metal

Dimensions:

H x W: 9 3/4 × 6 3/4 in. (24.8 × 17.1 cm)

H x W (Open): 9 3/4 × 13 1/2 in. (24.8 × 34.3 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place printed:

New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Date:

November 1912

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Civil Rights  Search this

Composers (Musicians)  Search this

Education  Search this

Journalism  Search this

Literature  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Music  Search this

Poetry  Search this

Politics  Search this

Race relations  Search this

Slavery  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Social reform  Search this

U.S. History, 1865-1921  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Object number:

2015.97.14.5

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd56505ca46-a235-449f-a8ae-7208fb57a32f

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2015.97.14.5

Collector:

Sultner-Welles, Donald H. (Sultner, Donald Harvey), 1914-1981  Search this

Printer:

Janus, Allan  Search this

Interviewee:

Hanfstaengl, Erna  Search this

Names:

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra  Search this

Chautauqua Institute  Search this

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation  Search this

Holland-America Cruises  Search this

Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945  Search this

Extent:

87.6 Cubic feet (318 boxes)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Passports

Photographs

Travelogs

Receipts

Ephemera

Files

Filmstrips

Lecture notes

Personal papers

Silver-dye bleach process

Contracts

Notebooks

Prints

Press releases

Ships' passenger lists

Project files

Magnetic tapes

Posters

Postcards

Vertical files

Dye destruction process

Travel diaries

Letters (correspondence)

Professional papers

Bank statements

Correspondence

Audiotapes

Series 12.

Clippings

Card files

Concert programs

Dye destruction photoprints

Biography files

Awards

Business records

Birthday cards

Date:

circa 1790-1981

bulk 1945-1980

Scope and Contents:

This collection is primarily the work of one individual, Donald Harvey Sultner, known professionally as Donald Sultner-Welles (1914-1981). The collection forms a written and visual record of Sultner's family, life, and career from 1913-1980. Its major strength is Sultner's photographic documentation of the world during his travels, ca. 1950-1980. Work by other photographers and artists, correspondence, greeting cards, and contemporary memorabilia and ephemera are included, along with fewer than fifty examples of earlier materials, ca. 1790-1900, collected by Sultner.

The entire collection reflects Sultner's lifework and interests. Housed in @ boxes (.W cubic feet), the collection is organized into eleven series: Personal Papers; Professional Papers; Lecture Materials; Biographical Materials; Transparencies; Photoprints; Photonegatives; Prints, Drawings, Mixed Media; Audio Tapes; Miscellaneous; and Restricted Materials. The arrangement within each series is based as closely as possi-ble on Sultner's own organization of the materials. However, in several instances similar materials were found separated and have been placed together. In addition, obvious filing mistakes and spelling errors have been corrected. The spelling of geographic place names is based on Offi-cial Standard Names prepared by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Of-fice of Geography, U.S. Department of the Interior. Not all names given by Sultner were found in the gazetteers, so there may be errors.

The bulk of the collection consists of 2-1/4-inch by 2-1/4-inch color transparencies (Series 5). However, the manuscript materials (Series 1-4) provide a detailed complement to the transparencies. For example, from the mid-1950s until the late 1970s, Sultner kept a travel diary (Se-ries 1). Written on the backs of postcards, this stream-of-consciousness journal reflects not only his daily trips, but his impressions of the countries and thoughts on his photography. A juxtaposition of cards with images is especially useful in understanding what Sultner photographed as well as why and how he photographed it. Sultner's professional corre-spondence (Series 2) documents the various types of groups before which he performed and equipment manufacturers dealt with for cameras, projectors, and so on. Notes, drafts, and final lectures (Series 3) present the performance side of Sultner. This material, when viewed with tapes of concerts and slides, begins to recreate the photo-concert as Sultner presented it. Scrapbooks (Series 4), kept by Sultner from the 1940s to the 1980s, present Sultner's life and career in chronological fashion.

The transparency portion of the collection (Series 5), containing over 87,000 images, is especially rich because of its documentation of the countries of the world. People are seen at their daily tasks, such as washing clothes, marketing, shopping, and eating. Cities are documented as they changed over the years. Two areas in particular will be of spe-cial interest to European and Asian researchers. The first is Sultner's USIS Asian tour in 1959. He visited Japan, Java, India, Korea, the Phil-ippines, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The serene, prewar cities and coun-tryside of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam evince nothing of the devastation to come in the 1960a and 70s.

The second area of interest is Sultner's passion for documenting archi-tecture. As a guest of the German government in 1954, Sultner documented the devastation of World War II and photographed both the reconstruction of bombed buildings and the construction of buildings reflecting "new" postwar architectural styles. In addition to photographing post-WW II styles, throughout his career Sultner documented Palladian, baroque and Rococo architecture. This interest manifested itself in several of his lectures.

A third subject area of interest to Sultner was gardens. Among his first lectures following his USIS tour was "Gardens of the World." Sultner de-veloped this theme into an ongoing commitment to ecology, culminating in a filmstrip, "The Time is Now" (Series 10), prepared for the Hudson River Conservation Society in the 1960s. Carl Carmer, a noted author, wrote the text for the filmstrip. Sultner's taped interviews, lectures, and program music (Series 9) complement the transparencies. During his USIS-sponsored Asian tour in 1959, Sultner recorded impressions of his trip on tape. Interviews with people living in the countries he visited, radio interviews, and his own personal reflections are included. Of particular interest are his "No Harm Asking" interviews in Manila (tape #2), his interview of two French hotel managers in Saigon discussing post-French control conditions (tape #9), and--perhaps the most unusual--his discussion with Erna Hanfstaengl about her personal relationship with Adolf Hitler (tape #107). Scripts for lectures (Series 3) round out the documentation of Sultner's profes-sional work.

Because of the arrangement of the transparencies, it is necessary to check several areas for the same subject. For example, Vietnam images are in the "World" section alphabetically under Vietnam (box 81). Sult-ner also lectured on Vietnam, so there are Vietnamese images in the "framed subjects" (Boxes 137-138). Another example, perhaps more compli-cated, but more common to Sultner, was his distinguishing between images of unidentified "People" and identified "Portraits." Transparency stud ies of human beings will be found under the subseries "People." "Subjects --Portraits," various countries in the subseries "World," and "Lectures." There are also individuals in the black-and-white photoprints (Series 6), and photonegatives (Series 8). The painter and print-maker Charles Shee-ler appears in a number of locations, as does tenor Roland Hayes. Another area of complexity with regard to people concerns the transparencies and negatives. Sultner interfiled his transparencies and negatives of iden-tified individuals. For appropriate storage, these two different formats have been arranged in separate series. Therefore, instead of container lists for the two series, there is a combined alphabetical index to both (pp. 166-206).

Of tangential interest are the photoprints (Series 6), etchings, wood-cuts, and other prints (Series 8) collected by Sultner. One particular subseries of interest contains photographs presented to Sultner by Asian photographers during his 1959 tour. Over 45 images were given to Sultner and represent the standards of camera-club photography in the 1950s. Thesecond subseries consists of over 25 prints by the Italian-American art-ist Luigi Lucioni (1900- ). For further information on this artist,see The Etchings of Luigi Lucioni, -A Catalogue Raisonne', by Stuart P.Embury (Washington, 1984). Lucioni also painted Sultner's portrait in1952 and the "People" section of the transparencies contains a number of images of Lucioni at work. Another significant category is the Japanese prints, including two by a major nineteenth-century artist, Ando Hiro-shige (1797-1858).

Series 11 contains restricted letters to Sultner from friends. These materials will become available to the public in the year 2031. Twenty-three document boxes of clippings and magazine articles found in standard magazines and newspapers (e.g., Time, Life, Look, Modern Ma-turity, etc.) were destroyed. These materials represented general arti--cles being published on a number of topics during Sultner's lifetime. A list of subject file headings Sultner used is with the manuscript mate-rials.

A second grouping of materials destroyed were nine filing cabinet drawers of travel material--maps, guide books, and other tourist pamphlets used by Sultner on his travels. This material, as with the first group of ma-terial, was of the common variety easily found. Any books or pamphlets found with the clippings were sorted out and sent to Smithsonian Institu-tion Libraries. Other library material that came in with the estate was sent immediately to the library and disposed of through their channels. Any office equipment, such as filing cabinets and supplies, etc., has been put to use in the National Museum of American History.

Arrangement:

Series 1: Personal Papers, 1923-1981

Series 2: Professional Papers, 1954-1980

Series 3: Lecture Materials, 1952-1980

Series 4: Biographical Materials, 1954-1980

Series 5: Transparencies, 1947-1980

Series 6: Photoprints, 1913-ca. 1980

Series 7: Photonegatives, 1929-1981

Series 8: Prints, Drawings, Mixed Media, ca. 1790-1979

Series 9: Audio Tapes, 1947-1980

Series 10: Miscellaneous, 1947-1980

Biographical / Historical:

Donald Harvey Sultner was bom in York, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 1914, the son of Lillian May Arnold Sultner and Harvey A. Sultner. In 1923 Sultner attended the Lewis Institute in Detroit, Michigan, to overcome a speech impediment. He entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1932 and graduated in 1936. Sultner studied merchandising and sang in the glee club, then under the direction of composer Harl MacDonald. Sultner, a baritone, continued his interest in music and studied voice with Reinald Werrenrath and with Florence Benedict and Bruce Benjamin in New York City. In the late 1940s and early 1950s he appeared in concert with accompanists at schools, clubs, and resort hotels along the East Coast. It appears that photography was always an important part of Sultner's life. Using a small format (120) camera, he recorded his vacation travels around the United States and Canada, parties, and his family. While living in New York, Sultner continued photographing friends and family and began photographing the famous people he encountered on his concert tours. In the early 1950s he began taking 2-1/4-inch by 2-1/4-inch color transparencies (slides) of landscapes and architecture as he traveled giving concerts.

Sultner, who had taken the stage name of "Sultner-Welles," began what was to be his lifework as a professional "photo-lecturer" in 1952. He illustrated his talks on nature, art, architecture, and the environment with his color slides. In 1954 Sultner toured West Germany as a guest of the Bonn government, and in 1959 he lectured in Asia under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. He was dubbed the "camera ambassador." Constantly adding new material to his collection of slides, Sultner traveled extensively throughout the United States, speaking before garden clubs, cultural organi-zations, and schools. He also appeared aboard various ships of the Holland-America line during a number of cruises abroad.

Sultner had established his performance style by the early 1960s. He expanded his lectures to include a combination of art, words, and music. The expanded presentation resulted in the "photo-concert," a unique synthesis of light and sound that Sultner frequently per-formed with a symphony orchestra. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra commissioned "Concertino for Camera and Orchestra" by Eric Knight with Sultner in mind. The world premiere was in Baltimore in March 1979. While he spoke on many art, garden, and architectural topics, Sultner specialized in subjects relating to the baroque and rococo periods and Palladian architecture.

Sultner died of cancer in York, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1981, at the age of 67.

1914 -- April 13, born York, Pennsylvania.

1929 -- In Detroit at Lewis Institute to overcome a speech impediment.

1932 -- To University of Pennsylvania.

1935 -- Summer trip to Roanoke (VA), Picketts, Hershey (PA); fall trip to New England for fraternity (AXP) convention.

1936 -- Spring glee club trip; graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; summer trips to Newport News (VA), northern trip to Canada, Picketts (PA).

1937 -- Fall trip to Williamsburg (VA), Duke University (NC); Sultner family begins building "Glen Hill" (Dover, PA).

1938 -- Summer at home, and Picketts (PA), Camp Pratt.

1939 -- Spring trip to Washington, D.C.; September trip to The Homestead (WV), Hot Springs (WV), Virginia; Lake Mohonk (NY).

1940 -- Summer trip to New Orleans, Blowing Rock (NC); winter trip to Skytop Club (NY); fall trip to Atlantic City (NJ), Philadelphia (PA), Annapolis (MD).

1941 -- Winter 1941-42 appearance in "Hit the Deck." Lake Mohonk (NY) with Ted Walstrum (Sept. 22-23); Skytop Club (NY) (February); summer trip to Canada, Lake Chazy (NY) (Aug. 17-23).

1942 -- Spring in Atlantic City (NJ); summer to Buck Hill Falls, Lakes Chazy and Mohonk.

1943 -- Summer trip to Mohonk (NY).

1944 -- Summer: To Toronto (Ontario), Muskoka Lake, Bigwin Island, Montreal (Quebec), Mohonk (NY).

1945 -- Summer: To Winnepesauke (ME), Woodstock (NY), Ogunquit (ME), Bridgeport (CT).

1946 -- To Mohonk (NY), Ogunquit (ME), Old Saybrook (CT), Nantucket (RI).

1947 -- Singing tour of Canada and New England; winter-spring tour to Georgia and Florida.

1948 -- To Florida and Nassau, Feb.-Mar., Vermont, July-Aug.; Nassau-Havana-Miami-Bermuda, October.

1949 -- Singing tour of North and South Carolina.

1950 -- Summer trip to South.

1951 -- To District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, [New Jersey?], New York, Vermont.

1952 -- January 9: first public photo-concert, Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Philadelphia; trips to Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont.

1953 -- To Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont.

1954 -- Guest of German government for a study tour in the fall. To District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia.

1955 -- To Holland; Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.

1956 -- To California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.

1957 -- Holland-America Cruise to Germany, Austria, Italy. To Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

1958 -- Holland-America Cruises to Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy, Switzerland. To Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota., Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin.

1959 -- United States Information Service (USIS)-sponsored tour of Asia: Burma, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam. Also visited Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Spain; Alaska, California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania.

1960 -- Holland-America Cruise to Austria, Belgium, Caribbean, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Morocco. To Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

1961 -- To Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland; Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode.Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

1962 -- Portfolio, "Autumn in Vermont," with introduction by Carl Carmer, published in Autumn issue of Vermont Life. Holland-America Cruise to Denmark, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden. To Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.

1963 -- Holland-America Cruise to Caribbean, Canada, Sweden, Thailand. To Alabama, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, N;w York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington.

1964 -- Holland-America Cruise to Germany, Canada, England, Holland, Wales. To Delaware, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia.

1965 -- Holland-America Cruise to Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Wales. To Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

1966 -- Holland-America Cruise to Caribbean, Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland. To New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia.

1967 -- Holland-America Cruise to Caribbean, Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Wales. To Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia.

1968 -- To Germany; Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

1969 -- To England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland; Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia.

1970 -- Holland-America Cruise to Caribbean, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden. To Alabama, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.

1971 -- Holland-America Cruise to Caribbean, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Sweden. To Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania.

1972 -- Holland-America Cruise to Asia, Pacific, Caribbean, Africa, Austria, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Turkey. To California, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia.

1973 -- Holland-America Cruise to Austria, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Iceland, Sweden. To California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont.

1974 -- To Germany, Switzerland; California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia.

1975 -- To Austria; California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia.

1976 -- To Canada; Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah.

1977 -- To Canada, Germany; New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia.

1978 -- To Scotland; Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina.

1979 -- To England; Florida.

1980 -- To Florida.

1981 -- March 25: Sultner dies of cancer, York, Pennsylania.

Introduction:

The Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection, ca. 1790-1981, came to the National Museum of American History in 1982 from the estate of Mr. Sultner. The collection was created by Sultner over his adult life and represents one of the most extensive collections of color transparencies created by one individual and held in a public repository. Sultner's emphasis was on world culture. He took the majority of his photographs in the eastern United States, western Europe, and Asia. Gardens, architecture, and people are the three major subject areas represented in the collection. Of additional interest are Sultner's taped impressions of his 1959 United States Information Service (USIS)-sponsored Asian tour. The collection occupies 309 boxes and covers more than 83 cubic feet.

The Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection is open to researchers in the Archives Center, third floor east, of the National Museum of American History, between 12th and 14th Streets, on Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20560. The Archives Center is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Written and telephone (202/357-3270) inquiries are welcome and researchers are encouraged to contact the Archives Center before their arrival. The FAX number is 202/786-2453.

This is the eleventh in a series of occasional guides to collections in the Archives Center. Finding aids to other collections are available. The Guide to Manuscript Collections in the National Museum of History and Technology (1978) and an updated compilation contain brief descriptions of all archival holdings in the Museum. All current Archives Center holdings are available for search on the Smithsonian Institution Bibliographic Information System (SIBIS), an online database.

General:

References in notebook to tapes not located:

5/1960 Laddsl--Pasadena, CA (Thornton Ladd, Helen Peabody, me, Mrs. Ladd

5/11/1968 Glen Foerd, dinner party--F. Tonner, T[onner] tribute

List of Illustrations:

Frontispiece: Portrait of Donald Harvey Sultner-Welles by Ludwig Harren, Nuremberg, Germany, May, 1957. Series 6: Photo¬prints, box 6; Series 7: Photonegatives, 700.1.

vii Donald Sultner-Welles inspecting slides at his 2101 E. Market Street apartment. Photograph by Gretchen H. Goughnour, York, Pennsylvania, December 1958. Series 6: Photoprints, box 6, folder 5; Series 7: Photonegatives, Box 11, 696.1.

 Sultner-Welles with Rollei, Kobe, Japan, April 1959. Press photograph, photographer unknown. Series 7: Photonegatives, 687.1.

10 Americana by the Roadside" (boy with soda, Beech Creek, North Carolina). Series 5, Subseries 5: Subjects, Box 102: 6.3.

20 "Americana in Europe" (sign: "To the Elephant Kraal," South Africa). Series 5, Subseries 5: Subjects, Box 102: 6.33.

39 North Miami Beach Motel, Florida, February 1960. Series 5, Subseries 1: United States, Box 8: 9.11. SI Neg. 87-326, Videodisc Frame 2942.

40 Beech Creek, North Carolina (portrait of elderly woman), June 1956. Series 5, Subseries 1: United States, Box 28: 12.10. SI Neg. 87-327, Videodisc Frame 10156.

97 Brookgreen Sculpture Garden, South Carolina, ca. 1963. Series 5, Subseries 1: United States, Box 35.35.11. SI Neg. 87-328; Videodisc Frame 12747.

98 "Six Irrigation Paddlers Outside Hue," South Vietnam, 1959. Series 5, Subseries 2: World, Box 81: 35.11; also Series 7: Photonegatives, 658.1 (copy neg.). Videodisc Frame 27960.

151 Alkmaar Cheese Market, The Netherlands, September 1969. Series 5, Subseries 2: World, Box 70: 17.9. SI Neg. 87-329; not shown on videodisc.

152 African Cruise: Victoria Falls, Rhodesia, February 1972. Series 5, Subseries 3: Cruises, Box 83: 9.12. SI Neg. 87-330, Videodisc Frame 28344.

166 Il Galero, Italy, July 1966. Series 5, Subseries 4: European Architectural Styles, Box 99: 48.4. SI neg. 87-331.

179 "Baroque--Germany: Alterding," July 1965. Series 5, Subseries 4: European Architectural Styles, Box 94: 1.8. SI Neg. 87-332, Videodisc Frame 31310.

180 Design Elements, Hotel Fontainebleau, New Orleans,, Louisiana, April, 1961. Series 5, Subseries 5: Subjects, Box 106: 23.2. SI Neg. 87-333, Videodisc Frame 34912.

192 Charles Sheeler, ca. 1957-1965. Series 5, Subseries 9: Lectures, Box 169: 49.2. SI Neg. 87-334. Videodisc Frame 52713.

238 "Ba-Rococo," Detail, Ottobeuren Church, Bavaria. Series 5, Subseries 7: Framed Subjects, Box 141: 47.7, Videodisc Frame 45665.

276 Villa Barbaro, Maser, Treviso, Italy. Series 7. Photonegatives, 715.1. SI Neg. 87-335.

281 "Water--Economics," Storm-Damaged Beach House. Series 5, Subseries 8: Notecard Transparencies, Box 155: 22.12. SI Neg. 87-336.

282 Market in Madeira. Series 5, Subseries 9: Lectures, Box 161: 48.12. SI Neg. 87-337, Videodisc Frame 48435.

298 Children (South Carolina?). Series 5, Subseries 9: Lectures, Box 104: 17.2. SI Neg. 87-338.

311 Goethe Statue, Chicago, Illinois. Series 7: Photonegatives, 678.1.

316 Feeding Gulls, Florida. Series 7. Photonegatives, 684.1.

331 Montage for Sultner's concerts. Series 8: Prints, Drawings, Mixed Media, filing case. Series 7: Photonegatives, 740.1.

332 Sultner Showing Slides to Garden Club, Caterpillar Tractor Co. Auditorium, Dec. 1958. Photograph by Gretchen H. Goughnour, York, Penn. Series 7: Photonegatives, 690.1.

340 Montage for Sultner's concerts. Series 8: Prints, Drawings, Mixed Media, filing case. Series 7: Photonegatives, 742.1.

341 Children, Ohio (boy in box in wagon) Series 5, Subseries 9: Lectures, Box 165: 13.2; Series 7: Photonegatives, 667.4 (copy neg.)

352 Publicity/brochure photograph. Drinking cup and water, Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania. Series 7: Photonegatives, 651.1.

353 Publicity/brochure photograph, Milles Gardens, Stockholm, Sweden. Series 7: Photonegatives, 659.1.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

A small number of letters and photographs are restricted until the year 2031. Identification list in box.

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.

Topic:

Portraits -- 20th century  Search this

Lecturers  Search this

Photographers  Search this

Gardens -- Photographs -- 1300-1980  Search this

Architecture -- Photographs -- 1300-1980  Search this

Travel photography -- 1950-2000  Search this

Genre/Form:

Passports

Photographs -- Black-and-white negatives -- Acetate film

Travelogs

Receipts -- 20th century

Ephemera

Files

Filmstrips

Lecture notes

Personal papers -- 20th century

Silver-dye bleach process

Contracts

Notebooks

Prints

Press releases

Ships' passenger lists

Project files

Magnetic tapes

Posters

Postcards

Vertical files

Dye destruction process

Travel diaries

Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.

Professional papers

Bank statements

Correspondence -- 1930-1950

Photographs -- Phototransparencies -- 20th century

Audiotapes -- 1940-1980

Series 12. -- Cibachrome (TM)

Photographs -- 20th century

Clippings

Card files

Concert programs

Dye destruction photoprints

Biography files

Awards

Business records

Birthday cards

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0145

See more items in:

Donald H. Sultner-Welles Collection

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0145

Creator:

Rivers, Charles, 1904-1993  Search this

Names:

Chrysler Building (New York, N.Y.) -- Pictorial works  Search this

Empire State Building -- Construction--1929-1930  Search this

Pathe News  Search this

Bates, Ruby  Search this

Extent:

0.5 Cubic feet (4 boxes )

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Photographs

Scrapbooks

Albums

Place:

New York (N.Y.) -- 1920-1930

Washington (D.C.) -- 1960-1970

Date:

1929-1963

bulk 1929-1930

Scope and Contents:

The collection contains: twenty-nine silver gelatin photoprints mounted on Fome-Core, Masonite, and cardboard, ranging in size from 5-1/2" x 9-1/4" to 10-11/16" x 13-13/16"; three 5" x 7" unmounted silver gelatin photoprints; a scrapbook which originally contained 56 silver gelatin photoprints, ranging in size from 2" x 3" to 7-1/2" x 9-1/2"; and silver gelatin film negatives (presumably acetate) for the prints. The scrapbook includes a New York Daily News clipping about Rivers: "Builds a Bridge to Students" by Anthony Burton (dated May 12, 1970 by Rivers) with a photograph showing him speaking to a crowd, Most of the photographs depict the construction of the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings--iron workers on the job and relaxing during breaks, and pictures of the buildings at various stages of completion. Other subjects are: a demonstration to prevent World War II (1935), a color photoprint of the Civil Rights March and Demonstration in Washington, D.C. (1963), and two magazine clippings from a Soviet publication, New Times, in which Rivers's prize-winning "Self Portrait" (1930) was reproduced.

Most of these prints were made by Charles Rivers many years after the creation of the original negatives, probably ca.1970s 1980s. The collection is in generally good condition, except that many of the print surfaces are scratched.

Biographical / Historical:

Charles Rivers created a certain amount of confusion about his origins, whether accidentally or intentionally. Born Constantinos Kapornaros[1] (or Kostandinos Kapernaros)[2] in the small town of Vahos in Mani, an isolated area in the southern Peloponnesian region of Greece, on May 20, 1904, he emigrated to the United States as a child of five or six with his parents. His school record showed that he was enrolled in 1911 at the age of seven.[3] The family lived in Maine or New Hampshire, then Massachusetts, and later other locations in New York state. It is believed that his new name was derived from the Charles River in Boston.[4] The change may have been occasioned by a need to conceal his deep involvement in left-wing political and union activities.[5] Mr. Rivers settled in New York City in 1950 and resided there until 1993.[6] He sometimes identified his birthplace as Denver, Colorado,[7] but this may have been a fabrication or simplification, based on the fact that Greek church baptismal records were kept in Denver.[8] His sons James and Ronald believe that he never became an official American citizen. Late in life, in order to visit his birthplace, he was issued a passport, based on his school records, which stated that he was born in Denver. Rivers photographed the construction of the Chrysler Building (1929) and the Empire State Building (1930) in New York City. He was inspired to take up photography by seeing the work of the influential documentary photographer Lewis Hine, whose famous images of working children helped win passage of protective child labor laws. Rivers and Hine both photographed the Empire State Building and the men building it, yet Rivers apparently was unaware until years later that his idol had been present. Employed as an iron worker, Rivers traded his pail of tools for a Zeiss Ikon[9] camera during his lunch hour or when photographic opportunities arose. While the workers depicted in some of the photographs clearly are aware of the photographer's presence, Rivers's project presumably was conducted more or less surreptitiously. It is not known for certain if the paths of Rivers and Hine ever crossed, but his son Ron considers it unlikely: Hine photographed only the Empire State Building in connection with his "Men at Work" project,[10] not the earlier Chrysler Building, and Rivers did not work on the Empire State Building for a very long period. His self-portrait on the Empire State Building, "The Bolter-Up," may have been intended as a memento during one of his last days on that job.[11]

Rivers became unemployed in the Depression and consequently became involved in national efforts to create Social Security, unemployment insurance, and housing programs. These experiences apparently encouraged his active participation in politically leftist activities, as coverage about him in Soviet publications attests. A pacifist, in 1935 he was involved in demonstrations aimed at preventing World War II, and in the 1960s he took part in anti-Vietnam demonstrations and encouraged young people to continue such resistance.

In the 1950s Rivers worked in steel fabrication, in a chemistry lab as a technician, and briefly as a legislative aide for a New York state senator.

In 1986 Rivers submitted his 1930 self-portrait, posed on the Chrysler Building, to the International Year of Peace art contest sponsored by the New Times, published in Moscow: it was awarded a prize and diploma.

Mr. Rivers died in 1993, only two weeks after moving to Arlington, Texas to enter a nursing home near his sons' homes.

1. The page on Rivers in New York University=s Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives web site (http://laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=82) --noted 5 June 2002), claims Rivers was born in 1905 and changed his name Ato resemble those of the Mohawk Indians working on the high steel of New York City=s skyscrapers and bridges".

2. This spelling is given in an e-mail from James Rivers to Helen Plummer, Aug. 19, 2002.

3. Ibid.

4. Telephone conversation between Ron Rivers and the author, 6 June 2002. Additional information was provided by Ron Rivers in electronic mail messages, 5 June and 12 June 2002.

5. James Rivers, op. cit.

6. Telephone conversation with Ron Rivers, 6 June 2002.

7. In a biographical statement for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (copy supplied by Helen Plummer), Charles Rivers called Denver his birthplace. The George Eastman House photographer database also included this apparently erroneous information, probably derived from the Amon Carter statement (telephone conversation with Helen Plummer, 3 June 2002).

8. Ron Rivers, telephone conversation, 6 June 2002.

9. Identified by Charles Rivers as the camera used in the skyscraper photographs: interview by Carol Sewell, "Photographer looked at U.S. from high view," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dec. 27, 1986. Rivers also used a Rolleiflex, according to Ron Rivers (see note above), but the folding Zeiss Ikon camera would have been a more convenient addition to a lunchbox than the bulkier Rolleiflex. The collection negatives are not in the Rolleiflex square format, moreover.

10. See Judith Mara Gutman, Lewis W. Hine and the American social conscience. New York: Walker, 1967.

11. Ron Rivers, telephone conversation, 6 June 2002.

Related Materials:

Materials at the Smithsonian Institution

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Included Rivers's self-portrait, "The Bolter Up," in its summer 2002 exhibition, "Metropolis in the Machine Age," in the form of a new print made from a digital copy of the Archives Center's original negative. The author discussed the new print from the Rivers negative and other photographs in this exhibition in an invited gallery lecture, "The Skyscraper Photographs of Lewis Hine and Charles Rivers," Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, June 6, 2002.

Materials at Other Organizations

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

See Barbara McCandless and John Rohrbach, Singular moments: photographs from the Amon Carter Museum, with select entries by Helen Plummer. Reproduction of a Rivers photograph, with description and analysis, p. 30. Additional information has been generously supplied by Ms. Plummer, curatorial associate, and Barbara McCandless, curator of photography, Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth Texas.

Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University

Museum of the City of New York

Some of his photographs were included in the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art exhibition, "Looking at America: Documentary Photographs of the 1930s and 1940s," December 1986.

Provenance:

The collection is a gift from Mr. Charles Rivers, 1989.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Archives Center claims copyright. Rights were conveyed to the Archives Center through a Deed of Gift signed by the donor.

Topic:

Self-portraits, American  Search this

Iron and steel workers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Construction workers -- 1900-1950 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Structural steel workers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Labor unions  Search this

Civil rights demonstrations -- 1960-1970  Search this

Skyscrapers -- 1920-1930 -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Civil rights  Search this

Peace movements -- 1960-1970  Search this

Peace movements -- 1930-1940  Search this

Scottsoro boys case  Search this

Fires  Search this

Scottsboro Trial, Scottsboro, Ala., 1931  Search this

Self-portraits  Search this

Genre/Form:

Photographs -- 1900-1950

Scrapbooks -- 20th century

Albums

Photographs -- Black-and-white photoprints -- Silver gelatin -- 1970-1990

Citation:

Charles Rivers Photographs, 1929-1963, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Identifier:

NMAH.AC.0360

See more items in:

Charles Rivers Photographs

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-nmah-ac-0360

Collection Author:

Railway Express Agency.  Search this

Collection Donor:

Karl, Roger F. R.  Search this

Collection Collector:

Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Division of  Search this

Container:

Map-folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1902-10

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection 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.

Collection Citation:

Railway Express Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Railway Express Agency Records

Railway Express Agency Records / Series 9: Drawings

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0260-ref695

Collection Author:

Railway Express Agency.  Search this

Collection Donor:

Karl, Roger F. R.  Search this

Collection Collector:

Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Division of  Search this

Container:

Map-folder 1

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1926-08-17

Collection Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Collection 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.

Collection Citation:

Railway Express Agency Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

See more items in:

Railway Express Agency Records

Railway Express Agency Records / Series 9: Drawings

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0260-ref709

Published by:

MelPat Associates, American, 1965 - 1986  Search this

Created by:

C. Melvin Patrick, American, died 1985  Search this

Subject of:

Sen. Edward Brooke, American, born 1919  Search this

Morris Brown College, American, founded 1881  Search this

Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, American, founded 1963  Search this

Opportunities Industrialization Center of America, Inc., American, founded 1964  Search this

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr., American, 1911 - 1978  Search this

General Daniel James Jr., American, 1920 - 1978  Search this

Roy Wilkins, American, 1901 - 1981  Search this

Rufus B. Shorter, American  Search this

National Association of Black Social Workers, American, founded 1968  Search this

National Association of Market Developers, American, founded 1953  Search this

National Medical Association, American, founded 1895  Search this

Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry  Search this

Prince Hall Freemasonry, founded 1784  Search this

Howard University, American, founded 1867  Search this

National Newspaper Publishers Association, American, founded 1827  Search this

Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), International, founded 1844  Search this

Avon, founded 1886  Search this

Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1937  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

The Links, Incorporated, American, founded 1946  Search this

National United Church Ushers Association of America, Inc., American, founded 1919  Search this

National Medical Association, American, founded 1895  Search this

National Dental Association, American, founded 1913  Search this

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., founded 1922  Search this

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914  Search this

National Urban League, American, founded 1910  Search this

Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1929  Search this

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, founded 1908  Search this

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, American, founded 1920  Search this

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1906  Search this

Eta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1943  Search this

National Association of University Women, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Association of Market Developers, American, founded 1953  Search this

Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1932  Search this

American Bridge Association, American, founded 1932  Search this

Arthur Ashe Jr., American, 1943 - 1993  Search this

The Salvation Army, American, founded 1865  Search this

National Dental Association, American, founded 1913  Search this

Shriners International, American, founded 1870  Search this

Sammy Davis Jr., American, 1925 - 1990  Search this

Congressional Black Caucus, American, founded 1971  Search this

Rev. Martin Luther King Sr, American, 1899 - 1984  Search this

Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, American, founded 1898  Search this

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, American, founded 1957  Search this

National Urban League Guild, American, founded 1946  Search this

Association for the Study of African American Life and History, American, founded 1915  Search this

369th Veterans Association, American  Search this

Prince Hall Freemasonry, founded 1784  Search this

One Hundred Black Men, Inc., American, founded 1963  Search this

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper

Dimensions:

H x W x D: 10 13/16 × 8 7/16 × 7/16 in. (27.5 × 21.4 × 1.1 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place made:

Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

California, United States, North and Central America

Houston, Texas, United States, North and Central America

Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, North and Central America

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America

Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America

Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America

Jamaica, Caribbean, North and Central America

Barbados, Caribbean, North and Central America

Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America

West Africa, Africa

Date:

1978

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Communities  Search this

Fraternal organizations  Search this

Fraternities  Search this

Government  Search this

HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)  Search this

Journalism  Search this

Labor  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Men  Search this

Political organizations  Search this

Politics  Search this

Professional organizations  Search this

Religious groups  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Sororities  Search this

Travel  Search this

U.S. History, 1969-2001  Search this

Urban life  Search this

Women  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Anne B. Patrick and the family of Hilda E. Stokely

Object number:

2012.167.12

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5e8bb6cbd-99b9-4ce0-8851-3b3bef3dd0e8

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2012.167.12

Published by:

MelPat Associates, American, 1965 - 1986  Search this

Created by:

C. Melvin Patrick, American, died 1985  Search this

Subject of:

WLIB, American, founded 1941  Search this

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, American, founded 1969  Search this

American Bridge Association, American, founded 1932  Search this

National Association of Black Social Workers, American, founded 1968  Search this

Interracial Council for Business Opportunity, American, founded 1963  Search this

One Hundred Black Men, Inc., American, founded 1963  Search this

National Association of Market Developers, American, founded 1953  Search this

Vulcan Society, American, founded 1940  Search this

National Urban League, American, founded 1910  Search this

Opportunities Industrialization Center of America, Inc., American, founded 1964  Search this

Prince Hall Freemasonry, founded 1784  Search this

National Urban Coalition, American, founded 1967  Search this

National Newspaper Publishers Association, American, founded 1827  Search this

Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc., American, founded 1964  Search this

The Links, Incorporated, American, founded 1946  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1937  Search this

Carats, Inc., American, founded 1959  Search this

Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1932  Search this

National Medical Association, American, founded 1895  Search this

National United Church Ushers Association of America, Inc., American, founded 1919  Search this

Vernon Jordan, American, born 1935  Search this

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1906  Search this

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914  Search this

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, American, founded 1920  Search this

National Dental Association, American, founded 1913  Search this

National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc., American, founded 1924  Search this

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, American, founded 1913  Search this

Connectional Lay Council, American, founded 1948  Search this

Chi Delta Mu Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1913  Search this

Shriners International, American, founded 1870  Search this

Daughters of Isis, American, founded 1910  Search this

Iota Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1929  Search this

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., American, founded 1935  Search this

Congressional Black Caucus, American, founded 1971  Search this

Morehouse Alumni Association, American, founded 1900  Search this

Morris Brown College, American, founded 1881  Search this

Dr. Ralph Bunche, American, 1903 - 1971  Search this

Lionel Hampton, American, 1908 - 2002  Search this

National Urban League Guild, American, founded 1946  Search this

Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), International, founded 1844  Search this

Alliance for Women in Media, American, founded 1951  Search this

Eleanor Holmes Norton, American, born 1937  Search this

Vernon Jordan, American, born 1935  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper

Dimensions:

H x W x D: 10 13/16 × 8 7/16 × 1/2 in. (27.5 × 21.4 × 1.3 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place made:

Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, United States, North and Central America

Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America

Date:

1981

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Communities  Search this

Fraternal organizations  Search this

Fraternities  Search this

Government  Search this

HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)  Search this

Journalism  Search this

Labor  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Men  Search this

Political organizations  Search this

Politics  Search this

Professional organizations  Search this

Religious groups  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Sororities  Search this

U.S. History, 1969-2001  Search this

Urban life  Search this

Women  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Anne B. Patrick and the family of Hilda E. Stokely

Object number:

2012.167.15

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5af48a13c-8c71-4105-9526-479c0bc3bb3e

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2012.167.15

Published by:

MelPat Associates, American, 1965 - 1986  Search this

Created by:

C. Melvin Patrick, American, died 1985  Search this

Amos T. Hall, American, 1896 - 1971  Search this

Subject of:

New York Giants, American, founded 1925  Search this

National Pan-Hellenic Council, American, founded 1930  Search this

Prince Hall Freemasonry, founded 1784  Search this

Dr. Ralph Bunche, American, 1903 - 1971  Search this

Southern Christian Leadership Conference, American, founded 1957  Search this

National Newspaper Publishers Association, American, founded 1827  Search this

Adam Clayton Powell Jr., American, 1908 - 1972  Search this

National Black Political Convention, 1971 - 1972  Search this

Logan H. Westbrook, American  Search this

Roy Wilkins, American, 1901 - 1981  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1937  Search this

Tufts University, American, founded 1852  Search this

Democratic Party, American, founded 1828  Search this

National Insurance Association, American, founded 1921  Search this

National Urban League, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Council of Negro Women, founded 1935  Search this

Republican Party, American, founded 1854  Search this

American Bridge Association, American, founded 1932  Search this

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, American, founded 1920  Search this

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914  Search this

The Drifters, Inc., American, founded 1957  Search this

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., American, founded 1935  Search this

Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., founded 1922  Search this

Patti Austin, American, born 1950  Search this

National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc., American, founded 1924  Search this

National Dental Association, American, founded 1913  Search this

George Leslie Brown, American, 1926 - 2006  Search this

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, founded 1908  Search this

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1906  Search this

Otha N. Brown Jr., American, 1931 - 2009  Search this

Shriners International, American, founded 1870  Search this

Gladys W. Dixon, American, born 1901  Search this

Daughters of Isis, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Medical Association, American, founded 1895  Search this

National United Church Ushers Association of America, Inc., American, founded 1919  Search this

Shirley Anita Chisholm, American, 1924 - 2005  Search this

National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees, American, founded 1913  Search this

369th Veterans Association, American  Search this

Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, American, founded 1898  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper

Dimensions:

H x W x D: 11 × 8 7/16 × 3/8 in. (28 × 21.5 × 0.9 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place made:

Harlem, New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

Miami, Dade County, Florida, United States, North and Central America

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America

California, United States, North and Central America

Colorado, United States, North and Central America

Connecticut, United States, North and Central America

Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, North and Central America

Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, United States, North and Central America

Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America

Date:

1972

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Communities  Search this

Fraternal organizations  Search this

Fraternities  Search this

Funeral customs and rites  Search this

Government  Search this

HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)  Search this

Journalism  Search this

Labor  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Men  Search this

Political organizations  Search this

Politics  Search this

Professional organizations  Search this

Religious groups  Search this

Sororities  Search this

U.S. History, 1969-2001  Search this

Urban life  Search this

Women  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Anne B. Patrick and the family of Hilda E. Stokely

Object number:

2012.167.6

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd57be2842a-c611-469d-b78d-3ea1f77c7055

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2012.167.6

Published by:

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Edited by:

W.E.B. Du Bois, American, 1868 - 1963  Search this

Photograph by:

C. M. Battey, American, 1873 - 1927  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper

Dimensions:

9 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 1/8 in. (24.8 x 17.1 x 0.3 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place printed:

New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Date:

November 1915

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Civil Rights  Search this

Education  Search this

Literature  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Poetry  Search this

Politics  Search this

Race relations  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Social reform  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Bobbie Ross in memory of Elizabeth Dillard

Object number:

2012.84.15

Restrictions & Rights:

Public Domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd51b789f0a-1022-44c9-8129-d6a535e29962

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2012.84.15

Author:

Warshawsky, A. G (Abel G.) 1883-1962  Search this

Mowrer, Paul Scott 1887-  Search this

Subject:

Warshawsky, A. G (Abel G.) 1883-1962  Search this

Physical description:

116 p. : chiefly ill. (some col.) ; 31 cm

Type:

Books

In art

Place:

Paris (France)

Date:

1957

Call number:

N40.1.W294 M93 1957

Data Source:

Smithsonian Libraries

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_sil_475195

Creator:

McCoy, Esther  Search this

Names:

Historic American Buildings Survey  Search this

Society of Architectural Historians  Search this

University of California, Los Angeles. School of Architecture and Urban Planning  Search this

Ain, Gregory, 1908-1988  Search this

Barragán, Luis, 1902-  Search this

Bradbury, Ray, 1920-  Search this

Davidson, Julius Ralph, b. 1889  Search this

Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945  Search this

Ellwood, Craig  Search this

Gill, Irving, 1870-1936  Search this

Grotz, Dorothy  Search this

Hollein, Hans, 1934-  Search this

Jones, A. Quincy (Archie Quincy), 1913-1979  Search this

Maybeck, Bernard R.  Search this

Neutra, Richard Joseph, 1892-1970  Search this

O'Gorman, Juan, 1905-  Search this

Rand, Marvin  Search this

Schindler, R. M. (Rudolph M.), 1887-1953  Search this

Shulman, Julius  Search this

Soriano, Rafael, 1920-  Search this

Watanabe, Makoto  Search this

Worlidge, T. (Thomas), 1700-1766  Search this

Extent:

44.4 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Diaries

Etchings

Photographs

Sound recordings

Interviews

Video recordings

Slides (photographs)

Transcripts

Drawings

Memoirs

Date:

circa 1876-1990

bulk 1938-1989

Summary:

The papers of Southern California architectural historian, critic, and writer Esther McCoy measure 44.4 linear feet and date from 1876 to 1990 (bulk 1938-1989). The collection documents McCoy's career, as well as her family and personal life through biographical material, extensive correspondence, personal and professional writings, project files, Southern California architects' files, clippings and other printed material, a large collection of photographs and slides, and taped interviews of Southern California modern architects.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of Southern California architectural historian, critic, and writer Esther McCoy measure 44.4 linear feet and date from 1876 to 1990 (bulk 1938-1989). The collection documents McCoy's career, as well as her family and personal life through biographical material, extensive correspondence, personal and professional writings, project files, Southern California architects' files, clippings and other printed material, a large collection of photographs and slides, and taped interviews of Southern California modern architects.

Biographical and family material consists of awards, resumes, identification documents, and other documentation of McCoy's personal life. Included are a transcript of a 1984 interview of McCoy by Makoto Watanabe and material relating to her friend, Theodore Dreiser.

Correspondence focuses on her personal relationships with family, friends, and lovers, and general correspondence relating primarily to her work as a writer. McCoy's personal correspondence is valuable to researchers who are interested in her personal life, her struggles as a young writer, and the way in which her family, friends, lovers, mentors, and colleagues helped to shape her work and career. As documented in this correspondence, her life offers a glimpse into twentieth-century American social and political history, especially the radical leftist movements of the 1920s and 1930s. Researchers interested in the roots of feminism in the United States should also find these papers useful in documenting the life of a creative and productive woman who was successful in a field then almost entirely dominated by men. Correspondents of note include her husband Berkeley Tobey, lovers Geoffrey Eaton and Albert Robert, writers Ray Bradbury and Theodore Dreiser, and artists and architects, such as Dorothy Grotz, Craig Ellwood, A. Quincy Jones, Hans Hollein, and J. R. Davidson. General correspondence is primarily with researchers, professors, architects, publishers, and professional organizations.

Personal writings include McCoy's diaries, notebooks, and memoirs, and writings by others including friends, lovers, and colleagues. Also included are drafts of McCoy's fictional works, both published and unpublished, including short stories, teleplays, and novels.

The collection contains in-depth documentation of McCoy's pioneering study of the modernist work of twentieth-century architects in Southern California. The bulk of her papers consist of her writing files for books, exhibition catalogs, articles, and lectures on architecture. Because many of the architects about whom McCoy wrote were her contemporaries, she developed personal relationships with several of them through her research and writing. Her writing files include drafts, notes, research material, photographs, and correspondence. McCoy also traveled extensively, particularly in Italy and Mexico, and wrote about architecture, craft, and culture in those countries. Project files document McCoy's other activities related to architectural history, such preservation projects, juries, grants, the Dodge House Preservation Campaign and related film project, her work for the Society of Architectural Historians and the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), and her work at the UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Planning, compiling a slide library and cataloging the Richard Neutra's papers. McCoy also maintained architect files which may contain correspondence, notes, photographs, research material, interview transcripts, about architects and their works. Among these extensive records, the files documenting the careers of R. M. Schindler, Irving Gill, Richard Neutra, and Juan O'Gorman are particularly rich.

Printed material in this collection documents McCoy's career as well as her personal interests. Included are books, clippings, magazines, newsletters, press releases, as well as publications arranged by subject such as architecture, art, Italy, and Mexico. McCoy also collected literary and leftist publications. The small amount of artwork in this collection consists of artwork sent to her by friends, including a drawing of her by Esther Rollo and etchings by various artists including Thomas Worlidge.

There are personal photographs of family and friends and of McCoy at different times in her life, as well as photographs gathered during the course of her research on architecture. Found here are photographs of architects and their works, including a large number depicting the work of Gregory Ain, Luis Barragan, J. R. Davidson, Irving Gill, Bernard Maybeck, Juan O'Gorman, R. M. Schindler, and Raphael Soriano. Many of these photographs were taken by notable architectural photographers Julius Shulman and Marvin Rand. Also found are photographs of architecture designed for the Case Study House program of Arts & Architecture magazine; exhibition photographs, primarily for the exhibition "Ten Italian Architects" in 1967; and other research photographs primarily documenting architecture and craft in other countries and the history of architecture in California. This series also includes approximately 3,600 slides of architecture.

Audio and video recordings include a videocassette of McCoy's 80th birthday party and 55 taped interviews with architects, people associated with architectural projects, and artists.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into 10 series:

Series 1: Biographical and Family Material, 1881-1989 (boxes 1, 48; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1896-1989 (boxes 1-6, 4.9 linear feet)

Series 3: Personal Writings, 1919-1989 (boxes 6-14; 8.1 linear feet)

Series 4: Architectural Writings, 1908-1990 (boxes 14-24, 42, 49, 50; 10.2 linear feet)

Series 5: Projects, circa 1953-1988 (boxes 24-26, 47, FC 53-56; 2.5 linear feet)

Series 6: Architect Files, 1912-1990 (boxes 26-28, 42; 2.2 linear feet)

Series 7: Printed Material, circa 1885-1990 (boxes 28-31, 42; 2.9 linear feet)

Series 8: Artwork, 1924-1967, undated (box 31; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 9: Photographs and Slides, circa 1876-1989 (boxes 31-38, 41-46, 51; 8.7 linear feet)

Series 10: Audio and Video Recordings, 1930-1984 (boxes 38-40, 47; 2.5 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Esther McCoy (1904-1989) is remembered best for her pioneering work as an architectural historian, critic, and proponent of Southern California modern architecture of the early to mid-twentieth century. Although her professional interests ranged from writing fiction to studying the folk architecture and crafts of Mexico, McCoy achieved her most notable success for her numerous articles, books, and exhibitions about Southern California architecture and the architects associated with the modernist movement.

Born in Arkansas in 1904, Esther McCoy grew up in Kansas and attended various schools in the Midwest. In 1926 she left the University of Michigan to launch a writing career in New York, where she moved in avant-garde literary circles and conducted research for Theodore Dreiser. She began writing fiction in New York and continued to write after moving to Los Angeles in 1932, working on short stories, novels, and screenplays. She published numerous short stories between 1929 and 1962, with works appearing in the New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, and university quarterlies. Her short story, "The Cape," was reprinted in Best Short Stories of 1950. Many of the novels that she wrote from the mid-1960s through the 1980s were related thematically to architects and architecture.

During the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, McCoy participated in the politically radical movements of the period and wrote for leftist publications. Her interest in the lowcost housing projects of modern architects was prompted by one of her articles about slums for Epic News. During World War II she entered a training program for engineering draftsmen at Douglas Aircraft and in 1944 was hired as an architectural draftsman for the architect R.M. Schindler. As she became increasingly interested in modern architecture and design, she combined her two major career interests and began to focus her energies on architectural research, writing, and criticism. Her first article on architecture, "Schindler: Space Architect," was published in 1945 in the journal Direction.

McCoy began writing about architecture in earnest in 1950 as a free-lance contributor to the Los Angeles Times. From then until her death in 1989, she wrote prolifically for Arts & Architecture magazine, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Architectural Record, L'Architectura, Zodiac (Italy), Progressive Architecture, Lotus (Italy), and Architectural Forum. In addition to her numerous articles, McCoy wrote several books on Southern California modern architecture and architects. Her first major work, Five California Architects, published in 1960, is now recognized as a classic work in modern architectural history. It promoted a serious study of modern architecture in Southern California and introduced to the world several leading California architects and their work: Bernard Maybeck, Irving Gill, Charles and Henry Greene, and R.M. Schindler. That same year, she published another important book focusing on the work of the California architect Richard Neutra. Other books by McCoy include Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses (1962), Craig Ellwood (1968), Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (1979), and The Second Generation (1984).

In addition to these books, McCoy organized and wrote catalogs for several significant exhibitions focusing on contemporary architects. Her first was the R.M. Schindler Retrospective, a 1954 exhibition at the Landau Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Her other exhibitions and accompanying catalogs include Roots of California Contemporary Architecture, 1956, Los Angeles Municipal Art Department; Felix Candela, 1957, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Irving Gill, 1958, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Juan O'Gorman, 1964, San Fernando Valley State College; and Ten Italian Architects, 1967, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Moreover, McCoy contributed numerous essays to other exhibition catalogs and publications, lectured at the University of Southern California, participated in preservation projects, organized tours for the Society of Architectural Historians, and contributed to a number of documentary films. Her energy and interests also led her to catalog and transcribe Richard Neutra's papers at the University of California Los Angeles Archives.

McCoy received national recognition from the American Institute of Architects for her seminal and prolific work in the field of Southern California modern architectural history and criticism. Her interests, however, were not exclusively bound to California. She traveled the world and was interested in both Italian and Mexican architecture as well as the folk art and crafts of Mexico and South America. She made five extended trips to Italy during the 1950s and 1960s, publishing regularly about the architecture there and curating the exhibition Ten Italian Architects. She was a contributing editor to two Italian journals, Zodiac and Lotus, and was awarded the Star of Order of Solidarity in 1960 by the Republic of Italy for her research and writing.

Esther McCoy died of emphysema on December 30, 1989, at the age of eighty-five. Her last contribution was an essay for the exhibition catalog Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study House. The show opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles one month before her death.

1904 -- Born November 18 in Horatio, Arkansas. Raised in Kansas.

1920 -- Attended preparatory school at Central College for Women, Lexington, Missouri.

1922-1925 -- College education: Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; University of Michigan.

1924 -- Visited Theodore Dreiser in Michigan.

1926-1938 -- Began writing in New York City.

1926-1938 -- Researched and read for Theodore Dreiser.

1926-1938 -- Worked for editorial offices and publishers.

1926-1938 -- Traveled to write in Paris (1928), Key West, Florida (1930), and Los Angeles, California (1932-1935).

1938 -- Moved to Santa Monica, California.

1941 -- Married Berkeley Greene Tobey.

1942-1944 -- Employed as engineering draftsman at Douglas Aircraft.

1944-1947 -- Worked as architectural draftsman for R.M. Schindler.

1945 -- Began architectural writing career.

1950 -- Wrote script for film Architecture West.

1950 -- Joined editorial board of Arts & Architecture.

1950-1968 -- Worked as free-lance writer for the Los Angeles Times.

1951-1955 -- Traveled to, researched, and wrote about Mexico and Mexican art and architecture.

1954 -- R.M. Schindler Retrospective exhibition at the Landau Art Gallery, Los Angeles.

1956 -- Roots of California Contemporary Architecture exhibition, Los Angeles Municipal Art Department.

1957 -- Felix Candela exhibition, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

1958 -- Irving Gill exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Traveled to Italy.

1959-1968 -- Contributing editor to Italian periodicals Zodiac and Lotus.

1960 -- Five California Architects (New York: Reinhold).

1960 -- Richard Neutra (New York: G. Braziller).

1960 -- Awarded Star of Order of Solidarity by the Republic of Italy for reporting on arts and crafts in Italy.

1962 -- Death of Berkeley Greene Tobey.

1962 -- Modern California Houses: Case Study Houses (New York: Reinhold) (reprinted as Case Study Houses, Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1978).

1963 -- Resident Fellow at Huntington Hartford Foundation.

1964 -- Juan O'Gorman exhibition, San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, Calif.

1965 -- Consultant for the California Arts Commission.

1965-1966 -- Wrote and produced the film Dodge House.

1965-1968 -- Lecturer at University of California at Los Angeles, School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

1966 -- Resident Fellow at MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire.

1967 -- Ten Italian Architects exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

1967 -- Honorary Associate of the Southern California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

1967 -- Regents' Lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara.

1968 -- Craig Ellwood (New York: Walker).

1968 -- Distinguished Service Citation from the California Council of AIA.

1969-1970 -- Lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

1969-1989 -- Contributing editor of Progressive Architecture.

1971-1978 -- Graham Foundation Grants.

1974 -- Regents' Lecturer at the University of California,Santa Cruz.

1979 -- Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys (Santa Monica, Calif.: Arts & Architecture Press).

1979 -- Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

1981 -- Los Angeles Chapter Women's Architectural League Honorary Member.

1982 -- Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Modern and Contemporary Art Council Award for Distinguished Achievement.

1983 -- Home Sweet Home: The California Ranch House exhibition at California State University.

1984 -- The Second Generation (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books).

1985 -- American Institute of Architects, Institute Honor.

1986 -- High Styles exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

1987 -- Vesta Award for outstanding scholarship.

1989 -- Award from the Historical Society of Southern California.

1989 -- Award from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

1989 -- Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study House exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Died in Santa Monica, California, December 30.

Related Material:

Also in the Archives of American Art are eight sound cassettes of a transcribed interview with Esther McCoy conducted by Joseph Giovannini, June 8-November 14, 1987.

Provenance:

The collection was given to the Archives of American Art by Esther McCoy in 1986. Before her death in 1989, McCoy assisted in the organization and identification of the papers. Original pre-print film elements for Dodge House 1916 were donated to the Archives of American Art by the Academy Film Archive in 2018.

Restrictions:

Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual recordings without access copies requires advance notice.

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:

Architectural historians -- California  Search this

Art critics -- California  Search this

Topic:

Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- Mexico  Search this

Architects -- Italy  Search this

Architecture, Domestic -- California  Search this

Authors -- California  Search this

Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- California  Search this

Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- Europe  Search this

Architects -- California  Search this

Feminism and art  Search this

Genre/Form:

Diaries

Etchings

Photographs

Sound recordings

Interviews

Video recordings

Slides (photographs)

Transcripts

Drawings

Memoirs

Citation:

Esther McCoy papers, circa 1876-1990, bulk 1938-1989. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.mccoesth

See more items in:

Esther McCoy papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-mccoesth

Edited by:

W.E.B. Du Bois, American, 1868 - 1963  Search this

Subject of:

The Crisis, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

Ell Persons, American, died 1917  Search this

Frederick Douglass, American, 1818 - 1895  Search this

Illustrated by:

William McKnight Farrow, American, 1885 - 1967  Search this

Written by:

Mary Burnett Talbert, American, 1866 - 1923  Search this

Lucian B. Watkins, American, 1878 - 1920  Search this

Georgia Douglas Johnson, American, 1880 - 1966  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper with metal

Dimensions:

H x W: 10 × 6 3/4 in. (25.4 × 17.1 cm)

H x W (Open): 10 × 13 1/2 in. (25.4 × 34.3 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place printed:

New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

France, Europe

South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa

East Saint Louis, St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, North and Central America

Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, North and Central America

Idlewild, Lake County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America

Anacostia, Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America

Date:

August 1917

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

British colonialism  Search this

Business  Search this

Civil Rights  Search this

Colonialism  Search this

Education  Search this

Labor  Search this

Literature  Search this

Lynching  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Military  Search this

Poetry  Search this

Race relations  Search this

Race riots  Search this

Recreation  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Social reform  Search this

Travel  Search this

U.S. History, 1865-1921  Search this

World War I  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Object number:

2015.97.15.4

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Movement:

Anti-Lynching Movement

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd595dd871c-44a5-4991-90d6-78d666cf3e94

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2015.97.15.4

Edited by:

W.E.B. Du Bois, American, 1868 - 1963  Search this

Subject of:

The Crisis, American, founded 1910  Search this

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American, founded 1909  Search this

National American Woman Suffrage Association, American, 1890 - 1920  Search this

Henry Ossian Flipper, American, 1856 - 1940  Search this

Hampton University, American, founded 1868  Search this

Coralie Franklin Cook, American, born 1861  Search this

Written by:

James Weldon Johnson, American, 1871 - 1938  Search this

Anna Howard Shaw, American, 1847 - 1919  Search this

Carrie Chapman Catt, American, 1859 - 1947  Search this

Mary Garrett Hay, American, 1857 - 1928  Search this

Illustrated by:

Laura Wheeler Waring, American, 1887 - 1948  Search this

Frank Walts, American  Search this

Medium:

ink on paper with metal

Dimensions:

H x W: 9 7/8 × 6 7/8 in. (25.1 × 17.5 cm)

H x W (Open): 9 7/8 × 13 5/8 in. (25.1 × 34.6 cm)

Type:

magazines (periodicals)

Place printed:

New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America

Place depicted:

Houston, Harris County, Texas, United States, North and Central America

Hampton, Virginia, United States, North and Central America

Ethiopia, East Africa, Africa

Date:

November 1917

Topic:

African American  Search this

Advertising  Search this

Associations and institutions  Search this

Business  Search this

Civil Rights  Search this

Education  Search this

Literature  Search this

Mass media  Search this

Military  Search this

Poetry  Search this

Race relations  Search this

Race riots  Search this

Social life and customs  Search this

Social reform  Search this

Suffrage  Search this

U.S. History, 1865-1921  Search this

Women  Search this

World War I  Search this

Credit Line:

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Object number:

2015.97.15.5

Restrictions & Rights:

Public domain

See more items in:

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Classification:

Documents and Published Materials-Published Works

Data Source:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd5b5b84115-5a09-4173-b63d-d5e2e5fb6df4

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:nmaahc_2015.97.15.5

Collection Collector:

Robinson, Franklin A., Jr., 1959- (actor)  Search this

Container:

Box 39, Folder 11

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1950

Collection Restrictions:

Unrestricted research use on site to portions of collection, but some papers of living persons are restricted. Access to restricted portions may be arranged by request to donor. Gloves required for unprotected photographs. Viewing film portions of the collection and listening to LP recording requires special appointment.

Collection Rights:

The Archives Center does not own exclusive rights to these materials. Copyright for all materials is retained by the donor, Franklin A. Robinson, Jr.; permission for commercial use and/or publication may be requested from the donor through the Archives Center. Military Records for Franklin A. Robinson (b. 1932) and correspondence from Richard I. Damalouji (1961-2014) are restricted; written permission is needed to research these files. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Collection Citation:

The Robinson and Via Family Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Sponsor:

Preservation of the 8mm films in this collection was made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Film Preservation Fund.

See more items in:

Robinson and Via Family Papers

Robinson and Via Family Papers / Series 2: Robinson Family / 2.6: Robinson, Franklin A.

Archival Repository:

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-nmah-ac-0475-ref167

Creator:

Perry, Lilla Cabot, 1848-1933  Search this

Subject:

Davis, Charles H. (Charles Harold)  Search this

James, Henry  Search this

Lowell, James Russell  Search this

Monet, Claude  Search this

Robinson, Edwin Arlington  Search this

Tarbell, Edmund Charles  Search this

Berenson, Bernard  Search this

Perry, Thomas Sergeant  Search this

Perry, Margaret  Search this

Topic:

Women painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston  Search this

Women painters -- New Hampshire -- Hancock  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- United States  Search this

Impressionism (Art)  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)10933

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)214710

AAA_collcode_perrlill

Theme:

Diaries

Women

Lives of American Artists

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_214710