Papers documenting inventor Earl S. Tupper, his inventions, Tupperware and the Tupper Company.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the life of inventor Earl S. Tupper through correspondence, notes, photographs, drawings and sound recordings.
Arrangement:
The collection is organized into five series.
Series 1: Personal Papers, 1910-1989
Series 2: Early Business Papers and Scientific Notes, 1930-1965
Series 3: Tupper Corporation/Tupperware Business, 1908-1983
Series 4: Neil Osterweill Oral Histories and Research Notes, 1926-1989
Subseries 4.1: Research Files, 1926-1989
Subseries 4.2: Original Masters, 1987-1989
Subseries 4.3:Research Copies, 1987-1989
Subseries 4.4:Research Copies, 1987-1989
Subseries 4.5: Preservation Copies, undated
Series 5: Center for Advertising History, Oral History Interviews, 1992
Subseries 5.1: Original Masters, 1992
Subseries 5.2: Research Copies, 1992
Subseries 5.3: Research Copies, 1992
Subseries 5.4: Preservation Copies, 1992
Subseries 5.5: Abstracts and Transcripts, 1992, 2003
Biographical / Historical:
Earl Silas Tupper was born in 1907, to a New Hampshire farming family of modest means. During his youth and boyhood in New England, his mother Lulu Clark Tupper, took in laundry and ran a boarding house, while his father, Earnest Leslie operated a small family farm. Earnest Tupper loved to tinker, developing labor-saving devices for the farm and family greenhouses; one of his devices, a frame to facilitate the cleaning of chickens, was granted a patent. It is from his father that Earl Tupper is said to have developed a love for invention. Even as a boy, Tupper showed an enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit. At the age of 10, Earl discovered he could move more of the family's produce by selling door-to-door, bringing the product directly to the customer.
After high school graduation in 1925, Tupper continued to work in the family greenhouses in Shirley Massachusetts for two years. Tupper was an ambitious young man, though, and he was determined to earn his first million by the time he was thirty. During the twenties, he set out on a number of different paths, including work as a mail clerk and on a railroad labor crew. In 1928, he took a course in tree surgery, with the idea of setting up his own tree surgery and landscaping business. He continued to help out with the family business, and got married in 1931. Through the early thirties, the landscaping and nursery business continued to grow and thrive, despite the Depression, enabling Tupper to pursue some of his ideas and inventions. His scientific notebooks for this period reflect the diversity of his interests. Even after Tupper Tree Doctors was forced into bankruptcy in 1936, Tupper remained optimistic about his ability to develop and manufacture some of his inventions.
In 1936, Tupper met Bernard Doyle, the inventor of Viscoloid, the plastics manufacturing division of DuPont, located in nearby Leominster, Mass. He went to work for DuPont in 1937, but stayed there only one year. Later, Tupper would say it was at Dupont "that my education really began." Tupper took the experience he had gained in plastics design and manufacturing at DuPont, and struck out on his own. In 1938, he formed the Earl S. Tupper Company, advertising the design and engineering of industrial plastics products in Leominster, Massachusetts. Much of the fledgling company's early work was performed under subcontract to DuPont. Business was good during the war, because despite the difficulty of acquiring the raw materials necessary for plastics production for the domestic market, Tupper Plastics was able to garner several defense contracts, molding parts for gas masks and Navy signal lamps.
After the war, Tupper turned his attention to developing plastics for the growing consumer market. Many of his earliest designs, which included plastic sandwich picks, cigarette cases, and an unbreakable tumbler for the bathroom, were offered as premiums with other products. For example, Tek toothbrushes offered the tumbler with purchase of a toothbrush, and cigarette companies and other businesses offered cigarette cases imprinted with their logo.
Plastics was still in its infancy in the forties, and the commercial market for plastics product was limited by plastic's reputation for being brittle, greasy, smelly and generally unreliable. Tupper's contributions were twofold. First, he developed a method for purifying black polyethylene slag, a waste product produced in oil refinement, into a substance that was flexible, tough, non-porous, non-greasy and translucent. Second, he developed the Tupper seal, an airtight, watertight lid modeled on the lid for paint containers. Together, these innovations laid the foundations for the future success of Tupperware. Nevertheless, marketing the new product presented a challenge. Tupper experimented with department store sales, but as Businessweek reported in 1954, "in retail stores it fell flat on its face." It seemed clear that the new lid required explanation or demonstration.
In the late 1940s, Thomas Damigella (in Massachusetts) and Brownie Wise (in Florida) were selling household products through Stanley Home Products. Purchasing through local plastics distributors, both began offering Tupperware as part of their product line, and were moving enough Tupperware to attract Earl Tupper's attention. In 1948, Tupper met with Damigella, Wise, and several other local distributors at a Sheraton in Worcester Massachusetts to discuss a new distribution plan. Modeled on the home party plan pioneered by Stanley Home Products and expanded and refined by Brownie Wise, the home party plan became and remains the exclusive outlet for Tupperware. Wise was named Vice President of the company (named Tupperware Home Parties) in 1951, a position she held until 1958, when Tupper sold the company to Rexall for $16 million.
Tupperware's success stems from the combined genius of Earl Tupper, the self-styled Yankee inventor and entrepreneur and Brownie Wise, the consummate saleswoman and motivator. If Tupper personified reverence for the product, Wise personified respect for the sales force. "If we build the people," she was fond of saying, "they'll build the business." Almost half a century later, their legacy remains an important part of Tupperware's continuing success.
Earl S. Tupper died on October 5, 1983.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Leo Baekeland Papers (AC0005)
DuPont Nylon Collection (AC0007)
J. Harry DuBois Collection on the History of Plastics (AC0008)
Celluloid Corporation Records (AC0009)
Albany Billiard Ball Company Records (AC#0011)
Brownie Wise Papers (AC0509)
Ann and Thomas Damigella Collection (AC0583)
Materials at the National Museum of American History
Tupperware related artifacts are located in the Division of Home and Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life), the Division of Medicine and Science and the Division of Work and Industry. See accessions: 1983.0711; 1984.1098; 1985.3014; 1985.3015; 1987.0180; 1990.3055; 1992.0209; 1992.0605; 1993.0257; 1994.0118; 1994.0124; 1995.0109; 1998.0070; 1998.0220; 2012.0133; and 2014.3077.
Provenance:
The materials were donated to the Archives Center in 1992 by Glenn O. Tupper, Earl Tupper's son.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but master (preservation) tapes are stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
[Versailles]: staircase outside the Queen's House/Billiards House at the Hameau de la Reine, Marie Antoinette's rustic, faux country village in the Versailles park.
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
MS 1122 Report on the forestry, elevation, rainfall, and drainage of the Colorado Valley, together with an apercu of its principal inhabitants, the Mahhaos Indians
United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Essex County -- Beverly
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes worksheets.
Reproduction Note:
There are two duplicate 35 mm. slides (MA075030) copied from an original postcard, which is not in the collection. Six 35 mm. slides are copies of original glass lantern slides. One 35 mm. slide (MA075049) is copy of original painting belonging to Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
General:
Eagle Rock, a 104-room brick "cottage" in the neoclassical style, was set in a romantic, 25-acre landscape. Built in 1904, this house became Henry Clay Frick's summer house. In 1969, tired of maintaining a house Helen Frick considered pretentious, she "carefully demolished" Eagle Rock, sending the billiard room paneling, the car and carriage collection and sections of wrought iron fence to the Frick Art Museum she was building near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Related Materials:
Eagle Rock related holdings consist of 1 folder (39 35 mm. slides and 13 glass autochromes)
Plans and drawing exist in the Olmsted Association. Drawings and photographs are located at the Helen C. Frick Foundation in Pittsburgh, PA. Drawings by Arthur Little are located in the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.
Records related to this site can be found at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Olmsted Job Number 01071, W. C. Loring.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Gardens -- Massachusetts -- Beverly -- Pride's Crossing Search this
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
Papers documenting the life and career of the 15-time world champion billiard player. Includes photographs, business papers, letters, videos of Mosconi in action, printed material, and signed affidavits attesting to his record-setting plays.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is divided into four series: Series I: Personal and Biographical Papers, including identification and business cards, notes, photographs, letters, and two scrapbooks.
Series 2: Papers Relating to Mosconi's Career, including business papers relating to his affiliation with Brunswick, legal records, papers relating to Mosconi's book, contracts and papers relating to television appearances, and affidavits attesting to records Mosconi set.
Series 3: Printed Materials, including magazines in which Mosconi contributed articles, posters advertising upcoming appearances, tournament programs, and miscellany.
Series 4: Videos, include testimonial dinners and appearances Mosconi made on the Ed Sullivan show.
Biographical / Historical:
Born in Philadelphia in 1913, Willie Mosconi learned his game at the pool hall owned by his father, Joseph Mosconi, a former prizefighter. Initially, Willie's father opposed his son's even coming into the pool hall above which the family lived. The father's preference was that Willie become a dancer and go into Vaudeville. However, after only a little practice accomplished behind his father's back, Willie was soon demonstrating amazing skill at the pool table. Joseph realized that the boy's talent could earn the growing family some money. Soon, Mosconi was considered a child prodigy, with advertisements posted challenging experienced players to try to beat him at billiards. Even as a child who had to stand on a box to reach the pool table, Mosconi beat experienced players. A match was arranged in 1919 between Willie and Ralph Greenleaf, then the World Champion. Though Greenleaf won the match, the hall was packed, and Willie played well enough to draw considerable attention, and launch his career in professional billiards.
After taking a few years hiatus from billiards in the 1930s, Mosconi returned to pool playing in an effort to earn some money. He entered one local tournament after another, and according to his autobiography, Willie's Game, "to be truthful, I don't remember losing any of them." He began making a living at billiards, and he claimed that he never hustled anyone: "I played everyone straight." In 1933, Mosconi participated in the world championship tournament of the Billiard Congress of America, having taken second place in the divisionals. He placed fifth in the world championship tournament, but his career and reputation were taking off. His performance in the tournament brought him to the attention of the president of Brunswick Corporation, and Mosconi joined the staff traveling around the country promoting Brunswick's products. He continued to compete in tournaments and after several near misses, in 1941 won the world championship, a feat that he would repeat fourteen more times. Shortly before that tournament, Mosconi had married his first wife, Ann Harrison, and shortly after it, the first of his three children was born, William Jr., followed soon after by a daughter, Candace. That marriage ended in divorce. After working in the defense industry for a few years, Willie enlisted in the Army in 1944, and after the end of World War II, resumed his affiliation with Brunswick and his successful tournament career. Mosconi remarried in 1953 to Flora Marchini. Their daughter Gloria was born in 1954.
Mosconi continued his tournament work, and during the 1950s won several championships and set several records, including high run (most consecutive balls pocketed without a miss) of 526 in 1954. Mosconi slowed down his tournament appearances after recovering from a stroke in 1956. Additionally, he wrote a book on billiards in 1957, Willie Mosconi on Pocket Billiards. He was involved in the making of the 1961 movie The Hustler. It was he who suggested the casting of Jackie Gleason as Minnesota Fats, and he served as an instructor to Paul Newman, who had never played pool. The movie helped to resurrect the faded popularity of the game of billiards. He retired permanently from tournament play in 1966 and during his retirement, he consulted on and appeared in several movies dealing with billiards, made game show appearances, and wrote articles on billiards. Willie Mosconi died in 1993.
Separated Materials:
Related artifacts in the Division of Culture and the Arts (now Division of Cultural and Community Life), include cue stick, an ivory cue ball, and trophies.
Provenance:
The archival collection was donated to the Archives Center by Willie Mosconi's widow, Flora Mosconi, on August 23, 2000.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.
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.
Researchers must handle unprotected photographs with gloves. Researchers must use reference copies of audio-visual materials. When no reference copy exists, the Archives Center staff will produce reference copies on an "as needed" basis, as resources allow.
Do not use original materials when available on reference video or audio tapes.
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:
Archives Center Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
United States of America -- Florida -- Miami-Dade County -- Miami
General:
The Vizcaya gardens span over ten acres surrounding the former winter home of the wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts, James Deering (1859-1925). The Vizcaya estate, located in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, was conceived of by Deering and artist and designer Paul Chalfin (1874-1959). Together they traveled extensively through Europe, particularly Italy, to inspire the design for Deering's South Florida retreat. Vizcaya which means "an elevated place" in Basque, was built in the years 1914 to 1916, and transformed a jungle tract of land into one of the most celebrated houses on the Eastern Seaboard. Diego Suarez (1888-1974), a Columbia-born landscape architect trained in Florence, Italy, was commissioned to create a modern, subtropical interpretation of classical, European Renaissance and Baroque landscape design suited to Miami's climate and terrain. Suarez' extensive knowledge of Italian gardens was combined with a consciousness of architectural design to create a setting for the house.
The garden scheme was divided into various terraces and areas, including a completely walled secret garden, a maze garden, theater garden, pergola garden, and the fountain garden, which features a fountain from the town square of Sutri, Italy. Plants were chosen for their ability to withstand south Florida's climate and pests and combined with native soil and plant materials in designs inspired by gardens seen by Deering and Chalfin on their tours of Italy and France. Varieties of bougainvillea, roses, water lilies, and jasmine were among the flowers found throughout the gardens, along with potted pines and podocarpus, some carefully trimmed in the art of topiary. The gardens were trimmed with hedges and trees and feature decorative walls, balustrades, urns, and sculpture. The areas were supplied with water through designed elements meant to compliment the garden such as pools, cascades, a frescoed grotto pool, fountains, and a system of canals, which invokes scenes on the waterways of Venice.
Unique among country estates, the gardens of Vizcaya integrated statues, busts, vases and urns that ranged from antiquity to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, as well as modern art from Deering's time into the lush vegetation. As the artistic advisor of the property, Paul Chalfin, acquired artifacts as decoration rather than to create a collection. Garden artworks ranged from antique elements to new sculptural decorations by contemporary artists. The gardens also featured several structures including a Baroque casino (garden house), decorative bridges, a large boathouse with a rooftop garden, and a domed garden house called the Casba. The most celebrated outdoor feature was the Barge by artist Alexander Stirling Calder (1870–1945), located in the water in front of the house. In addition to the house and gardens, the grounds also housed a swimming pool and tennis courts. Over two-thirds of the estate, originally 180 acres of subtropical forest along the shores of Biscayne Bay, remains in its natural state. The untouched hammock, shoreline, and pineland serves as a background for the more formal main gardens and along the drive up to the house. The Vizcaya property was surrounded by a wall with decorative paintings on stone and wrought-iron grills.
The house was designed to take advantage of its location on west shore of Biscayne Bay and each side of the house had a unique relationship with the surrounding grounds with loggias, terraces, arcades, and a partially enclosed swimming pool and, from some rooms, views of the gardens and bay. Architect F. Burrell Hoffman Jr. (1884-1980) was commissioned to design the house in the manner of an Italian Renaissance-style villa. Hoffman adapted traditional Mediterranean architectural elements to the subtropical climate in the palatial 70-room mansion. The beautifully planned interior was designed around an airy garden courtyard with a peripheral gallery, originally open to the sky, that was the heart and primary living space of the home. The house embraced modern conveniences and employed the latest technology of the period with an automated telephone switch board, a central vacuum-cleaning system, central heating, several elevators, generators and a water filtration system. The house also included a billiard room, bowling alley, and smoking room. The interiors were designed by the artistic advisor Paul Chalfin around objects acquired on Deering's travels in period rooms ranging in style from the Renaissance through the Neoclassical. The villa housed entire ceilings, mural paintings, chimney pieces, carved paneling, and doorways removed from foreign palaces along with rare rugs, tapestries, and antique furnishings. A working farm called the "Village" with eleven outbuildings was also located on the estate. These buildings were designed to look like an Italian village by Hoffman to compliment the architecture of the house. The Village included barns, stables, chicken houses, mechanical shops, housing for the staff, and the gate lodge making it nearly self-sufficient. A pumphouse provided water for the flower and vegetable gardens, groves for citrus, pineapple, and other fruits, greenhouses, and a large shade house for delicate plants grown at the Village to supply the mansion.
The estate, mansion, and its interiors were celebrated in magazines of the time. Deering occupied the house for four months each winter season beginning at Christmas in 1916.The whole complex was created for entertaining and recreation and Deering frequently invited family, visitors, and houseguests to the enjoy his estate. After Deering's death in 1925, the estate passed to his brother's children. Some of the acreage was sold off, and in 1952 Dade County purchased the remaining land and house. With donations of art and furniture from the family, the Vizcaya estate, became a decorative arts museum operated by Dade County Park and Recreation Department. The property, including the house, gardens, hammock forest, and Vizcaya Village, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
Other notable artists who contributed to the house and grounds were: Alexander Stirling Calder (1870-1945), Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935), Robert Chanler (1872-1930), Charles Gary Rumsey (1879-1922), Ettore Pellagatta (1881-1966), Paul Thevenez (1891-1921), and Samuel Yellin (1885-1940).
Persons associated include: James Deering (former owner), F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. (architect), Paul Chalfin (architect of interiors), Diego Suarez (landscape architect), and Alexander Stirling Calder (sculptor), and Metro Dade County Park & Recreation Department (owner).
National Register of Historic Places, Vizcaya, Miami, Dade County, Florida, National Register #70000181.
Postcards circa 1915-1930.
Varying Form:
Also known as Villa Vizcaya, Vizcaya Palace, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and the James Deering Estate.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand historical postcard collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid in this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
United States of America -- Massachusetts -- Essex County -- Beverly
Eagle Rock (Pride's Crossing, Massachusetts)
General:
001: Residence of H. C. Frick. Prides Crossing, near Beverly, Mass. A type of the beautiful residences along the North Shore. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
002: "Eagle Rock" Prides Crossing, Mass. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
003: H.C. Frick's Residence, Prides, Beverly, Mass. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
004: H.C. Frick's Residence, Prides. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
005: H.C. Frick Residence, Prides, Beverly, Mass. Postcard circa 1915-1930.
006: Residence of H. C. Frick. Prides Crossing, near Beverly, Mass. A type of the beautiful residences along the North Shore. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
007: H. C. Frick's Gardens, Prides. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
008: H. C. Frick's Stable, Prides. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
009: Residence of H. C. Frick. Prides Crossing, near Beverly, Mass. A type of the beautiful residences along the North Shore. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
Eagle Rock, a 104-room brick "cottage" in the neoclassical style, was set in a romantic, 25-acre landscape. Built in 1904, this house became Henry Clay Frick's summer house. In 1969, tired of maintaining a house Helen Frick considered pretentious, she "carefully demolished" Eagle Rock, sending the billiard room paneling, the car and carriage collection and sections of wrought iron fence to the Frick Art Museum she was building near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand historical postcard collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid in this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers measure approximately 36.1 linear feet and date from 1851 to 1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1888 to 1942. The collection documents the life and work of the art patron and sculptor, especially her promotion of American art and artists, her philanthropy and war relief work, her commissions for memorial sculpture, and her creative writing. Papers include correspondence, journals, writings, project files, scrapbooks, photographs, artwork, printed material, two sound recordings, and miscellaneous personal papers.
Scope and Content Note:
The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers measure approximately 36.1 linear feet and date from 1851 to 1975, with the bulk of the material dating from 1888 to 1942. The collection documents the life and work of the art patron and sculptor, especially her promotion of American art and artists, her philanthropy and war relief work, her commissions for memorial sculpture, and her creative writing. Papers include correspondence, journals, writings, project files, scrapbooks, photographs, artwork, printed material, two sound recordings, and miscellaneous personal papers.
Material relating to more personal aspects of Whitney's life include school papers, a paper doll book dating from her childhood, financial material, interviews, awards and honorary degrees, address and telephone books, committee files, and other items. Correspondence consists of incoming and outgoing letters concerning both personal and professional matters, including her patronage of the arts and sponsorship of artists, her sculpture commissions and exhibitions, and her war relief work and other philantrophic activities. Also found are family correspondence and correspondence received by the Flora Whitney Miller and the Whitney Museum of American Art after Whitney's death. Journals include personal ones that she kept periodically from the time she was a child to near the end of her life, in which she recorded her travels, her impressions of people, her experiences with friends, and her thoughts on art, among other topics; and social ones, in which she recorded dinners and dances attended, and people invited to different social gatherings, and in which she collected invitations received and accepted.
Scattered files can be found that relate to the Whitney Studio Club and the Whitney Museum of American Art, consisting of notebooks, catalogs, a financial report, and other material. Files relating to Whitney's own sculpture projects are more extensive and consist of correspondence, contracts, printed material, notes, financial material for proposed and completed commissions for fountains, memorials, and monuments. The Whitney Museum of American Art, rather than Whitney herself, seems to have kept these files. Files relating to Whitney's philanthropic activities span from the time just before to just after the First World War and consist of correspondence, minutes, reports, and printed material stemming from her contributions to charities and war relief organizations, her sponsorship of the war hospital in Juilly, France, and her support of the Greenwich House Social Settlement.
Whitney's writings include extensive drafts, and handwritten and typed manuscripts and copies of novels, plays, and stories, as well as some autobiographical and early writings, notes and writings on art, and clippings of published writings, documenting her principle means of creative expression towards the end of her life. Also found are some writings by others. Scrapbooks consist of clippings, photographs, letters and other material, compiled by Whitney, Flora Whitney Miller, and possibly others, documenting Whitney's public life, her sculpture commissions and exhibitions, exhibitions at the Whitney Studio, the war hospital in Juilly, France, the death of Harry Payne Whitney in 1930, and the sickness and death of Whitney in 1942.
Photographs include ones of the Whitney and Vanderbilt families, ones of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (including portraits taken by Baron Adolf de Meyer and Count Jean de Strelecki), ones of various Vanderbilt and Whitney residences and of Whitney's studios, ones of Whitney's sculpture exhibitions as well as exhibitions at her studio, and ones of her sculptures, as well as some miscellaneous and unidentified ones. Artwork consists of sketchbooks and sketches by Whitney (including sketches for sculptures) and artwork by others (including a sketchbook of Howard Cushing's containing a sketch of her and albums of World War I lithographs) collected by Whitney. Also found amongst the collection are printed material (clippings, exhibition catalogs, programs, and publications) and blueprints (including drawings for Whitney's studio on MacDougal Alley and various of her sculptures).
Arrangement:
The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers are arranged into twelve series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Miscellaneous Personal Papers, 1888-1947, 1975 (Boxes 1-3, 33-34, OV 42; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1889-1949, 1959 (Boxes 3-9; 6 linear feet)
Series 3: Journals, circa 1886-1939 (Boxes 9-12, 33; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Whitney Studio Club and Whitney Museum of American Art Files, 1921-1943 (Box 12; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Sculpture Files, 1900-1960 (bulk 1909-1942) (Boxes 12-15; 3 linear feet)
Series 6: Philanthropy Files, 1902-1923 (bulk 1915-1920) (Boxes 15-17; 2 linear feet)
Series 7: Writings, 1889-1942, 1974 (Boxes 17-26; 10 linear feet)
Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1893-1942 (Boxes 26-27, 33, 35; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1859-1942 (Boxes 27-28, 36; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 10: Photographs, 1862-1942 (Boxes 28-32, 36-41, OV 43-51; 6.4 linear feet)
Series 11: Artwork, 1871-1930s (Boxes 32, 41, OV 52-54; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 12: Blueprints, 1913-1945 (OV 55; 0.1 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
New York art patron and sculptor, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942), was the eldest daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Whitney was born January 9, 1875 in New York City, the. She was educated by private tutors and attended Brearley School in New York. From the time she was a young girl, she kept journals of her travels and impressions of the people she met, and engaged in creative pursuits such as sketching and writing stories. In 1896, she was married to Harry Payne Whitney. They had three children, Flora, Cornelius, and Barbara.
In 1900, Whitney began to study sculpture under Hendrik Christian Anderson, and then under James Fraser. Later, she studied with Andrew O'Connor in Paris. From the time she started studying sculpture, her interest in art grew, as did her particular concern for American art and artists. In 1907, she organized an art exhibition at the Colony Club, which included several contemporary American paintings. She also opened a studio on MacDougal Alley, which became known as the Whitney Studio and was a place where shows and prize competitions were held. (She also had other studios in Westbury, Long Island and Paris, France.) Over the years, her patronage of art included buying work, commissioning it, sponsoring it, exhibiting it, and financially supporting artists in America and abroad. From 1911 on, she was aided in her work by Juliana Force, who started out as Whitney's secretary, was responsible for art exhibitions at the Whitney Studio, and became the first director of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The first recognition Whitney received for her sculpture came in 1908 when a project on which she had collaborated (with Grosvenor Atterbury and Hugo Ballin) won a prize for best design from the Architectural League of New York. The following year she received a commission to do a fountain sculpture for the Pan-American Building in Washington, D. C. She went on to do numerous other commissioned works over the next several decades, including: a fountain for the New Arlington Hotel in Washington D.C. (the design of which was reproduced in various sizes and materials, one cast being submitted to the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition where it won a bronze medal and a later cast being installed on the campus of McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 1930); the Titanic Memorial (designed in 1913 and erected in 1930); the Buffalo Bill Memorial (1924) in Cody, Wyoming; the Columbus Memorial (1929) in Port of Palos, Spain; the Peter Stuyvesant statue in Stuyvesant Square (1939); and The Spirit of Flight (1939) for the New York World's Fair. In 1916, she had her first one-man show at the Whitney Studio, another at the Newport Art Association, and a retrospective at the San Francisco Art Association Palace of Fine Arts. A traveling exhibition in the Midwest followed in 1918.
During the First World War, Whitney was involved with numerous war relief activities, most notably establishing and supporting a hospital in Juilly, France. She made several trips to France during the war, keeping a journal and eventually publishing a piece on the hospital in several newspapers. Her sculpture during this period was largely focused on war themes. In 1919, she exhibited some of these works at the Whitney Studio in a show called "Impressions of War." In the years after the war, she was also commissioned to do several war memorials, including the Washington Heights War Memorial (1922) and the St. Nazaire Memorial (1926) commemmorating the landing of the American Expeditionary Force in France in 1917.
In 1918, Whitney opened the Whitney Studio Club, which served as pioneering organization for American art, putting on exhibition programs and offering social space and recreational amenities to its members (one point numbering over four hundred artists living in New York). She planned an "Overseas Exhibition" of American art, which traveled to Paris and other European cities in 1920-1921, and had her own shows in Paris and London in 1921. In 1928, the Whitney Studio Club was transformed into an art gallery, known as the Whitney Studio Galleries and directed by Juliana Force, which eventually became the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1931.
Whitney pursued creative writing throughout her life, but beginning in the 1930s writing became her principle means of creative expression. Over the years, she produced numerous manuscripts for stories, novels, and play. One novel, Walking the Dusk, was published in 1932 under the pseudonym L. J. Webb. Beginning in 1940, Whitney took a "Professional Writing" course at Columbia University with Helen Hull, which resulted in the production of numerous short stories. In 1941, she collaborated with Ronald Bodley to adapt one of her stories as a play and attempted to get it produced, although unsuccessfully.
In 1934, Whitney was involved in a custody battle for her niece, Gloria Vanderbilt (daughter of her late brother, Reginald Vanderbilt and his wife, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt). In an agreement reached by the court, custody was awarded to Whitney and visitation rights to Gloria's mother. Litigation continued in the ensuing years.
In 1935, Whitney established the World's Fair Five Organization, with Juliana Force and four architects, to work on preparing a plan for the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair at Flushing Meadow, although the fair's own Board of Design ended up coming up with its own plan.
Whitney continued her work in sculpture, writing, art patronage, and philanthropy throughout the remaining years of her life. She died on April 18, 1942.
Related Archival Materials note:
Related material found in the Archives includes Research Material on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney compiled by Flora Miller Irving and the Whitney Museum of American Art artists' files and records, available on microfilm only (originals are located in the Whitney Museum of American Art). Also found in the Archives of American Art's Miscellaneous Exhibition Catalog Collection are a bundle of Whitney Studio Club and Mrs. H. P. Whitney's Studio catalogs and announcements.
Provenance:
The Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers were donated in 1981 and 1991 by Whitney's granddaughter, Flora Miller Irving.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Philanthropists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art patrons -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
