Images of various artifacts and specimens in the United States National Museum's collections, including George Washington's uniform and camp chest; the Franklin Press; Samuel P. Langley, third Secretary of the Smithsonian, supervising the installation of the Easter Island stone figures; zoological, ornithological, entomological, and botanical specimens; exhibits relating to animals and Native Americans; the Daguerre Monument sculpted by J. Scott Hartley; and a model of the National Zoological Park modeled under Langley.
Biographical/Historical note:
The United States National Museum building (later renamed Arts and Industries) opened to the public in 1881. It held displays of anthropology, art, geology, history, and natural history, while a few of the exhibits (birds, invertebrates and art) remained in the original Smithsonian "Castle." In 1911, the Smithsonian opened a new building (now the National Museum of Natural History Building), which held anthropology, art and natural history collections.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 99-41
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Items depicted in this collection held in the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of American History collections.
Additional photographs of US National Museum collections held in the Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Anthropological Archives (Photo Lot 4).
Restrictions:
Nitrate negatives are in cold storage and require advanced notice for viewing.
Letters to Gill from artists mostly concerning a fire in Gill's gallery; the receipt of checks; the sale of art works; and the return of unsold pieces.
REEL D8: Letters from George Loring Brown and Alfred Bricher.
REEL D9: Letter from W. S. (William Starbuck) Macy, regarding an incorrect title attributed to a painting on display.
REEL D10: Letters from George Elmer Browne, E. Ritchie Harrison, Edward C. Leavitt, Aaron Draper Shattuck, and George Henry Story.
REEL 2813: Letters from John Bunyan Bristol, Harry Chase, M. F. H. de Haas, H. A. Ferguson, Frederick W. Freer, Edward Gay, Charles X. Harris, William Hart, Jonathan Scott Hartley, Edward L. Henry, W. Ferdinand Macy, George Herbert McCord, Frank Knox Morton Rehn, William Trost Richards, Walter Satterlee, George H. Smillie, William Lewis Sonntag and F. Schuchardt.
Biographical / Historical:
Art dealer; Springfield, Massachusetts.
Provenance:
Letters on Reel 2813 purchased by Archives in 1967. Letters on Reel D8-D10 donated by Charles Feinberg, an active donor and friend of AAA.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
4 Microfilm reels (5 linear feet on 4 microfilm reels)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Microfilm reels
Date:
1887-1925
Scope and Contents:
The microfilmed Paul Wayland Bartlett papers contain correspondence with family, artists, and others (1887-1925); legal and financial documents (1887-1925); printed materials (1888-1925); sketches, drawings, and blueprints (undated, 1916-1920); and certificates (1915-1918).
Correspondence consists of a chronological series (1887-1925) containing letters and postcards from John White Alexander, Samuel P. Avery, William A. Clark, Frank Edwin Elwell, John Flanagan, Daniel Chester French, Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company, Gorham Company, J. Scott Hartley, John LaFarge, Charles Loring, Frederick MacMonnies, Charles Sprague Pearce, Auguste Rodin, Frederic Wellington Ruckstull, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and scattered letters from other nineteenth century artists regarding the execution of works, commissions, exhibitions and expositions in Paris and the United States, among them the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904) and the Exposition Universale (1899-1900), and Bartlett's illness and death in 1925.
The remainder of the correspondence, arranged by subject, includes letters from Bartlett's father, Truman Howe Bartlett (1899-1913), many written from Boston where he taught in the architecture department of MIT, or from New Hampshire where he kept a studio, and letters to Paul regarding his father's entry in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography (1925); correspondence with the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers (1905-1907), some from Joseph Pennell, regarding exhibitions; correspondence regarding commissions, including Lafayette, McClellan, General Warren, Library of Congress, and other statues; postcards from artists (1892-1895); and miscellaneous letters.
Legal documents relate to the Lafayette statue (1900) and also include Bartlett's death certificate. Financial records (1899-1922) consist of bank statements, checkbooks, bills and receipts for casting, photography, dues, and rent. Clippings and a scrapbook deal with Barlett's Lafayette statue. Other printed material includes articles on various Bartlett sculptures and other sculptors, exhibition catalogs, passes and announcements, yearbooks from the American Club of Paris (1905-1909), and material from the American Art Association of Paris, including a 20-page booklet by Bartlett giving the history of the group, and an invitation (1906) to an auction to benefit the victims of the San Francisco earthquake.
Also included are sketches by Bartlett and his father (undated and circa 1913); oversized drawings, plans and prints for monuments, statues, and the Capitol ceiling (undated and 1916-1920); postcards depicting Bartlett's sculpture; and certificates from the National Academy of Design and the Panama Pacific International Exposition.
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Wayland Bartlett (1865-1925) was a sculptor and portraitist. Born in Connecticut and raised in France, Bartlett attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts and also studied under Emmanual Frémiet and Auguste Rodin. His early sculpture focused on animals and his piece Bear Tamer was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1891 and exhibited in the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. After 1895, he produced a number of public monuments, sculptures, and historical portraits, including the figures of Columbus and Michelangelo for the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress, the Lafayette statue presented to France, and the pediment for the House wing of the U.S. Capitol.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the microfilmed Suzanne Bartlett papers relating to Paul W. Bartlett, circa 1883-1950s; the microfilmed Caroline Ogden-Jones Peter papers relating to Paul W. Bartlett, 1955-1965; and the microfilmed Armistead Peter, Jr. papers relating to Paul W. Bartlett, 1920-1925. The Library of Congress Manuscript Division holds the Paul Wayland Bartlett papers, 1875-1959.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming by the Tudor Place Foundation, Inc., 1994. The Tudor Place Foundation inherited the papers in 1994 with the estate of Armistead Peter III of Tudor Place. Peter III was married to Caroline, the daughter of Bartlett's wife by her first marriage to Mahlon Odgen-Jones. After Bartlett's death in 1925, Suzanne cared for his papers, and donated the bulk of them to the Library of Congress in 1954. The papers she retained passed on to Caroline, and at her death to Armistead Peter III.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Sculptor, stone worker; studied in England, Paris and Rome. Married George Inness' daughter.
Provenance:
Relationship of donor, Mrs. Phillip Norton, to Hartley is unknown.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
No access restrictions Many of SIA's holdings are located off-site, and advance notice is recommended to consult a collection. Please email the SIA Reference Team at osiaref@si.edu
