The papers of Hudson River School painter Jervis McEntee measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1796 and 1848 to 1905. Letters from close friends and family members to McEntee include many from his mentor Frederic Edwin Church, and fellow artists Samuel Putnam Avery, George Henry Boughton, Sanford Gifford, Richard Henry, Eastman Johnson, Elizabeth B. Stoddard, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and others. Papers relating to the McEntee family include obituaries, a family genealogy, and letters from and regarding family members. There are also papers relating to the Vaux family (McEntee's brother-in-law's family) and American architect and landscape artist Calvert Vaux, who designed a studio for McEntee. Of special significance are five volumes of diaries dating from 1872 through 1890 which provide a detailed depiction of the American art world in the 1870s and 1880s.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Hudson River School painter Jervis McEntee measure 1.6 linear feet and date from 1796 and 1850 to 1905. Letters from close friends and family members to McEntee include many from his mentor Frederic Edwin Church, and fellow artists Samuel Putnam Avery, George Henry Boughton, Sanford Gifford, Richard Henry, Eastman Johnson, Elizabeth B. Stoddard, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and others. Papers relating to the McEntee family include obituaries, a family genealogy, and letters from and regarding family members. There are also papers relating to the Vaux family (McEntee's brother-in-law's family) and American architect and landscape artist Calvert Vaux, who designed a studio for McEntee. Of special significance are five volumes of diaries dating from 1872 through 1890 which provide a detailed depiction of the American art world in the 1870s and 1880s.
Arrangement:
The Jervis McEntee papers have been arranged into five series, based on material type.
Series 1: Letters, 1850-1905, undated (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Vaux Family Letters and Correspondence, 1850-1890, undated (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Third Party Letters, 1861-1873, undated (Box 2; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 4: Miscellany, 1796, 1848-1895, undated (Box 2; 0.1 linear feet)
Series 5: Diaries, 1872-1890 (Box 3-4; 0.6 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Jervis McEntee was born in Rondout, New York, July 14, 1828. He had early literary and artistic aspirations and studied under Frederic E. Church, who had himself studied under the Hudson River School master, Thomas Cole. McEntee was to maintain a close relationship with Church for the rest of his life. After an unsuccessful stint as a businessman, McEntee settled in New York in 1857 as one of the charter residents of Richard Morris Hunt's Tenth Street Studio Building. Since many of the other occupants were either bachelors or commuters, and since Mrs. McEntee was a lively, sympathetic hostess, the couple became the center of a spontaneous salon frequented by some of the best-known artists, writers, and actors of the time. After his wife died in 1878, McEntee stayed on, an increasingly neglected widower until his death in 1891.
McEntee was identified with the Hudson River School and an accomplished and sensitive painter of autumnal landscapes. He wrote in 1874, "Perhaps what would mark my work among that of my brother artists is a preference for the soberer phases Nature, the gray days of November and its leafless trees." McEntee stood at the center of the interlocking directorate formed by the National Academy of Design, the Century Club, and the Tenth Street Studio Building. In the latter part of the 19th century, these formed a supreme art establishment whose membership was composed of the old guard American artists, such as McEntee's close friends Eastman Johnson, Sanford Gifford, John Ferguson Weir, Worthington Whittredge, and Church, who were fighting an ultimately futile battle against the encroachment of European influences among both artists and collectors.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D9) including a diary dated June 12, 1851-August 17, 1851. This material was returned to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York and is not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The Adirondack Museum lent one diary for microfilming in 1964. The rest of the collection was acquired from several donors between 1959 and 1997. The noted collector Charles E. Feinberg donated letters in 1959 and, Mrs. Helen S. McEntee, who married the nephew of Jervis McEntee, donated the five volumes of diaries in 1964. William Gaffken, director of the insurance company that acquired the McEntee family insurance business, donated the remaining papers in 1997.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires and appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
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.
Topic:
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Landscape painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Hudson River school of landscape painting Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Correspondence, including a letterbook which contains some drafts of Cummings' own communications, and letters received; broadsides; and clippings.
Among the correspondents are many 19th century New York painters and National Academy of Design members, including Gorham D. Abbott, William Aspinwall, Anthony Barclay, Albert Bierstadt, Victoria Bellamy, Robert Bunch, Charles Butler, J. G.Chapman, Vincent Colyer, Mortimer De Motte, Asher B. and John Durand, F. W. Edmonds, Charles L. Elliott, Isaac Ferris, Hamilton Fish, Robert Fraser, William Gibbons, Régis Gignoux, R. K. Haight, Walter Harding, Daniel Huntington, Charles Ingham, Henry Inman and his widow Jane Inman (re proceeds from an Inman memorial exhibition organized by Cummings), William Kemble, Louis Lang, James Lenox, Edward Lester, Charles Leupp, John Lewis, Benson Lossing, James J. Mapes, James McMurtrie, John Morgan, George P. Morris, S. F. B. Morse, E.W. Perry, William H. Seward, D. Seymour, James Shegogue, John R. Smith, William Stillman, Russell Sturgis, Thomas Sully, Henry Tappan, Thomas Thorpe, T. B. Wakeman, Prosper Wetmore, and James Whitehorne.
Biographical / Historical:
Thomas Seir Cummings (1804-1894) was a miniature and portrait painter from New York, N.Y. One of the founders of the National Academy of Design.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1958 by the Century Association.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
The papers of sculptor and portrait painter Henry Kirke Brown measure 1 linear feet and date from 1836 to 1893. The collection includes Brown's correspondence with his wife, Lydia Louise Udall, his nephew, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, and other family members. Also included are letters from artists George Catlin, George Fuller, Sanford R. Gifford, James Reid Lambdin, Louis Lang, Erastus Dow Palmer, Hiram Powers, Horatio Stone, and others; five news clippings; and miscellaneous notes.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of sculptor and portrait painter Henry Kirke Brown measure 1 linear feet and date from 1836 to 1893. The collection includes Brown's correspondence with his wife, Lydia Louise Udall, his nephew, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, and other family members. Also included are letters from artists George Catlin, George Fuller, Sanford R. Gifford, James Reid Lambdin, Louis Lang, Erastus Dow Palmer, Hiram Powers, Horatio Stone, and others; five news clippings; and miscellaneous notes.
Brown's lengthy letters to his wife reveal his devotion to her and the conflict he felt between his art and his personal life. He discusses his work, including progress on his statue of George Washington, located in Union Square, New York City. Letters to his family from Rome and Florence allude to his awe of Italy's monuments. Also included are letters from Washington, D.C. during Brown's tenure as a member of the U.S. Art Commission in the 1860s.
Arrangement:
Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
Biographical / Historical:
Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886) was an American sculptor and portrait painter born in Leyden, Massachusetts and died in Newburgh, New York.
Provenance:
The Henry Kirke Brown papers were donated to the Archives of American in 1981 by Dorothy Young, who acquired the papers from her husband, an art dealer.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
Correspondents include: John White Alexander, William H. Beard, Eugene Benson, Albert Bierstadt, William Bispham, Edward A. Brackett, George L. Brown, Henry Kirke Brown, John G. Brown, John G. Chapman, William A. Coffin, Frederick S. Cozzens, Christopher P. Cranch, Charles T. Dix, Francis W. Edmonds, John W. Ehninger, Regis F. Gignoux, Horatio Greenough, George H. Hall, Thomas Hicks, Alfred C. Howland, Daniel P. Huntington, Laurence Hutton, Joseph Jefferson, Eastman Johnson, John LaFarge, Louis Lang, Samuel Laurence, William H. Lippincott, Jervis McEntee, Frank B. Mayer, Charles H. Miller, Samuel F. B. Morse, Louis L. Noble, Thomas S. Noble, William R. O'Donovan, Johannes A. S. Oertel, Thomas A. Richards, Horace W. Robbins, John Rogers, Thomas P. Rossiter, Samuel W. Rowse, Napoleon Sarony, James D. Smillie, Bayard Taylor, Cephas G. Thompson, Launt A. Thompson, John Q. A. Ward, John F. Weir, Robert W. Weir, Edwin D. White, Worthington Whittredge, and Thomas W. Wood.
Reel N25: A calling card of Herbert Adams; a letter to Mrs. Frederic N. Goddard from Adams, returning photographs of Bryant; and a letter to Bryant from F. Tabbot about his painting of a forest.
Biographical / Historical:
Poet; New York City. Bryant's son-in-law, Parke Godwin, was an author, one of whose books was a biography of Bryant, THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, 1883.
Other Title:
Bryant-Godwin collection (NYPL microfilm title)
Provenance:
Microfilmed 1956 by the Archives of American Art with other art-related papers in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library. Included in the microfilming project were selected papers of the Art Division and the Prints Division.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
![view Thomas Seir Cummings correspondence and printed material [microfilm] digital asset: Finding aid](https://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?max=170&id=https://sirismm.si.edu/siris/findingaid.gif "Finding aid")