The collection of artists' letters compiled by Mary and John McGuigan Jr. measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1794-1938. The collection is comprised of a group of letters, writings, and signed documents to and from a variety of artists, art administrators, art critics, historians, and art-related organizations assembled from multiple sources. It also includes associated printed material with some documents and a few photographs, including carte de visites and cabinet cards.
Scope and Contents:
The collection of artists' letters compiled by Mary and John McGuigan Jr. measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1794-1938. The collection is comprised of a group of letters, writings, and signed documents to and from a variety of artists, art administrators, art critics, historians, and art-related organizations assembled from multiple sources. It also includes associated printed material with some documents and a few photographs, including carte de visites and cabinet cards.
Item descriptions included in the container listing were provided by Mary and John McGuigan and illuminate the wide range of artists and types of material represented in the collection. While some of the letters document routine transactions such as responses to requests for information, and transmittals of autographs, others document specific artist commissions and projects, exhibition and financial arrangements, business relationships, family events, and travels. The collection includes documentation of portrait painters, including Chester Harding and Rembrandt Peale; nineteenth century landscape artists and artists of the Hudson River School including Albert Bierstadt, George Henry Boughton, Samuel Colman, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and George Inness; sculptors including Daniel Chester French whose letters include sixty-three letters to Charles Dupuy, the caretaker of French's summer home in Massachusetts; publishers such as Mathew Carey, in letters from John Neagle; and the activities of arts institutions such as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
In addition to those mentioned above, letters and signed documents are from Washington Allston, William Holbrook Beard, Eugene Benson, William Tilden Blodgett, Jr., James Renwick Brevoort, Frederic Edwin Church, James Claghorn, John Singleton Copley, Kenyon Cox, F.O.C. Darley, Joseph DeCamp, Frank Duveneck, John Mackie Falconer, Horatio Greenough, Childe Hassam, Ignaz Michael Marcel Gaugengigl, George Healy, George Hollingsworth, William Morris Hunt, Daniel Huntington, Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, Henry Inman, Hugh Bolton Jones, Thomas Dow Jones, Louis Ashton Knight, Charles Robert Leslie, Will Low, Frederick William MacMonnies, Frank Blackwell Mayer, Samuel F. B. Morse, Erastus Dow Palmer, Rubens Peale, Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Tobias (Toby) Edward Rosenthal, John Singer Sargent, George Henry Smillie, Marie Spartali Stillman, William James Stillman, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Charles Yardley Turner, Stephen Arnold Douglas Volk, William Walcutt, Henry Antonio Wenzler, Benjamin West, Stanford White, Worthington Whittredge, and others.
The collection also includes a friendship album belonging to William Tilden Blodgett, Jr., with poems, sketches, and botanical watercolors, eight photographs including carte de visites and cabinet cards with images of George Hollingsworth, Thomas Dow Jones, Louis Ashton Knight, Henry Antonio Wenzler, and William Walcutt, and two photographs of a model used by Francis Blackwell Mayer when painting The Burning of the Peggy Stewart.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 1 series.
Biographical / Historical:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. are art historians and collectors in Milford, Pennsylvania.
Provenance:
John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan purchased these letters and generously donated them to the Archives of American Art between 2000 and 2019. The McGuigans have purchased and donated additional archival materials to the Archives, including a portion of the Douglas Volk and Leonard Wells Volk papers. In 2017 the McGuigans donated an addition to the Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers, including sixty-nine letters from A. Barry, Truman Howe Bartlett, William Merritt Chase, Timothy Cole, Edward Henry Clement, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, Robert Swain Gifford, George Inness, Anna Lea Merritt, Stephen Parrish, John Sartain, Francis Hopkinson Smith, and Frederic Porter Vinton.
Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an 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.
Cabinet card photograph of the interior of Abbot's studio.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Newburyport, Massachusetts, 27 July 1866, to A. D. Vorce, Hartford, Connecticut. Benson thanks Vorce (who ran an art supply and picture frame store) for his compliments regarding an article that Benson had written about Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904). In response to Vorse 's suggestion that Benson write a similar article on William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905), the painter-critic explains that, while Bouguereau is a great painter, he lacks salient traits, and offers nothing of interest to the artist-critic.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
New York, 5 November 1888, to Hemy Whitney Cleveland (1836-1907, clergyman and author), Louisville, Kentucky. Bierstadt declines Cleveland 's request to exhibit pictures in Louisville. He cites the primary reason as the recent default of payment by some gentlemen of Louisville for pictures loaned to the Southern Exposition. This, in turn, had caused the collapse of the Art Union (the New York entity that organized the loan exhibition to the Southern Exposition), headed by Enoch Wood Perry (1831-1915). This catastrophe had severe pecuniary consequences for many lending artists, including Bierstadt, who reveals he lost "a thousand dollars out of pocket on the matter."
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Yonkers, New York, 29 March 1915, to the editor of the Art Annual. In response to the editor's query, Brevoort will need a few days to have a photograph made of himself to satisfy her request.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Includes a carte-de-visite portrait photograph and calling card.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
London, 2 January 1862, to Edward William Cooke (1811-80, English landscape and marine painter). Cropsey and his wife accept Cooke's invitation to visit the following Tuesday evening.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
New York, 4 May 1857, to Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900), London. Lengthy letter in which Falconer hopes that Cropsey is enjoying England, but regrets that he and Peter Paul Duggan (d. 1861, portraitist and medalist) are both unwell. Informs Cropsey that James B. Windle, Falconer's employer and Cropsey's close friend, has just died. Discusses happenings in New York. Reports on the upcoming exhibition of the NAD, including Edwin White's (1817-77) picture of the -- First New-England Thanksgiving -- . Says White will sail for Havre soon; John Frederick Kensett (1816-72) leaves soon for the Upper Missouri; Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and Louis Remy Mignot (1831-70) also leave on the new steamship -- Vanderbilt -- . Mentions Cropsey's dealings with English artists such as Myles Birket Foster (1825-99), troubles with John Gilbert (1817-97), and a letter of introduction for the engraver Henry Le Keux (1787- 1868). The Palmer Exhibition has closed. Mentions that Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-84) will attend the opening of the NAD exhibition and that some are disappointed with the works submitted by John Thomas Peele (1822-97), including his -- The Sound of the Shell -- and -- Music of the Reeds -- .
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Paris, 18 January 1889, to Miss Wright. Healy writes either to a close acquaintance or patron after receiving some family photographs. Describes works in his studio: full-length portraits of Archbishop Rearden of San Francisco and General Winslow, and a half-length portrait of Monsieur Barbedienne. For the Paris Salon he intends to send full-length portraits of Cardinal Archbishop James Gibbons of Baltimore and Abraham Dreyfus. For the Universal Exposition at Paris he intends to send a half-length portrait of the Earl of Lytton, former English Ambassador to France, and a full-length painting of a fourteen-year-old girl playing the violin.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Boston, 22 November 1877, to John Ferguson Weir, New Haven."My time is already more than taken up in trying to learn how to paint and as I can get no information on the subject from lectures. I do not think I could assist others by lecturing. The world is full of people who lecture on art and I will not interfere with them."
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
New York, 11 April 1862, to Alexander Hay Ritchie (1822-95, engraver and genre and figure painter), New York. Huntington writes to A. W. [sic] Ritchie, 422 Broadway, that he is suffering from the flu and is unavailable for Ritchie to pick up the photograph of his (Huntington's) uncle that Ritchie will engrave; but he will arrange the matter later, including the size of the plate, when he is better. "I think I shall keep a safe distance from the Exhib. on Varnishing Day."
Daniel Huntington (1816-1906), New York, "Wednesday 20th," to Richard William Hubbard (1816-1888). "The Sketch Club are to meet with me on Friday Evening. I shall be happy if you can be with us."
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
New York, 26 March 1888, to George Frederick Munn (1851-1907, naturalist painter). Jones responds to Munn's request for photographs of pond lily leaves, mentions Jones's picture owned by Mr. Halstead, and apprises Munn of the current addresses of the painters Edwin Howland Blashfield (1849-1936), Thomas Hovenden (1840-95), and William Lamb Picknell (1853-97).
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
New York, The Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks, bank check, 22 April 1872, for $35, payable to Mrs. Dillor or Bearer.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Giverny, France, 25 September 1895, to Mrs. S. C. Blodget, East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Writing from the prominent artists' colony and home to Monet, Low responds to Mrs. Blodget that he does not possess any photographs of his works but that copies can be procured by contacting William Kurtz, 6 E. 23rd St., New York.
Giverny, France, 25 September 1895, to William Kurtz (1833-1904, artist and photographer), New York. Low authorizes Kurtz to make copies of photographs of any of his paintings for Mrs. S. C. Blodget, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, with the exception of the Diploma Design for the Columbian Exposition. Included with this letter are two carte-de-visite photographs of unidentified women by W. Kurtz, presumably Mrs. Blodget and her daughter.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
James L. Claghorne (1817-84), president of PAFA, and John Sartain (1808-97), artist and secretary of PAFA, jointly issue and sign a check for payment of $500 to the Philadelphia firm of Frank Furness and George Hewitt, for architectural designs of their landmark building for the PAFA, considered Frank Furness's masterpiece, completed in 1876.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Munich, 11 March 1881, to Francis Seligsberg. Four-page letter written in German with a watercolor sketch of two female artists holding portfolios, one calm and tidy, the other quite disheveled.
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
23 September 1839, to Mr. Herring, New York. Sully informs Herring that the -- Portrait of Col. Abert -- (John James Abert 1788- 1863) has been shipped to Washington, and that the bill of lading is in possession of John Trumbull (1756-1843). Sully requests that the Abert portrait be exhibited in Washington prior to being exhibited at the New York Institution. Sully is also waiting on a frame before forwarding Herring his picture of -- Musidora -- .
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
London, 27 February 1816, to Richard James Laurence. West requests the loan of two pictures for an apparent exhibition of "all the pictures painted by me within the last fifty years." The first, -- Faith and Hope -- (from Spenser's "Poems of the Fairy Queen"), depicts Laurence's mother and sister, and the second, -- Una and the Lion -- , is a portrait of Laurence's wife, nee Miss Hall (Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford).
Collection Restrictions:
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection 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.
Collection Citation:
Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, 1794-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
