The bulk of the collection consists of portraits of identified Native Americans and some government officials and interpreters. It includes cabinet cards, other mounted prints, newspaper articles, illustrations, and a photographic postcard. Depicted individuals include American Horse, Oglala; Black Hawk, Sauk; Bob Tail, Cheyenne; Crowfoot, Hunkpapa; Gaul, Hunkpapa; Geronimo, Chiricahua; John Grass, Teton; Chief Joseph, Nez Perce; Little Wound, Oglala; Medicine Bull, Hunkpapa; Osceola, Seminole; Ouray, Ute; Litte Raven, Arapaho; Plenty Coups, Crow; Pocahontas, Powhatan; Rain in the Face, Hunkpapa; Red Cloud, Oglala; Red Iron, Dakota; Short Man, Piegan; Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa; Standing On Prairie, Siouan; Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), Mohawk; Two Guns White Calf, Piegan; Two Moon, Cheyenne; and Washakie, Shoshoni.
Indians of North America -- Southern states Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 87-2P, United States National Museum Department of Anthropology photograph collection relating to Native Americans, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Journalists
Date:
1856-1929
Summary:
The papers of painter Henry Mosler (1841-1920), who began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio, lived in Germany and Paris for at least 2 decades, and finally settled in New York, measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1856-1929. The collection documents Mosler's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional letters from members of the military, museums, family, friends and colleagues, writings including an 1862 Civil War diary, personal business records, printed material, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of Mosler, his family, colleagues and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter Henry Mosler (1841-1920), who began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio, lived in Germany and Paris for at least 2 decades, and finally settled in New York, measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1856-1929. The collection documents Mosler's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional letters from members of the military, museums, family, friends and colleagues, writings including an 1862 Civil War diary, personal business records, printed material, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of Mosler, his family, colleagues and artwork.
Biographical material includes passports for Mosler's travel during the Civil War and to the American West in 1875-1876, as well as identification cards and awards from Mosler's years in Germany and Paris, including the Ordre National Légion d'Honneur awarded to him in 1892.
Letters record Mosler's service as an aide-de-camp for the Army of Ohio and his activities as an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly from 1861-1863 in the Western Theater of the Civil War. However, the bulk of the letters document Mosler's career from the 1880s onward. Found are letters from museums, art associations, government agencies including the Minsistere de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux-Arts, and colleagues in Europe and the United States including artists James Henry Beard, Julien Dupré, Gabrier Ferrier, Ernest Hébert, William Henry Howe, William Ordway Partridge, and Leon Germain Pelouse, among others. There are also scattered letters from Mosler.
Writings and notes include an 1862 Civil War diary and two illustrated notebooks from 1862 and 1863 containing sketches, and travel and financial notes. Also found are two biographical accounts of Mosler's career and poems by various authors, many inspired by Mosler's paintings.
Personal business records include an account book documenting Mosler's income and expenses from 1869-1878 and 1886-1892, and Library of Congress copyright certificates for four of Mosler's pictures.
Printed material documents Mosler's career in the United States and Europe through news clippings, a brochure, and an exhibition catalog for an 1897 exhibition of his paintings at Galleries of Pape Bros.
Artwork and sketchbooks include six sketches and an engraving by Mosler, and two books containing sketches by Mosler and other artists including James Henry Beard. The series also contains one ink drawing each by Leon Germain Pelouse and E. Hillery.
Photographic material includes albums and individual photographs of Mosler in his studio and with others including his immediate and extended family, and students. Also found are photos of artists including Gabriel Ferrier, Ernest Hébert and Thomas Buchanan Read, Brigadier General R. W. Johnson and opera singers Emma Nevada Palmer and Renée Richards. Photographs of artwork are primarily found in 2 oversized albums dedicated by Mosler to his children, Edith Mosler and Gustave Henry Mosler respectively.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1863-1892, 1921 (Box 1, OV 10; 4 folders)
Series 2: Letters,1861-circa 1920 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1860-circa 1900 (Boxes 2-3, 6; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1869-1905 (Box 3; 4 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1860s-1929 (Box 3; 10 folders)
Series 6: Artwork and Sketchbooks, 1856-1917 (Box 4, OVs 10-11; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographic Material, 1860-circa 1910 (Boxes 5-9, BV 12; 2.0 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Henry Mosler (1841-1920) worked primarily in Ohio, New York City, and Europe as a painter of portraits and scenes of rural life in Europe. Mosler served as an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly during the Civil War.
Born in Silesia (Poland) in 1841, Henry Mosler immigrated to New York City with his family in 1849. In the early 1850s the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Mosler received art instruction from James Henry Beard, becoming an accomplished portrait painter and an active participant in the Cincinnati art scene.
Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Mosler became an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly, documenting the Western Theater in Kentucky and Tennessee. He served as a volunteer aide-de-camp with the army of Ohio from 1861-1863 and was present at the engagement at Green River, and "present and under fire" at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville.
Immediately thereafter, Mosler relocated to Dusseldorf for two years and attended the Royal Academy, followed by six months in Paris where he studied with painter Ernest Hébert. In 1866 Mosler returned to Cincinnatti where his portraits and genre scenes enjoyed growing popularity.
In 1875 Mosler traveled to Munich and two years later settled in Paris from where he enjoyed critical and financial success both in Europe and in the United States. Mosler was known for his genre paintings of peasant life in rural Brittany and he became a regular participant in Salon exhibitions and won honorable mention in the Salon of 1879, when his painting Le Retour, became the first work by an American artist to be purchased by the French government. In 1888 he won the gold medal at the Paris Salon and in 1892 he was made chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur and officier de l'Académie.
Mosler returned to the United States temporarily during this period, including a trip in 1885-1886 to visit the West and collect material for paintings of Native American life.
In 1894 Mosler returned to the United States and settled in New York, where he became a popular teacher and an active participant in the New York art scene. In 1895 he was made an associate member of the National Academy of Design, and in his last decades took up landscape painting during summers in the Catskill mountains, and produced genre paintings depicting scenes from colonial and rural life. Mosler continued to enjoy widespread popularity until his death in 1920.
Provenance:
The bulk of the collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by J. F. McCrindle, a great-grandson of Mosler, in 1976 and 1977, having been previously lent to AAA for microfilming. A photograph album was donated in 1993 by Paul M. Hertzmann, a dealer who acquired it through purchase. Additional materials were donated in 2008 and 2009 by McCrindle via John T. Rowe, president and CEO of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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.
Expatriate painters -- France -- Paris Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Diaries
Sketchbooks
Illustrated notebooks
Drawings
Sketches
Citation:
Henry Mosler papers, 1856-1929. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth, 1845-1928 Search this
Williams, Frederick Ballard, 1871-1956 Search this
Extent:
1 Item (partial microfilm reel)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1885-1936
Scope and Contents:
Letters received, mainly from artists, Sept. 27, 1885-June 3, 1936, and undated, about works of art, invitations, exhibitions, art, travels and other art related subjects.
The letters are from: F.R.S. Balfour, Belfer?, Salvatore F. Bilotti, Carle Joan Blenner, Adolphe Borie, Frederick Andrew Bosley, Lewis D. Brandeis, Hugh Henry Breckenridge, Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, Walter Clark, William Anderson Coffin, Timothy Cole, Morgan Colt, Thomas H. Grattan Esmonds, William Bailey Faxon, D. Newlin Fell, John S.H. Fogg, Paul Leicester Ford, Charles Allan Grafly, Simon Gratz (13 letters), Sadakichi Hartmann, Jean A.A.J. Jusserand, Burton Alva Konkle, Hermann Dudley Murphy, New York Etching Club, William Ordway Partidge, William McGregor Paxton, Samuel Pennypacker (22 letters), M. Elizabeth Price, Edward Willis Redfield, Fred T. Richards, Henry R. Rittenberg, Alexander Charles Robinson, S. M. Rosenbach,
Chauncey Foster Ryder, Leopold G. Seyffert, John Simon, William H. Staake, Abby Weld Stevens, Mayer Sulzberger (14 letters), Henry Ossawa Tanner, Bernhard Uhle, Devitt Welsh, Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, and Frederick Ballard Williams. Also included are a letter from Rosenthal to S.T. Lowrie, a letter from J.W. Dunsmore to H.B. Snell, regarding hanging Rosenthal's portrait of Snell at the Salmagundi Club, and a notice of a sale of etchings by Robert Morris, 1899.
Arrangement:
Arranged chronologically.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, portrait painter, lithographer, art collector; New Hope, Pa.
Provenance:
Microfilmed by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for the Archives of American Art, 1955.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
One page, handwritten, letter on Society of American Sculptors stationery to an unknown recipient whom Partridge addresses as "My dear Allen." He apologizes about a mistaken address and wishes the recipient a happy new year. Signed "Ordway Partridge."
Biographical / Historical:
William Ordway Partridge was a sculptor and member of the Society of American Sculptors.
Provenance:
Provenance unknown.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
A booklet "Correspondence of David Irving Mead concerning the statue of Alexander Hamilton which stood in front of the Hamilton Club on Remsen Street, Brooklyn, New York," containing correspondence, March 25 - October 13, l936, regarding Mead's efforts to transfer the sculpture of Alexander Hamilton by William Ordway Partridge from the Hamilton Club to the Hamilton Grange in Manhattan. A photograph of the sculpture, 1936, is also included.
Biographical / Historical:
President of South Brooklyn Savings Bank, Brooklyn, N.Y. Member of the Hamilton Club, a private men's club in Broolyn, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donor 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.
Correspondence of the Century Magazine and its predecessors, Scribner's Monthly, and St. Nicholas Magazine. Also included is material related to the Century War Series.
Among the correspondents are: Cecilia Beaux, James C. Beckwith, Samuel G. W. Benjamin, William M. Chase, William A. Coffin, Timothy Cole (98 letters), Charles C. Coleman, Royal Cortissoz, Kenyon Cox, Reginald C. Coxe, Christopher P. Cranch, Henry H. Cross, Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Thomas W. Dewing, Alexander W. Drake, Wyatt Eaton, George W. Edwards, Frank E. Elwell, Gaston Fay, Harry Fenn, Mary H. Foote, William L. Fraser, Charles L. Freer, Daniel C. French, Frank French, Isabella S. Gardner, Jay Hambidge, Charles H. Hart, Arthur Hoeber, George Inness, Jr., August F. Jaccaci, Arthur I. Keller, Edward W. Kemble, Knoedler M. & Company, Christopher G. La Farge, John La Farge, Charles R. Lamb, Florence N. Levy, Frank J. Mather, Leila Mechlin, Gari Melchers, Francis D. Millet, Thomas Moran, Edward L. Morse, Hobart Nichols, Elizabeth Nourse, Thornton Oakley, Violet Oakley, Maxfield Parrish, William O. Partridge, Elizabeth R. Pennell (83 letters & 55p. handwritten article), Joseph Pennell, Henry R. Poore, Eva A. Remington, Henry Reuterdahl, Boardman Robinson, Henry Sandham, DeCost Smith, Jessie W. Smith, Albert E. Sterner, Alfred Stieglitz, William J. Stillman (ca. 95 letters), Lorado Taft, Henry O. Tanner, Abbott H. Thayer, Gerald H. Thayer, Dwight W. Tryon, John C. Van Dyke, Douglas Volk, Irving R. Wiles, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
A quarterly publication on the arts and current affairs.
Other Title:
Century Company 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.
