Papers concerning Freer's art collecting activities, including correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs. In addition to Freer's own correspondence, the papers include correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler and of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, correspondence of Freer's assistant Katharine Nash Rhoades, and correspondence regarding Freer's bequest to the Smithsonian Institution.
Correspondence, ca. 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; 30 v. of letterpress books containing copies of letters sent, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler' mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer letters and regarding the settlement of his estate.
Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910;
Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art;
correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenellosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society.
Among Freer's correspondents are: Otto Bacher, Bernard Berenson, Siegfried Bing, Laurence Binyon, W.K. Bixby, Sigisbert Chretien Bosch-Reitz, Charles H. Caffin, Colin Campbell, Richard Canfield, William Merritt Chase, Frederick Stuart Church, Alfred Vance Churchill, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Arthur Wesley Dow, Ernest Fenollosa, Albert Gallatin, John Gellatly, Frederick W. Gookin, Sadakichi Hartmann, Frank J. Hecker, Dikran Kelekian, M. Knoedler & Co., Berthold Laufer, Lien Hui Ching Collection, W.A. Livingstone, Frederick McCormick, Bunkio Matsuki, Gari Melchers, Agnes Meyer, Eugene Meyer, Charles Moore, Yozo Nomura, Rosalind Birnie Philip, Charles A. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Stephens Warring, Thomas Way, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Dwight W. Tryon, Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution, Beatrix Whistler, James McNeill Whistler, K.T. Wong, Yamanaka & Co., and Seaouke Yue.
Arrangement:
All correspondence except letterpress books: arranged alphabetically by correspondent; letterpress books are chonological.
Biographical / Historical:
Art collector; Detroit, Michigan. Collected Asian, American, and European art, including a large collection of works by James McNeill Whistler. Founded the Freer Gallery of Art, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution.
Provenance:
Selected for microfilming from the Charles Lang Freer papers at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Microfilmed 1992 by the Archives of American Art with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Fellowships and Grants Research Resources Program. Portions of the correspondence and the letterpress books were previously filmed by the Freer in the 1970 (AAA reels 77, 453-456, and 1217-1232); those reels have been replaced by this microfilming project. See Finding Aid for information on papers not selected for microfilming.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
James McNeill Whistler collection in the University of Glasgow, Special Collections, [ca. 1830-1963.]. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Main Image: [Whistler's Mother] Old woman wearing black dress and white bonnet seated in a chair
Local numbers:
Princeton Poster# 2803
General:
Issued by: National War Savings Committee
Issued for: War Savings Certificates
Artist(s): Anon
Series:
Poster No. 39
Locale:
Salisbury Square, E.C. 4
Printing Info:
Printer: E. & S. Ltd (E. 1878), 10/1917
Other Printing Info: Wt. 35427 /2198 100,000 (3653)
Collection 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.
Collection Rights:
Copyright status of items varies. 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.
Princeton University Posters Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Sponsor:
Digitization of the Princeton University Poster Collection was a collaboration of Google Arts and Culture and the Smithsonian Institution's Digitization Program Office. Catalog records were transcribed by digital volunteers through the Smithsonian Institution Transcription Center.
Photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenollosa, Rosalind Birnie Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Dwight Tryon,Shugio Hiromichi, Stanford White, and Michael Tomkinson.
Series 12.3: Portraits of artists and colleagues
Arrangement:
Organized by country.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.03
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Seven albumen prints prints taken in 1892 by commission of Goupil Gallery director D.C. Thomson. The photographs were taken prior to the sale of 49 Prince's Gate, so furniture and porcelains have been removed. The prints were sent to Charles Freer by Goupil Gallery staff in 1902.
Photographs of the Peacock Room at 49 Prince's Gate, London
Arrangement:
Organized in 1 box.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.02.3.1
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Seven collodion prints prints taken by S.B. Bolon & Co. in 1904 by commission of Obach & Co., London. The photographs were taken as the present owner of 49 Prince's Gate sought to sell the room.
Photographs of the Peacock Room at 49 Prince's Gate, London
Arrangement:
Organized in 1 box.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.02.3.2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
2 Prints (albumen and photogravure, image 13 x 9.8 cm mounted on board 16.4 x 10.6 cm.; second image is 7 3/4 x 5 in. on a sheet approx. 14 x 11in.)
Container:
Box 275
Type:
Archival materials
Prints
Photographs
Portraits
Place:
England -- London -- London
Date:
ca. 1865-1870
Scope and Contents:
Head and shoulders portraits of Christina Spartali, taken by Julia Margaret Cameron circa 1865-1870. One albumen print, mounted on gold cardboard. The line "From life copyright Julia Margaret Cameron" is printed on the board below the photo, followed by a second and third line, written in ink, which read "Christina Spartali" and "now Countess Cahen D'Anvers" respectively. A second portrait is a photogravure printed from an original Cameron negative in 1891 for the publication "Sun & Shade" by the publisher New York Photo-Gravure Co.
Julia Margaret Cameron photographs of Christina Spartali
Arrangement:
Organized in one flat box.
Biographical / Historical:
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) was a British photographer noted for her portraits of celebrities of the day.
Christina Spartali, second daughter of Michael Spartali and Euphrosyne Varsini Spartali, was born in Middlesex, England, in the mid to late 1840s. Her father, a prosperous cotton merchant who resided in London, became Consul-General for Greece in 1866. From 1864, the family lived in London at "The Shrubbery" in Clapham Common, and through their relatives the Ionides, prominent patrons of the arts, became acquainted with members of the contemporary art world, including James McNeill Whistler. Julia Margaret Cameron was the Spartalis' neighbor at Sandford, the family's estate on the Isle of Wight. Christina and her sister Marie were extraordinarily well-educated for women of their generation, but they were equally well-known for their beauty. Marie Spartali was an artist who publicly exhibited her work until the end of her life, but she remains better known as a model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other Victorian artists. Christina, who pursued no profession, is remembered for only one work, Whistler's "La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine", for which she posed in 1864-1865. Although "La Princesse" was not intended as a portrait, Whistler exhibited it in 1892 as "Portrait of Miss S.---," confident that his contemporaries would recognize the reference.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.02.6
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Portraits
Collection Citation:
Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA.A.01. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
Photographs depicting the artist James McNeill Whistler in his studio in Paris, studio portraits of Whistler, and other artists' portraits of Whistler.
Portraits of James McNeill Whistler
Arrangement:
Organized by subject.
Local Numbers:
FSA.A.01 12.02.1
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Twenty one photographic images depicting the Peacock Room in Freer's home in Detroit, take by George R. Swain in Spring of 1908. The collection contains 10 standard size prints; 4 mammoth plate prints; 7 original glass plate negatives. The photographs also display selections from Freer's own extensive ceramics collection.
Arrangement:
Organized in two boxes, for prints and negatives, and one folder for large format prints.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 12.02.3.3
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Search this
Letter written by Charles Lang Freer to his friend and business associate Frank Hecker (1846-1927) while Freer was traveling in Europe and Asia between September 1894 and August 1895. This was Freer's first travel in Asia, and while he was not purchasing works of fine art in large numbers, the cultural encounters he made during this trip deepened his interest in Asia's artistic heritage. Freer's stops included Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, China and Japan. Freer also stayed in Italy and France, spending time with James McNeill Whistler in Paris.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 02.1Hecker.travel2
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Letters written by Charles Lang Freer to his friend and business associate Frank Hecker (1846-1927) while Freer during multiple trips to Europe between June of 1899 and July of 1903. Freer stayed for long periods of time in London, meeting with the painter James McNeill Whister. He also stayed for long periods in Paris, and at a villa that he co-owned on the Mediterranean island of Capri with his friend Thomas S. Jerome (1864-1914). The final letters describe Whistler's death on July 17th, 1903.
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 02.1Hecker.travel3
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
The purchase invoice of James McNeill Whistler's "Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room" (F1904.61). The purchase also included a self-portrait of Whistler in oil (F1904.62a-b)
Freer collection numbers: F1904.61; F1904.62a-b
Arrangement:
Freer's purchase vouchers are generally organized by date of purchase.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 06.5.2.1904.05.05
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Letter dated February 6th, 1904, in which Gustav Mayer updates Freer on the status of the Peacock Room and likelihood of its availability. Mayer also informs Freer of the availability of 3 additional Whistler etchings.
Freer collection numbers: F1904.61
Arrangement:
Organized chronologically under correspondent.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.01 02.1Obach08
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Lists of Freer's loan of 28 American paintings to be shown at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, February 20 to December 4, 1915. These included paintings by James McNeill Whistler, Dwight WIlliam Tryon and Willard Metcalf.
