Selected material from the Lyme Historical Society's Lyme Art Colony Archives relating primarily to the activities of the Lyme Art Association and Lyme Art Colony (4.0 ft.) and including Florence Griswold's personal papers (0.4 ft.)
REELS 4678-4680: Included are: constitution, by-laws, minutes of the "Lyme Exhibition," 1911-1914, and the Lyme Art Association and Artists' Committee; account books containing treasurer's reports, minutes of annual and artists' committee meetings, expenses, sales, cash assets, and other information; letters from members; files, chiefly on artists, containing letters, a few photographs, writings on the Griswold House, exhibition catalogs, and summaries of conversations and interviews about Griswold and the art colony, conducted in 1954 by a Society staff member;
photographs of artists, the Florence Griswold House, and an exhibition; 4 scrapbooks of clippings, 1933-1940, and a scrapbook about William Henry Howe, ca.1880-1930; notebook of James Weiland chiefly on painting technique; diaries of Clark Voorhees, 1890-1905; a Robert Vonnoh sketchbook; specifications for the Lyme Art Association Gallery; list of locations of artists' work; directions for gilding by Griswold; "Wilson's Return," an account of President Woodrow Wilson's return visit to Lyme; an album containing information on Alphaeus P. Cole's career compiled in 1986; an autograph book, "Ghosts of My Friends," 1909-1914 containing signatures;
exhibition catalogs, announcements and posters; and articles, 1902-1966, regarding the Lyme Art Colony and artists Childe Hassam, Henry Ward Ranger and Louis Dessar.
Also, spliced to end of reel 4680 are additional photographs of artists, exhibition installations, and a photograph album. Included are: Childe Hassam, Willard Metcalf, Charles Vezin, Harry Hoffman, William Henry Howe, Henry Ward Ranger, Will Howe Foote, Frank Vincent DuMond, William O. Goodman and his wife at a ceremony marking his retirement as President of the Association, Florence Griswold, and others; interior and exterior views of the Griswold House; art works; the first exhibition of the Association in the "new" gallery, summer, 1921, and an exhibition in 1926; and an album, "Illustrated Lecture on Wild Animals of New England," containing photos of Howe, Foote, Metcalf, Allen Talcott, Arthur Heming, and others, and the Griswold House.
Artists represented in the artists' files include Thomas Ball, Martin Borgord, William Chadwick, Bruce Crane, Charles H. Davis, Elizabeth Ebert, Will Howe Foote, Harry L. Hoffman, Richard F. Maynard, Henry Rankin Poore, Gregory Smith, Nelson White, and Margaret H. Wright (contains letters from W.Bicknell and Chauncey Ryder).
REEL 4599: Material (0.2 ft.) from the Florence Griswold papers, 1896-1938, includes a biographical note; a posthumous certificate from the American Artists Professional League honoring Griswold; correspondence with artists and others; estate documents and a copy of her will; "The Saga of Florence Griswold's Harp" by Clarence T. Hubbard, an account of the formation of the Colony; postcards showing Griswold and art work in the house by Childe Hassam, William Henry Howe and Henry R. Poore; and obituaries.
Correspondents included in Griswold's papers are George Ainslie, Frank Bicknell, Charles Bittinger, William Chadwick, E.H. Clement, Lewis Cohen, Frank DuMond, Schumacker Duncan, Charles Ebert, Will Howe Foote, Frank B. Gay, Charles L. Goodwin, Walter Griffin, Childe Hassam, Arthur Heming, Harry L. Hoffman, William Henry Howe, William H. Hyde, Lydia Longacre, Willard Metcalf, Curtis Moyer, Henry R. Poore, William S. Robinson, Edith and Edward Rook, Allen B. Talcott, Charles Vezin, Robert and Bessie Vonnoh, Everett Warner, and Ellen and Woodrow Wilson.
Biographical / Historical:
The Lyme Art Association was established in 1914 as an outgrowth of the Lyme Art Colony, in Old Lyme, Conn. In 1921, a summer art gallery was built to house its exhibitions. Henry Ward Ranger is the artist credited with discovering Old Lyme as a painters' haven in 1899, encouraging a few artists to come the following summer. Florence Griswold's summer boarding house became a center for artists who came to Lyme over the years; Griswold even acted as an agent for some of the artists. Gradually membership expanded and the number of exhibitions increased. Ranger and some of his colleagues painted in the Barbizon style, but Impressionism also gained favor there partially due to Childe Hassam's presence in Old Lyme from 1903 onwards.
Other Title:
Lyme Art Colony Archives
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1992 and 1993 by the Lyme Historical Society, Florence Griswold Museum. Records are maintained as the Lyme Art Colony Archives. Arrangement of the photographs was devised by the lender and has been maintained.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Use of 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:
Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
Correspondence primarily documents Bessie Potter Vonnoh's personal and family life, as well as her career as an artist. Included are letters (mostly transcripts) from Vonnoh, known as "Betty" to her family, to her mother regarding her trip to the Paris International Exposition in 1900 and a later trip to France in 1914. There are letters from Bessie to her husband, Robert Vonnoh, known as "Bonny". Also found are letters to her cousin Lulette Jenness Thompson regarding Vonnoh's career, and several letters from her uncle, J. S. McKenny. Personal and professional correspondence includes letters from Daniel Chester French, Hamlin Garland, Rupert Hughes, Archer Huntington, Larkin G. Mead, Jean Francois Raffaelli, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson (Ellen Axson) and her daughter Jessie Wilson Sayre, and others. There is one folder of Robert Vonnoh's letters from Charles M. Carter, Daniel Chester French, William M. R. French, Charles Vezin, and others, and scattered family letters. Correspondence is arranged chronologically within each folder.
Collection Restrictions:
This bulk of the collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Thi 2022 addition to this collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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:
Bessie Potter Vonnoh papers, circa 1860-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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
