Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: Webb, Electra Havemeyer
| title | Electra Havemeyer Webb Papers, 1893-1966 (bulk 1947-1960). | repository | Shelburne Museum |
| description | Chiefly materials about the Shelburne Museum, including correspondence, reports, speeches, articles, clippings, financial papers, and scrapbooks, documenting the founding of the museum, its physical structure, and the development and presentation of its collections; together with some personal papers, including scrapbooks relating to Webb's volunteer work during both world wars, menus and invitations for parties (1930-1956), sympathy letters on the death of her brother Horace Havemeyer, Webb-Havemeyer genealogy and family history documents, and hunting records. Webb's direction of the museum is documented through such materials as her correspondence with brother-in-law Vanderbilt Webb about incorporating the museum; correspondence with museum directors, dealers, and donors; daily reports from and correspondence with Shelburne staff members; minutes of staff meetings; thank you letters from Ima Hogg, Henry Du Pont, Katharine Prentis Murphy, and others who stayed with her or visited the museum; notes, clippings, and other working papers on the museum; New York files relating to the museum, kept by secretary Elsie Schoonover; public presentations about the museum, including articles and speeches written or given by Webb; and scrapbooks of photographs and clippings which she assembled. Museum staff members represented include Sterling D. Emerson, David Webster, Lilian Baker Carlisle, Gordon Parker Manning, Lewis N. Wiggins, and Ralph Nading Hill, a historian friend, who was paid by the museum for special projects. Correspondents include Sanger Atwill, Electra and Dunbar Bostwick, Kenneth Chorley (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation), A.C. Gilbert, Edith Halpert, Louis C. Jones, M. Knoedler & Co., George S. McKearin, Katharine Prentis Murphy, Old Print Shop, Eric Sloane, and Frederick A. Sweet. Named Person: Webb family. Havemeyer family. Havemeyer, Horace, 1886-1956 -- Death and burial. Webb, J. Watson (James Watson), 1884-1960. Hogg, Ima -- Correspondence. Du Pont, Henry Francis, 1880-1969 -- Correspondence. Murphy, Katharine Prentis, 1882-1969 -- Correspondence. Webb, Vanderbilt, 1891-1956 -- Correspondence. Atwill, J. Sanger -- Correspondence. Bostwick, Electra Webb, 1910-1980 -- Correspondence. Bostwick, Dunbar -- Correspondence. Chorley, Kenneth, 1893-1974 -- Correspondence. Gilbert, A. C. (Alfred Carlton), 1884-1961 -- Correspondence. Halpert, Edith Gregor, 1900-1970 -- Correspondence. Jones, Louis Clark, 1908- -- Correspondence. McKearin, George S. (George Skinner), 1874- -- Correspondence. Sloane, Eric -- Correspondence. Sweet, Frederick A. (Frederick Arnold), 1903- -- Correspondence. |
| extent | 13 v. 29 boxes. 6 microfilm reels. |
| formats | Correspondence Personal papers Scrapbooks Ephemera |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid in the repository. |
| acquisition information | From various files within the museum and from Webb's son, J. Watson Webb, Jr., who in May 1998, donated papers relating to Mrs. Webb's purchase of antiques |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:49 |
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| title | Mary Cassat Letters, 1908-1910. | repository | Shelburne Museum |
| description | Twenty-one letters written to Electra (Havemeyer) Webb, art collector and museum benefactor, and one letter to Electra's mother, Louisine Havemeyer, written in the two years following the death of H.O. Havemeyer (1907), expressing sympathy for the recently bereaved family and concern about Louisine Haveyemer's health. Subjects include some information regarding their travels in Spain in 1909, advice as to the acquisition of paintings by Goya and El Greco, the purchase of a house in Spain to aid in Louisine's health, and her pleasure at the news of Electra's engagement to J. Watson Webb; together with a telegram sent the day of the wedding 8 Feb. 1910. |
| extent | 21 documents |
| formats | Correspondence |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| bibliography | Some of the letters are published in: The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America (c1986), by Frances Weitzenhoffer. |
| record source | http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid in the repository. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:52 |
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| title | Mary Cassatt collection, 1871-1955. | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Mary Cassatt and Cassatt family papers collected by Frederick Arnold Sweet for research on Cassatt. Included are Cassatt family correspondence, a typescript of a family history written by Cassatt's father, and other genealogical and biographical material; letters from Cassatt to Cecilia Beaux, Electra Havemeyer Webb, Mrs. Potter Palmer, Theodate Pope, Mary Gardner Smith, Carroll S. Tyson, Ambroise Vollard, Harris Whittemore, and others. [Microfilm label: Frederick A. Sweet papers] |
| extent | 1.0 linear ft. ( on 1 microfilm reel) reel C1 |
| formats | Correspondence Transcript |
| access | Patrons must use microfilm copy. |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| finding aid | Finding aid available at AAA offices. |
| acquisition information | Lent for microfilming in 1955 by Frederick Sweet, author of the exhibition catalog Sargent, Whistler, and Mary Cassatt (1954) and Miss Mary Cassatt, Impressionist From Pennsylvania (1966). The owners of the letters at the time of microfilming are listed on the microfilm and the inventory. Frames 1-869 on reel C1 were subsequently donated by the Thayer family to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1967. See also under Sweet, Frederick, for Sweet's research materials on Cassatt, donated to AAA in 1975. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:52 |
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| title | John Kenneth Byard Papers, 1928-1961, 1969-1975 (bulk 1945-1960) | repository | The Winterthur Library |
| description | he collection is a mixture of personal papers relating to Kenneth and Dorothy Byard and business records of the Silvermine Tavern and Galleries. Business papers include records of sales of antiques, which frequently describe the piece being sold as well as the price and name of the purchaser; correspondence with Electra Webb; other business correspondence; store inventories; payroll records, including those of restaurant and inn employees; balance sheets; insurance policies; and records relating to losses in a fire. Personal records include a list of items donated to the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association in 1955; income tax reports; real estate records, including accounts of a dispute with one of Byard’s neighbors; and checks and deposit slips, some of which might actually be business related. As well, there is one folder relating to Gates Moore’s lighting fixture business; it includes correspondence and a few designs for fixtures. Biography or history John Kenneth Byard was a lawyer and an antiques collector and dealer from Norwalk, Connecticut. During the 1930s, he purchased an old house, mill, and other structures along the Silvermine River outside Norwalk and opened the Silvermine Tavern and Galleries. The complex included a restaurant, a small inn, an antiques shop, and a barn which had been converted to an apartment with an artist’s studio. Byard collected and sold early American furniture and other items of decorative arts. Chief among his clients were Henry and Helen Flynt, who restored Deerfield, Massachusetts, Ellerton and Edith Jette of Waterville, Maine, and Electra Havemeyer and Watson Webb, who began Shelburne Museum in Vermont. Byard died in 1959, leaving his widow, Dorothy Randolph Byard. Part of his collection was auctioned by Parke-Bernet in March 1960. Gates Moore, a cabinetmaker, accompanied Mr. Byard on buying trips. Moore would vet the furniture, and Byard would negotiate the price. Later, Moore made and sold reproduction lighting fixtures, a business probably carried out on the Silvermine Tavern property. Moore’s relatives continue to run the Silvermine Tavern as a restaurant and inn. Location The Winterthur Library: Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur, DE 19735. Call Number Col. 740 |
| extent | 6 cu. ft. (14 boxes, one volume) |
| formats | Business Records Correspondence Personal papers Inventories Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record link | http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML%5FFinding%5FAids/COL0740.htm |
| record source | http://library.winterthur.org:8000/cgi-bin/webgw |
| finding aid | Online finding aid |
| acquisition information | Gift of Patricia Moore, Norwalk, Connecticut. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Downtown Gallery records, 1824-1974 (bulk dates 1926-1969). | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Correspondence, artists files, notebooks, business records, writings, miscellaneous records, printed matter, and photographs. Some of Halpert's personal papers are intermingled with the gallery records. REELS 5488-5545: Correspondence, 1926-1974, about gallery business and routine administrative affairs, as well as personal letters from relatives and friends. Among the correspondents are collectors Edgar and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Maxim Karolik, William H. Lane, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Beram K. Saklatwalla, Robert Tannahill, and Electra Havemeyer Webb; dealers Robert Carlen, Felix Landau Gallery, Boris Mirski Gallery, and Isabel Carleton Wilde; and many curators, museum directors, and other colleagues. REELS 5545-5558: Artist Files, 1917-1970, consist mainly of correspondence with Halpert and the Downtown Gallery and may include biographical notes, writings, press releases, original artwork, exhibition information, and printed matter. Included are: Rainey Bennett, Raymond Breinin, Morris Broderson, Paul Burlin, Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Isami Doi, William Dole, Arthur G. Dove, David Fredenthal, Samuel Halpert, George Overbury ("Pop") Hart, Marsden Hartley, Bernard Karfiol, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, Wesley Lea, Jack Levine, Edmund Lewandowski, John Marin, Reuben Nakian, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Chesley Osborn, Jules Pascin, Abbott Pattison, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Mitchell Siporin, Niles Spencer, Edward Stasack, John H. Storrs, Reuben Tam, Yu-ho Tseng, Max Weber, William Zorach, and Karl Zerbe. REELS 5558-5603: Notebooks, 1935-1969, referred to as "American Folk Art Gallery Notebooks," "Artists Notebooks," and "Publicity Notebooks" contain photographs, catalog descriptions, notes, and printed matter compiled by gallery staff for reference purposes. "American Folk Art Notebooks" include: oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, lithographs, fraktur, paintings on velvet, embroideries, paintings on glass, tinsels, Shaker furniture, and sculpture. "Publicity Notebooks" include: group shows at Downtown Gallery and other locations, American Print Makers exhibitions, American folk art exhibitions at Downtown Gallery and other locations; and, miscellaneous publicity. "Artists Notebooks" include: Rainey Bennett, Raymond Breinin, Morris Broderson, Alexander Brook, Paul Burlin, Nicolai Cikovsky, Glenn O. Coleman, Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Isami Doi, Arthur G. Dove, David Fredenthal, O. Louis Guglielmi, Samuel Halpert, William M. Harnett, George Overbury ("Pop") Hart, Marsden Hartley, Bernard Karfiol, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, Wesley Lea, Julian E. Levi, Jack Levine, John Marin, George L. K. Morris, Reuben Nakian, Georgia O'Keeffe, Robert Chesley Osborn, Jules Pascin, Abbott Pattison, Horace Pippin, Joseph Pollet, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, Mitchell Siporin, Niles Spencer, Edward Stasack, William Steig, Joseph Stella, Alfred Stieglitz, John H. Storrs, Reuben Tam, Yu-ho Tseng, Dorothy Varian, Carl Walters, Max Weber, Jack Zajac, Karl Zerbe, Marguerite Zorach, and William Zorach. REELS 5603-5636: Business Records, 1925-1974, consist of exhibition, stock, sales, transit, and insurance records; lists of artwork and clients, legal documents, minutes, research files, and architectural plans. REELS 5636-5638: Writings, 1917-1968, by Edith Gregor Halpert, include articles on American folk art, speeches, short stories, school notebooks, and "Daily Thoughtlets" compiled at age 17; also, writings by others on art topics. REELS 5638-5639: Miscellaneous, ca. 1835-1970, contains biographical material, and works of art by Edith Gregor Halpert and other artists. Artifacts are wooden weather vane molds with supporting documentation, and awards presented to Halpert. Audiovisual materials are motion picture film for a Westinghouse Broadcasting Corp. produced television series, "America: The Artist's Eye," 1961-1963; film of Charles and Musya Sheeler at home, and Charles Sheeler at work in his studio, ca. 1950; and a sound recording of a 1962 talk about collecting by Maxim Karolik. REELS 5640-5647: Printed Matter, 1984-1969, includes exhibition catalogs, announcements, invitations, press releases, and miscellaneous items produced by Downtown Gallery. Other printed matter consists of news clippings about Halpert, Downtown Gallery, the Edith Gregor Halpert Collection, and clipping files on art-related topics. Also, newsletters, press releases, and publications of arts organizations, and reproductions of works of art. A selection of 25 vols. from Halpert's personal library has been retained. REELS 5647-5654: Photographs, ca. 1880s-1960s, of Edith Gregor Halpert, Samuel Halpert, family and friends, her dog and Newtown, Conn. house. Portraits of artists include: Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Louis Guglielmi, George Overbury ("Pop") Hart, Marsden Hartley, Bernard Karfiol, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, Julian E. Levi, Jack Levine, John Marin, George L. K. Morris, Georgia O'Keeffe, Abbott Pattison, Horace Pippin, Abraham Rattner, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheeler, William Steig, Alfred Stieglitz, Yu-ho Tseng, Max Weber, and William Zorach. Also, works of art, exhibitions, Downtown Gallery, and an award presented to Halpert. Among the photographers represented are: Ansel Adams, Doris Bry, George Karfiol, Carl Kelin, Otto Maya, Arnold Newman, Man Ray, Kay Bell Reynal, Charles Sheeler, Adrian Siegel, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Sochi Sunami, Alredo Valente, Carl Van Vechten, and Max Yavno. I. Correspondence, 1926-1974. II. Artist Files, 1917-1970. III. Notebooks, 1835-1970. IV. Business Records, 1925-1974. V. Writings, 1917-1968. VI. Miscellaneous, ca. 1835-1970. VII. Printed Matter, 1824-1969. VIII. Photographs, ca. 1880s-1960s. Correspondence arranged chronologically; Artist Files arranged alphabetically. Other series are organized into numerous subseries, usually by record type or category, and the arrangement of each is indicated in the series descriptions detailed in the finding aid. |
| extent | 109 linear ft. (on 167 microfilm reels) reels 5488-5654 |
| formats | Correspondence Notes Financial Records Photographs Clippings |
| access | Patrons must use microfilm copy. NOTICE TO RESEARCHERS: Prior to publishing information regarding sales transactions, researchers are responsible for obtaining written permission from both artist and purchaser involved. If it cannot be established after a reasonable search whether an artist or purchaser is living, it can be assumed that the information may be published 60 years after the date of the sales transaction. |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| finding aid | "A Finding Aid to the Records of the Downtown Gallery" by Catherine Stover Gaines and Lisa Lynch, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., is available. Electronic versions available at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/downgall.htm and http://www.aaa.si.edu/findmicrodig/downgall/downgall.html |
| acquisition information | The bulk of the records were originally received as a loan in 1957 and 1967 from Edith Gregor Halpert, and microfilmed on reels ND1-ND71. Additions were received incrementally, between 1972 and 1978 from Nathaly Baum, niece of and executor of Halpert's estate, and microfilmed incrementally as well on various reels. In 1998, with funds provided by the Luce Foundation, the collection was reprocessed by Catherine Stover Gaines into one coherent arrangement, and remicrofilmed 1999-2000, totalling 167 reels of film. Most, but not all, of the documents from the early loaned material were subsequently donated. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Aline and Eero Saarinen papers, 1906-1977 | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | Personal papers of Aline and Eero Saarinen, and Aline Saarinen papers relating to her unpublished biography of architect Stanford White, her published book The Proud Possessors, and her work as an NBC Television correspondent. Papers relating to Stanford White and to Proud Possessors contain primary source material gathered by Saarinen during her research on White and collectors Edward Wales Root and John Quinn. REELS 2074-76, and 2064 (photos): Biographical material; Eero Saarinen's sketches, notes and letters; correspondence between Aline and Eero; Aline Saarinen's correspondence, including letters from John McAndrews, Clifford Odets, Robert Osborne, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joseph Louchheim, and her children; awards; files on her involvement with the Fine Arts Commission, Yale University, and the Design Advisory Committee of the Federal Aviation Agency; speeches, articles on art and architecture; television scripts; clippings and printed material; notes; and photographs and slides of the Saarinens (2 copyprints are also microfilmed on reel 1817 fr. 1054-1058), Charles Alan, and other family members, friends, works of art, and architecture. REELS 2069-2072 and 2084 (photos): Research material, 1903-1960, relating to Saarinen's book The Proud Possessors (1958). Included are notes, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and printed material on art collectors Dr. Albert C. Barnes, Dr. Claribel and Etta Cone, Katherine Sophie Dreier, Charles Lang Freer, Isabella Stewart Gardner, Thomas Gilcrease, Peggy Guggenheim, Mr. and Mrs. Henry O. Havemeyer, Joseph Hirshhorn, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, John G. Johnson, J. Pierpont Morgan, Mrs. Potter Palmer, John Quinn, the Rockefeller family, Edward Wales Root, Gertrude, Leo, Michael and Sarah Stein, and Electra Havemeyer Webb. Among the correspondents is Bernard Berenson. The material on Edward Root contains letters to Saarinen from Grace Cogswell Root; correspondence between Root and his father Elihu, 1903-1936; one or more letters to Root, 1909-1936, from Charles Culver, Robert De Forest, Frederick James Gregg, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Duncan Phillips, and Grace Root; copies of 2 letters to Edward Christiana, 1949; a catalog for a Root memorial exhibition, 1957; Saarinen's notes; and a photograph of Root, one of his home, and photographs of works of art in his collection. Copyrpints also available. Material on John Quinn includes correspondence between Saarinen and Jeanne Robert Foster; letters to Foster from Quinn and his sister, Julia Anderson; a copy of a letter to Foster from William B. Yeats and a drawing of Quinn possibly by Yeats; material relating to Roger Casement; and photographs of Quinn and Foster, and Quinn with Constantin Brancusi, Picasso and Mme. Picasso, Henri Pierre Roche, and Erik Satie. REELS 2072-2073 and 2064 (photos): Research material for Saarinen's unpublished biography of Stanford White. Included are: notes, drafts; correspondence with her publisher, scholars, friends and relatives of White, architects, and others; printed material, 1896-1968; McKim, Mead and White memoranda and correspondence, 1887-1906, much of it with Whitelaw Reid; a letter from Charles Lang Freer, 1900; contracts; architectural descriptions and copies of blueprints; a record book; and miscellaneous letters and documents. Letters from White's father, Richard Grant White, to his daughter-in-law Bessie, Bessie White's reminiscenses of Stanford, and her scrapbook on the Washington Centennial and White's Washington Arch are also included. Photographs include over 300, 1878-ca. 1970, of White, his wife; his father and mother; Evelyn Nesbit; his clients, Anne, Louise and Robert Cheney; and 280 photographs of buildings and residences designed by White or McKim, Mead and White, many photographed by Wayne Andrews. UNMICROFILMED: Primarily papers kept by Aline Saarinen while a NBC television correspondent reporting on mainly art related topics. Included are correspondence, printed material, notes, scripts, clippings, kinescope motion picture film, including "Eyes Opening", transferred to VHS, and photographs. Also included are printed material on Eero Saarinen, and photographs of his work. ADDITION: Notebooks containing Aline Saarinen's notes on architecture, art collectors and Stanford White; printed material; Saarinen's journal, 1928-1932; a guest book; photographs; scripts for Venus in Venice (1964), The American Image and other writings. Three phonograph recordings (33 1/3) of a discussion on opera between Eero Saarinen, Professor H. Ingham Ashworth and Professor Leslie Martin on the Australian Braodcasting Commission, January 29, 1957 are not available for research use. |
| extent | 13.5 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 10 reels) |
| formats | Correspondence Notes Sketches Photographs Clippings |
| access | Collection is being processed and digitized, and is closed to researchers. Access is to microfilmed material only. NBC TV material: Authorization to quote from scripts or film prepared for television must be cleared for rights with: NBC Studios, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. |
| record link | http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/aline-and-eero-saarinen-papers-5589 |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| acquisition information | Donated in 1973 by the Aline Saarinen estate via Charles Alan, art dealer and brother of Saarinen. The NBC TV material was donated 1974 by NBC Studios. Additional material donated 1991 by the Parrish Art Museum, who had received it from Aline Saarinen. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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| title | Oral history interview with Alice Winchester, 1993 Sept. 17-1995 June 29. | repository | Archives of American Art |
| description | An interview of Alice Winchester conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art over three sessions, 1993 Sept. 17, 1994 July 28, and 1995 June 29, in Winchester's home, Danbury, Conn. SEPTEMBER 17, 1993 session: Winchester recalls her childhood in the family of a Congregational minister in New England; attending Smith College (BA 1929) as had her mother and sisters, including her junior year abroad in France; her clerical employment in New York City; her position as office secretary and then associate editor of "The Magazine "Antiques"; working with Homer Eaton Keyes, its founding editor; learning about antiques; and meeting many dealers, curators, and collectors (1930-38). JULY 28, 1994 session: Winchester continues discussing her early years as editor of "The Magazine Antiques," 1938- ; expanding the scope of the magazine, particularly to include articles on folk art and regular features on outstanding public and private collections; her highly specialized, though small, staff, including Helen Comstock; her close associations with important New York dealers, such as Israel Sack and his sons, Harold and Albert, and members of the Ginsburg and Levy firm; her role in establishing the annual Antiques Forum at Colonial Williamsburg, 1949- , which put her in touch with many potential authors for her magazine; the importance of steady travel to view collections and meet collectors and curators; her several books on antiques; and the wealthy collectors whom she met, including Electra Havemeyer Webb, of Shelburne, Vermont. JUNE 29, 1995 session: Winchester talks further on great collectors of American antiques at mid-century, especially Henry Francis Du Pont and Mr. and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Flynt of Deerfield, Mass. and collector's habits and tastes in general. She also talks about other authorities on antiques, including Marshall and "Petey" Davidson and Joseph Downs of the American Wing of the Met. Bio / His Notes: Art editor, author; Danbury, Connecticut. Born 1907. Editor of The Magazine Antiques, 1938-1951 and its successor Antiques, 1951-1972; Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1972-1974. |
| extent | 3 sound cassettes (ca. 3 hrs., 45 min.) : analog. |
| formats | Sound Recording Interviews |
| access | Untranscribed; use requires an appointment |
| record source | http://www.siris.si.edu/ |
| acquisition information | This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:54 |
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