Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Dept. records, 1839-1962

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A Finding Aid to the Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Department records, 1839-1962, in the Archives of American Art, by Jean Fitzgerald

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Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Table of Contents:

• Historical Note
• Overview of the Collection
• How to Use the Collection
• Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Historical Information

Charles Scribner's Sons was founded as a publishing partnership of Isaac D. Baker and Charles Scribner in 1846. The company set out to discover and publish the work of new American authors. The first work to be published was The Puritans and Their Principles by Edwin Hall, followed by many theological treatises, and the first bestseller, Napoleon and His Marshals by the Rev. J. T. Headley.

After Isaac Baker's death in 1850, Charles Scribner continued to direct the company which was primarily known for its books on religion. In the mid-1860s, Scribner published an American version of German author Johann Peter Lange's Biblical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures. Co-published with T. and T. Clark of Edinburgh, the resulting twenty-six volume work was both a commercial and critical success. Almost a century later, the two publishing houses again collaborated on a revision of Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible.

In 1865, Charles Scribner and Company expanded its range into magazine publishing with the quasi-religious Hours at Home that promoted the virtues by which Americans were supposed to live. In 1870 a new firm, Scribner & Company, was formed to publish a successor magazine entitled Scribner's Monthly. The magazine thrived and began to attract young American writers.

Charles Scribner died of typhoid in Lucerne, Switzerland on August 26, 1871, leaving the business to his eldest son, John Blair Scribner. In 1873 Scribner & Company launched a children's periodical, St. Nicholas, under the editorship of Mary Mapes Dodge, with Frank R. Stockton as assistant editor. The magazine brought many now-classic books to the publishing firm and established it permanently in the field of children's literature.

The 1870s saw the growth of the subscription book department. In association with Messrs. Black of Edinburgh, Scribners brought out the first American edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, selling 70,000 sets. In later years the subscription department published library sets of the works of well-known authors including J. M. Barrie, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Its successor, the reference book department, became the foremost American publisher of reference works such as the Dictionary of American Biography, the Dictionary of American History.

In 1875, Charles Scribner II joined his brother, John Blair Scribner, and other partners, Edward Seymour and Andrew Armstrong, in the firm. Seymour died in 1877, and Armstrong sold his share to the Scribner's in 1878, leaving the book publishing company wholly controlled by the Scribner family. The name was changed to Charles Scribner's Sons. John Blair Scribner died in 1879, leaving his brother to manage the business.

In 1881 one of the outside partners, Roswell Smith, bought up enough stock to acquire individual control of Scribner & Company, the magazine company. Thus, Scribner's Monthly and the children's magazine St. Nicholas passed entirely out of the hands of the Scribner family. The remaining owners were reincorporated as the Century Company and Scribner's Monthly was renamed the Century Magazine. Charles Scribner's Sons agreed to stay out of the magazine publishing business for five years.

Charles Scribner II was joined by his younger brother, Arthur Hawley Scribner, in 1884, and during their almost fifty year partnership, they focused the company's business on publishing American literature. The publications of this period include Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy, Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventure of Robin Hood, and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. A popular series of books, "Scribner Illustrated Classics" became famous for their illustrations by Howard Pyle, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, and other members of the Brandywine school. In 1889, Henry Adams published his History of the United States in nine volumes.

Following the five-year moratorium on magazine publishing, the firm re-entered the magazine market and introduced the new Scribner's Magazine in December 1886. Under its original editor, Edward L. Burlingame, the magazine grew into a profitable enterprise and was an important venue for new authors, including Edith Wharton, who would follow their magazine debuts with many successful books. By the turn of the 20th century, Scribner's had virtually cornered the market in American literature and was enjoying a golden age of American book publishing. During this period, authors included Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Wharton. In 1913, Charles Scribner III joined the firm.

During the 1920s, many important new authors were published, including James Boyd, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, and Thomas Wolfe. In 1928, Charles Scribner II turned over the presidency to his younger brother Arthur, who began the publication of the first volumes of the Dictionary of American Biography. Charles Scribner II died in 1930 and Arthur Scribner died two years later, leaving Charles Scribner III to preside alone. In spite of the Depression, Charles Scribner's Sons continued to promote new authors including Taylor Caldwell, Marcia Davenport, Nancy Hale, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. During the 1930s a separate children's department was established by Alice Dalgliesh. In 1937, Scribner's Magazine folded after fifty years of publication. The Dictionary of American History was published in 1940.

Charles Scribner III died suddenly in 1952, necessitating the relocation of Charles Scribner IV from his employment as a cryptoanalyst in Washington, D.C. to take charge of the firm in New York. He established the Scribner Library, a line of quality paperbacks that included the titles The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, The Sun Also Rises, and Ethan Frome. Scribner also set out to develop fields of non-fiction such as history, biography, how-to books, and reference works including the Album of American History, and the Dictionary of Scientific Biography.

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Overview of the Collection

Scope and Contents

The records of the Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Department measure 7.0 linear feet and date from 1839 to 1962. The records of the department include original art works, photographs, scattered letters, and miscellaneous printed material reflecting the portraiture and other illustration work completed in support of the wide range of materials and topics published by Charles Scribner's Sons over the company's long publishing history.

Arrangement and Series Description

The collection is organized into 3 alphabetically-arranged series. Oversized material from all series have been housed in Box 7 (Sol), Box 8 (Sol), and OVs 9 - 12. Notations for the oversized materials are noted at the appropriate folder title with see also/see references

• Series 1: Portrait Files, 1839-1962, undated (Boxes 1-5, 7, OV 11; 4.5 linear feet)
• Series 2: Illustrator Files, 1878-1921, undated (Box 5, 6, 8-OV12; 1.5 linear feet)
• Series 3: Miscellaneous Reference Files, 1933-1952, undated (Box 6, 8, OV 12; 1.0 linear feet)

Subjects and Names

Provenance

The Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Department records were donated in 1957 and 1958 by Charles Scribner's Sons.

How the Collection was Processed

The papers were processed in March 2006 by Jean Fitzgerald. Portrait photographs previously housed in Photographs of Artists One (AAA Microfilm Reels 439-440) and Photographs of Artists Two (AAA Microfilm Reel 1817) have been returned to the Charles Scribner's Sons Records and are described in this finding aid. Thirty-eight drawings by William Merritt Berger that had been separated and filmed on AAA Microfilm reel 124) were also returned to this collection in 2006. The collection was digitized in 2010 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

How to Use the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Ownership & Literary Rights

The Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Department records are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

Available Formats

The collection was digitized in 2010 and is available via the Archives of American Art's website.

How to Cite this Collection

Charles Scribner's Sons Art Reference Department records, 1839-1962. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Series 1: Portrait Files, 1839-1962, undated (Boxes 1-5, 7, OV 12; 4.4 linear feet)

These files primarily contain portraits of historic individuals from ancient times through the first half of the 20th century. Many are original drawings, prints, and paintings by miscellaneous artists including Otto Bacher, Carroll Beckwith, Jay Norwood (Ding) Darling, James Montgomery Flagg, Valerian Gribayédoff, Lydia Hess, Sid Hydeman, William L. Metcalf, Waldo Peirce, George T. Tobin, and Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Portrait photographs by notable photographers include Elizabeth of Belgium by Keturah Collings, Carolus Duran by Nadar, and John Galsworthy by Arnold Genthe.

Several files contain additional related photographs and printed material, including photographs of the homes of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Captain Cook, Goethe, Sir Francis Seymour Haden, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Victor Hugo, Jean-François Millet, Samuel F. B. Morse, Napoleon, Captain Ernest Peixotto, Ernst Renan, John Ruskin, William Makepease Thackeray, Martin Van Buren, George Washington, and William Wordsworth.

Additional photographs depict the death masks of Robert Burns and Felix Mendelssohn; Kaiser Wilhelm on army maneuvers; ceremonies marking the bicentennial of the death of Racine; and Frederic Remington with colleagues Richard Harding Davis, Stephen Bonsal, and Caspar Whitney. There is also a letter from John Lockwood Kipling discussing sketches of India.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.

Series 2: Illustrator Files, 1878-1921, undated (Box 5-6, 8, OV 9-OV12; 1.5 linear feet)

These files contain both original and reproductions of art work that is not portraiture. The file for unidentified artists includes ink drawings of Civil War soldiers, a tempera painting for the cover of Boot Straps: Autobiography of Tom M. Girdler, and an oil painting for A Child's Garden of Verse. There is original art work by Otto Bacher, Lowell LeRoy Balcom, Wladyslaw Theodore Benda, Carl Michel Boog, Paul Bransom, S. R. Burleigh, George Carlson, Carl Cobbledick, A. R. Dugmore, G. W. Edwards, Walter H. Everett, John Fulleylove, William St. John Harper, O. Herford, Arthur E. Jameson, J. E. Kelly, Charles R. Knight, M. Jean McLean, E. J. Meeker, E. C. Peixotto, Victor S. Perard, J. Campbell Phillips, Shipley, Sarah S. Stilwell, Jack Van Ryder, George Varian, H. D. Williams, and N. C. Wyeth.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.

Series 3: Miscellaneous Reference Files, 1933-1952, undated (Box 6, 8, OV 12; 1.0 linear feet)

These files contain original art work, photographs, and printed material concerning miscellaneous reference topics. The files concerning Ancient Art and The Bible contain portraits of various saints and historic individuals and photographs of historic sites.

The New York City file includes early photographs of the Scribner Building, the Custom House and Bowling Green, the Times Building, the Postal Telegraph Building, Federal Hall in snow, the New York Stock Exchange, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Washington Square Arch, Grant's Tomb, the Presbyterian Hospital, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. There is also a photograph of the construction of the Flatiron Building and an aerial photograph of the Flatiron Building.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.