Bowditch, Nancy Douglas, b. 1890 d. 1979
Costume designer, Painter, Playwright, Set designerDublin, N.H. (Show Bio)
Nancy Douglas Bowditch papers, ca. 1900s-1970s
ca. 5000 items (on 7 microfilm reels)
Reel(s): 2826-2831 and 3134
Papers mainly concerning her career as a painter, her father, painter George de Forest Brush, her first husband, painter William Robert Pearmain, and other artists who were friends of the family, notably Barry Faulkner and Abbott Thayer.
REELS 2826-2831: Included are Bowditch's resume; family and personal correspondence of both Bowditch and Pearmain, including letters from Abbott Handerson Thayer, Nelson C. White, Barry Faulkner, Jane (Jean) Clemens (daughter of Samuel), Rockwell Kent and others; photographs of family including George de Forest Brush, two copies of photos of Brush copied by Dorothy Jarvis (copyprint microfilmed on reel 439, fr. 331-332), Brush with a bowtie, 1926 (copyprint also microfilmed on reel 439, fr. 333-334, Photos Artists I), friends, including the Clemenses, and of works of art by Brush; pages from the diary of W. Robert Pearmain; Bowditch's manuscript "The Story of Robert Pearmain"; notes and drafts for Bowditch's biography George de Forest Brush: The Joyous Painter; drawings and paintings by N. Bowditch, W. Robert Pearmain, and one drawing by Brush; business and financial records; and printed material on Brush, Faulkner, Pearmain, and Thayer.
REEL 3134: Two letters, August 22 and October 8, 1918 from Brush to Harold Bowditch.
UNMICROFILMED: Pencil and charcoal sketches by W. Bowditch and by George de Forest Brush; and one photograph of a painting. [These are oversize items that were not filmed].
According to Bowditch, most of her father's papers were burned in his studio fire near the end of his life. Bowditch turned over her papers to the Archives of American Art in several installments from 1968 until her death in 1979. Her daughter, Mary A. Marlowe, donated two additional installments in 1982. Two letters from Brush to Harold Bowditch were inadvertently not microfilmed with the other papers, and were later filmed on reel 3134. 1 linear ft. of duplicate mss. of JOYOUS PAINTER, and some other stories written by Bowditch were not microfilmed.
How to Use this Collection
- Patrons must use microfilm copy.
- Microfilm reels 2826-2831 and 3134 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
- Selected images of documents in this collection are online.
- For more information on using resources at the Archives of American Art, please visit our Ask Us page
Also in the Archives:
