Powers, Hiram, b. 1805 d. 1873
SculptorCincinnati, Ohio (Show Bio)
Hiram Powers and Powers family papers, 1827-1953
12.2 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 27 reels)
Reel(s): 675, 688, 815-818, 1131-1147, 1413, 3470, 3534 & 3612
Correspondence; biographical sketches and data; financial material; writings; autograph and sketch album; sketches; floor plans; patents and contracts for inventions; photographs; clippings; printed material; a photograph album; and miscellaneous material.
REEL 675: A scrapbook probably kept by Hiram or Mrs. Powers, labeled "Notices of Powers Works" containing newspaper clippings, 1847-1849, 1873, 1876, and undated, mainly about Powers' sculpture, "The Greek Slave," 230 pp.
REEL 688: A "Studio Memorandum," 1841-1845. This 85-page record book contains frequent, brief handwritten notations of Powers' commissions, work progress, price quotations for work, business contacts made, letters written, receipts and expenditures, comments on problems such as difficulties encountered removing a mold, two pages of notes on human anatomy, etc.
REELS 815-818: Letters, ca. 1829-1876, arranged alphabetically by Clara Louisa Dentler, Powers' granddaughter. Included are 531 letters from friends and associates in Cincinnati, Ohio and 191 replies from Powers. Correspondence concerns sculpture commissions and shipments, personal affairs, and local Cincinnati news. Family correspondence and an inventory "A Catalog of a Collection of Letters from Old Residents of Cincinnati to Hiram Powers," containing an alphabetical list of correspondents with dates and brief descriptions of letters, biographical sketches of some correspondents, and an index are also included. [An inventory of the letters is on reel 1413].
REELS 1131-1146: Correspondence, ca. 10,000 letters dated ca.1827-1873, with transcripts of most letters, including letters received and letterpress and handwritten copies of letters sent; biographical data; financial data including account records, receipts, a translation of his will, studio expenditures, sales of the estate, and price lists of works; writings by Powers including stories, poems, descriptions of his inventions, and illustrated notes on sculpture; writings by others; an autograph album to Louisa Greenough Powers (Ibbotson) from her mother, 1858, containing handwritten poems from William Bryant, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning; an autograph and sketch album, ca. 1862-1875; unidentified sketches; floor plans; patents and contracts for Powers' inventions; clippings and printed materials, 1934-1953. Among the correspondents are Samuel Atlee, Sidney Brooks, Charles J. Eaton, Edward Everett and Henry Gourdin.[A complete inventory of correspondents appears on reel 1131].
REELS 1147 (Photos) & 3534 (Photo album): Photographs (some by his son, Longworth Powers), of Powers, his family, his studio and home, his sculpture, Florentine landscapes, personalities of the 19th century, sculpture of his son Preston Powers, and of animals and American Indians for use in an article by Preston. In addition there is an album of photographs, 1927, compiled by Louisa Ibbotson, containing photos of Powers, of Florentine sculpture and buildings, and of sculpture by Powers, his sons Longworth and Preston, Antonio Canova, Pierce Francis Connelly, Odoardo Fantacchiotti, Joel T. Hart, John Jackson, and Larkin G. Mead.
REEL 3470: Copy prints of photographs of Hiram Powers family, ca. 1860, sketch of the first Hiram Powers residence in Ohio, and of a portrait of Powers painted by Alexander Francis, 1837. Also included are photocopied typescripts of excerpts from the autobiography of Joseph Wright Taylor in which he comments on a visit to the Powers family, from a letter by Powers, 1837, commenting on the Francis portrait.
REEL 3612: Letters, one from Andrew Jackson thanking Powers for the bust of Chief Justice George Marshall, December 7, 1835, and one from Powers to William B. Astor thanking him for money sent and describing the progress of his statue "California," July 10, 1857; a facsimile of a handwritten poem by John Quincy Adams "To Hiram Powers," 1837, as well as a few handwritten copies in an unknown hand; a handwritten copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, "Hiram Powers' Greek Slave," in an unknown hand; cartes-de-visite of Jean Louis Agassiz, Robert Browning, Issac Disraeli, Gibson Eny, Henry W. Longfellow, Florence Nightingale, and Alfred Tennyson. Also included are a copy print of a photograph of the Powers family, ca. 1860; and a sterograph of the house in Woodstock, Vermont where Powers was born, 1874.
UNMICROFILMED: A cap and hankerchief of Powers; a bronze plaque from a work by Powers; a miscellaneous tag; 3 photographs under glass of Powers' sculpture; and 9 positive and 3 negatives of Powers, his sculpture, unidentified individuals, and a sculpture by Preston Powers.
Location of Originals: Reels 815-818: Originals in: Cincinnati Historical Society.
Reel 3470: Original photographs owned by Christina Seeber.
Material on reels 815-818 lent for microfilming 1974 by Cincinnati Historical Society. Remainder of the papers transferred from NMAA, 1975-1985, who had received them 1970 from Powers' heirs.
How to Use this Collection
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- Microfilm reels 675, 688, 815-818, 1131-1147, 1413, 3470, 3534 & 3612 available in all Archives offices and through interlibrary loan.
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