Charles Scribner's Sons,

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

7.0 linear ft. (partially microfilmed on 3 reels)
Reel(s): 124

Files from Scribner's Art Reference Department., including portrait files; sketches and drawings used for Scribner's publications; reproductions and photographs; printed material, and subject files reflecting portraiture, the work of notable illustrators, and miscellaneous reference files.

The portrait files primarily contain photographic portraits of historic individuals from ancient times through the first half of the 20th century. Also found are original drawings, prints, and watercolors 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. Portraits by notable photographers include Elizabeth of Belgium by Keturah Collings, Carolus Duran by Nadar, and John Galsworthy by Arnold Genthe.

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

Other notable 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.

The illustrator files contain both originals 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.

The miscellaneous reference 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 sn

Donated 1957-1958 by Charles Scribner's Sons Art Department. Ca. 60 photographs of artists were removed from the collection and placed in AAA's Photographs of Artists Collections One and Two, and microfilmed on reels 439- 441 and 1817. In 2004, these photographs were scanned and subsequently returned to the Charles Scribner's Sons records. The 38 sketches by William Merritt Berger microfilmed on reel 124 have also been returned to the collection.

How to Use this Collection

• Use requires an appointment.
• Wm. Merritt Berger sketches: microfilm reel 124 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
• Please read the Finding Aid for more detailed information on this collection.
• 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