Series 2: Correspondence, 1863-1968, undated (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)

Subseries 2.1 Cecilia Beaux Letters to A. Piatt Andrew, 1904- circa 1936, undated

Letters from Beaux to the Harvard economist and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, Abram Piatt Andrew, her neighbor in the Gloucester, Massachusetts summer colony where she lived from 1905. Letters concern mostly personal matters, with occasional comment on Beaux's work. Fragments of letters are occasionally found, and many of the letters are undated. Letters are arranged by date where available.

Subseries 2.2 General Correspondence, circa 1863-1968

General correspondence includes personal and professional correspondence. Where they exist, Beaux's outgoing letters are interfiled with letters she received in a chronological arrangement.

Family correspondence includes letters between Beaux and family members of the Leavitt and Drinker families in Philadelphia throughout her life, especially during her travels in Europe, where she studied art, painted, and exhibited during several lengthy stays between 1888 and 1924 (see also undated correspondence). Beaux's many letters to her family detail her social life and attitudes, as well as her progress with her artwork. Illustrated letters are scattered throughout her letters to family, and a photograph of Beaux and her traveling companion, cousin May, is found enclosed with a letter dated 1888. Another photograph, of Beaux's sister and nephews, is found with a letter of 1889.

Professional correspondence concerning exhibitions, teaching and jury assignments, requests for articles, and her 1930 autobiography is also found, with scattered drafts of related outgoing letters. Among the artists and other intellectual figures found in her correspondence are John Singer Sargent, Thornton Oakley, Joseph Pennell, Harrison S. Morris, Isabella Stuart Gardner, Khalil Gibran, Rockwell Kent, and George Bellows. See the index to correspondence for others represented.

Scattered writings of Beaux found among her letters include an autobiographical essay found in an 1894 letter to Tom Janvier, and the text of a speech made at the Sorbonne, which is enclosed with a letter of 1921 from Beaux to her sister. Additional biographical notes are found in Biographical Materials, and other lectures are found in Writings. Many letters from Beaux's admirers are found following the 1930 publication of her memoir, Background with Figures. Correspondence with owners of her paintings is found for the years 1933 to 1935, when Beaux assisted in a large exhibition given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Additional records of this and other exhibitions are found in Personal Business Records.

Undated letters are filed by author's name at the end of the series, and letters with approximate dates are filed at the end of a given year or range of years. In some cases, dates have been pencilled on to the top right corner of undated letters, but these dates are not in all cases reliable. Where envelopes exist they are filed before letters, and enclosures are filed after letters.

Additional correspondence is found a scrapbook filed with Printed Materials, and essays in the form of letters are filed with other essays in the Writings series.

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