American Academy of Arts and Letters records, 1864-1942

Collection Information

Size: 5 Microfilm reels, 800 items on 5 microfilm reels

Summary: The microfilmed American Academy of Arts and Letters records consist of artists' papers containing correspondence, notes, biographical material, exhibition catalogs, and other published material. Included is a volume of notes, drawings, and calculations made by George Bellows for a study of Jay Hambidge's theory of Dynamic Symmetry, as well as correspondence and biographical and critical material on George de Forest Brush, Childe Hassam, Francis D. Millet, Joseph Pennell, Elihu Vedder, and J. Q. A. Ward. The Hassam papers include letters from John Taylor arms, E. H. Blashfield, William Merritt Chase, Royal Cortissoz, J. Alden Weir, and Charles Erskine Scott Wood. All groups contain official Academy correspondence from its secretary Robert Underwood Johnson.

Biographical/Historical Note

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is an honor society in New York comprised of artists, writers, architects, and composers. The Academy was created in 1904 by members of the National Institute of Arts and modeled on the Académie française. The Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and letters merged on December 30, 1976.

Provenance

Lent to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1965. This is a collection of miscellaneous papers representing a gathering over the years of unsolicited documentary resources on American art given or addressed to the Academy.

Language Note

English .

Location of Originals

• Originals in American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, N.Y.