Collection Information

Size: 4 microfilm reels.

Summary: Biographical documents; correspondence; diaries; writings; photographs; and printed material. Included are letters to and from Lilla Cabot Perry, and selected letters to and from her husband Thomas Sergeant Perry and daughter Margaret Perry from family members, artists, writers, poets and friends. Correspondents include: Bernard Berenson, Henry James, James Russell Lowell, Claude Monet, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Edmund Charles Tarbell. Also included are French identification cards for Lilla Cabot Perry and her husband, 1897; diaries of Lilla Cabot Perry, 1874?/1875, 1886, and of Thomas Perry, 1887-1894; guest book of Thomas and Margaret Perry; poems, and "Reminiscences of Claude Monet" by Lilla Cabot Perry; typed commentary by Edwin Arlington Robinson for the jacket of Perry's THE JAR OF DREAMS, with notes by her; "Reminiscences of Edwin Arlington Robinson" by Margaret Perry; inscribed photographs of Henry James and James Russell Lowell, and a signed photograph of Claude Monet; an obituary of Perry; and a Memorial Exhibition catalog.

Biographical/Historical Note

Impressionist painter and author; Boston, Mass., Giverny, France, and Hancock, N.H.; b. 1848; d. 1933. Thomas Sergeant Perry, author, educator; Boston, Mass., Giverny, France, and Hancock, N.H. Lilla Cabot Perry studied painting at Cowles Art School in Boston with Dennis Miller Bunker and Robert Vonnoh, and in Paris at the Julian and Colarossi academies, and at Alfred Stevens' studio. She had a house in Giverny, France and introduced numerous American artists, who came to Giverny to paint, to her neighbor, Claude Monet. She wrote several books of poetry including FROM THE GARDEN OF HELLAS, THE HEART OF THE WEED and THE JAR OF DREAMS. In 1874, she married Thomas Sergeant Perry, a tutor in French and German at Harvard University and later an instructor in English. He was also the author of several books. The Perrys had three daughters, Margaret, Alice, and Edith. Alice married Joseph Clark Grew, a diplomat who was United States ambassador to Turkey and Japan, and undersecretary of state.

Provenance

Lent for microfilming 1992 by Colby College Library, Special Collections.

Alternative Forms Available

Microfilm reels 4568-4571 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.

Restrictions on Access

The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.

How to Cite This Collection

Lilla Cabot Perry and Perry family papers [microfilm], 1861-[ca. 1943]. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.