Weir family papers, 1809-circa 1961, bulk 1830-1920

Letters to John F. Weir form the bulk of the series. Of particular note are letters which provide insight into the minds of some of the most important landscape and impressionist artists of the late-19th century and evoke a sense of the waning years of the Hudson River School and the efforts of those artists to capture the undeveloped wildness of the American landscape before it passed into history. Five letters and a sketch from Jervis McEntee are deeply personal as the artist expresses despair about his inability to find subjects in the landscape of Roundout, New York, that had previously so inspired him. He writes of how "The country has changed and lost its quiet," and his desperate need for the companionship of other artists that he had enjoyed with Sanford Gifford and Worthington Whittredge, concluding that "Now when I go away alone to these isolated mountain vallies [sic] I nearly die from loneliness…" Ironically later letters from Frederic Edwin Church refer to the death of Jervis McEntee, and Church's desire to seek seclusion and paint alone in his house.

There is an 1834 letter from Thomas Cole and draft of an agreement relating to his renting a room from John Trumbull at the American Academy of Fine Arts for the exhibition of a picture The Angel Announcing the Birth of Our Savior.

Several letters from renowned actor Edwin Booth, mention contributions of sketches to his wife's album from Sanford Robinson Gifford, Jervis McEntee, and Weir himself. There are 4 letters and 3 sketches from Sanford Robinson Gifford enclosing a photo of Gifford. In one letter he describes re-working the sky of his painting Ruins of the Parthenon against the strong recommendation of Frederic Edwin Church, and declares the work a success.

Additional details regarding individual correspondents are provided in the container listing.

In addition to photographs of Julian Alden Weir, Robert Weir, and others, there is a photograph of Robert Fulton's drawing, Love's First Interview, inscribed to John F. Weir, and a photograph of a war monument by an unknown sculptor.

The series is arranged by type of material. Letters to John F. Weir are arranged alphabetically. Correspondents represented with 5 or more items are housed in named files.