Archives of American Art

Gardner Cox papers

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.coxgard
Creators:
Cox, Gardner, 1906-1988
Massachusetts Art Commission
Portraits (Firm: New York, N.Y.)
Putnam & Cox (Boston, Mass.)
Saint Botolph Club (Boston, Mass.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. School
American Academy in Rome
Dates:
1920-1995
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
7.8 Linear feet
(on 9 microfilm reels)
12 Linear feet
Addition
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Biographical material, correspondence, business records, extensive portrait files, sketches and drawings, notes and writings, art works, subject files, printed materials, photographs, audio-visual material and palette samples relate chiefly to Cox's career as a portrait painter.
Scope and Contents
Included are: short biographical sketches, a résumé, and membership cards; correspondence, primarily with the gallery Portraits, Inc. and with sitters; early letters of recommendation and letters from Austin Stevens, who painted Cox's portrait; contracts, insurance records, leases, frame invoices, and extensive income tax records; ten cassette tapes and transcript of an interview conducted by Phoebe Barnes Driver; notebooks, notes and writings, including a biographical sketch of Edward W. Forbes, a transcription of a portrait dedication, invitation lists; notebooks; appointment calendars; sketchbooks and loose sketches.
Scope and Contents
Also included are extensive portrait files of sitters containing correspondence, invoices; some contain photographs. Sitters include Dean Acheson, Judge Bailey Aldrich, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, Dean George Baker, Ann Banks, Talcot M. Banks, Barry Bingham, Sr., Eleanor Bowman, Justice William Joseph Brennan, Jr., Kingman Brewster, Jr., John Nicholas Brown, Orville H. Bullitt, William A.M. Burden and sons, J. B. CanantHammond E. Chaffetz, Secretary William T. Coleman, Abram T. Collier, Mary Crocker, Nathan Cummings, Justice R. Ammi Cutter, Dr. Francis de Marneffe, Dr. Derek Denny-Brown, Douglas Dillon, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, Frederick M. Eaton, Daughter of Frederick M. Eaton, Dr. Frank Elliott, John Franklin Enders, Justice Felix Frankfurter, Robert Frost, Richard Glenn Gettell, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Honorable and Mrs. Gordon Gray, General Wallace M. Greene, Burton Grey, Najeeb E. Halaby, Justice John M. Harlan, Averell and Pamela Harriman, Judge William Hastie, Francis W. Hatch, Hatcher, Paul V. Hayden, Alfred Hayes, Ralph Helverson, Christian Herter, Hopkinson, V.P.H. Humphrey, R. Keith Kane, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Rev. Kinsolving, Secretary Henry Kissinger, Henry Laughlin, Martina Lawrence, Lessing, Edward H. Levi, Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, Lippman, Stacy Lloyd, Professor Louis Loss, Robert Lovett
Scope and Contents
Professor Edward Mason, Jean Mayer, Secretary Robert S. McNamara, Professor Donald H. Menzel, Hary Myers, Dr. Francis D. Moore, Maurice Needham, William Oates, John Lord O'Brian, Daniel H. O'Leary, Howard C. Peterson, Edwin H.B. Pratt, Norman S. Raab, R. Stewart Rauch, Herbert Read, Dr. Duncan Reid, Resor, Arthur Ross, Eugene V. Rostow, Dean Rusk, Dean Albert M. Sacks, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger, Sally Scott, George C. Seybolt, Dr. Howard Sprague, Justice Potter Stewart, J. Statton, Lewis Toepfer, Marian Vaillant, Margaret Vaughan, Chief Justice Earl Warren, James Webb, Fred Weed, E. A. Weeks, Professor Fred L. Whipple, Justice Byron White, George M. White, Judge Raymond Wilkins, Michael Wiseman, Professor Arnold Wolfers, and Judge Charles Wyansky.
Scope and Contents
Also found are institution files relating to activities with the American Academy in Rome, Boston Arts Festival and its revival in 1985, Massachusetts Art Commission, St. Botolph Club, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and memorials to Samuel Morison, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Robert Gould Shaw; exhibition files, containing correspondence, catalogs and announcements; and files relating to Cox's home and studio and the publication of LAWYERS PAINTED BY GARDNER COX. Also, clippings, invitations, announcements and printed material from clubs and other organizations; and photographs of Cox, his family, a bust of Cox, and many of his portraits.
Scope and Contents
ADDITION (UNMICROFILMED; ca. 12 ft.): Biographical material; correspondence; writings; notebooks; sketches and drawings; financial papers; photographs of portrait and non-portrait work; printed material; exhibition announcements; lists of work; posthumous inventory with photographs of selected work. The strength of this group lies in the abundance of studies for portraits, ranging from quick sketches in notebooks to studies of aspects of sitters to preliminary drawings, to photographs of his work, predominantly portraits but also including his paintings of forms abstracted from nature.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Portrait painter; Cambridge, Mass. Died 1988. Cox was a friend or acquaintance of many leading cultural figures in Boston and Cambridge, painted the portraits of many of them, and often developed friendly relations with his eminent sitters.

Administration

Existence and Location of Copies
35mm microfilm reels 4486-4494 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Papers on reels 4486-4494 were donated 1982-1985 by Gardner Cox and by his widow, Phyllis Byrnes Cox, 1989-1990. Additional papers received in 1998 from Cox's sons, James and Benjamin, and his daughter, Phyllis Koch.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art festivals Function Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Portrait painting -- 20th century -- Massachusetts Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lawyers -- Portraits Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Politicians -- Portraits Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketchbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sound recordings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Portrait painters -- Massachusetts Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Forbes, Edward Waldo, 1873-1969 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shaw, Robert Gould, 1837-1863 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Morison, Samuel Eliot, 1887-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stevens, Austin Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Driver, Phoebe Barnes, 1908- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Boston Arts Festival Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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