Archives of American Art

Charles Lang Freer selected papers

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.freechar
Creators:
Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919
Dates:
1876-1931
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
34 Microfilm reels
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Papers concerning Freer's art collecting activities, including correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs. In addition to Freer's own correspondence, the papers include correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler and of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, correspondence of Freer's assistant Katharine Nash Rhoades, and correspondence regarding Freer's bequest to the Smithsonian Institution.
Scope and Contents
Correspondence, ca. 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; 30 v. of letterpress books containing copies of letters sent, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler' mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer letters and regarding the settlement of his estate.
Scope and Contents
Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910;
Scope and Contents
Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art;
Scope and Contents
correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenellosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society.
Scope and Contents
Among Freer's correspondents are: Otto Bacher, Bernard Berenson, Siegfried Bing, Laurence Binyon, W.K. Bixby, Sigisbert Chretien Bosch-Reitz, Charles H. Caffin, Colin Campbell, Richard Canfield, William Merritt Chase, Frederick Stuart Church, Alfred Vance Churchill, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Arthur Wesley Dow, Ernest Fenollosa, Albert Gallatin, John Gellatly, Frederick W. Gookin, Sadakichi Hartmann, Frank J. Hecker, Dikran Kelekian, M. Knoedler & Co., Berthold Laufer, Lien Hui Ching Collection, W.A. Livingstone, Frederick McCormick, Bunkio Matsuki, Gari Melchers, Agnes Meyer, Eugene Meyer, Charles Moore, Yozo Nomura, Rosalind Birnie Philip, Charles A. Platt, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Stephens Warring, Thomas Way, Abbott Handerson Thayer, Dwight W. Tryon, Charles Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution, Beatrix Whistler, James McNeill Whistler, K.T. Wong, Yamanaka & Co., and Seaouke Yue.

Arrangement

Arrangement
All correspondence except letterpress books: arranged alphabetically by correspondent; letterpress books are chonological.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Art collector; Detroit, Michigan. Collected Asian, American, and European art, including a large collection of works by James McNeill Whistler. Founded the Freer Gallery of Art, which is now part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Administration

Existence and Location of Copies
35mm microfilm reels 4720-4753 available for use at Archives of American Art offices, the Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, and through interlibrary loan.
Existence and Location of Originals
Originals in: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Selected for microfilming from the Charles Lang Freer papers at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Microfilmed 1992 by the Archives of American Art with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Fellowships and Grants Research Resources Program. Portions of the correspondence and the letterpress books were previously filmed by the Freer in the 1970 (AAA reels 77, 453-456, and 1217-1232); those reels have been replaced by this microfilming project. See Finding Aid for information on papers not selected for microfilming.

Using the Collection

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

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Whistler, James McNeill, 1834-1903 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bacher, Otto H. (Otto Henry), 1856-1909 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Berenson, Bernard, 1865-1959 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bing, Siegfried, 1838-1905 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Binyon, Laurence, 1869-1943 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bixby, William K. (William Keeney), 1857-1931 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bosch-Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien, 1860- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Caffin, Charles Henry, 1854-1918 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Campbell, Colin, Lord, 1853-1895 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Campbell, Colin, Lady, 1857-1911 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Church, Frederick S. (Frederick Stuart), 1842-1924 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Churchill, Alfred Vance, 1864-1949 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Canfield, Richard A. (Richard Albert), 1855-1914 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Coburn, Alvin Langdon, 1882-1966 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dewing, Thomas Wilmer, 1851-1938 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Fenollosa, Ernest Francisco, 1853-1908 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gallatin, A. E. (Albert Eugene), 1881-1952 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gellatly, John, 1853-1931 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gookin, Frederick William Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hartmann, Sadakichi, 1867-1944 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hecker, Frank J. (Frank Joseph), 1846-1927 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kelekian, Dikran, 1868-1951 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Laufer, Berthold, 1874-1934 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
McCormick, Frederick, 1870- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Matsuki, Bunkio, 1867-1940 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Melchers, Gari, 1860-1932 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Meyer, Agnes Elizabeth Ernst, 1887-1970 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Meyer, Eugene, 1875-1959 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Moore, Charles, 1855-1942 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nomura, Yozo Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Philip, Rosalind Birnie, 1873-1958 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reid, Alexander Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rhoades, Katharine N., 1885-1965 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Platt, Charles A. (Charles Adams), 1861-1933 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Thayer, Abbott Handerson, 1849-1921 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tryon, Dwight William, 1849-1925 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Walcott, Charles D. (Charles Doolittle), 1850-1927 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Warring, Joseph Stephens, 1863?-1944 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Way, Thomas R. (Thomas Robert), 1861-1913 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Whistler, Beatrix Philip Godwin, d. 1896 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wong, K. T. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Yue, Seaouke Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Freer Gallery of Art Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Smithsonian Institution Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
M. Knoedler & Co. Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Yamanaka & Company Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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