Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Dorothea Gilder Papers Regarding Cecilia Beaux, 1897-1920, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.gilddoro
Creators:
Gilder, Dorothea
Dates:
1897-1920
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
0.6 Linear feet
Repository:
The Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux date from 1897 to 1920 and include correspondence between Beaux and Gilder, scattered printed materials, and two photographs of Beaux with Gilder and other friends. The papers are comprised primarily of correspondence between Cecilia Beaux and her close, life-long friend and intimate companion Dorothea Gilder between 1897 and 1920. The letters recount daily activities, travels, work, social life, attitudes, and aspects of their intimate relationship.

Scope and Content Note

Scope and Content Note
The Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux date from 1897 to 1920 and include correspondence between Beaux and Gilder, scattered printed materials, a photograph of Beaux with Gilder, and a photograph of the two with other friends. The papers are comprised primarily of correspondence between Cecilia Beaux and her close, life-long friend and intimate companion Dorothea Gilder between 1897 and 1920. The letters recount daily activities, travels, work, social life, attitudes, and aspects of their intimate relationship. Also found is scattered third party correspondence. Two folders of printed materials include newspaper reviews of Beaux's 1903 exhibition, and four exhibition catalogs, several of which are not found in the papers of Cecilia Beaux. The photograph is a single snapshot of Beaux with Gilder. One additional photograph of Beaux, Gilder, and friends is found attached to a 1906 letter.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Correspondence, 1897-1920 (Boxes 1-2; 0.6 linear feet)
  • Series 2: Printed Material, 1897-1910 (Box 2; 2 folders)
  • Series 3: Photograph, undated (Box 2; 1 item)

Biographical Note

Biographical Note
Dorothea Gilder was born in 1882 to socially prominent parents Richard Watson Gilder, a poet and publisher of Century Magazine, and Helena De Kay Gilder, an artist who had studied with Albert Pinkham Ryder and John La Farge, and who helped to found the Art Students League and the Society of American Artists. Painter Cecilia Beaux enjoyed a close friendship with the New York family from the mid 1890s until the end of her life. They travelled together in France in 1896, where Beaux had gone to see her paintings hung at the Paris salon. In her memoir, Background with Figures, Beaux describes extended visits at the Gilder's summer farm in Tyringham, Massachusetts, where the Gilders set up a studio for her in a tobacco barn, in which she painted Dorothea and Francesca, a.k.a. The Dancing Lesson (1899). She also attended the Gilders' private salon in New York, frequented by prominent artists, writers, musicians, and actors including Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.
Dorothea Gilder was a favorite portrait subject of Beaux's, sitting for numerous sketches and several major paintings, including Dorothea and Francesca, Dorothea in the Woods (1897), and After the Meeting (1914). Letters between Beaux and Dorothea Gilder contain constant references to their intimite, often physical affection for one another, and suggest a romantic relationship between them. In 1911, Gilder began what was to be a brief stage career under the name of Dorothea Coleman. In 1916, she married Dallas D.L. McGrew, a New York architect who had designed Beaux's summer home in Gloucester, Massachusetts and who had recently returned from the ambulance service in France. She had a child, Helena Gilder McGrew in 1917, and died in 1920 at the age of 38.

Administration

Author
Megan McShea
Sponsor
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art
Provenance
The papers were donated by Helena Newman, Dorothea Gilder's daughter, in two separate accessions in 1971 and 1978.
Alternative Forms Available
The papers of Dorothea Gilder in the Archives of American Art were digitized in
2007
, and total
1093
images.
Processing Information
The collection was microfilmed upon accession on microfilm reels 600 and 2786. Papers were merged and re-processed and described in this finding aid by Megan McShea in 2006 and digitized in 2007 as part of the Terra Foundation for American Art Digitization Project.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Preferred Citation
Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux, 1897-1920. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Material
The Archives of American Art holds the papers of Cecilia Beaux, as well as an oral history with Rosamund Gilder, Dorothea Gilder's sister and a prominent theater critic.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Collectors -- New York (State) -- New York Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art -- Collectors and collecting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Occupation Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Women painters Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Beaux, Cecilia, 1855-1942 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
Business Number: Phone: 202-633-7950
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions