Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Everett Shinn Collection, 1877-1958, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.shinever
Creators:
Shinn, Everett, 1876-1953
Dates:
1877-1958
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
3.1 Linear feet
Repository:
The collected papers of Everett Shinn measure 3.1 linear feet and date from 1877 to 1958. Found within the papers are biographical material; correspondence with friends and colleagues; personal business records; art work, including two sketchbooks of designs for Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre; notes and writings; eight scrapbooks; printed material; and numerous photographs of Shinn, his colleagues, and his work.

Scope and Contents note

Scope and Contents note
The collected papers of Everett Shinn measure 3.1 linear feet and date from 1877 to 1958. Found within the papers are biographical material; correspondence with friends and colleagues; personal business records; art work, including two sketchbooks of designs for Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre; notes and writings; eight scrapbooks; printed material; and numerous photographs of Shinn, his colleagues, and his work.
Biographical material includes miscellaneous biographical accounts and a membership certificate from the American Watercolor Society.
Correspondence consists of letters from Shinn's friends and colleagues, primarily from author Poultney Bigelow. There are also letters from decorator Elsie De Wolfe, dramatist Clyde Fitch, and artists Charles Dana Gibson, William Glackens, and George Luks, whose letters are illustrated. There are scattered letters from A. Stirling Calder, Theodore Dreiser, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, Julia Marlowe, Claude Rains, Ruth Warrick, Alexander Woollcott, and Mahonri Young.
Personal business records consist of two account books recording art work used in publications and loaned for exhibitions, and miscellaneous invoices.
Artwork consists of two sketchbooks of designs for the Stuyvesant Theatre murals and miscellaneous drawings by Shinn. Artwork by others, including H. B. Eddy, James Ben Ali Haggin, Colonel Hegan, Oliver Henfold, George Luks, and Philip Nolan, consist primarily of caricatures.
Notes and writings include a handwritten draft of Shinn's play Hazel Weston or More Sinned Against Than Usual, notes for a book on art, poems, and typescripts by Shinn including "Plush and Cut Glass," a book about George Luks.
Eight scrapbooks primarily contain clippings. Scrapbook 2 contains clippings, exhibition catalogs, a note from Stuart Benson, an illustrated postcard from Ed, and scattered photographs.
Additional printed material is primarily comprised of clippings, but there are also exhibition announcements and catalogs for Shinn, reproductions of art work, booklets, and miscellaneous printed material. Rare programs for plays written by Shinn list cast members, including Wilfred Buckland, Edith Glackens, William J. Glackens, James Ben Ali Haggin, Robert Henri, J. E. Laub, Thomas Newell Metcalf, James M. Preston, Florence Scovel Shinn, and John Sloan.
Numerous photographs are found within the collection and depict Shinn as a boy, in various Philadelphia newspaper offices, in costume for stage performances, at the easel, and with colleagues, including Robert Henri and John Sloan. Photographs of colleagues also include author Poultney Bigelow, decorator Elsie De Wolfe, portrait painter James Ben Ali Haggin, actress Julia Marlowe, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts classmates William Glackens and Florence Scovel. There are also photographs of Shinn's residences, exhibition installations, set designs and stagings of plays, murals, and other art work.

Arrangement note

Arrangement note
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Biographical material, 1953 (Box 1; 2 folders)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1899-1952 (Box 1, 4; 61 folders)
  • Series 3: Personal business records, 1898-1928 (Box 1; 3 folders)
  • Series 4: Artwork, 1893-1928 (Box 1, 4, OV 6; 10 folders)
  • Series 5: Notes and writings, 1922-1951 (Box 1; 9 folders)
  • Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1898-1952 (Box 1, 2, 4, BV 5; 21 folders)
  • Series 7: Printed material, 1894-1958 (Box 2, 4; 21 folders)
  • Series 8: Photographs, 1877-1950 (Box 2-4, OV 7; 1.3 linear feet)

Biographical/Historical note

Biographical/Historical note
Everett Shinn (1876-1953) was a painter, muralist, illustrator, and theatrical scene designer who worked primarily in New York City. Shinn was a member of "The Eight," a group of painters known for their realistic portrayal of American urban life.
Everett Shinn was born on November 6, 1876 in Woodstown, New Jersey, the son of Isaiah and Josephine Ransley Shinn. He attended Quaker schools until 1890 when he went to the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia, studying engineering and industrial design until 1893.
Shinn enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1893 and 1897. During this time he was hired as an artist-reporter for the Philadelphia Press, the Inquirer, and the Ledger. He also forged his friendships with painters George Luks, John Sloan, William J. Glackens, and Robert Henri, all future members of "The Eight."
Shinn moved to New York City in 1897 and quickly found employment as an illustrator for the newspaper The World. In 1898, he married Florence Scovel, the first of his four wives. In 1900, he traveled to England and France, and was later employed by Harper's Weekly. Shinn befriended decorator Elsie De Wolf and architect Stanford White, and designed and executed murals for the homes of their clients. Shinn created eighteen mural panels for David Belasco's Stuyvesant Theatre that opened in 1907, and murals for the Council Room of the Trenton, New Jersey City Hall in 1911. His most notable murals were created for the Oak Room of New York's Plaza Hotel in the 1940s.
In 1908, Shinn participated in the seminal group exhibition of "The Eight" at Macbeth Gallery. In 1911, he was included in the Exhibition of Independent Artists, and was invited to send works to the International Exhibition of Modern Art, better known as the Armory Show, in 1913, but for an unknown reason, declined. Shinn exhibited regularly and his works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Throughout his career Shinn was fascinated by the theater and the act of performance, which he made the subject of many of his works. He also wrote, directed, and performed in his own plays. Between 1917 and 1920, Shinn worked as an art director for Sam Goldwin at Goldwyn Pictures. He also worked for Inspiration Pictures from 1920 to 1923, and for William Randolph Hearst at Cosmopolitan Pictures in 1923. He divorced Florence Scovel in 1912, and married Corinne Baldwin in 1913, with whom he had two children, Janet and Davidson. He divorced again in 1921, married Gertrude Chase in 1924, and divorced again in 1932. In 1933, Shinn married his fourth wife, Paula Downing; they divorced in 1942.
From 1935 to 1939, he covered a murder trial for the Boston Traveler, exhibited his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and won a prize for watercolor at an exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute. In the 1940s Shinn participated in exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and at the American-British Art Center. In 1949, Shinn was made an Academician of the National Academy of Design, and in 1951, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Everett Shinn died on May 1, 1953 in New York City.

Administration

Author
Jean Fitzgerald
Sponsor
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
The bulk of the Everett Shinn collection was acquired via purchase from art dealer Thurston Thatcher between 1958-1964. Art collector Howard Lipman donated additional material in 1962. Five negatives of Shinn's work were donated in 1969 by Dr. Milton Luria, an acquaintance of Shinn's son, Davidson. The photograph of Everett Shinn, John Sloan, and Robert Henri was donated on an unknown date by an unidentified donor. The handwritten draft of Shinn's play Hazel Weston or More Sinned Against Than Usual was acquired via auction purchase in 2011.
Existence and Location of Copies
The bulk of this collection was digitized in 2011 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website. Materials which have not been scanned include photographs of works of art; duplicates; blank pages in bound volumes; blank versos of photographs; readily available copies of printed material, and oversized material too large to be scanned. In some cases, publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.
Processing Information note
Accessions were microfilmed upon receipt on reels D179, 441, 899, 950, 952-953, 1118, 2917, and 3471-3472, except for the last acquisition in 2011, which was not microfilmed. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the collection as described in this finding aid does not reflect the order of the collection on microfilm due to reprocessing. All accessions were merged, arranged, and described by Jean Fitzgerald in September 2009. The papers were digitized in 2011 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Everett Shinn collection, 1877-1958. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Conditions Governing Access note
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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.

Related Archival Materials note
Additional Everett Shinn papers are available at the Helen Farr Sloan Library, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painting, American Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Theaters -- Stage-setting and scenery Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sketchbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scrapbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stage designers -- New York (State) -- New York Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Notes Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Illustrated letters Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Poems Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Young, Mahonri Mackintosh, 1877-1957 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gibson, Charles Dana, 1867-1944 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sloan, John, 1871-1951 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Eddy, H. B. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Calder, Alexander Stirling, 1870-1945 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
De Wolfe, Elsie, 1865-1950 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Fitch, Clyde, 1865-1909 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Luks, George Benjamin, 1867-1933 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bigelow, Poultney, b. 1855 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scovel, Florence Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sale, Chic Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rains, Claude, 1889-1967 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Nolan, Philip Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Glackens, William J., 1870-1938 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wollcott, Alexander Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Washington Park Studio Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Warrick, Ruth Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Henfold, Oliver Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hegan, Colonel Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Haggin, Ben Ali, 1882-1951 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Grove, William Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marlowe, Julia, 1865-1950 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lawson, Ernest, 1873-1939 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Henri, Robert, 1865-1929 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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