William Henry Holmes artists' files, 1879-1955

Object Details

Creator

Holmes, William Henry, 1846-1933

Subject

Closson, William Baxter Palmer

Wiles, Irving Ramsay

Moser, James Henry

Zolnay, George Julian

Moran, Thomas

Pennell, Joseph

Oakley, Violet

Messer, Edmund Clarence

Melchers, Gari

Weller, Carl F.

Sharp, Joseph Henry

Walcott, Mary Vaux

Nichols, Hobart

Fraser, James Earle

Brooke, Richard Norris

La Farge, John

Weyl, Max

Johnston, Reuben Le Grand

Ream, Vinnie

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Washington Water Color Club (Washington, D.C.)

Place of publication, production, or execution

United States

Physical Description

0.2 Linear feet

Arrangement

This collection is arranged as 1 series. Series 1: Artists' Files, 1879-1955 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)

Access Note / Rights

Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Summary

The artists' files of William Henry Holmes, curator and director of the Smithsonian's National Collection of Fine Arts (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) in Washington, D.C., measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1879 to 1955. The artists' files consist mostly of correspondence, but also include a few photographs, artwork in the form of sketches, and printed material. There is also one file relating to Holmes' affiliation with the Washington Water Color Club.

Citation

William Henry Holmes artists' files, 1879-1955. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Additional Forms

This collection was digitized in 2017 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website.

Funding

Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and Terra Foundation for American Art.

Use Note

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 Materials

Collections about William Henry Holmes are also located at other Smithsonian Institution archival units, including the National Anthropological Archives and Smithsonian Institution Archives.

Biography Note

William Henry Holmes (1846-1933) was a curator, museum director, artist, scientific illustrator, archaeologist, geologist, and anthropologist. He served in various positions in the Smithsonian Institution, and finally as director of the Smithsonian's National Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) from 1920-1932.

Holmes was born in Harrison County, Ohio in 1846. In 1870, he graduated from McNeely Normal School in Ohio and, after a short time of teaching at that school, moved to Washington, D.C. in 1871 to study art under Theodore Kaufmann. Thanks to his artistic skills, he was soon hired by Smithsonian paleontologist Francis B. Meek to do scientific drawings. In 1872, Holmes joined the geological survey of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, as an artist and topographer of the survey of Yellowstone National Park and surrounding area, and other regions in the west. In 1879, Holmes went to work for the newly founded U.S. Geological Survey. There he worked as a geologist and chief of scientific illustration. In addition to art and geology, his interests and expertise expanded into archaeology and anthropology.

Holmes worked as chief curator at the Field Columbian Museum (now the Field Museum of Natural History) in Chicago before returning to the Smithsonian in 1897, where he served as curator of anthropology and chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology. In 1910, he became chairman of the Division of Anthropology. In 1920, Holmes became director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), a position he held until 1932. William Henry Holmes died one year later.

Language Note

Collection is in English.

Provenance

These files were transferred from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art Library (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum) to the Archives of American Art in two installments in 1981 and 1992.

Digitization Note

This site provides access to the papers of William Henry Holmes in the Archives of American Art that were digitized in 2017, and total 184 images.

Location Note

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

Place

Museum directors -- Washington (D.C.)

Topic

Art, American

Artists -- United States

Theme

Research and writing about art

Theme

Research and writing about art

Data Source

Archives of American Art

Record number

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7791

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209957

AAA_collcode_holmwill

Type

Photographs

Sketches

Metadata Usage

Usage conditions apply

Record ID

AAADCD_coll_209957