Spencer Baird Nichols and Nichols family papers, 1870-1994

Collection Information

Size: 0.2 Linear feet

Summary: Letters, photographs, clippings, and business records relating to the art careers of Spencer Baird Nichols, his brother Hobart Nichols, and their father Henry Hobart Nichols, in the New York and Connecticut area.

Letters, 1923-1974, concern Spencer's exhibitions and family matters, business-related correspondence and letters between Nichols daughter, Helen Jacobs, and the Theodore Lyman Wright Art Center, Beloit College, the Smithsonian and collector James Blinder, pertaining to Nichols' work. Photographs include one of the Jay-Oakley-Nichols family (1870); two tintypes of Hobart, ca. 1880, and one of Spencer, 1899; photos of Spencer's artwork and a few of Hobart's; and Spencer's house and studio. Business records consist of inventories and receipts from Spencer's exhibits in New York.

Biographical/Historical Note

Spencer Baird Nichols was a portrait painter, landscape painter, muralist, book illustrator, and educator; Connecticut. He taught illustration at the Art Students League. In 1934, he became director of art at Marot Junior College, Thompson, Connecticut. Nichols' works include a portrait of Andrew Stephenson painted for the House of Representatives and murals executed in Connecticut.

Provenance

Donated 1989 by Hobart Nichols, son of Spencer Baird Nichols and by Helen Jacobs, daughter of Spencer Baird Nichols, 1989, 1990, and 1994.

Language Note

English .