Arthur Wesley Dow papers, circa 1826-1978, bulk 1879-1922

Found in this series are two folders of letters sent to and from Arthur Wesley Dow and letters sent to Minnie Pearson, Dow's future wife. Arthur Wesley Dow's correspondence consists of letters from Dow to his family, primarily his younger brother Dana. Most of his letters were written during his stints painting in Pont Aven and they include references to his efforts to produce paintings for the Paris Salons. Four of these letters are photocopies and one is an original. Other letters include a letter from Dow to Dr. Russell, Dean of the Teacher's College at Columbia University. According to Dow's travel diary, he received a telegram from Russell, officially appointing him as the head of the Department of Fine Arts; this letter may be in response to this appointment. The correspondence of Minnie Pearson consists of a long letter from her mother and a friend named "Eva" that were sent to the future Mrs. Dow, while she was studying art in Brittany. Finally the file "Notes on Dow Letters" consists of an annotated chronology of Dow correspondence, which includes synopsis of letters that are no longer extant, compiled by the Dow biographer, Arthur Warren Johnson.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.

This series is comprised of diaries by Dow and family members. The diary of Mary Patch Dow, Arthur Dow's mother, contains entries written between 1861 and 1865 noting visits and correspondence sent and received, particularly from her nephew Charles H. Dow, who died while fighting in the Civil War. There are few references to her son, although there are brief entries concerning his early education and childhood illnesses.

The remaining diaries record a world trip undertaken by Dow, accompanied by his wife and brother Dana Fitz Dow, among others. The party departed Boston in early September 1903 and headed westward through Canada to San Francisco where they sailed for Japan, which the party explored for three months before continuing on to China, India, Egypt, Greece and parts of Europe. Dow's travel diary provides an account of the early stages of the trip, most importantly the period spent in Japan, where he visited ancient temples, tea houses, museums, art schools, viewed private collections, and purchased prints. His brother's travel diaries, four in total, document the entire trip and record his impressions of the cities and sites that the party visited, paying particular interest to landscaped gardens and native plants. Sketches and plans of garden layouts can be found amidst his entries.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.

Found in this series are manuscripts and typescripts of Dow's lectures and writings about art, lecture notes, syllabi, price lists, as well as a handwritten fragment of his last will and testament. Most of the notes in this series document Dow's lectures on art appreciation, composition and art historical topics ranging from prehistoric art to Japanese art that he delivered to his classes at Teacher's College Columbia University. A folder of miscellaneous lectures also includes class syllabi and suggested arts curriculum. Writings attributed to others include research notes by Dow biographer Dr. Frederick Moffatt and handwritten copies of papers attributed to a Mr. Heatois on "The Spirit of the Later Renaissance" and "The Monumental Arts."

The Notes and Writings series is arranged into 2 subseries:

This series has been scanned in its entirety.

This series contains exhibition catalogs, clippings, ephemera, and pulications, including 50 volumes of Antiquarian Papers, a four page monthly serial published from 1879-1886, that focused on the history of Ipswich, Massachusetts. Dow published this serial with his mentor Augustine Caldwell and produced woodcuts of the town's historical buildings that were used as illustrations. They represent some of his earliest artistic efforts.

The bulk of the exhibition catalogs pertain to exhibitions of Dow's paintings and prints in solo and group exhibitions. However there is also a catalog of objects from the Freer Collection that were exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in 1913. The sections "Oriental Paintings" and "Miscellaneous Oriental Objects" are heavily annotated in pencil. Ephemera incudes a postcard of Dow's summer studio in Ipswich, Massachusetts, announcements for the Ipswich Summer School of Art and publication of new editions of his book Composition, among other items.

This series has been scanned in its entirety. In most cases, only the cover and title page of exhibition catalogs have been scanned.

This series includes vintage photographs and copy prints of portraits and group shots, as well as color snapshots and photographs of works of art. Notable among the nineteen vintage photographs are a platinum print portrait by Gertrude Käsebier and another platinum print of Dow taken at the Grand Canyon by Mrs. Coburn (mother of the Pictorialist photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn). Additionally there are albumen prints of Dow in his Paris studio and with a class of students from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, a carte de visite of Dow and a cabinet card portrait of his wife Minnie Pearson Dow.

Copy prints include duplicate images of the vintage photographs of in this collection as well as additional photographs of landscapes, seascapes, Dow portraits and groups including family members and students. However the majority of the copy prints are reproductions of works of art. The copy prints originally were compiled by Frederick Moffatt as part of his research on Dow, which culminated in an exhibition and catalog, Arthur Wesley Dow (Smithsonian Press, 1977).

Copy prints have not been scanned.

Found in this series are prints from Dow's Ipswich Prints series, a set of engraved facsimiles of his woodcuts, ink drawings, and watercolors, that were meant to be used as examples of color and composition for art students. There is also an unsigned and undated pencil drawing of a colonial house.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.