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Sabine Lipten
Scope and Contents
The papers of Betty Carpenter measure 2.8 linear feet and date from circa 1867-1971, with the bulk from 1927-1963. The papers document Betty Carpenter's extensive research of John Orne Johnson Frost and George E. Lothrop, the primitive style painters whose work she collected. Materials included are correspondence related to Carpenter as well as the Frost Family. Betty Carpenter's letters are with museums, historical societies, publishers, and writers regarding the selling, loaning, book planning and exhibitioning of art work by J.O.J Frost and George Lothrop. There are also letters from the Frost family to Carpenter discussing both J.O.J Frost's life as well as matters of Carpenter's personal friendship with the family. The Frost Family correspondence is comprised of letters from J.O.J Frost to his granddaughters Ethelyn Frost Flagg and Irena Frost Greatorex as well as letters from J.O.J Frost's son Frank A. Frost to his daughter Ethelyn; and miscellaneous letters to J.O.J Frost. Writings primarily consist of manscripts and notes related to catalogs and an unpublished biography on Frost that Carpenter was working on. Additional writings include essays and notes by J.O.J Frost, biographical notes on George Lothrop and notes on American folk art. Also found are exhibition files; personal business records such as expense receipts and documenation of a probate court trial related to the ownership of some of Frost's work; scrapbooks respectively complied by Carpenter and Frost. Printed material such as newspaper clippings and exhibition ephemera, photographs and negatives of Frost, his home and artwork as well as photographs and negatives of Lothrop's paintings. Additionally, there is an artwork series which contains 35 figurative pencil sketches signed "IL Prado", an unidenfied pen and ink sketch and a pen sketch sent to Carpenter on an unsigned postcard.
Language
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated 1972 by Peter Carpenter.
Funding
Sponsor
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.
Processing Information
The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Sabine Lipten in 2023.