Image assets for this folder have not been fully processed.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Rihoko Ueno
Scope and Contents
The papers of Boston painter Edmund Charles Tarbell measure 7 linear feet and date from circa 1855-circa 2000, bulk 1885-1938. The collection includes biographical material, correspondence, writings, diaries, personal business records, printed material, photographs, albums, glass plate negatives, and a scrapbook.
Biographical material includes a detailed timeline, honorary degree, award certificates, business cards, lists of awards and paintings, sketches, handbooks for organizations, and other documents.
There are three subseries of correspondence: Edmund Charles Tarbell's correspondence, his wife Emeline Tarbell's correspondence, and his daughter Josephine Tarbell Ferrell's correspondence. The first subseries includes Edmund Tarbell's correspondence with artists, museums and arts organizations. Notable correspondents include Frank W. Benson, William Merritt Chase, Henry Clay Frick, Philip Leslie Hale, August F. Jaccaci, Lilla Cabot Perry, and many others. The letters to his brother-in-law Augustus "Gus" Nickerson and sister Nellie Sophia are also significant for their information about his time studying abroad. The bulk of Emeline Tarbell's correspondence consists of letters from her husband regarding his time as a student in Paris. There are letters from her mother and siblings as well. Josephine Tarbell Ferrell's correspondence with people concerns her efforts to preserve the Tarbell house in New Hampshire as a memorial to her father.
Writings include a small amount of material by Edmund C. Tarbell, such as annotated appointment calendars, a notebook, assorted lists and notes, but most of the material in the series consists of other people's writings about the artist. Writing by others include drafts of a biography about Tarbell by his daughter Josephine Tarbell Ferrell and a typescript draft of "About the Artist Edmund C. Tarbell: Recollections of a Daughter" by Mercie Tarbell Clay. There is also a cookbook that was probably Emeline Souther's, before her marriage to Tarbell.
There are four diaries: two diaries by Emeline Tarbell, one diary by Josephine Tarbell Ferrell and another by Mercie Tarbell Clay.
Personal business records consist of account books, bills, receipts, checkbooks, estate papers, a ledger, and a deed. Some of the material belonged to Emeline Tarbell.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs, announcements, event invitations, magazines, books, and newspaper clippings, mostly about Edmund Charles Tarbell.
There is one scrapbook of clippings of artwork and articles on Tarbell.
Photographic material consists of albums, photographs, glass plate negatives, and nitrate negatives of Edmund Charles Tarbell, his studio, family, friends, exhibition installations, and artwork. There are extensive photographs of the Tarbell family and the house in New Castle, New Hampshire.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Mrs. John Schaffer (Mary Tarbell), daughter of Edmund Tarbell, lent material for microfilming in 1968. Tarbell's granddaughter, Mary Josephine Ferrell Cannon donated papers in 1989 and William P. Tarbell, Tarbell's great-grandson, donated several additions to the papers in 2017 and 2018.
Separated Materials
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel N68-103) including circa 75 unidentified and undated photographs, mostly of Tarbell's work and exhibitions, six exhibition catalogs in which his work appears, clippings, a sketch by Tarbell dated 1883, and a letter from Edward Redfield to "Mary." Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Funding
Sponsor
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Processing Information
Materials on reels N68-103 were loaned for microfilming, then returned to the lender. The rest of the papers that are stored at the archives received a preliminary level of arrangement after receipt and then were microfilmed onto reels 4701-4702.
A large addition to the papers was donated to the archives by William P. Tarbell and this material was merged with the rest of the collection. Nitrate negatives were discarded after digitization. The collection was fully processed and prepared for digitization by Rihoko Ueno in 2017 with funding provided by The Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. A small addition of 0.2 linear feet was donated to the archives in 2018 by William P. Tarbell and was merged with the existing collection at the end of the biographical material series.
