Catalogue raisonné, 1930-1996, bulk: 1930-1986

By the early 1960s, Goodrich began working on a catalogue raisonné that would be a revision of his 1933 book and that would include an additional 85 works by Eakins that had not been included in his original study. Initially, the revised catalog was to be a separate volume to his study being published by the Harvard University Press for the National Gallery of Art. Published in 1982 in two volumes, Goodrich's "Thomas Eakins" did not include a catalogue raisonné. By the end of 1985 when it was agreed his papers were to be gifted to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Goodrich still intended to publish a catalogue raisonné. If he could not finish before the material was transferred, it was Goodrich's hope that the Museum's curator of American Art, or any successor, would continue his work and that it would be published under joint authorship. This, too, did not occur, and the catalogue raisonné remains incomplete.

The files comprising this series represent approximately half a century of Goodrich's research and writing on the paintings, drawings and sculpture of Thomas Eakins. Goodrich maintained most of the material in binders holding the correspondence, notes, clippings and other assorted papers he had been compiling since 1930. He housed photographs of most of the works in an additional 12 binders. All this material comprises the "Master catalog" subseries. The "Research" subseries consists of additional correspondence and papers about specific works of art that Goodrich kept in folders but would often make note of in his master binders. Photocopies of clippings, portions of books and other published material as well as related notes are also included in the subseries as bibliographic references. Material documenting Goodrich's research activities and methodology as well as earlier versions of portions of his "Master catalog" papers make up the "Working notes" subseries. While all these subseries pertain to Goodrich's record keeping, the "Writing drafts" subseries consists of what appear to be manuscripts he was developing for publication. Twice he attempted to draft the text to many of the catalog entries. With portions of the latter draft dated 1986, it would seem Goodrich worked on his catalogue raisonné almost until the day he died. Any notes dated after his death were made by PMA staff.

Because of Goodrich's frequent reference to his 1933 publication, "Thomas Eakins: His life and Work," an abbreviated title version has been used in the folder titles, which is "1933 catalog." Goodrich also marked most of his papers with the relevant catalog entry number(s) he assigned in his 1933 study. To indicate that it is Goodrich's numbering system, a "G" precedes all the numbers, except those pertaining to Eakins' earliest drawings. For those, which Goodrich referred to as "Juvenilia," the number is prefixed with "J." For the 85 works he did not include in 1933 but intended to include in the revised catalog, Goodrich added an "A" (or "B" or "C" if multiple additions) after the number. Because the 1933 entries were also arranged chronologically by the date of the artwork, the numbers assigned to the additions were determined by date and do not indicate any subject relation between the shared numbers. All file titles reflect his numbering. As Goodrich certainly did not devote all of his time over the fifty years to work on the catalogue raisonné, there are gaps in the dates he compiled the material. Because the gaps in years are too numerous to cite, only a first and last date have been recorded at the file level.