7. Manuscript Collections

Abstract Most of the material comprising the Joan Root Collection consists of correspondence and other materials related to Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch, who amassed one of the world's greatest private collections of arms and armor, which he bequeathed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This collection also includes a small compilation of ephemera pertaining to the City of Philadelphia, namely the Centennial, Sesqui-centennial and dedication of the equestrian monument of George Washington in...

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The John G. Johnson Papers consist of correspondence, photographs, invoices and legal documents that make evident Johnson's process in building his art collection, as well as the disposition of these acquisitions and other personal belongings after his death. The collection also includes a significant number of photographs Johnson compiled in oversized albums to commemorate his travels to Europe with his wife, Ida, as well as formal portraits of each.

Abstract The painter John Raphael Covert was an active participant in the American avant-garde art movement between 1915 and 1923. He later became a traveling salesman for his family's Vesuvius Crucible Company and pursued his intense interest in cryptography, word games and magic squares. The John Raphael Covert Papers consist of the artist's correspondence, word and number puzzles (such as anagrams, acrostics, and riddles), financial records, photographic portraits, and a few sketches....

Abstract The diaries of John Stephen Benezet offer a glimpse of life in antebellum Philadelphia from 1838 to 1850. By the time he begins to keep these journals, Benezet is already a husband and father supporting a family of at least four children as a clerk at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. In addition to his personal activities, such as attending church, assisting at a school and taking tea and dinner with family and friends, Benezet's entries occasionally give a glimpse of contemporary...

Abstract Julien Levy (1906-1981) was a pioneering New York art dealer of the 1930s and 1940s. The records date from 1857 to 1983 and include correspondence, exhibit announcements and invitations, scrapbooks, gallery financial ledgers, audio-visual materials, and personal papers such as letters, diaries, appointment books and calendars. The material in this collection reflects the course of Levy’s life, beginning with childhood letters and elementary school papers, and ending with Levy’s obituary and...

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This collection consists of a 12"x15" chalk on paper caricature of Julius Zieget.

Abstract The Lloyd and Edith Havens Goodrich, Whitney Museum of American Art, Record of Works by Thomas Eakins consists mainly of typescript and manuscript papers, correspondence, and a variety of research and reference materials pertaining to Lloyd Goodrich's major published and unpublished works on American artist Thomas Eakins. This collection documents more than 50 years of Eakins scholarship, during which Goodrich published "Thomas Eakins: his life and work" (1933) and the revised and augmented...

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This collection consists of material Mrs. Lux-Sions compiled and created for her publication, "The Unsullied Dynasty and the K'ang-hsi Emperor.

Abstract The Martha Crary Halpern Research Collection is comprised of the research files kept by Martha Halpern while serving as a Park House guide, later as Assistant Curator of the Fairmount Park Houses, and as an independent contractor for historical interpretation and preservation in the Philadelphia region. The collection includes research subject files, correspondence, information related to Park House operations, draft writings, and finished reports. There are also a number of reference works...

Abstract Mary Curran's (1885-1978) papers primarily document the roles she held in working women’s associations, the coeducational New Students League and Little Gallery of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia, and the management of federal relief programs for artists in Pennsylvania during most of the 1930s. The material is arranged in four series: I. Working women's clubs; II. New Students League and the Little Gallery of Contemporary Art; III. Federal Art Project and earlier relief programs; and IV....