Scope and Contents
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, photographs, and other materials documenting the personal and professional affairs of Modernist-era painter Marsden Hartley. Writings contain notes and drafts, autograph and typescript, for numerous writings, chiefly essays. Correspondence is spread out over the many groupings in the collection and features large files of outgoing letters to Norma Berger, Hartley's niece, Carl Sprinchorn, and Adelaide S. Kuntz, as well as incoming letters from artists, writers, cultural figures, and institutions. Correspondents include Hart Crane, Robert McAlmon, Henry Miller, Marianne Moore, Arnold Ronnebeck, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, Gertrude Stein, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, William Carlos Williams, and Edmund Wilson. There are also third-party letters between Berger and others concerning Hartley's work. Other materials include photographs, three oil paintings by Hartley, notebooks, and objects.
Dates
- 1885-1978
Creator
Language of Materials
Chiefly in English; some materials in Spanish and German.
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
37 (cold storage): Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator.
37 (cold storage): Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator.
Existence and Location of Copies
Some material available on microfilm.
Conditions Governing Use
The Marsden Hartley Collection is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired chiefly through gifts from Norma Berger, 1950-1978, with additional material from other sources, 1952-2005.
Arrangement
Organized into fourteen groupings: 1950 Acquisition, Undated Acquisition, 1952-1953 Acquisitions, 1956-1976 Acquisitions, 1967 Acquisition, 1976 Acquisitions, 1978 Acquisition, Undated Acquisition, 1983 Acquisition, 1988 Acquisition, 1988 Acquisition, 1989 Acquisition, 2003 Acquisition, and 2005 Acquisition.
Extent
12.37 Linear Feet ((36 boxes) + 1 object, 1 cold storage)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, photographs, and other materials documenting the personal and professional affairs of Modernist-era painter Marsden Hartley. Writings contain notes and drafts, autograph and typescript, for numerous writings, chiefly essays. Correspondence is spread out over the many groupings in the collection and features large files of outgoing letters to Norma Berger, Hartley's niece, Carl Sprinchorn, and Adelaide S. Kuntz, as well as incoming letters from artists, writers, cultural figures, and institutions. Correspondents include Hart Crane, Robert McAlmon, Henry Miller, Marianne Moore, Arnold Ronnebeck, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, Gertrude Stein, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, William Carlos Williams, and Edmund Wilson. There are also third-party letters between Berger and others concerning Hartley's work. Other materials include photographs, three oil paintings by Hartley, notebooks, and objects.
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943)
Marsden Hartley, an American modernist painter known for his depictions of the Maine coastline and fishermen, was born on 4 January 1877 in Lewiston Maine. After his family moved from Maine to Cleveland in 1892, Hartley studied art at the Cleveland School of Art (1893-1898), then the New York School of Art, and the National Academy of Design. Hartley moved to Berlin in 1913 and spent much of the next two decades in Europe before returning to the U.S. in 1930 and to Maine in 1937. Hartley died on 2 September 1943 in Ellsworth, Maine.
Biographical information taken from "Hartley, Marsden (1877-1943)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 15 May 2012.
Biographical information taken from "Hartley, Marsden (1877-1943)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 15 May 2012.
Separated Materials
The paintings titled "An Abstract Arrangement of American Indian Symbols." "Collection of Numbers, Designs and Letters seen by me at the beginning of the War in Berlin," and "Flaming Pool, Dogtown" from the 1952-1953 Accessions were transferred permanently to the Yale University Art Gallery in 2019.
Processing Information
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and in some instances minimal organization upon acquisition. Further organization and description was carried out in 2012 on Hartley material received by the library between 1950 and 1978. In 2014-2015, other, chiefly later acquisitions of Hartley material were added to the collection. Descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically for revisions in arrangement and description.
Former call numbers: Za Hartley, Za Sprinchorn, Uncat Za File 28, Uncat Za Ms 67, Uncat Za Ms 75, and Uncat MSS 570.
This finding aid may be updated periodically for revisions in arrangement and description.
Former call numbers: Za Hartley, Za Sprinchorn, Uncat Za File 28, Uncat Za Ms 67, Uncat Za Ms 75, and Uncat MSS 570.
- Crane, Hart, 1899-1932
- Hartley, Marsden, 1877-1943
- McAlmon, Robert, 1896-1956
- Miller, Henry, 1891-1980
- Modernism (Art)
- Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972
- Painters
- Painters -- United States -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Paintings (visual works)
- Photographic prints
- Ronnebeck, Arnold, 1885-1947
- Sparhawk-Jones, Elizabeth, 1885-1968
- Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
- Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964
- Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963
- Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972
- Title
- Guide to the Marsden Hartley Collection
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- by Beinecke staff
- Date
- February 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.