Scope and Contents
The papers consist of correspondence, photographs, notes, drafts, and printed material documenting the life and work of Mary Foote, an American painter and disciple of Carl Gustav Jung. Foote's work to edit and distribute Jung's theories is documented by her notes, annotated drafts, and Multigraph editions of his seminars including "Dream Analysis," "The Interpretation of Visions," and "Psychological Analysis of Nietzsche's Zarathustra," among others, by correspondence with Jung and others in his circle, and by photographs. Printed versions of publications by and about Jung are also present, including an English translation of "Septem sermones ad mortuos" (privately printed: Edinburgh, 1925) and copies of the Eranos Jarbüch (Zurich), 1933-38. In addition to a portrait of Jung (oil on canvas), Foote's work as an artist is documented by reproductions of her paintings and by photographs of Foote in her studio and with other artists in Paris and in the United States, including Frederick MacMonnies, Janet Scudder, Ellen Emmet Rand, Leslie Emmet, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Lydia Emmet, and Jane Emmet De Glehn. Her personal correspondence and photographs document her lifelong connection with the Emmet family, her friendships with Mabel Dodge Luhan and Robert Edmond Jones, and her relationships with her sister, brothers, nieces and nephews. Some material in the collection reflects later efforts of Foote's family to document her career, and research and writing about Frederick MacMonnies by Foote's great-nephew Edward J. ("Toby") Foote.
Dates
- 1881-1981
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Mary Foote Papers 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
Gift of Edward J. Foote, 1973 and 1977; gift of Christopher S. Foote and Mary Foote Rounsavall, 1987 and 1988.
Arrangement
Arranged by acquisition into four groupings: I. September 1973 Acquisition. II. 1977-1978 Acquisitions. III. 1987 Acquisition. IV. 1988 Acquisition.
Extent
15.5 Linear Feet ((43 boxes) + 1 art)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
The papers consist of correspondence, photographs, notes, drafts, and printed material documenting the life and work of Mary Foote, an American painter and disciple of Carl Gustav Jung. Foote's work to edit and distribute Jung's theories is documented by her notes, annotated drafts, and Multigraph editions of his seminars including "Dream Analysis," "The Interpretation of Visions," and "Psychological Analysis of Nietzsche's Zarathustra," among others, by correspondence with Jung and others in his circle, and by photographs. Printed versions of publications by and about Jung are also present, including an English translation of "Septem sermones ad mortuos" (privately printed: Edinburgh, 1925) and copies of the Eranos Jarbüch (Zurich), 1933-38. In addition to a portrait of Jung (oil on canvas), Foote's work as an artist is documented by reproductions of her paintings and by photographs of Foote in her studio and with other artists in Paris and in the United States, including Frederick MacMonnies, Janet Scudder, Ellen Emmet Rand, Leslie Emmet, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Lydia Emmet, and Jane Emmet De Glehn. Her personal correspondence and photographs document her lifelong connection with the Emmet family, her friendships with Mabel Dodge Luhan and Robert Edmond Jones, and her relationships with her sister, brothers, nieces and nephews. Some material in the collection reflects later efforts of Foote's family to document her career, and research and writing about Frederick MacMonnies by Foote's great-nephew Edward J. ("Toby") Foote.
Mary Foote (1872-1968)
Mary Foote was an American portrait painter and a disciple of the psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung.
Mary Hubbard Foote was born on November 25, 1872, in Guilford, Connecticut, to Christopher Spencer Foote (1837-1880), a farmer, and Hannah Jane Hubbard Foote (1840-1885). Her siblings included Robert Elliott Foote (1866-1916), a musician; Harry Ward Foote (1875-1942), a chemist and member of the faculty at Yale; and Margaret Spencer Foote Hawley (1880-1963), a painter of miniature portraits. Following the death of their parents, the younger children were raised by various relatives, including their aunt Elizabeth Foote Jenkins and her husband Edward Hopkins Jenkins, a chemist at and later director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, and Joseph Roswell Hawley (widower of their aunt Harriet Ward Foote Hawley), former governor of Connecticut, a United States Senator, and owner of the Hartford Courant. While living with the Hawley family, Mary Foote became close friends with the daughters of Samuel Clemens, and graduated from Hartford Public High School.
Foote entered the Yale School of Art in 1890; she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1906. She was the inaugural recipient of both the Alice Kimball English Prize in 1894 and the William Wirt Winchester Prize in 1897, which generously funded several years of study in Paris. There, she studied initially at the Académie Colarossi and shared a studio with Ellen Emmet (later Ellen Emmet Rand) and Emmet's sister and cousins. She soon joined the Emmets as a student of the American artist Frederick MacMonnies, in Paris and Giverny. Inclusion in MacMonnies's circle introduced Foote to Janet Scudder, James McNeill Whistler, and John Singer Sargent (who painted her in "The Sketchers," 1914). In 1901, Foote began a successful career as a professional portraitist in New York City, where she had her own studio in Washington Square, although she continued to travel. Her commissions included socially and politically prominent figures, artists, and intellectuals. Among Foote's closest friends dating from this phase of her life were the theatre designer Robert Edmond Jones and patron of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan.
In the 1920s Foote sought treatment with American psychoanalyst Smith Ely Jelliffe. While traveling in China in 1926-1927, she wrote to Carl Gustav Jung at the recommendation of Robert Edmond Jones; when Jung agreed to see her, she went directly to Switzerland. Intending to stay for six months, she made Zurich her home for the next thirty years. As part of her treatment with Jung, she stopped painting and put the contents of her New York studio into storage. Foote devoted herself to Jung as his patient, his student, and his amanuensis, transcribing notes from his seminars and printing them on a Mulitgraph machine for dissemination to participants and other interested subscribers. As one of a number of women in Jung’s circle at Küsnacht, Foote was not the first or the only one to serve in this secretarial and editorial capacity, but her zeal for the task and her longevity in it made her a particularly effective agent in the spread of Jung’s ideas.
She returned from Switzerland in 1958, and died West Hartford on January 28, 1968.
Mary Hubbard Foote was born on November 25, 1872, in Guilford, Connecticut, to Christopher Spencer Foote (1837-1880), a farmer, and Hannah Jane Hubbard Foote (1840-1885). Her siblings included Robert Elliott Foote (1866-1916), a musician; Harry Ward Foote (1875-1942), a chemist and member of the faculty at Yale; and Margaret Spencer Foote Hawley (1880-1963), a painter of miniature portraits. Following the death of their parents, the younger children were raised by various relatives, including their aunt Elizabeth Foote Jenkins and her husband Edward Hopkins Jenkins, a chemist at and later director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, and Joseph Roswell Hawley (widower of their aunt Harriet Ward Foote Hawley), former governor of Connecticut, a United States Senator, and owner of the Hartford Courant. While living with the Hawley family, Mary Foote became close friends with the daughters of Samuel Clemens, and graduated from Hartford Public High School.
Foote entered the Yale School of Art in 1890; she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1906. She was the inaugural recipient of both the Alice Kimball English Prize in 1894 and the William Wirt Winchester Prize in 1897, which generously funded several years of study in Paris. There, she studied initially at the Académie Colarossi and shared a studio with Ellen Emmet (later Ellen Emmet Rand) and Emmet's sister and cousins. She soon joined the Emmets as a student of the American artist Frederick MacMonnies, in Paris and Giverny. Inclusion in MacMonnies's circle introduced Foote to Janet Scudder, James McNeill Whistler, and John Singer Sargent (who painted her in "The Sketchers," 1914). In 1901, Foote began a successful career as a professional portraitist in New York City, where she had her own studio in Washington Square, although she continued to travel. Her commissions included socially and politically prominent figures, artists, and intellectuals. Among Foote's closest friends dating from this phase of her life were the theatre designer Robert Edmond Jones and patron of the arts Mabel Dodge Luhan.
In the 1920s Foote sought treatment with American psychoanalyst Smith Ely Jelliffe. While traveling in China in 1926-1927, she wrote to Carl Gustav Jung at the recommendation of Robert Edmond Jones; when Jung agreed to see her, she went directly to Switzerland. Intending to stay for six months, she made Zurich her home for the next thirty years. As part of her treatment with Jung, she stopped painting and put the contents of her New York studio into storage. Foote devoted herself to Jung as his patient, his student, and his amanuensis, transcribing notes from his seminars and printing them on a Mulitgraph machine for dissemination to participants and other interested subscribers. As one of a number of women in Jung’s circle at Küsnacht, Foote was not the first or the only one to serve in this secretarial and editorial capacity, but her zeal for the task and her longevity in it made her a particularly effective agent in the spread of Jung’s ideas.
She returned from Switzerland in 1958, and died West Hartford on January 28, 1968.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization, in 2013. Prior to 2013, Foote's papers were unprocessed and maintained as two separate collections, one focused on her work with Jung and the other on her painting career and family, although its later accessions also contained Jung material. The papers were reunited during processing in 2013.
The collection is comprised of material formerly classed as: Uncat MS Vault Foote, Za Foote, Uncat Za Foote, Uncat Za MS 52, and Uncat Za MS 72. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, according to month and year of acquisition Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn 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 basic processing. This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization, in 2013. Prior to 2013, Foote's papers were unprocessed and maintained as two separate collections, one focused on her work with Jung and the other on her painting career and family, although its later accessions also contained Jung material. The papers were reunited during processing in 2013.
The collection is comprised of material formerly classed as: Uncat MS Vault Foote, Za Foote, Uncat Za Foote, Uncat Za MS 52, and Uncat Za MS 72. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, according to month and year of acquisition Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn 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 basic processing. This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Artists
- Artists, American -- 19th century -- Archives
- Artists, American -- 20th century -- Archives
- De Glehn, Jane Emmet, 1873-1961
- Editors
- Emmet family
- Emmet, Leslie, 1877-
- Emmet, Lydia Field, 1866-1952
- Foote, Edward J.
- Foote, Mary, 1872-1968
- Jones, Robert Edmond, 1887-1954
- Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961
- Jungian psychology
- Luhan, Mabel Dodge, 1879-1962
- MacMonnies, Frederick William, 1863-1937
- Oil paintings (visual works)
- Photographic prints
- Portrait painters -- France -- 20th Century
- Portrait painters -- United States -- 20th Century
- Psychoanalysis
- Rand, Ellen Emmet, 1875-1941
- Scudder, Janet, 1873-
- Sherwood, Rosina Emmet, 1854-1948
- Women artists -- France -- 19th century
- Women artists -- France -- 20th Century
- Women artists -- United States -- 19th century
- Women artists -- United States -- 20th Century
- Women editors -- Austria
Creator
- Title
- Guide to the Mary Foote Papers
- Author
- by Beinecke staff
- Date
- 2013
- 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
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