Olin Levi Warner papers
name: label: Creator
content: Warner, Olin Levi, 1844-1896
label: Names
content: Fine Arts Federation of New York
label: Names
content: France. Armée. Légion étrangère
label: Names
content: Jno. Williams, Inc.
label: Names
content: Smithsonian Institution
label: Names
content: World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
label: Names
content: Cook, Clarence, 1828-1900
label: Names
content: Devens, Charles, 1820-1891
label: Names
content: Eaton, Wyatt, 1849-1896
label: Names
content: Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 1847-1917
label: Names
content: Warner, Sylvia Martinache
label: Names
content: Weir, Julian Alden, 1852-1919
place: label: Place
content: Paris (France) -- History -- Commune, 1871
topic: label: Topic
content: Artists' studios -- Photographs
label: Topic
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- France -- Paris
label: Topic
content: Sculpture, American
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: A portion of the Olin Levi Warner papers were originally loaned to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1972 by Rosalie Warner Jones, Warner's daughter. Rosalie Warner Jones and her sister, Frances O. Warner, and Rosalie's daughter Frances Follin Jones, donated the collection in several accretions between 1972 and 1977. This gift included the majority of the loaned materials, excluding one sketchbook. Additional materials were transferred to the Archives in 2005 from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warner, Olin Levi, 1844-1896
setName: label: See more items in
content: Olin Levi Warner papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of sculptor Olin Levi Warner measure 1.9 linear feet and date from 1857 to 1962 with the bulk of the materials dating from 1857 to 1899. The collection documents Warner's art student days in Paris and his career as a sculptor, primarily in New York City. Found are scattered biographical materials and writings, including a speech by Warner about the Paris Commune of 1871; personal and professional correspondence; clippings, catalogs, and other printed material; sculpture project files; and photographs of Warner, his studio, his family, and notable figures who sat for him, including artist J. Alden Weir, and his artwork.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Olin Levi Warner was born in 1844 in Suffield, Connecticut and worked as an artisan and a telegraph operator before pursuing his art education and career. In 1869, Warner traveled to Paris to study under Francois Jouffroy at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was in Paris when the Republic was declared and served in the French Foreign Legion for a short while before resuming his studies. In 1872 he returned to the United States and set up a studio in New York. 

An early proponent of the French Beaux-Arts style, Warner was a founding member of the Society of American Artists in 1877 and joined the National Academy of Design in 1888. By the end of Warner's lifetime, he had become a well-known sculptor, helping to popularize bas-relief in the United States. A few of Warner's notable works include a series of medallions depicting Native American Indian Chiefs, an 1876 bust of President Rutherford B. Hayes, the 1883 nude Diana, a statue of judge and former U.S. Attorney General Charles Devens in Boston, and the design of the bronze doors of the Library of Congress. This last project was uncompleted at the time of Warner's death on August 14, 1896, as the result of a bicycle injury in Central Park.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.9 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1857-1962
label: Date
content: bulk 1857-1899
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.warnolin
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into five series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1863-1896 (Box 1, OV 4; 5 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1857-1962 (Box 1; 0.7 linear feet)

Series 3: Project Files, 1871-1936 (Box 1, OV 4; 6 folders)

Series 4: Printed Material, 1862-1950 (Boxes 1-2, OV 4; 6 folders)

Series 5: Photographs, 1870s-1890s (Box 2-3, OV 4; 0.7 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The bulk of the collection was microfilmed as separate accretions and loans on reels 270, 414, and 3746-3747, except for the materials transferred from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2005. All earlier accessions were merged and re-processed by Vanessa Catanzaro, Joan Lord, and Erin Corley in 2004 and 2005, and a finding aid prepared as part of the Terra Foundation for American Art Digitization Project.  The collection was scanned in 2013 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: The bulk of this collection was digitized in 2013 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website.  Materials which have not been scanned include photographs of artwork, duplicates, blank pages in bound volumes, and blank versos of photographs.  In some cases, exhibition catalogs and other publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.

Material lent for microfilming is availalbe on 35mm microfilm reel 270 at the Archives of American Art reading room and through interlibrary loan.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of sculptor Olin Levi Warner measure 1.9 linear feet and date from 1857 to 1962 with the bulk of the materials dating from 1857 to 1899. The collection documents Warner's art student days in Paris and his career as a sculptor, primarily in New York City. Found are scattered biographical materials and writings, including a speech by Warner about the Paris Commune of 1871; personal and professional correspondence; clippings, catalogs, and other printed material; sculpture project files; and photographs of Warner, his studio, his family, and notable figures who sat for him, including artist J. Alden Weir, and his artwork.

Found are biographical materials, including a speech written by Warner about the Paris Commune of 1871, awards, and membership records for several art organizations, including the Fine Arts Federation of New York. 

Personal and business correspondence written by Warner, his wife, and his daughter is with family and friends. Warner's correspondents include artists Albert Pinkham Ryder, Clarence Cook, and Wyatt Eaton, among others. Of note are letters written from Warner to his family during the time he spent in Paris from 1869 to 1872 studying art and serving in the Foreign Legion.

Also found are scattered project files for a few of his notable sculptural projects, including his statue of Massachusetts governor Charles Devens, the Hodgkins Medal designed as the Smithsonian Institution's seal, work for the Chicago World's Fair, and bronze work produced by the Jno. Williams Foundry. 

Printed materials include clippings and exhibition catalogs for the Society of American Artists, the National Sculpture Society, and the World's Columbian Exposition.

Photographs in the papers are of Warner, his family, home, and studio, works of art, and a few notable sitters, including the artist J. Alden Weir.
separatedmaterial: label: Separated Material
content: The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming on reel 270. All of the material was later donated, except for one sketchbook which was returned to the lender, and is not described in the collection container inventory.