Stearns-Ames collection
name: label: Creator
content: Ames Manufacturing Company. Bronze Foundry
label: Names
content: United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.)
label: Names
content: Ames, James Tyler, 1810-1883
label: Names
content: Ames, Nathan Peabody, 1803-1847
label: Names
content: Ball, Thomas, 1819-1911
label: Names
content: Brown, Henry Kirke, 1814-1886
label: Names
content: Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
label: Names
content: Greenough, Horatio, 1805-1852
label: Names
content: Rogers, Randolph, 1825-1892
label: Names
content: Walter, Thomas Ustick, 1804-1887
label: Names
content: Washington, George, 1732-1799
topic: label: Occupation
content: Sculptors
label: Topic
content: Bronze founding -- Massachusetts -- Chicopee
label: Topic
content: Bronze sculpture, American
label: Topic
content: Metal-workers
label: Topic
content: Decorative arts
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated 1986 by Malcolm Stearns, Jr., who purchased them from Parke Bernet, New York, in the 1960s. There are numerous notations on the backs of letters and photographs. It is not known who added this information.
creator: label: Creator
content: Ames Manufacturing Company. Bronze Foundry
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Ames Manufacturing Company, Chicopee, Massachusetts, was founded in 1835 by James Tyler Ames and his brother, Nathan Peabody Ames. The company manufactured small tools, cotton machinery, swords, cannons, and did casting of bells. It began manufacturing large bronze statuary circa 1850.
function: label: Function
content: Memorials -- United States
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.2 Linear Feet ((on partial microfilm reel))
unitdate: label: Date
content: [ca. 1838-1894]
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.amesmanu
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: 35mm microfilm reel 3828 available at Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Correspondence, castings record, financial materials, photographs and printed materials relating primarily to the work of the Bronze Division of the Ames Manufacturing Company.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Professional and personal correspondence, chiefly of James Tyler Ames, with sculptors, architects, government officials, and colleagues, including his brother, Nathan Peabody Ames, Henry Kirke Brown, Randolph Rogers, and Thomas Ustick Walter. A castings record (16 p.) contains expenses and final prices of bronze castings, a printed list of "Bronze Works Executed by the Ames Manufacturing Company," and photographs of completed work. There are also an expense account for the Lincoln National Monument artillery and cavalry groups, lists of expenses relating to "Bronze Castings for Washington and his Horse," the (Benjamin) "Franklin Statue," and other works. Photographs are of works cast by the Ames Company and of unidentified works, of Ames' artisans, of a room in James Ames' house with framed medallions of Washington and Franklin on the wall, and of a head of Washington and a head of his horse in Thomas Ball's studio; reports by the architect of the Capitol extension, and the U.S. Art Commission (1860); Ames Company promotional items; a printed narrative of the incidents connected with the statue of Washington in Union Square by Henry Kirke Brown; and clippings relating to various statues.