Thayer's General Correspondence
name: label: Collection Creator
content: White, Henry Cooke, 1861-1952
label: Collection Creator
content: White, Nelson C.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Nelson and Henry C. White research material
label: See more items in
content: Nelson and Henry C. White research material / Series 3: Nelson C. White Research Files / 3.2: Abbot Handerson Thayer Research Material
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1875-1924
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.whitnels, Subseries 3.2.3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Correspondence is primarily arranged alphabetically: individually named correspondents are followed by general correspondence. At the end of the series are 6 folders of annotated copies of correspondence arranged chronologically, which are a combination of family and general correspondence.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Series is scanned in entirety, including duplicate correspondence which is annotated.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Thayer's general correspondence is with artists including George Grey Barnard, Thomas Wilmer Dewing, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, Edward Martin Taber, and George Alfred Williams, and with fellow Dublin painters Frank Weston Benson, and George de Forest Brush. Other correspondents found here include Philip Ayers of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests regarding title to land in Monadnock; Samuel Clemens; critic and long-time admirer Royal Cortissoz; Charles Lang Freer regarding his patronage of Thayer and Freer's acquisition of Thayer's artwork; and Theodore Roosevelt regarding wildlife preservation.  

Letters to Franklin D. Roosevelt, when Roosevelt was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, describe Thayer's ideas for camouflage of naval vessels during the First World War. Thayer was involved in helping the Allies be the first to apply concealing coloration to all their equipment.

The letters are a combination of hand-written originals and typed copies. Folder dates indicate the dates of original letters, even when the folder contains only copies of those letters.