Percy Ives papers
name: label: Creator
content: Ives, Percy L. (Percival L.), 1864-1928
label: Names
content: Detroit Museum of Art. School
topic: label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters -- Michigan -- Detroit
label: Occupation
content: Arts administrators -- Michigan -- Detroit
label: Topic
content: Artists' studios--Photographs
label: Topic
content: Arts administrators--Michigan--Detroit
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library gave the Archives of American Art Percy Ives' sketches and glass plate negatives in 1956-1957 and lent material for microfilming in 1973. James B. Parker, whose father, Dr. Albert Russell Parker, purchased Ives's desk with the items intact, donated additional material in 1994.
creator: label: Creator
content: Ives, Percy L. (Percival L.), 1864-1928
setName: label: See more items in
content: Percy Ives papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Detroit portrait painter Percy Ives (1864-1928), measure 1.4 linear feet and date from circa 1870-1994, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870-circa 1930. Two hundred and fifty-eight glass plate negatives of sitters, models, and artwork by Ives form the bulk of the collection. Additional papers include two 1923 letters; a folder of notes; two diaries; news clippings; a sample book of Ives's illustrations; sketches; photographs; and three photograph albums.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Portrait painter and dean of the Detroit Museum of Art School, Percy Ives (1864-1928) was the son of artist Lewis Thomas Ives; father and son were considered to be among the most notable Detroit artists of the latter part of the nineteenth century. 


Ives studied initially with his father, and subsequently attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in the early-1880s, and the Academié Julian and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1884 to 1890. He exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1887 and 1893, and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. 

After returning to the United States, Ives settled in Detroit where his father had a studio, and painted portraits, often of prominent men of Michigan, as well as a number of people outside the state including Grover Cleveland and Walt Whitman. Notable examples of his portraiture hang in many of the county and state buildings of Michigan.


Ives was a member of several Detroit artist associations, such as the Scarab Club, served as incorporator, trustee, and treasurer of the Detroit Museum of Art before it became the Detroit Institute of Arts, was appointed dean of the museum school in 1896, and designed the seal of the institute. 

Ives died suddenly in 1928 at the age of 63.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.4 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 1 Microfilm reel
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1870-1994
label: Date
content: bulk circa 1870-circa 1930
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.ivesperc
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilm reels
label: Type
content: Diaries
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Due to the small size of the collection, the papers are arranged as one series.

Series 1: Percy Ives Papers, (1.4 linear feet; Boxes 1-4)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Sketches were microfilmed on reel 565 at some point after donation, and this material was merged with the 1994 donation, processed, and described in a finding aid by Stephanie Ashley in 2018. The glass plate negatives were re-housed in 2015 with a grant provided by the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund and were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee. The rest of the collection was digitized in 2023.

Portions of the collection were microfilmed on Reel 593 and were returned to the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library  after filming. The microfilm was described in a finding aid by Jayna Josefson in 2025 and the microfilm was digitized in 2025 with funding provided by Smithsonian Collections Information System (CIS) IRM Pool Fund.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The collection was digitized in 2019 and 2023 and is available on the Archives of American Art website. Additionally, for the portion of the collection microfilmed on Reel 593 the microfilm has been digitized and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Diaries
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
originalsloc: label: Existence and Location of Originals
content: The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm on Reel 593 of loaned material including two diaries, 1885-1887 and 1903-1907, three albums containing photographs of family and friends, a book of illustrations of commercial signs painted by Ives, and fifteen loose sketches. Loaned materials were returned to the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library in Detroit, Michigan.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of Detroit portrait painter Percy Ives (1864-1928), measure 1.4 linear feet and date from circa 1870-1994, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870-circa 1930. Two hundred and fifty-eight glass plate negatives of sitters, models, and artwork by Ives form the bulk of the collection. Additional papers include two 1923 letters; a folder of notes; two diaries; news clippings; a sample book of Ives's illustrations; sketches; photographs and three photograph albums.

Letters include one to "The Oil and Colour Man" from "The Dweller in the Cave of Winds," and an IOU from A. W. "Gus" Ives to Percy Ives.

Notes include seven index cards with notes on "nibbles" and sales of paintings; and notes about Ives made in 1936 by James Parker's father. Two diaries contain daily entries as well as notes on baseball scores, and enclosures. News clippings include four 1940 issues of a newspaper column, "We Old Timers," about Ives and his family. 

Artwork consists of fifty-eight pencil sketches which have been mounted on the pages of a photograph album. Additional sketches are of landscapes and portraits. A sample book contains examples of Ives's commercial illustrations.


Thirty-seven photographs, most of them mounted on paper, include two which appear to be of Ives in his studio. The other photographs are of the interior and exterior of a house, an unidentified woman, farm scenes, and other outdoor scenes. There are also two photographs of paintings by Ives, including a self portrait. Three photograph albums contain personal photographs and snapshots of the Ives family and homes.