Polly Thayer (Starr) papers
name: label: Creator
content: Thayer, Polly, 1904-2006
label: Names
content: Copley Society  (Boston, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Friends General Conference  (U.S.)
label: Names
content: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
label: Names
content: Nucleus Club  (Boston, Mass.)
label: Names
content: Trustees of Reservations  (Mass.)
label: Names
content: Vose Galleries of Boston
label: Names
content: Abramson, Doris E.
label: Names
content: Cortissoz, Royal, 1869-1948
label: Names
content: Hofer, Philip, 1898-1984
label: Names
content: Koval, Dorothy
label: Names
content: Sarton, May, 1912-
label: Names
content: Starr, Donald C.
label: Names
content: Thayer, Ethel Randolph, 1870-1953
label: Names
content: Thayer, Ezra Ripley, 1866-1915
label: Names
content: Tudor, Tasha
label: Names
content: Wheelwright, John, 1897-1940
label: Names
content: Yarnall, Agnes
topic: label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters
label: Topic
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: Kanto Earthquake, Japan, 1923
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Polly Thayer (Starr) papers were donated to the Archives of American Art by Polly Thayer in 1998 and again in 2008 by Thayer via Stephanie S. Wright, executor. A notebook was donated in 2016 by Dinah Starr, daughter of Polly Thayer (Starr) and merged with the rest of the collection.
creator: label: Creator
content: Thayer, Polly, 1904-2006
setName: label: See more items in
content: Polly Thayer (Starr) papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Boston portraitist and painter Polly Thayer (Starr) (1904-2006) measure 21.6 linear feet and 0.807 GB and date from 1846 to 2008, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-2008. The papers document Thayer's personal life and career as a painter, portraitist, and pastel artist.  Found within the papers are biographical materials, extensive family papers, correspondence with artists and art venues, interviews, writings, subject files, organization files, exhibition files, art inventory records, printed and digital materials, five sketchbooks, artwork, and photographs.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Polly Thayer (Starr) (1904-2006) was a Boston painter of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes.  

Ethel Randolph Thayer, known as Polly, was born in Boston in 1904, the daughter of Professor Ezra Ripley Thayer, also Dean of the Harvard Law School, and Ethel Randolph Thayer, née Clark.  Thayer began her drawing lessons at an early age and later attended the Westover Boarding School in Middlebury, Connecticut.  Although she signed some of her early paintings Ethel Thayer, by the end of the 1920s she generally signed her work Polly Thayer. She continued to use Polly Thayer as her brush name after she married, although in 1967 she changed her name legally from Ethel Randolph Starr to Polly Thayer Starr. 

After graduating from Westover School, Thayer traveled to China, Korea, and Japan with her brother and mother.  While in Japan, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 struck just as their ship was about to leave Yokohama.  In the devastation that followed, their ship was used as a hospital and Polly Thayer assisted with nursing the injured.  

After returning home, Thayer began her formal studies at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1923 to 1925 where she took painting classes taught by Philip Hale.  She eventually left the Boston Museum and began private painting lessons with Hale.  While working under Hale, she painted a large nude, Circles, which was awarded the National Academy of Design's coveted Julius Hallgarten Prize in 1929.  She also spent the summer of 1924 in Provincetown studying with Charles Hawthorne and traveled to Europe where she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris.  She later studied in Madrid and, from 1930-1933, at the Art Students League in New York City.     

Thayer's first solo exhibition was held on New Year's Eve, 1930 at the Doll & Richards gallery in Boston.  The Globe reviewer declared it "surely settles her status as one of the foremost painters in the country."  The success of the exhibition led to numerous portrait commissions --any of them exhibited at Wildenstein gallery in New York City --and launched Thayer's career as a portrait artist.  Her portrait subjects include Judith Anderson, Jacques Barzun, Maurice Evans, Lewis Galantiere, Robert Hale, May Sarton, John Wheelwright, and Agnes Yarnall, among others.  Additional galleries that subsequently gave Thayer solo shows were the Sessler Gallery in Philadelphia; Contemporary Arts and Pietrantonio Galleries in New York; and in Boston the Guild of Boston Artists, Grace Horne Galleries, Child's Gallery, The Copley Society, the St. Botolph Club and the Boston Public Library. 

In 1933, Polly Thayer married Donald Starr, a Boston lawyer and avid sailor.  They married in Italy and honeymooned in Paris while he took a break from a sailing trip around the world on his schooner "Pilgrim."  They had two daughters, Victoria and Dinah. 
 
In 1942 Thayer joined the Society of Friends (Quakers) which became an important part of her life and identity.  She was active in many educational, charitable and cultural institutions and local clubs.  Thayer had long been fascinated by the dynamics, meaning and variety of visual experience. In 1981 the Friends Journal published her essay "On Seeing," a paper she continued to refine until she was ninety-seven.  

In the 1950s and 1960s, Polly Thayer began focusing more on landscapes and still lifes and continued to be prolific artist, exhibiting in numerous solo and group exhibits in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.  In her later years she renewed an early affiliation with Vose Galleries which she maintained for the rest of her life. In 2001, she was the only living artist whose work was included in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts exhibition "A Studio of Her Own" and a banner of her portrait of May Sarton hung over the entrance to the Museum. 

Polly Thayer (Starr) died on August 30, 2006.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 21.6 Linear Feet
label: Extent
content: 0.807 Gigabytes
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1846-2008
label: Date
content: bulk 1921-2008
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.thaypoll
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Gigabytes
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
label: Type
content: Transcripts
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sketches
label: Type
content: Video recordings
label: Type
content: Drawings
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The Polly Thayer papers were organized and inventoried by curator Dorothy Koval and other art consultants prior to arriving at the Archives of American Art, and most likely do not reflect the original order by Polly Thayer.   The Archives has maintained the arrangement imposed by Koval for the bulk of the papers. 
  
This collection is arranged as 13 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1921-2007 (0.8 linear feet; Box 1, 22, 0.582 GB; ER01-ER02)

Series 2: Family Files, 1846-2006 (2 linear feet; Box 1-3, 22)

Series 3: Correspondence, 1929-2008 (1.3 linear feet; Box 3-5)

Series 4: Interviews, 1995-2004 (0.2 linear feet; Box 5, 0.196 GB; ER03)

Series 5: Writings, 1922-2006 (1.7 linear feet; Box 5-6)

Series 6: Subject Files, circa 1900-2008 (3.3 linear feet; Box 7-10) 

Series 7: Organization Files, 1931-2008 (1 linear feet; Box 10-11, 0.029 GB; ER04)

Series 8: Exhibition Files, 1928-2006 (1.9 linear feet; Box 11-13)

Series 9: Art Inventory, circa 1940-1999 (4.6 linear feet; Box 13-17)

Series 10: Printed Material, 1900-2006 (1.8 linear feet; Box 17-19, 22)

Series 11: Sketchbooks, 1930-circa 1970 (0.3 linear feet; Box 19, 23)

Series 12: Artwork, 1927-circa 1990 (0.4 linear feet; Box 19, 23, OV 25)

Series 13: Photographs, 1898-2006 (2.1 linear feet; Box 19-21, 24)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: This collection was fully processed by Rihoko Ueno in February 2014 with funding provided by the Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust. Born-digital materials were processed by Kirsi Ritosalmi-Kisner in 2019 with funding provided by Smithsonian Conservation Care and Preservation Fund.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Transcripts
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Drawings
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The papers of Boston portraitist and painter Polly Thayer (Starr) (1904-2006) measure 21.6 linear feet and 0.807 GB and date from 1846 to 2008, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-2008. The papers document Thayer's personal life and career as a painter, portraitist, and pastel artist.  Found within the papers are biographical materials, extensive family papers, correspondence with artists and art venues, interviews, writings, subject files, organization files, exhibition files, art inventory records, printed and digital materials, five sketchbooks, artwork, and photographs.

Biographical material includes a marriage certificate, school records, inventories of possessions, passports, files  about the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake in Japan, and a few personal and scattered financial documents such as invoices and receipts for various art related expenses. 

Extensive family papers on many of Polly Thayer's immediate and extended family members include obituaries, condolence letters, writings, and printed materials.  The most voluminous files are about Polly Thayer's husband Donald Carter Starr, her mother Ethel Randolph Thayer, and her father Ezra Ripley Thayer.  

There is limited correspondence with friends and and colleagues, including Royal Cortissoz, Philip Hofer, Tasha Tudor (photocopies), Dorothy Koval, the curator who wrote about Thayer for her first show at Vose Galleries in 2001, as well as two art consultants who helped Thayer inventory her artwork.  The bulk of the correspondence is with museums, galleries, and other venues such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Copley Society of Boston, and Vose Galleries.

Interviews with Polly Thayer include transcripts as well as sound and video recordings.  There is also a sound recording of poet and professor Doris Abramson discussing Catherine Sargent Huntington.

Writings include typescript and handwritten drafts of essays, notebooks, and notes on assorted topics.  The bulk of the material was written by Thayer, with a few writings by others.  

Subject files are found for people and general interests.  The "People" files are collected documents about Thayer's friends, colleagues, artists, and portrait subjects.  The files include short biographies, articles, obituaries, a few photographs, two videocassettes and one sound recording.  The most voluminous files are on Francis DeLancey Cunningham, the Howe family, Rose Nichols, May Sarton, John Brooks Wheelwright, and Agnes Yarnall.   Thayer's "Interests" files consist of articles and clippings on various topics such as animals, humor, and pacifism.   

Organization files contain materials related to Polly Thayer's charitable contributions, club memberships and affiliations, including The Chilton Club, Nucleus Club, Religious Society of Friends, and Trustees of Reservations, among others.  These files contain seven sound recordings. 

Exhibition files contain exhibition catalogs, reviews, clippings, notes, inventory price lists, and other materials about Thayer's solo and group shows.    

Art inventory records consist of dismantled binders of inventories that also include photographs of artwork and descriptive information such as the title, medium, and dimensions.  There are also photographic inventories of works of art arranged by subject, and several partial art inventories.  

Printed materials include two scrapbooks compiled by Polly Thayer's mother containing articles about Thayer, magazines, journals, exhibition catalogs, brochures, exhibition invitations, postcards, clippings, and miscellaneous materials. Digital materials consist of inventories and digitized audio interviews.

Five sketchbooks include figure drawings, portrait sketches, and landscape sketches. Also found are loose drawings of animals, landscapes, and people.   

Disbound binders of photographs contain images of works of art that are grouped by subject, including portraits, landscapes, and "mystical/flowers/animals," as well as personal photographs of Polly Thayer and family members, houses, social events, pets, and friends.  There is one small disbound photograph album of houses and properties.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Archives of American Art also holds an oral history interview of Polly Thayer conducted May 12, 1995-February 1, 1996, by Robert F. Brown.

The Polly Thayer Starr Charitable Trust holds archival materials and artwork by Polly Thayer.