Edward Mitchell Bannister scrapbook
name: label: Creator
content: Bannister, Edward Mitchell, 1828-1901
label: Names
content: Providence Art Club
label: Names
content: Whittaker, George W.
topic: label: Occupation
content: Landscape painters -- Rhode Island -- Providence
label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters -- Rhode Island -- Providence
label: Occupation
content: Landscape painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: African American artists
label: Topic
content: African American painters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The scrapbook was donated to the Archives of America Art in 1984 by Alan and Melvin S. Frank. The scrapbook was previously on loan to the National Museum of American Art.
creator: label: Creator
content: Bannister, Edward Mitchell, 1828-1901
setName: label: See more items in
content: Edward Mitchell Bannister scrapbook
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Edward Mitchell Bannister scrapbook measures 0.6 linear feet and dates from 1866-1901. The scrapbook contains approximately 102 pencil, charcoal, and watercolor drawings by Bannister, newspaper clippings and writings about Bannister and his exhibitions, a poem, and an exhibition catalog.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901) was a Canadian-born African American landscape and portrait painter in Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. He was among Providence's leading painters during the 1870s and 1880s and was one of the few African American painters of the nineteenth century to win significant recognition. 

Bannister moved to Boston in 1848 where he enrolled in evening classes at the Lowell Institute and learned to paint. He settled in Rhode Island with his wife in 1870 and in 1876 won the first-prize bronze medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Subsequently his growing reputation resulted in many commissions which allowed him to devote himself full-time to painting. 

Bannister was an original board member of the Rhode Island School of Design and a respected  art critic. Following his death in 1901 the Providence Art Club, of which he was a founding member, held a memorial exhibition of his paintings owned by Providence collectors.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.6 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1866-1901
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.bannedwa
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as one series. The scrapbook has been disbound but contents remain in their original order and are arranged in three parts.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was microfilmed on Reel 3118 after donation. Contents were removed from the original commercial binding and received conservation treatment in 2019. The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Stephanie Ashley in 2022 and the scrapbook was digitized in 2022.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The collection was digitized in 2022 and is available on the Archives of American Art website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Edward Mitchell Bannister scrapbook measures 0.6 linear feet and dates from 1866-1901. 
The scrapbook contains approximately 102 pencil, charcoal, and watercolor drawings depicting landscapes with cattle, trees, brambles, rolling clouds, a few figure studies, seascapes, and Bibical scenes, by Bannister. The scrapbook also includes newspaper clippings and writings about Bannister including reviews of his exhibitions and tributes by George W. Whitaker, John Nelson Arnold, and T. Thomas Fortune; a 1901 poem about Bannister written by William E. Smith; and an exhibition catalog of the Edward Mitchell Bannister Memorial exhibition held at the Providence Art Club in May 1901.