General Correspondence
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Whitney, Gertrude Vanderbilt, 1875-1942
setName: label: See more items in
content: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers
label: See more items in
content: Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney papers / Series 2: Correspondence
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1896-1942
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.whitgert, Subseries 2.3
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Although initially arranged chronologically, correspondence has been rearranged alphabetically by name of correspondent or subject, in order to facilitate access. Generally correspondents from whom there are 5 or more letters have been given a named folder; all other correspondents are filed in folders marked "Miscellaneous" at the end of the appropriate letter group.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies note
content: This series has been scanned in entirety, with the exception of cards and envelopes from condolence bouquets.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: This series consists of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's personal and professional correspondence dating from 1896 to her death in 1942. Correspondence includes mostly incoming letters, in addition to some carbon copies of outgoing correspondence and scattered drafts of outgoing letters in Whitney's hand. Correspondents include friends, lovers, artists, architects, designers, art organizations, museums and galleries, relief and philanthropic organizations, writers, publishers, and others. While family letters are found primarily in Series 2.1. and Series 2.2., this series does include letters of condolence upon the deaths of William C. Whitney (received by Harry Payne Whitney), Harry Payne Whitney (including some received by Flora Whitney Miller), and Alice G. Vanderbilt.

Correspondence concerns personal mattters; Whitney's sponsorship of artists (including Morgan Russell, Edgar McAdams, Laura McLane, and Frederick Roth); Whitney's sculpture commissions and exhibitions of sculpture; exhibitions of other artists' work held in Whitney's studio; art competitions sponsored by Whitney (such as Competition in Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, 1914-1915, and Immigrant in America Poster Contest, 1915); requests for assistance from struggling artists and other needy individuals; requests for work in modeling and casting; Whitney's war relief work, as well as her general philanthropy and art patronage; the purchase of Whitney's sculpture, Head of Spanish Peasant, by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the publication of Whitney's novel Walking the Dusk as well as her other writing efforts; plans for the New York World's Fair; and awards and honorary degrees received by Whitney.

Beginning in the early 1910s, material consists of more and more routine business correspondence which was received and created by several different secretaries on Whitney's behalf. Also found is a list of incoming correspondence received from 1915 to 1918, which was kept by Irene Givenwilson, one of Whitney's secretaries.

Chronologically arranged folders marked "Miscellaneous/Unknown Correspondents" found toward the end of the series, contain a combination of letters on which the signature is absent or illegible, and hand-written notes and drafts in Whitney's hand to unidentified recipients.